Gordier, former City Staffer, Offers Critique of ‘Road Diet’
MIDLAND, Mich. — One resident spoke up during the public comment portion of the Midland City Council’s Oct. 28 regular meeting to address the often contested road diet as well as the city’s Master Plan.
Gary Gordier, the former I.T. director for the City of Midland and a semi-retired business owner and technology consultant, submitted a nine page report and briefly addressed the council.
“When I presented it the response was ZERO,” Mr. Gordier told the City Paper. “One council member called me and apologized for the lack of response and failure to ask questions.”
Mr. Gordier says he also received a message from the City Manager acknowledging the need to update the Master Plan, but also defending other items. He said he will be responding to his letter.
Mr. Gordier’s report goes on to compare previous communities he’s lived in to that of Midland, saying that those communities hold outreach meetings in neighborhoods and listen to what the citizens see as concerns, ideas and opportunities for their community.
“They are truly sessions to receive input and you would be amazed at the intelligence and insight the average citizen can bring to the whole continuum of vitality,” he wrote.
Mr. Gordier dissected the Master Plan in his report and focused in on specific goals – Goal 7: Support economic development within the corridor: “When has any Department of Transportation ever been a part of improving economic development in local communities?”
“They can’t figure out how to keep existing roads in good repair, so why are they working on local economic development? … The idea of a ‘road diet,’ how it was presented and is being pursued, seems quite dubious,” Mr. Gordier wrote.
City Manager C. Bradley Kaye said that while Mr. Gordier calls for the road diet to be ended, in counter to that, it is still in the data collection process and the City is testing and determining what the impact would be on reducing the number of travel lanes from three to two. Mr. Kaye said that it wouldn’t be reasonable to discontinue that until the data has been collected, at which point they can decide to move forward or not.
“As far as the letter, basically he was talking about the Master Plan and kind of criticizing the Plan, but that document needs to be read as a whole and not just an excerpt, and while it’s true that document probably needs to be updated, it’s certainly not this poor document he portrayed it to be at City Council that night,” he told the City Paper.
Mr. Gordier’s report continues with an extensive barrage of ideas.
“An anonymous ‘developer’ has been purchasing properties in the Indian/Buttles corridor. Presently, Spheric Development, LLC owns 49 parcels. Upon acquisition, the assessed value of these parcels was significantly and almost immediately adjusted downward … Is Momentum Midland running the city now, or are the citizens through our elected officials, and the city staff running the city?”
“Conspiracy theorists will come alive when we see that Spheric Development, LLC is registered in Michigan as a ‘foreign’ entity. Where does their money originate?” Mr. Gordier asked. “Are they laundering corporate overseas profits through an offshore account to avoid federal taxes or are they a drug cartel laundering money? Since they were incorporated in the State of Delaware in 2007, does this make them a ‘foreign entity’ because Delaware is a foreign state? Certainly, the secrecy surrounding Spheric Development, LLC thus far might be concerning. How can this private entity drive so much development and alter city plans with such presumed power?”
“I think his last points were really about, as he described them, ‘conspiracy theories,’ I think he even alleged at one point things like drug cartels and laundering of money and some things there that are what they are,” Mr. Kaye told the City Paper. “Basically I think you need to look at the fact that the people he is specifically talking about are investors in a certain area of town,” said Mr. Kaye.
“The City’s role is of course to ready all properties for development or redevelopment and whatever is happening or not happening on the backside is something that is between the property owners and whoever they purchased it from,” he said.
Mr. Kaye took exception to the idea that the city assessing department was acting improperly and had been giving anonymous investors some “sweet deals.”
“That is something I strongly rebuke and push back on because I would vouch for the integrity and professionalism of every member of that staff. And so that, I found distasteful,” Mr. Kaye told the City Paper.
Finally, Mr. Gordier’s report concluded with, “The City should not be in the business of promoting the agenda of private entities. Further, I’ve yet to hear what problem existed that spurred the initial study by MDOT and without the problem being defined, there is no way to effectively measure any proposed solution that has been identified.”
Michael Westendorf contributed to this report.
A.J. Hoffman reports on local business and the arts for the City Paper. He also serves on the City Paper’s board of directors.