FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:                    
July 22, 2008   

CONTACT: Jim Holcomb
Michigan Chamber of Commerce
517-371-7696

MICHIGAN DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY DIRECTOR IS OUT OF TOUCH, MICHIGAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE MEMBER SURVEY DEMONSTRATES

LANSING, Mich. – In a recent media interview, Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) Director, Steve Chester, stated that “business has a much more favorable impression of the DEQ” (see “Chester Trumpets DEQ’s Good Reputation with Biz,” MIRS Capitol Capsule, July 18, 2008) – a misleading claim based upon the results of a Michigan Chamber of Commerce member survey released today.

More than half of the 300 Michigan Chamber member firms who participated in a poll to gather their opinions and comments regarding the DEQ gave the department a grade of “C” or worse. Specifically, 23 percent of the respondents gave the department a “C”; 18 percent a “D”; and 10 percent an “F.”

“Over the last year and half, we have received numerous complaints from member companies about the poor service they have received from the DEQ,” noted Doug Roberts, Jr., Director of Environmental & Energy Policy for the Michigan Chamber. “These results confirm that problems with the DEQ are not limited to just a handful of companies.”

Reasons cited for these poor markings concerned customer service and outcomes. The five most cited comments concerning customer service were:

• Too slow
• Unresponsive or difficult to reach
• Not knowledgeable or lacking experience and training
• Arrogant, rude or generally difficult to work with
• Too much bureaucracy and burdensome over-regulation

The five most cited comments concerning outcomes were:

• Too slow – from 30 days to 6 months to 4 years to 14 years and counting. “There is no sense of urgency that we must have to survive in business,” noted one respondent.
• Too costly – “It took over two years and $45,000 in attorney costs,” noted another respondent.
• Inconsistent outcomes/responses – “Ranged from weeks for phone calls/emails to three years on a report. They are now no longer reviewing draft reports at all. Unconscionable,” said yet another respondent.
• Standards keep changing – “Some projects remained unreviewed for two years after submittal, and then they were reviewed using guidance not applicable at the time of the submittal,” noted another respondent.
• Bad/unhelpful attitude of staff – “We received no service, but rather totalitarian edicts.”

“At a time when our state’s economy is hurting, we must get better results from the DEQ, as they are often the gate keeper to economic development in our state,” said Jim Holcomb, Vice President of Business Advocacy & Associate General Counsel for the Michigan Chamber. “Many job providers cannot expand and grow without permits from the DEQ and the comments from our members demonstrate that we need dramatic change in the direction and culture of the DEQ.”

“We call on the Governor and the Legislature to take action to reform and improve the performance of the Department of Environmental Quality,” Holcomb concluded.

The Michigan Chamber of Commerce is a statewide business advocacy organization representing over 7,100 employers of every type and size in all 83 counties in Michigan.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:                    
July 21, 2008     

Contact:  Bob LaBrant
Michigan Chamber of Commerce
(517) 371-7653

FUNNY HOW POWERPOINT TECHNOLOGY COMES BACK TO BITE YOU, SAYS MICHIGAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

LANSING, Mich. – When Byrum and Fisk Advocacy Communications and their employee, Thomas Morgan, were creating a PowerPoint presentation on a government reform ballot proposal back on November 21, 2007, at 4:08 p.m., little did they know it would come back to bite them, reports the Michigan Chamber of Commerce.

That PowerPoint presentation – entitled, “Government Reform Proposal: Changing the rules of politics to help Democrats” – was found last week by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy on a United Auto Worker’s Region 1-C website. The creation date, time and author show up on the document properties of the PowerPoint presentation.  

The date the PowerPoint presentation was created is significant, notes Bob LaBrant, Senior Vice President of Political Affairs & General Counsel for the Michigan Chamber, because this would have required Reform Michigan Government Now! (RMGN) to both file as a ballot question committee in 2007 and to file an annual report disclosing their contributors and expenditures."

"If the PowerPoint presentation was the 'smoking gun' that blew away Diane Byrum’s and Michigan AFL-CIO President Mark Gaffney’s assertion that the ballot initiative was somehow a bi-partisan reform proposal, the creation date of the PowerPoint presentation proves conclusively that RMGN was required to file as a ballot question committee in 2007, not as they did on February 22, 2008 when their statement of organization was filed with the Secretary of State,” LaBrant stated. “If RMGN had registered back in 2007 as required, they would have been required to file an annual report that was due January 31, 2008 disclosing their contributors and expenditures.”

LaBrant noted that both Byrum and Brewer have strangely refused to disclose who the funders are behind the RMGN initiative, cynically saying that they would be disclosed when the committee is required to report in late September or early October …“their post-qualification or, increasingly likely, non-qualification report.”

The PowerPoint presentation contains a slide that discloses that the Washington, D.C. research firm of Greenberg Quinlan Rosner did two statewide surveys and nine focus groups between May and November 2007 testing out the various concepts contained in the ballot proposal.

“A research project of that scope has been estimated by other pollsters to cost at least $75,000-$100,000 or more—well over the $500 threshold that requires registration as a ballot question committee,” noted LaBrant.

The Michigan Chamber is currently preparing a complaint on this campaign finance violation and expects to file it with the Secretary of State later this week.

In recent media reports, Lieutenant Governor John Cherry disclosed that both he and Governor Jennifer Granholm invested some of their political money (Leadership PACs? Candidate committees?) in developing the plan. “We participated in an effort to do research, polling, focus groups, etc.,” Cherry recently told the Detroit Free Press, “We had some concern about the direction it was going.”

“Strangely, a review of JDC Genesee Fund (Cherry Leadership PAC) or the Cherry for Lieutenant Governor Committee, does not show any expenditure in 2007 or 2008 for research,” said LaBrant.

“U.S. Senator Howard Baker, during the 1973 Watergate hearings, is most remembered for his repeated question, ‘What did the President know, and when did he know it?’” said LaBrant. “Perhaps ‘PowerPoint-gate’ will lead to a similar question being asked of the Governor and Lieutenant Governor: ‘When and in what amount did they contribute, and to whom did they write the check?’”

The Michigan Chamber of Commerce is a statewide business advocacy organization representing over 7,100 employers of every type and size in all 83 counties in Michigan. The Michigan Chamber was established in 1959 to be an advocate for Michigan’s job providers in the legislative, political and legal process.   

Paid for with regulated funds by Michigan Chamber PAC II, 600 S. Walnut St., Lansing, MI 48933.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:                    
July 8, 2008     

Contact:  Bob LaBrant or Phil Guyeskey
Michigan Chamber of Commerce
(517) 371-7669

MICHIGAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE ANNOUNCES ENDORSEMENTS FOR STATE HOUSE CANDIDATES IN OPEN SEATS AND COMPETITIVE RACES