If you follow Michigan politics and current events at all, I’m sure you’ve heard the name Dennis Lennox (R-Topinabee) mentioned several times. In case you haven’t, here’s a little background story: in 2008, Dennis Lennox, a politically active politician and conservative from my unversity, Central Michigan University ran for Cheboygan County Drain Commissioner on the platform of getting rid of the position becuase he thought that it was a waste of government money.
He was elected, and in February 2009, he launched Fire Dennis Lennox. There, he said, “Seriously, there’s nothing to do.” He was able to get the Cheboygan County Board of Commissioners to pass a resolution that effectively eliminated his position if the Michigan Legislature and Governor agreed to pass it as well. That proposal changed drain commissioners to being required only if a municipality has 35,000+ people (currently the law requires it if it’s 12,000+). The legislation was introduced into the state legislature where it stalled.
Lennox continued his campaign to get fired on various radio and media outlets, including a few national broadcasts on FOX News.
Now, I commend Dennis for what he was trying to do there – he was trying to save taxpayer dollars. Or was he? What happened over the next few months showed that maybe it was more of a political stunt to bring media attention to his State House campaign than to actually save taxpayer money.
In May, Lennox posted a blog post on his campaign blog apologizing for not updating his blog: “Sorry for the lack of updates over the past five or six weeks, but I have been busy with my duties as drain commissioner.”
If he was busy for 6 weeks, that sure makes it seem like there must be something to do. But I ignored it, giving him the benefit of the doubt – maybe it was just a brief period of time where there was a lot to do.
But in early June he began doing more drain commissioner work, launching a program where residents could report clogged ditches and drains. Commissioner Lennox told the local TV 7&4 news that “the vast majority of constituent complaints to my office and the Road Commission deal with drainage ditches. Many of the ditches in Cheboygan County are very old and this service will provide much-needed maintenance.”
Again, I commend Lennox for starting a program like that. It’s putting his office and position to good use. But that also means that the drain commissioner has something to do up there – if he’s getting complaints, that means that the commissioner has something to do.
It was at this point that I began to see the Dennis Lennox that I’ve seen time and time again – somebody who’s just interested in performing stunts to get media attention rather than somebody who has the taxpayers’ and constituents’ best interest at heart.
In June and July, Lennox gained international media attention as he filed a lawsuit against a pipeline proposal from Genesee County. Considering the fact that he was in media stories in both the U.S. and Canada for a few weeks, this is again evidence that he isn’t just sitting in his office doing nothing. Now, I’m not here to debate whether he is right or wrong about the pipeline proposal, but I think it’s clear that there’s more than “nothing to do” as drain commissioner up in Cheboygan County.
In late June, the Heritage Foundation ran a story about Lennox’s crusade to get fired, but at that point, I think it was apparent that he had somewhat given up on getting fired. He hasn’t updated Fire Dennis in months, and we’ve heard little from him on the subject.
Again, the individual things that Lennox has done here aren’t bad – he’s doing his job as a drain commissioner, and that’s good! The only problem is that he campaigned on a platform that there’s “nothing to do,” and that’s just not true.
Now, some people may say that I’m being to harsh on Lennox, after all, he’s just doing the job that he was elected to do. But then the Cheboygan Daily Tribuneran a story saying that Lennox had already used up most of his 2009 funds. Unfortunately, I don’t have access to the full story, since I don’t subscribe to the Daily Tribune, but even if Lennox has only spent 32% of his budget (as he claims in a comment left on the article), that still means that he isn’t doing nothing.
I just don’t think that Lennox is being honest with his intentions here – either there is “nothing to do” as a drain commissioner, in which case he should be spending no money, or he overstated the fact that there’s “nothing to do,” and maybe he should reexamine his proposal to eliminate the position.
Done Ranting,
