THE NAKED TRUTH ...

... is not what the media around here usually reports.  Indeed, it's amazing how the hundreds of people who are paid in River City to collect and report the facts about town can't seem to get anything but the simplest stories right.

A current example is the defense fund that blue nose Judy Rose claims to have at the ready to pay for the expenses the City of Grand Rapids will incur in federal court defending the new adult entertainment ordinance the City Commission passed last month.  All of the local media, from the silly (Kevin Matthew's morning show on WLAV-FM) to the newspaper of record (the Grand Rapids Press), has parroted the city government's official line that the expenses the City Attorney's office will incur in defending the ordinance against a newly filed legal challenge in U.S. District Court by strip club owner Mark London will be covered by Rose's $100,000 defense fund.

With the notable exception of Anne Schieber of WOOD TV8 news, none of the media has reported the significant fact that Rose's fund has only a thousand bucks in it.  (A fact, dear readers, you already knew because you read it here first.)  The other $99,000 are a collection of promises from a group of unnamed backers of Rose's jihad against local strip joints.  Rose says she has compiled a list of these secret pledges, which she supposedly showed to City Attorney Phil Balkema on the condition that he not divulge to anyone what he saw -- not even the Mayor or the City Commissioners, who blindly accepted Rose's assurances of financial support and so voted 6-1 to approve the new ordinance.  Of course, by not demanding a copy of this alleged list, Balkema ensured that there would be no public record for residents and taxpayers to assess the reliability of Rose's pledges.  (But then, you really didn't think the City Attorney works for you, did you?)

So the cupboard's bare, except for a pile of IOU's.  However, the legal bills to the City of Grand Rapids will be real enough.  For reasons unfathomable to me, the City has hired Tennessee lawyer Scott Bergthold to represent it in federal court.  He is the character who represented the City in the Velvet Touch fiasco all of the way up to the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals and got the taxpayers of the City slapped with not only paying his bill but also the court's sanction to pay the legal bills of the Velvet Touch for a total of a quarter million dollars.  Bergthold got the job again after he lobbied the City Commission hard to pass this new ordinance that he drafted.  Genius actually.  Bergthold invented a good-paying case for himself.  Whether the City wins or loses, he'll be laughing all of the way to the bank with your tax dollars.  Just another set of facts about this story that have eluded the local media.

Another under-reported fact are the actual terms of Rose's defense fund.  Until recently there wasn't any enforceable agreement for Rose's group to pay for any legal expenses incurred by the City.  All the City had was Rose's letters pestering Mayor Heartwell to run London's new strip club out of town if her group creates a defense fund and Heartwell's plea to Balkema to find some way to appease Rose.  Now there exists a written commitment that Rose's group will ask its secret backers to make good their pledges to the defense fund when the City Attorney's office submits to it an invoice for "extraordinary" legal expenses in the London lawsuit.  Extraordinary?  I wonder what that means.  It certainly doesn't mean every cost.  Furthermore, the payment of those invoices from the City Attorney's office are not assured.  That happens only if the alleged pledges are honored.

Meanwhile, the City Attorney's office has a bill from Bergthold to pay for a private dick who visited River City's sex emporiums.  Apparently Mayor Heartwell and the City Commissioners needed to know what was going in those strip joints and dirty book stores.  While on the taxpayers' dime, Bergthold's detective needed have his face rubbed in the breasts and buttocks of several strippers to find out for certain, which he dutifully reported in a lengthy report Bergthold submitted to our esteemed local solons.  I wonder if Ms. Rose will consider that an extraordinary expense.

Whether she does or doesn't, don't expect to find out from the local media.

Comments

[NW Activist]

Bill,

Our group still wants to know how the City Commissioners, who are supposed to be representing "the people," can allow the Grand Rapids City Attorney's office to take a direct pay-off from a private group in this matter. That would be considered bribery, in our opinion, but apparently the City Commissioners and the Mayor think that's okay. They obviously aren't worthy of public office, then, because they definitely aren't serving the tax-paying public.

We'd also like to know where Judy Rose and her group of "smut-busters" were several years ago when former G.R. City Assessor Laureen Birdsall was stuffing grapefruits in her shirt, checking out porn sites on city computers on taxpayers' time, and only working half the time for full pay - and again, all at taxpayers' expense. Where was Judy and her moral decency crew then?

And where is Judy Rose's group now when it comes to being outraged about the illegal, immoral and unethical dead body harvesting ring that's being operated out of the Kent County Medical Examiner's Office?

The public has every right to know who is funding Rose and her cronies as they bribe the City Attorney's office into squandering even more of our taxpayers' dollars down the drain in yet another senseless legal battle.

The public also has a right to know why the Grand Rapids City Commissioners and the Kent County Board of Commissioners continue to allow the Kent County Medical Examiner to illegally mutilate our deceasd loved ones' bodies and then sell their body parts on the body brokers' market.

[Chris]

Bill, FYI, Jim Harger reported the following in the Press on March 20:

Meanwhile, Rose said she received a $7,000 pledge Friday that put her fund over the $100,000 mark. However, she said she has only $1,298 in the bank and declined to identify any of her donors.

[Carlos]

I think the GRBJ got it pretty much right on March 6:

"Late last month, Black Hills Executive Director Judy Rose announced that $93,000 had been pledged by a dozen individuals, with two large donations. As such, the ordinance will be formally proposed at tomorrow's city commission meeting. Most of the fund is in the form of written or verbal pledges, but little cash."

[The Executive Director]

Hi, Phyllis.

I think you'll agree with me that there is nothing wrong with Judy Rose lobbying the City Commission to pass a new ordinance restricting the activities of strip joints. That's the democratic process. The problem is, as you noted, when private unnamed parties essentially pay (or in this case, promise to pay) to get that ordinance. Even if no commissioner benefits personally, it is still a corruption of the legislative process.

And yes, the Kent County medical examiner's office and the local organ thefts remains a scandal, and the refusal of the authorities to act is another scandal.

Regards, Bill

[The Executive Director]

Chris & Carlos,

Thanks for keeping me on my toes. However, I am talking about coverage since collecting upon Rose's promise has become a reality. As both the Press and the GRBJ routinely repeat information in ongoing stories, it is surprising that there has been no mention of the lack of cash in Rose's defense fund since London filed his lawsuit against the City.

At least the Press did report that the pledges Rose has received would not be liquidated until the City asks for a bill to be paid. That should be worrisome. Plus the fact that only "extraordinary" expenses will be covered.

As for the GRBJ, I give them credit for its article critical of private financing of the City Attorney's office. Nevertheless, neither the Press nor the GRBJ has pushed any our public officials hard on this issue. In short, the local media has not held them accountable for this boondoggle.

Regards, Bill

[John Mossman]

It may be that the "extraordinary" limitation may be a little more benign than many suspect. In fact, they may not trust the city attorney any more than you do, Bill.

It could be that Judy Rose's mystery backers have dealt with the City before, and don't want to get handed the bill for the ongoing activities of the City attorney's office. Otherwise its arguable that they could get billed by Kimball and Balkema for the city attorneys office time and effort in sheperding this ordinance through the city government for the last three months, including the public meetings.

If you were a smart money man would you want to get the bill for having Balkema and staff sitting on their thumbs during the city commission meeting, and in all the staff meetings and discussions - at the inflated rate these guys think they're worth? No Way.

[The Executive Director]

Excellent point, John. That hadn't occurred to me, but I think you've got it right.

I'll keep my fingers crossed that the money from Rose's defense fund comes through so the taxpayers aren't stuck with the entire bill for this boondoggle.

Regards, Bill