Commissions of Sins

[XLFD]

We would like to think that there was once a Golden Age in our government.  A time when the politicians created laws to expand or keep the rights of the people, created laws to keep their powers in check, created an environment of openness and worked against corruption.  With the Tea Party movement and the outcome of the elections of 2010, there is a hope that Washington and Lansing will be put back on the right track.  Whereas at the local level in Ludington, the track is receding into the horizon.  The city website recently put this tidbit on their home page:

 

Local Residents Needed for Official Boards

The City of Ludington is seeking local residents and business persons willing to voluntarily serve on Official Boards (Board of Review, Planning Commission, Cable Advisory Board, Construction & Property Maint. Code Appeal Board & the Board of Ethics, beginning January 2011.  Interested persons should submit a written request for consideration no later than December 13th to Mayor Henderson.

 

The City seems to be creating new entities at an alarming rate with their push to create a film office, a historical district committee, hybrid private-public committees/agencies, the Park Advisory Board etc.  This bodes ill for the rest of us, but how are they filling these boards/committees up to now?  Not within their own laws, that's for sure.  The following laws are all found on Ludington's City Code, you may use this for reference/verification:

 

  http://library1.municode.com/default-test/home.htm?infobase=11919&a...

 

SECTION 1200.2:2  Membership.
The Planning Commission (PC) shall consist of a total of nine members, one of whom shall be a member of the City Council to be selected by resolution of the City Council to serve as a member ex officio, and eight of whom shall represent insofar as possible, different professions or occupations who shall be appointed by the Mayor, subject to approval by the majority vote of the City Council. All members including the ex officio member shall have the right to vote. All appointed members of the Commission shall hold no other municipal office, except that one of the appointed members may be a member of the Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA). Appointed members shall serve staggered three-year terms. All members shall hold office until successors are appointed.

 

"... shall hold no other municipal office...":  My buddy Joe Moloney is the legal ZBA liaison of the PC, and so is within the bounds of the law in this case.  A quick check of other PC members find the following, however, when looking through the city's website, again provided for your reference:

 

http://www.ludington.mi.us/index.html

 

The following Planning Commission members have a double or triple life:

 

Mike Nekola: also a member of the COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT BLOCK GRANT STEERING COMMITTEE
Bob Garrett:  also a member of the CABLE ADVISORY BOARD
Tom Coleman, Chairman:  also a member of the CONSTRUCTION & PROPERTY MAINTENANCE CODE APPEAL BOARD
Kirk Josvai:  a member of the PARKS ADVISORY COMMITTEE and the CABLE ADVISORY BOARD.

 

One can commend them for their dedication to the community, but at the same time they are definitely violating the law in doing so, and they should be definitely aware of that, as should the City's Mayor, Council, and Manager who appointed and/or approved them.  Another Board has a similarly restrictive membership: 

 

Section 9.3.  Board of Review:  The Board of Review shall consist of five (5) electors of the City who, at the time of their appointment, are neither elected nor appointed officials of the City. They shall be appointed annually by the Mayor with consent of Council and shall constitute a Board of Equalization and Review of the general assessment rolls of the City. Their compensation shall be fixed by the Council..."

 

Fred Hackert, who recently ran for a county commissioner post unsuccessfully and has served on the Ludington City Council in the past is a long-term member of the Board of Review who gets reappointed each year.  He also serves as a member of the mayor-appointed position in the Municipal Marina Board and the City Manager-appointed position as a Lieutenant for the Ludington Fire Department.  State law gives him a pass for the LFD post, much as it does for Mayor/firefighter Henderson--

 

(http://www.legislature.mi.gov/(S(fctgzp55nu3etn55mup3s4qg))/mileg.a...)

 

-- but not for the MMB.  He was a member of the MMB when he was last appointed to the Board of Review, and several times previous, a disregarding of the law each time.  Again, we appreciate his civic-mindedness and hard work, but he and his appointer and approvers need to check the rules and tell us why they need to break them.

 

The intent of these restrictive laws is to thwart wide varieties of conflicts of interest, corrupt behavior, and encourage diverse participation in government.  They're our laws, made at least in some Silver Age of our local government, and most are backed by state laws; let's have them followed. 

 

For in truth, all the people I have mentioned aren't being accused of anything inappropriate in their service and may even have been told that their secondary appointed positions were legit, even though its written fairly clearly in their section of the City Code.  But the City Manager John Shay and Mayor John Henderson should not be appointing these people in contradiction to our established laws, and the City Attorney and City Council should not let them do so.  This will only lead to further cherry-picking of laws they decide to follow.

[AQUAMAN]

Nice X, you really gotta study and go back to Law School someday, OR is it too late now? Youngster! May I suggest Thomas Cooley in Lansing, Fred Trost graduated there too, dearly departed ex-host of the Michigan Sportsman TV show, the guy with guts to question the DNR's authority and attitude. It's a great little University I was previously accepted to, and not over-crowded, or is it now? Good investigation ColumboX.

[XLFD]

I do have some Lansing connections, having lived there while attending and graduating from that local East Lansing school, Michael Schneider University. Vaguely remember Thomas Cooley, was that in the downtown area?

If I were to become a lawyer I'd go nuts-- check that, I'd go nutsier! I'm afraid I would likely spend too much time doing civil contempt time in the slammer, when I question whether the judge has the jurisdiction to be there, or the specific assignment to do so.

Plus I'd have to pass the bar, and I always wind up going in and playing a game of billiards ; )

[Willy]

The key phrase here is "munincipal office". I looked thru the ordinance and could find no definition for that term. If "munincipal office" is defined as elected office or department head I would agree.

[Edie Lindsey]

I would think that the term "municipal" would then be the dictionary definition by default "1.of or pertaining to a town or city or its local government: municipal elections."

A "municipal office" in Ludington would then be any office of or pertaining to Ludington governance, and I think it is reasonable that all the boards X mentioned were municipal offices of the city.

Each of the seven commissions, boards, yada yada mentioned in X's thesis do show up under "official boards" in the City's page he displayed. I noticed a couple of other double duty people when looking through it myself. Was there any reason these were left out, X?

[Willy]

I understand your point of view but until "munincipal office" is defined and or interpreted by the legal powers in charge the ordinance will be interpreted as the City sees fit.

[XLFD]

Edie, those other officials you noted holding two offices are under no prohibitions in the City Code to do so. Few official boards actually have the limitations given to the Planning Commission and the Board of Review. Your defining of 'municipal office' is very well reasoned.

But RJE has a valid point. Politicians of the ilk who can quibble over what the definition of the word 'is' is, will define any words or phrases that are not clearly defined in legal definitions. This is where lawyers and judges make their money, and is why we need to have complex laws or suffer the consequences. But here's an applicable definition from section 1-2 in the city code, further noting that 'city' and 'municipal' is used interchangeably throughout the code:

Officers, departments, etc. References to officers, departments, boards, commissions and employees are to city officers, city departments, city boards, city commissions and city employees.

[XLFD]

I must mention that I used a variant of this myself when I questioned what a 'bicycle stop' is-- state law does not mention how a bicycle should obey a stop sign or even whether it should, thereby I follow the most sensible, safest way which is endorsed by the state of Idaho and is being considered in many other places. Yield and proceed.

Nearly 100,000 miles of bicycle riding has yet to find me stealing anyone's right of way at any stop or yield sign. At least six times this year, however, I would have collided with a vehicle that pulled out from behind a stop or yield sign on the intersection in front of me on my bicycle if I wasn't paying attention. Each time I had no sign at all, and had to brake to save myself from grievous injury.