The Place Where Ludington Talks
The Paying the Piper-Bleaus
If you've exercised your right to vote in previous elections and strive to be an informed voter, you have probably encountered a case where you don't particularly like the qualifications and/or personality of either candidate and either voted for the lesser of two evils or just skipped that section.
In the Republican primary election to be held tomorrow, pity the poor folks of Pere Marquette Township who are voting for their township's treasurer and have an unenviable choice between two questionable candidates-- one of whom will be picked to manage the township's finances.
One of those in Jeremy Paul Piper of Piper Tax & Accounting, LLC. If you recall, that business was raided by the FBI and Jeremy's sire, Paul Piper, who pleaded guilty to bank fraud and tax evasion related to his theft of up to $3.5 million from Lake Michigan Carferry in June, will see some hefty fines and hopefully some incarceration.
On “numerous occasions” from 2007 to 2018, the senior Piper wrote car ferry checks to himself or his businesses and either forged signatures of authorized car ferry personnel or used signature stamps without their authorization. Before joining the accounting firm in May 2015 while the fraud was allegedly still going on, Jeremy was a member of the car ferry staff, here's a picture of him and in the midst of five other LMC workers in 2013, when his dad was reportedly in the middle of his dirty deeds.
Jeremy may be guilt-free of the sins of his father, so maybe he can validate that he was not knowledgeable of the frauds and embezzlements that occurred over those years when Jeremy was a member of the LMC family and the family accounting business. It sure would make it a lot easier to vote for him in a position where the public trust is needed the most, as it is in the township treasurer. Yet, he doesn't feel the need to justify his trustworthiness or his family's besmirched honor.
He and his opponent were sent a few generic 'softball' questions to answer by the MCP, he didn't even bother to answer them, yet he did take the time to write back and say: "I have no comment." It's the media wanting your opinion, you jackass, not the FBI wondering whether you were a part of the multimillion dollar swindle your dad has pled guilty to without implicating you.
That article introduces us to the other candidate, Karie Bleau. You may also recognize the surname as familiar since the new Township Supervisor Jerry Bleau, whom she is married to. Jerry and Karie (pictured below) were living in Alpena until late in 2018, when Karie quit her job as Alpena Township clerk and with her husband moved into the Ludington 'suburbs', Kari acquiring a job at Lenz-Balder Insurance. Her husband would later win the PM Township supervisor spot in 2019 in a period where the couple were seemingly living in adjacent Hamlin Township and registered to vote there.
The former Alpenians have formally moved into the township to make his appointment proper, and despite a few early missteps, such as using the townships DPW for his own personal projects, her husband has settled into his role. Jerry Bleau was the former DPW Supervisor in Alpena Township, so it makes you wonder though. If she is chosen as treasurer, you will have two positions that will have an incredible amount of power as to how the township's budgets look and of the overall accounting of the township's money.
In Ludington and other local governments, you often see these two positions authorizing the use of money for the other, they are not two positions where you want any collusion going on, or else you might be lucky to find and account for a few million dollars missing over a period of time (see previous candidate).
Karie at least tried to allay such fears in the MCP article: "I realize that some of the voters of PM Township may have some concerns about nepotism if I am elected as the PM Township treasurer since my husband is currently the supervisor. The statutory duties and responsibilities of the treasurer require very little interaction with the supervisor, thereby the potential of inappropriate conduct is fundamentally nonexistent. Rest assured that Jerry and I are both very trustworthy and responsible people. We have successfully worked together in various capacities many times throughout our 25-plus years together."
Anybody who says 'the potential of inappropriate conduct is fundamentally nonexistent' when the supervisor and treasurer are married, is denying reality big time. Anybody who says me and my spouse 'are both very trustworthy and responsible people' in this situation are failing to see that it would be inherently irresponsible and go against the public trust to have a couple fill those two positions. Anybody who says 'the statutory duties and responsibilities of the treasurer require very little interaction with the supervisor' may have a hard time ignoring the meaningful interactions those two would be presumably having at home and in the privacy of their bedroom, where a little extra household money never hurts.
If you're a Republican from PM Township and want to be able to sleep with yourself at night, you may just wish to skip over this race tomorrow on your ballot without darkening in any ovals so that you can look back in the future and say that you didn't vote for whoever wins this position.
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