Published: February 17, 2008 11:00 pm      

Meijer's ties to nonprofit at issue

Critics question if group was a front for retailer

TRAVERSE CITY -- Meijer Inc. critics are questioning whether the Grand Rapids-based retailer used a public relations firm to create a "grassroots" support group as a front to tamper with two local elections.

Acme Taxpayers for Responsible Government aligned itself with Meijer in township elections in 2005 and in 2007, elections that state and local officials are scrutinizing for possible violations of Michigan campaign finance laws and other crimes.

Acme Taxpayers officially formed in late May 2005, about two months before a referendum on a proposed nine-month moratorium on big box stores in Acme Township.

Ron Reinhold, an officer in the nonprofit Acme Taxpayers group, said he expects to be drawn into the investigations, but isn't concerned.

"We don't feel we did anything improper and we're eager to find out what the investigation comes out with," said Reinhold, who would not say whether Meijer funded his group.

At issue is an Acme Taxpayers spinoff group -- Acmetaxpayers.com -- that was created as a ballot committee to fund opposition to the moratorium. ATRG provided $7,200 to Acmetaxpayers.com and Meijer made one undated contribution of $1,975, according to state records.

The funding raised immediate concern by members of Concerned Citizens of Acme Township, a nonprofit organization that supported the moratorium.

"It sort of smelled like (Meijer) set up this front company to funnel money into their referendum entity and keep the source of the money out of the public's view," said CCAT member Paul Brink. "We were incensed over it at the time and we tried to get the state election commission to look into it, but we got nowhere."

$7,200 question

Meijer this month confirmed it likely violated state campaign finance laws in a failed 2007 recall attempt of the township board, and revealed it also interfered in the August 2005 township big box referendum.

The Record-Eagle first reported recall election violations in December, prompting a criminal investigation by the Michigan State Police.

Documents show Meijer secretly initiated the failed recall attempt through its public relations firm Seyferth Spaulding Tennyson Inc. Meijer paid over $30,000 to Seyferth to devise election strategy, write campaign literature and use local residents as figureheads in the recall.

If the $7,200 that ATRG donated to Acmetaxpayers.com came from Meijer, that action would constitute a campaign finance law violation, said Rich Robinson, executive director of the nonpartisan Michigan Campaign Finance Network.

"The one thing you can't do is direct money through a third party with the express intent that it turns up in the campaign committee," Robinson said.

In 2005, Acmetaxpayers.com paid Seyferth Spaulding Tennyson $2,007 for consulting, signs and graphics.

Reinhold said Seyferth was working for Meijer, and Meijer officials introduced him to Seyferth Vice President Eileen McNeil.

If Seyferth did additional campaign work that wasn't reported, or if Meijer subsidized the work Seyferth did for Acmetaxpayers.com, Reinhold said he wasn't aware of it.

Robinson isn't surprised.

"If you're going to break the law, the violations are done on a need-to-know basis," Robinson said. "They don't open it up to every apparatchik along the line that might spill the beans."

Potential violations

Meijer has yet to detail its 2005 infractions and its officials declined to comment.

Seyferth President Ginny Seyferth said the company is cooperating with the criminal investigation but would not provide additional comment.

Meijer's failure to report an April 11, 2005, mailing to township residents could be a potential violation of campaign law, documents obtained by the Record-Eagle show.

The letter encouraged voters to sign petitions to put the moratorium on the ballot.

The letter should have been reported as an independent expenditure, said Grand Traverse County Clerk Linda Coburn.

Meijer's critics think the violations go deeper than a single failure to report based on similarities in the two elections.

CCAT Treasurer David Starkey said both campaigns were "obviously professionally done" and it appeared there was more money spent for the moratorium than reported by Acmetaxpayers.com.

"To mail out something as simple as a post card in Acme Township to registered voters costs about $1,000," Starkey said.

Invoices from Seyferth to Meijer show McNeil also ran the 2007 recall campaign for Meijer, often working through developer and township resident Jim Goss to coordinate recall activity.

Goss is a partner in the proposed Village of Grand Traverse, a commercial and residential development south of M-72 that was to be anchored by Meijer.

Documents obtained by the Record-Eagle show Goss hosted the first meetings of township board opponents who eventually formed ATRG.

Goss said Meijer wasn't involved in the formation of ATRG and he didn't know Meijer paid Seyferth to work on the recall campaign.

Goss said he talked to Seyferth officials to confirm the accuracy of information about Meijer in recall letters.

Invoices show Goss was in regular contact with Seyferth from the beginning of the firm's research into recall elections that began in May 2006, well before the Acme Taxpayers group's effort began in late July.

"I didn't have anything to do with getting the recall going," Goss said. "That was a grassroots effort of residents of Acme Township."

But on July 19, 2006, Goss sent an e-mail to Seyferth's McNeil, Meijer officials, Meijer's attorneys and Goss' partners in the Village that discussed recall petition language.

"Will share this Thursday with large citizens group interested in recall. Any changes needed?" Goss' e-mail stated.

Documents show the citizens group was in fact ATRG and that Seyferth also wrote the agenda for the meeting. In further e-mails Seyferth employees and Goss tweaked recall petition language and discussed whether township residents would know what "dereliction" meant.

CCAT member Rachelle Babcock said the alleged collusion between ATRG and Meijer has always been obvious.

"We always knew they were somehow joined at the hip," she said.

Amy Hardin, whose husband Ronald was sued by Meijer as a member of Acme Township's planning commission, tagged ATRG as an "Astroturf" organization.

"That's what corporate-funded, sham grassroots movements are called," she said.