(Source: MIRS.news, Published 09/29/2023) In a letter addressed to House leadership, Rep. Phil Green (R-Millington) expressed his ethical concern about a gift of apples placed on members’ desks that was accompanied by a request to vote yes on four bills.
In a letter addressed to House Speaker Joe Tate (D-Detroit) and Majority Floor Leader Abraham Aiyash (D-Hamtramck), Green said the optics of the gifts placed on desks “crossed an ethical line,” adding in a statement to MIRS that he believes it could even be illegal. He requested that gifts associated with a voting request, whether from members, organizations or lobbyists, not be allowed on the floor in the future.
The gift was 110 two-pound bags of apples that arrived at members' desks on Wednesday morning, Green told MIRS, sent by Steffens Orchard Market, and accompanied by several letters, one of which told the story of owner and farmer Rob Steffens, an apple, sweet cherry and pumpkin farmer.
“I also have a message to deliver along with these apples," Steffens wrote, describing the 2009 decision by Republican leadership to remove drivers' license access to some Michigan residents, “from migrant farmworkers to new immigrant visa holders.”
He said many of these migrant workers help Michigan farmers plant, tend and harvest crops year round, but their numbers are in decline, and workers are leaving for other apple-producing states like Washington, California, New York and Virginia, which “all allow for migrant farm workers to obtain drivers' licenses.
“If migrant workers are not allowed to drive in Michigan, they will choose to relocate to states where they are allowed, which will cause immense damage to Michigan’s agricultural sector,” he wrote.
The letter concluded: “for these reasons, I am asking that HB 4468, HB 4469, HB 4470 and HB 4471 are passed and put into law for the benefit of all Michigan farms. The Michigan Farm Bureau has expressed their interest in passing this legislation, as do farmers across the state like myself.”
The bill package, sponsored in April by Reps. Rachel Hood (D-Grand Rapids), Jimmie Wilson Jr. (D-Ypsilanti), Amos O’Neal (D-Saginaw) and Veronica A. Paiz (D-Harper Woods), references updates to the corrections code relating to productivity credits.
The bills have not yet received a committee hearing, and do not contain references to migrant drivers' licenses, Paiz confirmed to MIRS.
That legislation is being considered via Rep. Abraham Aiyash (D-Hamtramck)’s HB 4410.
Regardless of the bill's content, Green said the combination of a gift and a request crosses an ethical boundary, and should not have been allowed to be placed on the House floor.
He said that gifts are shared on the House floor, normally between members, either as a welcome or when a member passes his or her first bill out of the chamber. Some representatives, like Rep. Bill G. Schuette (R-Midland), also keep snacks at their desk to share, he said.
Green noted that the gift from Steffens was likely meant to share with members what the farmer perceived as a benefit of the bills being signed into law, and added that Green was in “no way going after either the farmer or his produce.
“This is strictly about the public perception of and exchange of goods for a vote, especially when given on the floor of the Michigan House of Representatives,” he said.
Green said first, there is an ethical concern that the gifts were placed on the floor, as there is a House Rule that prevents lobbyists from entering.
He said from conversations with others, he’s also been led to believe it could even be illegal to share gifts with the expectation, “even the inclination, that, ‘here’s a gift, please vote this way.’”
He acknowledged that the gift itself was “minor,” but the idea of it felt very inappropriate and “degrades the integrity of the House.”
“If this hit the front page of The Detroit News… the average citizen would go, ‘see, look, they're all corrupt,’” he said.
When asked if other members of the Republican caucus expressed similar concerns, Green said he hasn't had conversations with other Republicans about the issue.
He first talked to Aiyash, who responded that there’s a precedent for gifts on the House floor, Green said.
Green noted that when he talked with his staff, including Denise Pallarito, who was chief of staff for a former floor leader, the answer was, “no, never. This is not a precedent. This is illegal.”
Democratic Rep. Dylan Wegela (D-Garden City) attempted to give away his bag of apples to members at the press desk, but no other members have since come forward with complaints.
In response to Green’s letter, House Democratic Spokesperson Amber McCann said: “Included in the House Republican Caucus are members who made millions of dollars off of questionable real estate transactions, called participation in the Jan. 6 insurrection the highlight of their life and just yesterday filed a lawsuit that is a direct attack on Michigan voters.
“They can put down their stones,” she said. “Their house is glass.”
