Acme group was a front for Meijer

By Brian McGillivary
bmcgillivary@record-eagle.com

May 16, 2008 04:00 am

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TRAVERSE CITY -- Meijer Inc. secretly gave an Acme Township political group $12,400 to fund its operations, and paid a local law firm, Smith & Johnson P.C., $6,400 to perform campaign work that wasn't reported as required by state law.

The latest revelations provide the strongest evidence to date that Meijer operated Acme Taxpayers for Responsible Government, formed in 2005, as a shell organization to carry out its financial and political goals.

"Does it surprise me? Not a bit," said Denny Rohn, president of Concerned Citizens of Acme Township, a group that supported the Acme board and rivaled the Acme Taxpayers group. "It was so evident that they were in this together all along."

On Tuesday Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land said she reached a deal with Meijer over campaign finance violations regarding the retailer's efforts to manipulate two Acme Township elections -- a 2005 zoning referendum, and an unsuccessful 2007 recall election that targeted the township board.

Land's deal requires Meijer Inc. to pay $190,000, the largest campaign finance violation fine in state history, but may well protect Meijer corporate officials and others from criminal charges.

The agreement detailed secret payments made by Meijer that totaled $46,463 to influence the referendum and another $55,437 the giant retailer spent on the recall campaign.

Both elections were part of a years-long controversy over the Grand Rapids-area retailer's stalled efforts to build a new superstore along M-72 that included personal lawsuits against Acme Township officials and the recall effort.

"We had Meijer intentionally trying to ruin people's lives, but what's worse is we had neighbors and friends who joined them to do it," Rohn said.

Land cited Meijer for not reporting contributions to both Acme Taxpayers for Responsible Government and the Acme Recall Committee, said Land spokeswoman Kelly Chesney. Neither local political organization reported the contributions, but Land's office didn't investigate them.

"They have a failure to file issue with the Grand Traverse County clerk," Chesney said, "but we didn't have a complaint against them."

County Clerk Linda Coburn said she hasn't "heard a word," from Land's office.

If the groups file amended reports they would be subject to fines.

Coburn said she's never issued fines because most violations are viewed as honest mistakes.

"People are novices and they don't know what they are doing," Coburn said. "But that's not the case here, so I'm going to talk to the prosecutor."

Based on a letter from Land's office to Meijer, the corporation needs to report spending $12,400 on ATRG in 2005.

ATRG funded its ballot committee, Acmetaxpayers.com, which reported spending $9,140 on the referendum. Its campaign finance report listed all of its contributions coming from ATRG, except for one direct contribution from Meijer of $1,975 and a $200 donation from Catering by Kelly's.

Ron Reinhold, treasurer for Acmetaxpayers.com and an officer in ATRG, did not return phone calls seeking comment. Neither did Dan Rosa, treasurer of ATRG.

The conciliation agreement between Meijer and the secretary of state did not detail how much of the $55,437 that Meijer spent on the 2007 recall campaign should have been reported by the Acme Recall Committee.

Meijer paid Grand Rapids-based public relations firm Seyferth Spaulding Tennyson Inc. $35,000 to work on the recall campaign. Billing records from Seyferth obtained through a separate civil suit showed the firm created the recall committee's Web site, mailing lists and several of its mailings.

Lewis Griffith, treasurer of Acme Recall Committee, denied that he failed to file campaign documents as required by state law.

"You people are liars," Griffith told a Record-Eagle reporter. "We won. Meijer won."

Meijer retained Ken Petterson of Smith & Johnson to assist in lawsuits Meijer and its development partners Village at Grand Traverse filed against Acme Township and its officials.

But the conciliation agreement showed Meijer also paid Smith & Johnson $6,480 to perform campaign work in 2005. Neither Petterson nor Smith & Johnson managing partner Louis Smith returned calls seeking comment.