params[:name].downcase + '%' ],
Remove the first '%', it's a placeholder for an arbitrary string. I take it, params[:id] was not what you intended to use.
Also, bear in mind that if you have a database index on the name column it will most likely not be consulted as names are verbatim in the index, not in lowercase. To make use of an index in a case like this, the DBMS has to support functional indexes. MySQL apparently is too dumb for it, but PostgreSQL has this feature.
Michael
