City Council Overrules Judge's Decision

[XLFD]

On February 9, 2015 the Ludington City Council did something rather amazing in their last action of the night.  They unanimously reversed a standing decision of 51st Circuit Court Judge Susan Sniegowski.  How did a city's legislative body get the power to countermand a sitting judge's determination and interpretation of law?   Why was it a totally legit action that neither side will further appeal or Judge Sniegowski legally dispute?  Here's the scoop.

Susan Sniegowski, as most regular Ludington Torch readers are aware, served as the City of Ludington's FOIA Coordinator starting in October of 2013 after the city council  quietly made the decision that the City Manager was not up to the task.  She kept this position as she ran against three other candidates for the circuit court judge spot, and even after she won the election in November, she didn't tender her resignation from the FOIAC position until December 31, 2014.

Here is the sequence of events according to her successor at Ludington FOIA Coordinator Carlos Alvarado which effectively encapsulates what happened. This was included along with the supporting documents in the Council 2-9-2015 packet beginning on page 94:

You will note that Susan Sniegowski made a final determination to deny the requested records on December 30, 2015 eight days after she was sworn into her office as judge.  Therefore when this final FOIA decision of hers was made she was an acting judge.  The Ludington FOIA policy has the city council acting as the appellant body, with full quasi-judicial review of a FOIA Coordinator's decision to deny records, a power granted by state law MCL 15.240(3).

My appeal on January 28, 2015 was based solely on her determination that the LPD's two policies were exempt from disclosure, when there was no justification given and yet mandated by law, other police agencies freely disclosed their similar policies, and no exemption in FOIA allowed it, as explained in this snippet from my appeal pleadings:

Thus, with Carlos Alvarado's recommendation including the City's risk management attorney's opinion that Judge Sniegowski erred in her conclusion, and even John Shay's recommendation to do so, the Ludington City Council, acting as an appeals tribunal, reversed our sitting circuit court judge's legal opinion and determination, and have allowed the records to be shared with the public.  

And allowed me to be the first person to be able to legitimately claim that they have won an appeal to both override and annul State Circuit Court Judge Sniegowski's legal determination because of my seven friends on the Ludington City Council voting unanimously to do so.  

[Willy]

Congratulations X. If it wasn't for your diligence in revealing details this might not have happened, especially if another person who was not as knowledgeable of existing laws and procedures as you are. The fact that you discovered that the documents had already been released in court was, as far as I can determine, the only reason they were released to you.

All this legal wrangling and expense the City is hiding behind is disgusting. Here we have a Judge, several attorneys, a City Manager, the Council and God knows who that are involved with a simple request for public information. Talk about making mountains out of mole hills.

Another thing is the fact that they are keeping a close eye on the number of FOIA's you have filed. Again they make reference to that in their communications by referring to this as FOIA request #254. Not only are they continuing to try and block access to public information but they are showing how petty they really are. If this was only your 3rd FOIA I doubt that would be indicated on any communications.

[AQUAMAN]

Dittos to that willy, congrats to XLFD for being persistent in the face of cohorts making annoying interpretations of laws that are fraudulent, and totally illegal. The only reason to keep track of the number of FOIA requests, is to again, put disdain and shame on anyone that would request publicly held records, and defy Michigan laws to keep hiding them. It works as a foundation for their repeated finger pointing at someone that cares about their city, and the leaders that say they are doing a fine and legal job. When the facts are all known, we ALL know that usually puts egg on the face of the COL. It's a true and embarrassing situation, one that the public isn't supposed to know anything about, because the public is stupid, and doesn't really care anyhow, right?

[XLFD]

What's most revealing in these situations, and which they believe the general public is too stupid to understand, is that the time Attorney Alvarado, Attorney (now judge) Sniegowski, Attorney Vanderlaan, and Attorney Wilson-- just to name the agents who make well over $100 per hour looking at ways to circumvent releasing records and probably billed the city $500 or more for this one simple request that was eventually all released to me anyway-- is wasted time and money which a competent city councilor (or other official) could not even contemplate reasonably debating the fact. 

The red flag here, however, is why didn't Chief Barnett want to give out his department's use of force and search and seizure policy freely?  I could easily see him balk at this request.   And when I do finally review the policies, I will probably be able to determine the why.

[XLFD]

At this last meeting, I put it into a little bit of perspective in the way I crafted my public comment, referencing 2009 repeatedly as the year I made my first FOIA request, made my first city critique for how they were not enforcing their sidewalk ordinance, and started the Ludington Torch. 

Even if the city hallers include the 50 or so requests made on my behalf by my proxies, and twenty or so which they attribute to me erroneously and get about 260 FOIA requests in that time, this still just amounts to about 40 per year.  That's less than one a week, when I probably put out 5-6 watchdog articles every week, mostly on the Ludington situation.  

When I see that statistic, I begin to think that I don't make nearly enough FOIA requests to be sustainable in the investigative journalism market.  Spoon fed pablum churned out by city hall may appeal to the other media in the area, but it just doesn't have the flavor of what's really happening; you gotta go digging sometimes, and I swear they don't know the business end of a shovel.