Traverse City Record Eagle, July 27, 1993

When trash baron Anthony Soave was questioned about the $200,000 his political action committee (City PAC) gave to state and local politicians and candidates in 1992, he responded, "... we do spend a significant amount of time and energy promoting our business, offering advice, educating opinion leaders about the issues that affect us, and sharing information. I believe the popular term for that is called 'networking.'" Soave's director of government relations, politically-retired Flint mayor James Sharp, said, "We believe that contributions ought to be made to government in order that it [sic] can continue to function, and we do it in concert with the law."

As recent news reports clearly indicate, Soave does have quite a network, and his contributions certainly insure that the permanent class of career politicians "can continue to function" on behalf of powerful backers such as Soave and his City Management Corporation. Consider the following, hardly exhaustive, examples of Soave's networking largess:

Soave hired Sharp as his political operative on the advice of the former speaker of the state House of Representatives, Gary Owen (D-Ypsilanti), who recommended Sharp as "a minority that could work in local government in the Detroit area." Reflecting the northern expansion of City Management's interests, Soave recently retained the lobbying services of former state Senator Mitch Irwin (D-Sault Ste. Marie).

Although state senators in 1992 had not yet reached the midpoints of their four-year terms, Soave's City PAC donated $1,500 to the campaign fund of Senator John Pridnia (R-Hubbard Lake), more than City PAC donated to most 1992 candidates for public office. It may not be coincidental that Pridnia had been very helpful to Soave when City Management purchased a landfill from Crawford and Otsego Counties.

Prior to its acquisition by Soave, the Crawford-Otsego landfill had accumulated about $1 million in fines levied by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources for violation of environmental laws. Shortly after Soave's purchase, representatives of City Management, the DNR and the Attorney General met in Pridnia's senate office and, under the watchful eye of Pridnia aide Mark Knudsen, negotiated the waiver of all but $200,000 of these fines (with the understanding that this $200,000 would not be paid to the state but would instead be spent on recycling in Crawford and Otsego counties; much of the expenditure to date has been for capital equipment). To meet in a legislator's office and to include a legislative staff member in the negotiations was unprecedented, but a DNR officer's objections were overruled.

After heading Michigan's ultimately unsuccessful search for a site for a low-level radioactive waste dump to serve a compact of midwest states, in 1991 James Cleary returned to the DNR as deputy director, in charge of solid waste regulation. When Crawford County Commissioner Joe Callewaert objected to the behind-the-scenes circumstances under which Soave's City Management had acquired the Crawford-Otsego landfill, Cleary asked for Callewaert's documentation, received it, and promised "a complete and thorough investigation." Less than five months later Cleary had accepted the Pridnia-negotiated waiver of fines on the landfill, taken early retirement from the DNR and joined Soave as a City Management officer (a position for which Pridnia claims to have recommended him). Perhaps not surprisingly, nothing was heard of Cleary's promised investigation.

Supposedly, there was to be no conflict between Cleary's new position with City Management and his previous role as deputy director of Michigan's DNR because Cleary would be working for City Management's Florida subsidiary, Universal Waste and Transit. However, answering an early 1993 call to Universal Waste's Tampa headquarters, the receptionist initially didn't even know who Cleary was and ultimately advised the caller to contact Cleary at City Management's Detroit headquarters. About the same time, a Lansing lobbyist for the solid waste industry observed that Cleary was regularly in Michigan and was "invaluable to the industry because of his influence" over his former DNR colleagues.

Reflecting the financially important role of local governments in trash-hauling and landfill operations, Soave's City PAC has not ignored candidates for municipal and county offices, pumping more than $43,000 into Detroit races and $90,000 into Wayne County races since 1988. City PAC even remembered to contribute $200 to Larry Mattis for his successful 1992 challenge to recalcitrant Crawford County Commissioner Joe Callewaert. In addition to political contributions Soave has wined, dined and entertained (at swank restaurants, his Palace of Auburn Hills suite and his Florida condo) politicians from virtually the entire length of the I-75 corridor.

However, political contributions and hospitality are not the only bases of Soave's influence over local officials. For example, Soave paid $800,000 for the local trash-hauling business and gave a long-term employment contract to Robert McLachlan, then-chairman of the Crawford County Board of Commissioners responsible for negotiating the sale of the Crawford-Otsego landfill to City Management. When City Management expanded into the Kansas City area, Soave's Lincoln-Mercury dealership in Independence, Missouri, conveniently provided a gratis vehicle to at least one local official.

For most people networking means maintaining friendships and sharing information. Money adds another element that obviously facilitates Soave's networking. While "old-boy" networks may be a questionable basis for public policy, networks created and sustained by the profits directly or indirectly derived from political influence justifiably foster public cynicism concerning the very purposes of government.

Networking, indeed.