Kent County, Mich. (Inset: AG Mike Cox)

Attorney General Mike Cox says he’s “dumbfounded” as to why Kent County leaders questioned his initial decision to spend $500,000 of the state’s $9.9 million Countrywide mortgage-fraud settlement on two local parks projects. But he won’t be trying to ease tensions at a specially convened town hall meeting in Grand Rapids set for Monday night. According to press accounts, Cox, a Wayne County Republican who has filed to run for governor in 2010, does not plan to attend the public gathering at the Wealthy Theater, nor will he send a representative.

“I’m not going to apologize,” Cox told The Grand Rapids Press on Friday. “Maybe we’ll take the [money] and give it to another city. We didn’t anticipate that people would be so short-sighted.” But on Saturday, Cox said he would shift the questionable grants to the West Michigan United Way, adding it was “unfortunate” that people were trying to “politicize” the money.

But one of the parks in question, Millennium Park, has been championed by a top Republican donor from East Grand Rapids, Peter Secchia, who served as U.S. ambassador to Italy under President George H.W. Bush.

Cox told The Press last week that his office relied on recommendations from local officials on how to use funds from the settlement, which was negotiated last fall by the attorney general and Countrywide, the financially troubled mortgage giant. But according to a timeline of the payout process released by Kent County officials, it was Secchia who contacted the county on Feb. 17, saying that Cox wanted to use mortgage-fraud settlement funds for Millennium Park development. Grand Rapids Mayor George Heartwell reportedly did not know about Cox’s intentions until five minutes before a press conference last week announcing the parks grants.

Kent County Commissioner Brandon Dillon, a Democrat, told The Press last week: “I can’t understand how anyone thinks this is an appropriate use of this money at this time.”

The parks money had been planned in addition to the $250,000 Cox planned on giving to Grand Rapids officials to dole out for local foreclosure relief, including money for the Grand Rapids Urban League and Inner City Christian Federation, among other organizations. In all, 3,700 state residents who were foreclosed upon by Countrywide will get $1,800 each, according to the settlement. Last week, Cox announced that the United Way in Detroit would receive $1.2 million, while the city of Detroit and the Focus: HOPE social service organization would receive $250,000 each, according to The Detroit News.

But it’s the Grand Rapids-area parks plans that has left questions about whether Cox, who is better known in Southeastern Michigan, may have tried to use the settlement money to curry favor with one of the most influential Republican figures from West Michigan. On Thursday at the Capitol, State Sen. Gretchen Whitmer (D-East Lansing), a prospective 2010 attorney general candidate, remarked that Cox tried to use the Countrywide settlement as a “personal political slush fund,” taking his cues from “a big GOP player. Unbelievably, this appears to be fact.”

At the governor’s office Friday, spokeswoman Megan Brown offered no comment except to say, “We expect the attorney general to comply with the law regarding the expenditure and appropriations process.”

In his initial response to the criticism, Cox told The Press that the parks improvement would help nearby homeowners by stabilizing neighborhoods hit by foreclosures. But Crescent Park is wedged between Grand Rapids’ downtown civic center and community college, Spectrum Health’s Butterworth campus, and the Van Andel Research Institute. Crescent Park was used as a construction staging ground for the institute, named in honor of the late Amway co-founder Jay Van Andel, a longtime GOP booster and Grand Rapids corporate philanthropist.

Millennium Park, meanwhile, covers an area twice the size of New York City’s Central Park in southwestern Kent County, stretching across portions of the cities of Grand Rapids, Wyoming, Grandville and Walker on rolling landscape along the Grand River that’s been used for gravel mining and light industrial purposes. A decade ago, Secchia’s Millennium Commission sparked the idea for the park and began raising funds to assemble the parcels of land to build the park. In recent years, a Who’s Who of West Michigan’s top corporate philanthropists have contributed money to the project, including Frank and Lena Meijer, the Richard and Helen DeVos Foundation, former Perrigo Co. President Richard Hansen and Gainey Transportation Services owner Harvey Gainey, among others.

A Political Backfire for Cox?

Political observers interviewed by Michigan Messenger stressed that it’s too early to tell whether the dust-up in Kent County will damage Cox’s chances as a gubernatorial candidate among West Michigan Republicans, especially in a field that will likely also involve bids by Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land of Byron Center and U.S. Rep. Peter Hoekstra of Holland.

Some of Cox’s strongest political support comes from the Oakland County law firm Trott & Trott, which, as the largest foreclosure practice in the state, tried to reshape foreclosure legislation. Since 2001, David Trott and his wife, Kathleen, have given thousands of dollars to Cox’s campaigns and political action committees. The company itself has donated thousands to political groups run by Cox. Three firm sources familiar with Trott & Trott’s business operations told Michigan Messenger that as much as half of the firm’s business is in Countrywide-related foreclosures.

Bill Ballenger of Inside Michigan Politics warned that it’s hard to judge the political effects of this situation in the long run. But he said, “I gotta admit, the whole thing looks weird to me. The question is who is the judge of what is a worthwhile project.”

Mark Grebner of Practical Political Consulting, whose clients mostly include Democrats, said, “Grand Rapids has a feeling of being squeaky clean, an idea of uprightness.” In West Michigan, he said “it’s almost as important to be upright and honest as it is to be right wing.

“I would worry that it seems to play old politics that normally plays well with Republicans,” he continued. “Grand Rapids is a tough place for that, and the west side of the state [is a place where] it’s possible to get yourself boxed out for that.”

“Cox comes off a lot more as Karl Rove” in this situation, he said, referring to then-President George W. Bush’s top political adviser.