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Posted on Sat, Oct 23, 2010 : 11:09 a.m.

Ouimet's expenses on county board show he is not the right candidate for the state house

By Letters to the Editor

I am disgusted by recent published articles that local county commissioner Mark Ouimet has billed “we the taxpayers” of Washtenaw County over $35,000 for attending meetings, community events and perhaps even ribbon-cuttings and baby showers. This is the same guy who is now running for the 52nd District (House seat) to represent us in Lansing. My first question is: “Can we afford to have Mr. Ouimet handling our state income tax money?” Then I ask: “How can a candidate like Mr. Ouimet claim that he stands for lower taxes and at the same time gorge on the public trough for $35,000 extra?”

And all this time, since 2005 when he was first on the job, I thought the $15,500 per year in salary was his only compensation for being a public servant. I also thought that he was being extremely generous with his time to be everywhere. Well, I was wrong. Instead, he made the conscious choice to charge us an additional $35,000 for showing up in our community, and for mileage. Now that’s politics as usual.

I wonder how many preschool lunches $35,000 would have bought. I can only guess how many senior citizen services $35,000 could have provided. Let’s do ourselves a favor for the future and not vote for Mr. Ouimet before he gets somewhere that he can do significantly more harm spending our limited Michigan resources.

Frank Grohnert Lyndon Township

Comments

Roadman

Mon, Oct 25, 2010 : 2:02 p.m.

To blame Ouimet is to condemn everyone else on the Commission who did the same thing.

Merrill Poliner

Sat, Oct 23, 2010 : 6:33 p.m.

My criteria for voting for someone running for public office is that they are smart, honest and hard-working. Recent events indicate that Ouimet is not honest. I took a WCC non-credit finance class from him many years ago. At that time, he didn't know the difference between an income statement and a balance sheet. He wasn't much help to the potential potential entrepreneurs in the class and I don't think he's going to be much help to the electorate or the State of Michigan.

David Briegel

Sat, Oct 23, 2010 : 3:13 p.m.

Frank, Just imagine the paperwork and forms he had to fill out to keep track of his "contributions" to our society. And he got the tax deduction for laundering tax dollars to HIS "charities"! I prefer Mrs. Green!