When one looks at the history of the Ludington Downtown Development Authority (DDA, aka Downtown Ludington Board or DLB), one should not be surprised that the Board operates out of the dark basement of city hall.  This resistance to transparency and the irregular accounting practices they exercise has a long history and is projected to extend into the future.  

After a year of holding several regularly scheduled and special meetings out of the public eye, and mysteriously finding a couple of hundred thousand dollars in 'saved' money to fund their part of the ambitious Legacy Park project, the DDA look forward to doing almost nothing while collecting nearly four hundred thousand more in 2020 and 2021 in a continuously evolving budget that evokes a lot of questions.  The 2021 budget (found here) describes the issues thusly:

Looking closer at the budget, one can see that the revenues coming in for 2021 will be roughly $187,000 when one ignores the $2.123 million grant from the MEDC, these are somewhat lower than prior revenues.  Squarely $84,300 are slated to go to the Marketing & Communications Director and for administrative expenses, all other expenses from that non-grant revenue are scheduled to add up to $25,800.  That leaves close to $80,000 in revenue without a destination.  

When one looks at the reduction of events, one sees that $84,300 in administration/personnel costs are planned on being used to run the 'Love Ludington' race series and a reduced farmer's market, all other normal DDA events are currently set not to happen.

One can see all of the event money planned for 2020 (events after March) and more has went for unbudgeted contractual services instead, increasing that budgeted amount by $55,000.  One would assume that the money went towards Legacy Park, however, we were told by DDA director Heather Tykoski that the DDA fund had saved their match of the MEDC $2.3 million over the years.

In the City's budget, the DDA never had such a balance, but Tykoski's admission makes one wonder where that contractual service money is going this year.  In the years between 2009 and 2019, the DDA never had a 'prior year fund balance' over $48,000 in the black, at the end of 2015 they actually had a $50,000 deficit.  In those years, the budgeting had the DDA surpluses revert to the general fund, and the deficit of 2015 covered apparently by their past credits.  This defies the accounting principles that apply to the DDA, keeping their fund separate from the City's, but Heather Tykoski was never very good at math.

In 2019 the laws affecting Michigan DDA's were changed significantly, but what didn't change is how they handle their budgets.  Effectively the DDA board is supposed to approve their budget and send it up to the city council for their vote of approval before the DDA can vote to adopt it.  This legal requirement hasn't ever been done in Ludington.  The DDA adopts their own budget in October, and the councilors never see the DDA budget before it's included in the City's complete budget. 

Before 2019, MCL 125.1678 covered the same principle:  "Before the budget may be adopted by the board it shall be approved by the governing body of the municipality."  The city council cannot approve the DDA budget lawfully by approving the City's own budget, nor can the DDA lawfully create a budget and adopt it before the council looks it over and approves it.  

If we could overlook the general corruption inherent in much of the City's actions and policies over the years, one could easily blame the lack of any council oversight on the DDA budget as the cause as to how the DDA can lay claim to $239,000 they don't have and assign nearly $60,000 outside of their budget for unknown contractual services.  Our struggling downtown businesses with an ever-increasing list of casualties in these hard times deserves better.

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How about a movie?

Good job on the picture X. Henderson and Heather never looked that good.

It may be a horror film, but you don't want your movie poster to scare away all of the potential customers with the real mugs, that's why there are actors.  BTW, 'Leeches' was a real movie starring Josh Henderson making my doctoring of the picture all that much easier.

They may not be real actors but it would make sense to call them bad actors.

Very wise observations, Lake Lasy.  It's sad, but I agree, I think the COL is so choked up to pay off the debt (and maintain their pensions and Cadillac bennies) that they can't see straight or plan right for the long-time citizens.  I agree that they probably want to build low-income housing to fill the behemoth elementary school which that new administrator beguiled many people over.  And a supply of Section 8 vouchers.  I've seen it happen in Muskegon and the Heights and then the blight takes over, but with good planning that might not happen.  It's an interesting time of growth that the "youth" and Karens mostly running this city don't have the wisdom, imo, to understand yet.  And neither have they really experienced what happens to a resort town in a depression (except the minor dip in 2008) which some may have been drooling over Play Stations at the time.  I fear for the future of Ludington and the uncertainty of the State of Michigan and the Federal freebies.  

Well said Lake Lady

Please excuse my typo, Lake Lady

I'm often working on a 2.5" screen so I can't see a long line!  However, thanks, but Lasy (Lassie is not a bad moniker).  I like your comments!

I stopped using google long ago. There are many search engines to choose from. The one I use the most is  https://duckduckgo.com/?q=the+ludington+torch+website&t=h_&....  That site and others supposedly do not track you, or collect your information.

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