Beaver Island Michigan

I have submitted my petition to run for county commissioner for District 6 of Charlevoix County. In recent years the county has paid out more than 1.5 million dollars to settle cases among personnel who filed grievances against the county and have either negotiated settlements or received judgments. This is an unacceptable situation particularly for taxpayers who elect commissioners to oversee the various departments of the county. If the proper oversight were applied none of this might have happened. Charlevoix County has a public safety committee, building and grounds committee, judicial committee and a personnel committee, amongst others. When I served on the county board some years ago if there were grievances or disharmony in any department it would come before these committees. What has happened? There is no excuse to frittering away public money when standing committees should be exercising diligent oversight on departments and personnel.

In my previous experience as a county commissioner I had a good relationship with my fellow commissioners and chaired or served on many of the county committees in that time. We never had a situation like we have dealt with in recent years. In these tough economic times it is important to have people in place that will act conservatively with public funds and be diligent in watching for and correcting problems.

It is time for a fresh start. With the publics support I promise to do so.

Hey Rich GOOD LUCK, l encourage every voter on the Island to vote for Rich.

Rich is a hard worker and will represent the Island,

Hey Richie, I say you make a "Vote for me" sign and pull it behind your plane over the countryside. I should have been a campaign manager now that I think about it. :D

Go for it, Richie. You have my vote!

God help us all

Good luck Rich!

Dad,

I made an account today so I could give my 2 cents to your most recent post about running for county commissioner. I admire your perseverance in wanting to make positive changes for the island and people of Charlevoix County. That energy and continued effort doesn't go unrecognized and I'm proud of you! (And no he didn't pay me to write this! haha ) I want to be involved and help in any way I can with your campaign. I love you.

Now thats touching. Good luck Rich !

Ah sure t'was the summer of 2004 and a handsome young man from Dublin stood on the porch of the Beaver Island Historical Society, guitar in hand, knees shaking. The crowd were assembled in the sun, and they were hungry for entertainment. He knew that his half assed musical shenanigans weren't going to win over these slick Michigan folk. He needed something more real, more relevant and more immediate to connect with them. Just then, in the crowd, he saw the Irish faced figure of a man he knew well, a man he respected, a man known to all the island. Drawing up to the microphone he felt his courage rising. "I urge you all, all of you here, to give your vote to Rich Gillespie in the upcoming election for County Commissioner." The crowd melted and applauded and the young Dub went on to perform with confident mediocrity.

If he were there in 2008, he would do exactly the same thing.

tom@areaman.tv

Thank you all for your kind words, even you Megan.............ahem. And Tom, you weren't that mediocre!! Thanks again!

l have known Rich for 35 years, as a former visitor ,property owner and business owner, l got to know Rich in depth, we have had many discussions about Beaver Island ,and we agreed on the majority of them. l hope that you can put aside any differences and vote for Rich, he will do you a great job, lf l was still there l would most certainly vote for him.

We had to leave the Island for health reasons, sure do miss the island and all the friends we made ,

Good Luck Rich

My wife and I are new fulltime residents to the island since last November but had lived in Charlevoix for about a year while our house was being finished. It appears to me there is a remarkable difference bewteen the Island and the rest of the county in terms of needs, support and economy. I also find it refreshing to see the Island exercise frugalityand accountabity in use of public funds. That concept seems to be pretty much lost on the other side.
I've known Rich and his family though the occaisional business dealing and find him to be a man that is outspoken, responisble, honest and most important, does what he has promised. I can't think of a better person than Rich Gillespie to represent our Island needs in the county government and to proudly add value to that process through our Island ways and values he brings.
So if you want to vote Island support, vote for Rich or don't vote at all. As it's your right to choose and it's my opinion that choosing off Island representation is worse than not voting at all. Tom

Genteel, sophisticated, cultured, aristocratic, distingue', elegant, fashionable, formal, graceful, mannerly, polished, urbane, stylish and cultivated.
These are the traits that I generally witness attempted to be portrayed by people who run for elected office.

Do any of those discriptions bring Rich Gillespie to mind??
His publicity pictures look like mug shots from an IRA "wanted" poster.

Yet, when I think about who I want to represent my interests on the Island, I do not look for attributes from the above discription, as honesty, articulation and integrity are not on that list.
I realize that whoever represents me has to deal with nameless bureaucracy, inept committees, biased funding allocations and politcal weenies.

The traits of my favorite politician would be:
indelicate, indelible, indecorous, inextirpable, incisive, incipient, inalienable, inpious, inpertinent, implicit, importunate, impressive, impartial, impassioned and impish,

"Richie" Gillespie, as I have called him for the last 33 years, has .. absolutely NONE of the first traits. (besides, those traits are better reserved for some other politician's fantasy mistress kept secluded in a high class hotel on New York's Manhatten Island)

IMHO: Richard Gillespie does have many of the wish list traits that I want to see in someone who represents my interests on Beaver Island.
I do not particulary worry about mainland Charlevoix interests, as historically, they have had no problem taking care of themselves.
Coming to my vote...The "ayes" have it!!

For those wondering what the ballots look like for Tuesday's Primary Election here are links to the website containing them:

http://www.charlevoixcounty.org/downloa ... _james.pdf

http://www.charlevoixcounty.org/downloads/peaine.pdf

I have had a couple of calls relating to the issue of splitting your vote in a primary which CANNOT be done, it spoils your ballot. However, if there is only one candidate in either the Democratic or Republican section of your ballot, that candidate is automatically going on to the fall election.

With that I would ask you to consider that your vote in the primary carries the most weight in the contested races that have filed under the Republican side. And, for what it is worth, one of my first actions as a county commissioner would be to investigate WHY we have to declare parties in small county elections!! This might be important in statewide or national politics but does not seem necessary at a local or county level. Thank you to those who have given so much support and I would appreciate your vote on Tuesday!

Rich, thanks for taking the time, energy and your own resources to support the Island in the election. You set a fine example for young and old alike to become involved in what is important. Tom