Fact Check: City Proposal Flyer

[XLFD]

 

The front outside of the flyer is anything but misleading, as a yes vote doesn't increase you rights (see below) or do anything for the City of Ludington other than relax a safeguard the people put into the charter to reduce the chance of tyranny and help true democracy, which is ill-served by long-serving politicians.

 Let's analyze the inside of the flyer a bit more objectively than the Committee for a Stronger Ludington does, point by point. 

What a YES vote means...

+ The first point is factual, though I would include the word 'maximum' to be precise.  Good mayors should serve one term:  if they succeed in getting done what they planned, they should retire until they see more problems arise; if they fail in doing so, they should consider that they did their best and retire, and let someone else try.

+ You still retain the 'right' to vote for a term-limited mayor, they just don't have the power to serve a fourth term.  Also, the term "effective" can apply to both bad and good mayors.

+ Even though many voters nowadays cast their vote against the other candidate, you have no right to vote out an ineffective mayor unless you do a recall election.  In a contested election you would be voting in another person, not voting out the bad mayor. 

Role of the Mayor

+ In the statutes and our charter and codes, "long-term vision " and "leadership" are not parts of the duties of the mayor, in fact the City Charter says the Mayor  "shall have no administrative duties except to make specific appointments".  If the Mayor shows leadership and vision, he interferes with the City Manager's administration of the City, and against the city charter by doing so, unless their ideas are one and the same.

+ Nowhere does it say a Mayor must work "closely" with the City Manager and City Staff, hence it is not a role.

+ Interaction with local officials is necessary, but the other entities are not part of their role, unless they ...

+ ...Represent the City of Ludington in intergovernmental relationships, ceremonies and functions.  The only role they have correctly assigned to the mayor.

+ Inspiration is not found in the role of any government official, unless they're a chaplain or something.

Ludington Has Momentum (momentum in the wrong direction is bad)

-- List of Recent Successes

----Downtown Improvements and Revitalization

+ Both  FNL  and the  NYE Ball Drop  are borrowed ideas that have cost the taxpayers about $15,000 each the last few years, but no revenues have been raked in by the City, as the profits are often realized by DDA members or cronies.  As such, it is an excess not a success.

+ Beautification is a subjective term.  The murals on old Fort Daul were taken down, replaced by other murals around town that will someday be painted over by our successors once they age.  The City parks have gotten less beautiful, more cluttered during this mayor's terms, in my opinion.  I know we didn't use to tolerate ORVs  going up and down the beach.  The Waterfront Sculpture Committee was started in the year 2000, and pre-dated Mayor Henderson's terms.

+ The beach safety patrol is a far cry from the rescue capable lifeguards  the Mayor originally had in his first couple terms.  He has dropped the ball in beach safety, and went back on his word about lifeguards being necessary there that he had up until late 2009.  The Accessible walkway was not a project of the City Government, but the group Disability Connections and generous community support.

---- Employee and Economic Development

+ Tax abatements and tax incentives have mostly been a joke, like it was for Bob Neal's bowling alley, which they finally got around to repealing this year-- years after it was abandoned and finally razed.  Other tax breaks seem to go to the same ol' companies who squeak the loudest about moving elsewhere if they don't get these favors from City Hall.  City Hall always comes through and saves all those jobs going elsewhere.

+ I don't even know what the "efficiency of Cartier Park" is or how we saved $50,000 yearly because of it.  It sounds grandiose and about as factual as those hundreds of  jobs.  And 'park enhancements' are once again subjective.  Adding a paved path, a run-down gazebo, broken piers, a handicap-unfriendly dog park, have lessened my enjoyment of Cartier Park's rustic qualities that a park should have.

+ This is incredible considering the audience is Ludington city voters.  We pay the police chief and community development director the same rate we paid them before they also took their jobs for Scottville.  This is less efficient for us because now we pay them the same even when they are working for Scottville up to 16 hours or more per week.  They also get money from Scottville, so it seems more efficient from their angle.

-- Vision for the Future

+ The 'awareness' campaign the Mayor and crew used for saving the Badger ("SOS Badger") may have netted some of the public officials involved some extra money from bottled water and T-shirts, but also stimulated some of the anti-Badger  groups to new levels.

+ As news reports of a clandestine meeting among  'invitation only' preferred guests  reported, there is no clear vision of what to do with this block or how to fund it, other than some public-private venture which will cost the taxpayers.

+ These are the  bump-outs the Mayor envisioned, and what appears to be both unsafe, annoying for pedestrians, and cuts down on more downtown parking. 

+ Developing this area will be costly, reduce parking, move tourists away from the downtown area, and be prone to erosive beach forces.  Improving a beach, generally means leaving it well enough alone, not putting a lot of unnatural structures on it.

+ I am unaware of any recent or envisioned adjustments or enhancements to City Park other than Wi-fi access  and that it now is closer to House of Flavors silos.

+ The maritime museum will go forth regardless of who the mayor is.

+ So far Cultural Economic Development has just shown us how to get rid of $60,000 in public funds to out of state consultants.  Many of the ideas being nullified by the advent of the wind farm.  The future is more of the same.

+ This is provably false; the services and benefits have been drawn back over the last few years to the residents, even though they now pay more..

The back of the flyer has the familiar face of Kathy Maclean who we have shown has a lot to be thankful for with the tolerance the current administration has with unethical procedures, at the end of this recent thread:  morally-challenged-officials-for-increasing-term-limits-kaye-and-kathy

It's a sad day when our local Chamber of Commerce needs to get involved in politics like this due to their dependence on DDA millage and TIF money filtering in to them through the local mayor.  Or when they have someone with such a disregard for committing fraud with the help of our City to be the president of that organization, while serving as the Treasurer of the public Downtown Development Authority. 

Apparently, the Committee for a Stronger Ludington has saved its push for the last ten days of the election to defray any organized effort to fight the spin they put out.  Let's hope the people are wiser than we all sometimes give them credit for.

[Willy]

Wonderful article. I didn't read any mention of the boondoggle marina expansion that sits empty 90% of the time. And I think you bring up an excellent point in that the Mayor's duties are to "Represent the City of Ludington in intergovernmental relationships, ceremonies and functions". If this is all the Mayor is allowed to do than any citizen could be Mayor, so why this elaborate scheme to add extra terms to a position whose only duties are ambassadorial in nature. I wonder if any of the tax money the Chamber or other orginizations receive went into promoting this  campaign? Something in Ludington smells like week old beached salmon.

[XLFD]

That transient marina dock was the Mayor's brainchild, I'm awfully surprised it wasn't mentioned as a plus, except that they may have been worried about me having the Ling Yan Zou investigative records now or the actual usage you pointed out. 

They have sent flyers to everyone I know, including myself, in the City of Ludington (even at the presorted rate that should cost $1000 for postage alone and about $500 for printing), and have brought orange, white, and black signs which likely set them back more than a couple hundred.  A half page ad in the COLDNews also isn't cheap, costing hundreds of dollars. 

The word on the street was that they were not going to actively campaign for this.  The word was either mistaken, or they lied.

[AQUAMAN]

When this issue was first raised I suggested a campaign against it, in earnest, and in a flyer to show where it is wrong and not in Ludington citizens best interests. To change the city charter, is another way of the present liberal thinkers, to change the state constitution, the federal constitution too. There were sound fundamental reasons for term limits, but as this ruse shows, it's obviously a positive step for locals, NOT! I wish now that earlier campaign against this was implemented, here, or anywhere, by a concerned group of citizens. I know that Paul Petersen and Pete Engblade both oppose this, solid citizens that know this isn't good at all, and should be voted down. My feelings at the moment is that if nothing resoundingly contrary to this flyer is issued to the public, they will blindly follow the fixed agenda for it to be passed, sadly. At the very least, someone should send this fact check article to the LDN for publishing in the letters to the editor, so at least some get to read it, and hopefully, digest the truths.

[Sean]

Everyone better Vote No on this.  What a joke to try changing the Mayors term right now, just because certain city members are all over him. Also, shouldn't the Mayor have to pay for all of the advertising like this?  What a joke.  Anyone can be mayor and steal ideas from other cities and then take credit for those ideas.  Let’s get someone new in there and take us in a different and better direction.

[Willy]

If you think about it, this vote is really a vote for or against Henderson. If folks like him it will pass but if they're fed up with him it will fail. I'm still a little amazed that some people are promoting a 20 year term for the Mayor's position. Ludington is a small town that really doesn't need a Mayor since a City Manager does all of the work. So logic dictates that there are private interest agendas, that are not in the public's interest, which are fueling this proposal. Just the fact that this proposal was initiated should send up a red flag to all voters. I'm always suspicious of any attempt to extend term limits. I'm with you Sean, this needs to be voted down.

[XLFD]

Good points Sean and Willy.  And even though I often go after the City Manager for his shortcomings, the few things the Mayor has more control over, the DDA and the municipal marina, of which he is a permanent member and appoints the Marina Board respectively, are rife with ethical problems, and questionable spending of local public money.