Update on One Kent local government consolidation proposal

It has been a month since we last reported on the One Kent Coalition proposal to consolidate local government into one unit.

The One Kent Coalition is made up of area powerbrokers such as Dick & Betsy DeVos, Peter Seechia and David Frey, just to name a few. Ever since they first made public their proposal this group has come under scrutiny since there has been a lack of transparency and concerns about their motives.

The One Kent Coalition has generally stated that they want to make the area government more consolidated to be efficient, but more importantly they want to become more of an economic force in the country. However, a memo was revealed in March, which demonstrated other motives.

The memo from the group demonstrates two things. First, it shows that they want the issue to be on the ballot as soon as possible, which means less public dialogue. Second, the memo shows that the kind of government consolidation they are proposing would undermine public employee unions.

However, the local government consolidation group has not met in over a month because both the county and city government are frustrated with the One Kent Coalition group. Grand Rapids City Commissioner Bliss sent me a message saying that the county government is doing its own investigation of the issue and the Grand Rapids City government is actually working to oppose the draft legislation that the One Kent Coalition has drafted.

The draft is 38 pages long and is by no means easy to read. The draft legislation is calling for this new metropolitan government to be run by a CEO, a Chief Executive Officer, who would have executive power and would be elected by the public. There would also be a metropolitan commission who would adopt ordinances and budgets and be given legislative powers.

We will continue to watch this issue and report on the legislation once it is introduced at the state level. However, one thing that this process should tell us is that people with economic and political power don’t care about what the public thinks and will do whatever they can to keep their actions hidden from us no matter what.