3
NEWS
Thursday, August 2, 2018
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
U-M prof improves
water safety in lakes
After almost
drowning, Jamie
Racklyeft creates
new intiative
By NATASHA PIETRUSCHKA
Daily Staff Reporter
Jamie Racklyeft, the commu-
nications director of the Michi-
gan Institute for Clinical and
Health Research at the Univer-
sity of Michigan, knows second
chances are rare. After nearly
drowning off the shore of Van’s
Beach in Leland, Michigan in
2012, Racklyeft is leading the
effort to end drownings in the
Great Lakes.
In 2016, Racklyeft founded
the Great Lakes Water Safety
Consortium, a non-profit part-
nered with more than 350 orga-
nizations to create guidelines
for water safety.
“There are a lot of people
working on preventing drown-
ing in the Great Lakes, but they
weren’t
working
together,”
Racklyeft said. “That’s when I
got involved as a communica-
tor. The more we can get people
working together and collabo-
rating, the more we can find
what’s working and what isn’t.”
A study by the Great Lakes
Surf Rescue Project, one of
GLWSC’s
partners,
reported
there were 669 drownings in the
Great Lakes from 2010 to 2018.
According to Racklyeft, 85 per-
cent of drowning victims are
male with a particular emphasis
between ages 18 and 24. A study
concluded males tend to over-
estimate their abilities in the
water and are more susceptible
to peer pressure.
LSA junior Connor Kippe
explained pier diving was a com-
mon pastime for young adults in
his hometown of Grand Haven,
Michigan.
“Growing up, guys tend to be
a little more flippant about risk
and showing off,” Kippe said.
“It was a thing people did. Some
people would just watch, they
wouldn’t always jump. Others
would do tricks off the side of
the pier.”
Water safety was part of Kip-
pe’s middle school health cur-
riculum, setting his school apart
from many others in Michigan.
But despite being educated on
the subject, Kippe said people
in his community and similar
areas continue to participate in
risky behavior.
Racklyeft recognized the dif-
ficulty of communicating the
importance of water safety.
“If they’ve gone to the lake
before and they’ve been fine,
they’ll think they’ll be fine
again,” Racklyeft said. “There’s
so many ways things can go
wrong. How can we get that
across? It’s tough. It’s not just
about awareness. We can let
them know, but does that mean
it’ll
change
behavior?
Not
always.”
According to GLWSC, there
are many factors that can con-
tribute to a drowning. Rip cur-
rents, powerful fluxes of water
that jets away from shore and
out into open water, are one of
the main causes of drownings
in the Great Lakes. “Flip, float
and follow” is a universal tech-
nique used for escaping these
currents. Rhett Register of the
Michigan Sea Grant, another
GLWSC partner, said someone
caught in a rip current should
never try to fight it.
“Even Michael Phelps can’t
swim against a rip current,
they’re so powerful,” Register
said. “Flip over on your back,
float for a second and follow
the best path out of the current.
Don’t fight the current.”
Swimmers can also prevent
drowning by being prepared.
According to Racklyeft, out
of the 669 people who have
drowned in the Great Lakes
since 2010, only 5 of them were
wearing life jackets. He also
advises checking the National
Weather Service before going
to the beach and staying out of
the water when waves are more
than two to three feet high.
TMD talks to Council candidates about
political controversy, plans for Ward 1
By ALICE TRACEY
Summer Daily News Editor
Ann Arbor’s Ward 1 City Coun-
cil candidates, Democrats Jef-
frey Hayner and Ron Ginyard
and Democratic Socialist Ryan
Hughes, spoke with The Michi-
gan Daily to address controversies
surrounding their campaigns and
to elaborate on their respective
platforms.
Hayner, a 53-year-old busi-
ness owner who works in design
and fabrication, and Ginyard,
a 61-year-old retired financial
adviser, will compete in the Aug.
7 primaries. The winning Demo-
crat will face off against demo-
cratic socialist Ryan Hughes, a
37-year-old computer program-
mer, in November. The candidates
are vying to replace the incum-
bent representative, Sumi Kaila-
sapathy, D-Ward 1.
A July 23 MLive article drew
attention to the Ward 1 City
Council race by highlighting con-
troversial aspects of Ginyard and
Hayner’s pasts. Specifically, the
article mentioned Ginyard’s past
financial difficulties and noted he
hasn’t voted since moving back to
Ann Arbor four years ago. MLive
reporter Ryan Stanton also raised
concern over some of Hayner’s
contentious tweets.
In an email interview with
The Daily, Ginyard, an Ann Arbor
native who lived in California
from 1970 to 2014, said he wasn’t
able to give Stanton the whole
story.
The MLive article cited the
Financial Industry Regulatory
Authority’s BrokerCheck website,
which reveals several complaints
filed against Ginyard while he
was working for investment firm
Morgan Stanley in California. In
2003, clients of Ginyard’s claimed
he made poor investment sugges-
tions and they requested $525,000
in compensation. The case was
settled for $110,000. Different cli-
ents made similar claims in 1998
but withdrew their case.
Regarding the 2003 complaint,
Ginyard said the financial loss-
es of his clients — for whom he
invested $600,000 — were a result
of economic downturn.
“Over the course of three and a
half years, I made a lot of money
for them,” Ginyard wrote. “They
withdrew a quarter of a million
dollars during that time and still
the value of their investment grew
to $1,000,000. They were very
disappointed when the market
ate their gains during the tech-
nology crash of 2001, even though
they were still up by $100,000 at
the time they brought their com-
plaint.”
He added only two of the
approximately 45,000 transac-
tions he completed during his
32-year career ended in formal
complaints.
Stanton’s article also notes sev-
eral tax liens were filed against
Ginyard for failure to pay taxes
between 1988 and 2013. The larg-
est claim was a $263,547 federal
tax lien issued by the IRS in 2006.
Ginyard said family issues pre-
vented him from paying taxes on
time, but he has now paid off all
his debt.
“(O)ver that 18-year period I
paid $280,000 in child support
for my two daughters,” Ginyard
wrote. “In addition, in the early
1990s, the mother of my young-
est daughter was diagnosed with
glaucoma and declared legally
blind. This put additional pres-
sure on me to keep her household
up and running, which included
paying my daughter’s tuition for
her first year at USC and pay-
ing all of her health insurance
expenses. When you work for a
firm like Morgan Stanley, a lot of
your income comes from bonuses,
so when the market fluctuates
your income can vary widely from
month to month.”
Responding to MLive’s cover-
age of Ginyard’s financial history,
Hayner said he does not want to
get involved in Ginyard’s personal
business but does find it problem-
atic that Ginyard missed tax pay-
ments. Hayner said paying taxes
gives a citizen the right to speak
out about local policy issues.
“In this city, I think that our
services are not commensurate
with the prices we pay for them,”
Hayner said. “I’m happy to go
down and complain about them,
because I pay.”
Hayner also took issue with
Ginyard’s spotty voting record,
another controversy addressed
in Stanton’s article. Since moving
to Ann Arbor four years ago, Gin-
yard has not voted once, including
in the 2016 presidential election.
“I think it shows a complete
lack of commitment to the sys-
tem,” Hayner said.
Read more at MichiganDaily.com
Hayner and Ginyard address issues from their personal histories
COURTESY OF RYAN STANTON, THE ANN ARBOR NEWS
Ann Arbor City Council D-Ward 1 candidates Ron Ginyard and Jeff Hayner.
Read more at MichiganDaily.com