Do You Recall Their Vote on Rental Inspections?

[XLFD]

Were you one of those over 100 Sherman Oaks tenants that signed the petition to your city councilors to vote "no" on the rental inspection ordinance?  Were you one of the several dozen landlords, tenants, and other Ludington folks who came before the council and expressed your displeasure at just about every facet of this poorly written, poorly conceived and unsustainable ordinance (not including wolf-in-sheep-clothing city officials dedicated to wishing for state grants and developer money at the expense of everyone's basic rights)?  Does it make you mad and desirous to do something to correct what has been a disturbing trend in Ludington governance?

Or are you feeling blue over what you can do now that they've passed this tax?  Do you believe their fibs that it's a user fee and not a tax?  Then look at what the city will do if your neighborhood landlords don't pay to register for this:  fine and confine. Nothing voluntary about this 'service', it's mandated. 

Still think there's an actual unrepealed Ludington Property Maintenance Code (LPMC)?  I will shortly refute Attorney Richard Wilson's belief/opinion that there is.  He shared that opinion at the last meeting where he claimed that Ludington was governed between the years 2000 and 2004 by two LPMCs, which is patently ridiculous when two laws are in conflict with each other.  He then claims the older LPMC was repealed when the 2000 LPMC was specifically repealed by a 2004 ordinance.

With all that and much more going against the rental inspection ordinance, it was a true breach of duty for your city councilor to vote to put this ordinance into effect a true attack on you and your fellow citizens rights.  As a citizen, it is your duty to call them on it:  Councilors Castonia, Tykoski, Krauch, Winczewski and Rathsack.

To that end, I offer some support.  I am pleased that Councilor Holman and Councilor Johnson (not a usual tandem in voting "no") had reservations, even though they have been wishy-washy throughout and gave no reason for their vote.  Pleased indeed, since those would be the only two seats I would qualify for (Third Ward and At-large), so that I can stay out of the fray at least for now. 

In case you don't know which ward you are from, or who your ward representative is, the best, and probably outdated, ward map of Ludington available to the public is this one from the city website's LPD section showing school safety zones:

From this you can gauge which officer went against your principles of sensible, limited government.  You then can determine if you, or others you know who would be great representatives of your interests, should get the ball rolling to do a recall election.  Landlords would seem the obvious people to be highly motivated seeing that they will be directly affected by this ordinance, but many tenants I know are highly energized to protect the sanctity of their homes and their pocketbooks, since many of the extra expenses will trickle down on them. 

Never been part of a recall election?  Neither have I, so it'll be fun and exciting whatever happens.  Let's look at the basics of a recall and answer two questions:  1) how many signatures do I need on my petition (and what's the rest of the process)?  and  2) is there anybody willing to run against the incumbent who is sympathetic to your hopes and fears and not just another city-stooge-replacement? 

To answer the first query, we look to Michigan Election Law MCL 168.955 :

A little research through the web gives us the number of people voting for governor in 2014 for the six wards in Ludington:

Given these numbers, 25% of the voting population would give us the minimum amount of John Hancocks:

Ward 1:  Richard Rathsack, 526 votes cast, 132 signatures needed

Ward 2:  Kathy Winczewski, 425 votes cast, 107 signatures needed

Ward 4:  Michael Krauch, 333 votes cast, 84 signatures needed

Ward 5:  Nick Tykoski, 438 votes cast, 110 signatures needed

Ward 6:  Gary Castonia, 372 votes cast, 93 signatures needed

Whoever were the insurgents in Ward 5 would already have a petition of over 100 tenants aligning against the ordinance, there would be a great start already.  And Fourth Ward would finally get a chance to vote for or against Mike Krauch, the council and our city hall saw to it that he didn't get on the ballot in 2014, contrary to our city's laws-- big surprise about that.

Enjoy this extra reading on the process of recall linked to below, while you consider whether you should pool your resources or not.  I will gladly help any ward's agitators in listing other votes and actions by your ward's councilor over the last few years which you can include on your petition language. 

Recall- Act 116 of 1954  Quick recall links:

 Eligibility of Signers- MCL 168.954

 Qualifications and Certification of Circulators- MCL 168.957

 Petition Sheets- MCL 168.958

 Filing Recall Petitions- MCL 168.961

 Recall Election- MCL 168.963

 Filing Canadidacy for Nonpartisan Recall Office- MCL 168.972

And lest we forget, that if more than one recall election happens in May 2016, only two new people of the five positions are needed to repeal the ordinance, if Johnson and Holman retain their position and one councilor makes a motion and another seconds them to do so once they're in. 

[AQUAMAN]

This is a great thread XLFD. We now need to get this ball rolling, in each ward applicable, to get some results for citizen justice around Ludington. Nowthen, if Krauch was never elected, but appointed to begin with, and since he spearheaded this RIP ordinance too, why are any signatures required to oust him? Only 84 signatures required? I don't think that small amount will be hard to get at all. But since he was appointed, do other rules pertain to him? I'm quite sure too, that after his statement in the committee meetings that the RIP ordinance was going to pass, and we're going to have to live with it, it's a sure thing, he should be easy to get votes against. He did NOT have the support of his constituent base, and is the weakest link in that chain of council members. 

[mad mike]

I am not a resident of the city, however I do live within the county and spent my entire youth as a citizen of Ludington, I have been following XLFD's writings and research on the Torch for a few months and find him to be an outstanding citizen. X is the patriot this area needs, and I urge every Ludington resident to stand with him in trying to end the fascism and tyranny as there is power in numbers. As for the recall process I have some questions as to how this works, if the CC's are recalled and replaced with people that will represent the citizens can Tyrant Shay be relieved of his post by a vote of the councilors, this vile POS needs to go period. I have friends that work for the city DPW and UM and the things this man has said to these people that keep things going in the city is quite appalling, these young men have families to care for while their insurance goes up, wages are stagnant, yet Shay and his cronies blow money on their own personal interest's, law suits because of incompetence and so on. XLFD is the leadership that is needed to bring this to an end, I don't believe that I can participate at the city level because of nonresidency,  but once again I urge everyone to stand with X to try to reign in the local tyranny before it is to late. Thanks for all you do XLFD.       

[XLFD]

Another unsolicited testimonial-- too bad they always come from people whose first names are synonymous with 'crazy', LOL.  Thanks for the morning's dose of inspiration, mad mike.

As has been noted by Councilor Winczewski throughout the process of getting the charter amendments, the city manager serves at the pleasure of the city council, yet his contract does come up for renewal in December of each year.  What this means is that if any councilor makes a motion, and it gets seconded, about removing Shay from office, then they can vote on it at any meeting. 

Beware; among the current councilors the only one who has ever cast a 'nay for Shay' vote (and only at the yearly contract renewal) was Councilor Holman for either unstated or mercurial reasoning.  So even if five recall elections went forth, at least four of those must be successful, and even then, some of the new councilors may not have a bad enough opinion of John Shay to fire him.  Shay is effectively untouchable as long as he has the support of a majority of the seven councilors.

Nevertheless, even one councilor can hold Shay accountable by several ways, but they can't be timid and uninformed when doing so.  Shay has the apparatus in place to protect himself.

[mad mike]

That's funny X, I never thought of it that way, I have not yet been professionally diagnosed as "crazy" , Angry Mike just doesn't sound right. The apparatus you speak of was assembled by a man and can be disassembled by men if they have the will to do so.

[Willy]

Thanks for posting this X

[stump]

A list of all the bull shit ordinances should be compiled for for reasoning why these councilors should be recalled. If these ordinances or changes in the existing ordinances don't get your blood boiling you must be dead

[AQUAMAN]

I agree with all you guys, but hold it just a minute. I finally took the time to read the links X posted originally, and it appears a pretty structured and tricky process, just to file formally, correctly, exactly, and follow all procedures methodically to the tee, just to get a recall election. I should have figured so though, make it as difficult and complicated as possible for citizen joe, and hope he can't do it. Well, it can be done, but it's going to have to be uniform and legally perfect, or it won't fly imho. Going to take some volunteers that have the savvy to get it done. After also reading this, another guy thought the advice of an attorney might also be in order, see, it's going to cost money they can extort for efforts in this regard too, besides loads of time. 

[stump]

Just GOOGLE: REcall your city councilor , it gives a full explanation of what is required.

[XLFD]

Good point, stump, just make sure you are following Michigan's requirements when you do, as their law differs subtly from other states.  Ballotpedia walks you through the process of recall in Michigan pretty thoroughly, I should have provided that link before, it's an easier step-by-step approach than you'll find in the laws I provided.

[stump]

Question: If Krauch was appointed and not on the ballot, what is the 333 votes cast from in the 4TH ward?

[AQUAMAN]

Wanda Marrison I presume, she quit before she got in over her head, too bad, the 4th Ward needed good representation. 

[XLFD]

My good friends of the fourth ward were not completely disenfranchised this last election cycle, in that they were able to vote for state, federal and county offices in 2014.  The snippet above shows their votes for governor, which is the numbers they look at when they make the petition signature requirement.  When the fourth ward position was not on the ballot, no votes could be cast for it.  Krauch was never put on the ballot because the city attorney opined he didn't need to while he ignored the clear wording and intent of the city charter.

Fourth ward was the only ward in the City of Ludington where Governor Snyder lost and was the best ward for me when I ran for councilor at large in 2011, despite not being able to vote for myself because of a workplace safety policy letter of trespass applied against myself by the city manager.  Sound illegal, it was, and it was also very political; and I was well paid by the city's insurer for the damages I sustained from it after suing the City and Shay in federal court.  The Krauch and letter of trespass incidents also show how little the city's legal team respect election law, so any petitioner groups need to be ready to cross their 'i's and dot their 't's.