Issues
Dear Long Lake Neighbors,
My name is Pam Kaiser. I’m a daughter, sister, wife and mom of four adult sons, writer and educational counselor running to promote safety, sustainability and transparency in the county that has been home, inspiration and sustenance to four generations of my family and whose people, places and systems like TCAPS, NMC, Munson Healthcare, our faith communities and community service providers and generations of neighbors and friends continue to enhance our lives.
My dad grew up on my grandmother’s farm on Zue Road in nearby Grant Township, became a teacher and counselor like my mom, and I spent every summer on Long Lake since my parents' honeymoon in 1960 in a little cottage on Long Lake Peninsula that they purchased in 1968. I have a B.A. in Political Science from Kalamazoo College, an M.A. from Purdue University in American Studies & English, and an M. Ed. with a Certificate in Counseling from Rivier University in Nashua, NH. I have worked as a litigation paralegal for a corporate law firm in Grand Rapids and Detroit, taught high school English in France, English and French at Purdue and NMC, and worked as a public-school counselor, writer, and educational consultant. My most important and rewarding job was raising four active sons who have been and are my pride and joy.
My husband and I chose to move our sons here from metro Boston in 2010 to be closer to family and live in a community that we believe cares about keeping one another healthy and safe. Long Lake, Grand Traverse Bay and the tributaries of our inland seas connect us. We care deeply about it and our neighbors and this incredibly beautiful, irreplaceable freshwater coastal community that is both fragile and resilient.
Here are the issues that most motivate me to run for County Commission to represent Long Lake:
Priority #1. Public safety from gun violence including accidental and homicidal events
My highest priority is to prevent gun deaths by ending the insurrectionist “2nd Amendment Sanctuary” enacted by members of our BOC in March 2020, the year guns became the leading cause of child death in the United States. Since then, the rate of gun deaths has been rapidly rising.
A month later, our 24-year-old son Aaron, a nursing student suffering from anxiety and depression, died alone after being sold a shotgun by a noncompliant gun shop before online final exams during the Covid 19 Pandemic Emergency Stay at Home Order. Due to the “2A Sanctuary,” the Grand Traverse Prosecutor issued no ticket to the seller, who knew the “2A Sanctuary” would protect him from legal consequences. To save lives, serve as a deterrent and prevent gun deaths in Grand Traverse County, Michigan gun safety laws absolutely must be enforced here.
Priority #2. Transparency and adherence to best practice in keeping the Grand Traverse County Commission business open to the public, prioritizing public involvement in initiatives and adherence to the Public Meetings Act.
I’m also running because recent local County decisions too often appear driven by deals made by elected officials in non-public meetings, who appear to have adopted policies agreed upon outside of public meetings or behind the cloak of “private sessions” to circumvent legal transparency. The public is too often being denied due process of public involvement including adequate chance to comment before disposal of county assets like Twin Lakes Park, and an absence open board deliberation before giving away or acquiring expensive public properties like Twin Lakes Park.
The Twin Lakes Park fiasco is a costly example of litigation that inevitably results from subversion of public due process and lack of compliance with the Open Meetings Act. The Twin Lakes Park debacle is an unbelievably expensive set of blunders that could easily have been avoided had the Commissioners involved followed the recommendations of the Grand Traverse Parks and Recreation Committee and included the public in the process of allocating funds to maintain and improve it as a county park.
Instead, the legally questionable transfer was mired by secrecy, a lack of due process, and expensive errors that are now costing both Long Lake Township and Grand Traverse County taxes to rise to cover the increased expense of resulting litigation as well as the increased cost to Long Lake taxpayers to maintain the complex infrastructure of Twin Lakes Park which previously was borne by the entire taxpaying population of Grand TRAVERSE county with a population 100,000 as compared to Long Lake Township with 1/10 of the population and far fewer taxpayers than in Grand Traverse County.
Long Lake’s incumbent GOP Commissioner represented Grand Traverse County on the County Board of Parks and Recreation, whose membership overwhelmingly voted in its public meeting to keep Twin Lakes Park as part of the county-wide network of natural spaces that make our county parks part of an affordable and sustainable system that enhances the quality of life for all residents and guests in our uniquely beautiful region.
Twin Lakes helped defer the cost of other parks and recreational facilities and vice-versa by being a popular rental site for events and for the contract to house the Youth Works program run by Child and Family Services. It was a county property that the Parks and Rec experts saw as a valuable and beautiful waterfront asset for county residents whose interests they were sworn to safeguard.
Long Lake’s incumbent commissioner took the curious step of breaking ranks with the Parks and Rec Board when she voted to gift Twin Lakes Park to Long Lake Township despite the opposition of her committee. It was an especially odd thing to do to her constituents, who are already burdened by climbing taxes due to the rising cost of housing driving taxes to rise in addition to inflation and multiple other expensive projects being undertaken by Long Lake Township. This legally questionable transfer has caused unnecessary stress, expense and lawsuits in our township and count ever since.
Priority #3: Protecting our green environment and keeping our freshwater ecology clean and healthy for generations to come
As a multigenerational family in Long Lake Township and Grand Traverse County, I have witnessed exponential growth and environmental change to our previously rural, agrarian and recreationally seasonal community. Clearcutting of trees by impatient developers, over-lighting our night skies, a shortage of public transport routes to reduce traffic, wear and tear on our roads and the increased impact of greenhouse gasses on our atmosphere and environment is impacting our forest, fields, streams, air and water and all the living flora and fauna that depend on it. Adopting measures to reduce dependence on greenhouse gasses as our community continues to attract new residents, businesses and visitors is a critical challenge that we cannot delay addressing together.
Priority #4: Providing critically needed mental health care services in Grand Traverse County
Proof of my devotion to help plan necessary services in our growing community and protect our environment while prioritizing conscious use of our taxes includes volunteer service on the Long Lake Shoreline Committee, the Long Lake Activity Centers Planning Committee, Co-Chair of the TCAPS District Advisory Committee, and public advocacy for local improvement in critically needed mental health care access, services and facilities. Our family lost our beloved son and brother Aaron to suicide during a mental health crisis during the pandemic shutdown. On a day when he could not access his doctor, therapist or emergency mental healthcare at the hospital, he too easily accessed a gun with which he ended his young and promising life.
Across the lifespan, all families and individuals face stressors that can trigger mental health crises. None of as are exempt from anxiety, depression and health conditions that can severely impact our mental health. I pledge to continue to advocate for new and improved services, staff and facilities to improve mental health in our community and to prevent negative related outcomes including homelessness, joblessness, loss of participation in education, and despair leading to suicide or homicide.
Leadership failures and embezzlement of funds at the publicly funded Northern Lakes Community Mental Health is a local public crisis that has resulted in disastrous outcomes including an exodus of clinicians, with mentally ill clients deprived of care being held without appropriate treatment in our inadequate and antiquated county jail or, if unable to work due to disability, becoming chronically unsheltered and uninsured for healthcare, with ill and malnourished people living in unsafe tent communities without sanitation while suffering exposure to the elements, such as in the location known as The Pines.
Mental health is health. We must urgently prioritize improvement of mental health services and an increase in mental health beds for adults and children suffering from severe mental illness in our community.
Priority #5: Working together to make Grand Traverse County Healthy, Housed & Sustainable
All of these issues are happening to families and individuals in our community due to no fault of their own. Reality is when illness and unexpected life experiences happen to us. I believe we can solve these and other problems by working together with transparency, positivity, and common resolve.
This is the promise of Grand Traverse County to me, and I am enthusiastic to devote my time and energy to be part of the solution. Access to affordable housing, childcare, quality health and mental health care, and sustainable jobs with appropriate educational preparation and accessible transportation solutions are within reach. Together we can make our community sustainable and safe for all generations.
Priority #6: Thank You for caring and sharing!
Thank you for your support of my candidacy to ensure responsible policies, transparency, health, accountability, and enforcement of the law for public safety and community well-being in Grand Traverse County. With your support and vote, I promise to protect public well being and transparency, to work cooperatively with others to solve problems, to increase opportunities for community prosperity, and to uphold the law as your representative for Long Lake Township on the County Commission.
Please feel free to reach out to me with your concerns, your willingness to help win this pivotal election, to contribute of your time, energy and to help get out the vote before the August 6th primary and November 5th election. Successful campaigns bring people together not only to create necessary change, but to build meaningful and lasting friendships and working relationships while doing so.
I look forward to meeting and working with you to solve these and other challenges and create new opportunities and even miracles together in our fair county.
Thanks so very much for your encouragement, help and for working beside me to make Grand Traverse County a better place for all of us to overcome our challenges to share a more sustainable common future.
Sincerely,
🌻 Pam