Fact Check: Tykoski: Donated Labor Kept Costs Low

[XLFD]

 

 

The above article was a good old attempt at damage control by John Shay and political friend, our new Fifth Ward Councilor Nick Tykoski, and the recent disclosure by our local paper of some disturbing, yet incomplete facts by the insipid intrepid reporter, Kevin Braniczewski, the origin, byline et. al. included for analysis sake.  Our fact finding team has been beleaguered in checking this story out, effectively wading into this project.  The article above has 10 superscripts, that can be hard to see unless you magnify the picture, but they appear wherever a white box is, and they denote a significant point that should be made at that point in the article.

 

1- As determined in fact-check-rotta-city-foia-issues-continue the City Council may have voted to back the City Manager's decision, but this was based on faulty premises made by the same law firm that has no real grasp on FOIA issues, as can be seen in their briefs (legal briefs, ladies) in Swiger/Rotta v. City Of Ludington (2011).  What City Attorney Richard Wilson claims are "invoices" are checks and statements, and not one is assigned a reference number that refers to those records.  There are actually three missing statements, totalling nearly $30,000.

 

2- This refers to the 2008 TIF which has inside it Nick Tykoski (p. 2) being on the DDA (aka Downtown Ludington Board) along with Heather Venzke as the Community Development Director, as well as the projected $150,000 for signage to be done between 2009-12 (p. 22) and one of the 8 featured projects for the TIF increase. 

The article would assign a $100,000 savings over that period by granting that project to a local signmaker.  I would dare say, we could have saved $150,000 by nixing the whole solid gold paint wayfaring signs concept, but let's cede that point for now.

 

3- The DDA signage committee, which Nick sat on in those prior years, is probably where Nick rationalizes that he did these designs and prototypes for free.  The free designs and prototypes were then realized into real money in the fall of 2009 with this $15,001 invoice with Venzke's and Shay's initials at the bottom.  This, of course, was without any bids (or any contracts), as those cost extra money to print out, and send to other companies not affectionately affiliated with Venzke. 

Doing such work is unethical and unlawful, notably MCL 15.323 section 2 says what must be reported and recorded in the official minutes and elsewhere when a public servant does work for the public entity he serves.  It was not, and it never was noted officially.  MCL 15.327 says the penalty for such corruption is a misdemeanor.

Venzke or Nick could also be found guilty of violating sections 3,5,and 7 of this law, MCL 15.342 for this "oversight".

 

4- Apparently, designing and making prototypes could have cost that extra $100,000 except for Nick doing it for free!  As a member of the DDA Sign Committee whose profession was 'signs' he had a hand in creating signs that fell into his forte, and an unethical opportunity to design and charge for the 'prototypes' that one would have to presume was the September 2009 $15,001 charge, since bids weren't even sent out for the non-existent "contract" until April 2010.  The 22 karat gold paint undoubtedly was an added cost cutting measure.

 

5- He was on the DDA Sign Committee, I'm sure he helped out.  His attendance record for DDA meetings was abyssmal, however.

 

6- As it was a ballpark figure that was $100,000 too high, can the citizens expect a tax break for once during the summer tax-raising season? 

 

7- Shay says a Grand Rapids firm bid for the work.  Have you ever knew someone that lies so much that he can't keeps his facts straight?  John Shay is one of those people, at least I have found that in my limited dealings with him.  In court documents, he has sworn affidavits that are definitely false, and that he knew when he filed them, that they were false.  This is perjury.

Here he says Nick wasn't the only bidder, but in this 1-24-2011 FOIA Request he certifies in his reply that there was no other company's bids, and in this 5-10-2010 DDA Meeting, (p. 1) Amanda St. Hillaire confirms that "Tye's Inc. was the only one received."  Then follows two votes, neither of which are logged as to whether the votes were approved or defeated, in clear violation of MCL 15.269 (1) which states that minutes must have this information in any open meetings, a misdemeanor.

So, Shay has either violated the FOIA by not disclosing the GR bid, or blatantly lied to Ace Reporter Braniszeszki. 

 

8- This document shows that Nick's company did make an estimate/bid on the signage contract on 4-20-2010 and yet these AA, BB, and CC show that his prospective bidding competitors weren't faxed requests to bid until 4-27-2010-- a week after Nick sent his finished bid in, the competition finally got their first indication of the plan.  And these faxes were full of complexities and check out the last two paragraphs of this "friendly" request for bids, p. 2 and p.3.  I'll bet Nick's request from Heather was nicer.  Note that the bids were expected back in 3 business days as well.

 

9- There never was any "contract" with signage to vote on, and the poor secretary skills of Les Johnson in the DDA never had any vote registered at the 5-10-2010 meeting.  No referencing to Nick doing sign work for the City's DDA was ever in any of the meeting's minutes-- until my latest FOIA appeal this Monday.

 

10- Not having a vote on issues does not make anyone less culpable to the laws broken when they are the one of two people signing the invoices and/or checks, as Shay and Venzke did in all the DDA invoices from Tykoski's firm.

 

The fact finding analysis does not include the local ordinances forbidding the lack of contracts for such projects, forbidding the lack of competitive bids for projects over $10,000, and a whole laundry list of ethical problems in a dusty old section of the City Charter.  How quaint, that our local paper praises all the parties involved with such chicanerie.

[XLFD]

Willy, you crystalized the very facts that Dale is always so ready to dismiss.  How about it Dale?  What if, instead of focusing on the hypothetical situation which never happened you address the real issues. 

BTW, if you know anything about journalism and reader habits/psychology, page two articles are a lot more buried than page three articles.   When you open up that paper your initial attention will generally go to page three.  The always negative, always misleading, articles about me in the past two years have all either been on page 1 or 3.

[Guidothesemipsuedocaptitalistpig]

Hmmm Dale... In a paper steadly looseing readship how many days more will it even have more than a half dozen pages? Esp when they don't really research or proof read the damned paper.

[masonco]

I dropped delivery but still get it online. Lately all it is is ads with a few articles that are barely worth reading...Of course the better employees were "laid off"  The new blog/news site was started by a former employee of LDN who started as a news site, but then suddenly changed it to "blogs".

I discovered I can go online to MINews and WZZM for real news on our area. Interesting huh? I'm hoping that the issue with Shay and his court soon blow up. I hope the feds investigate the reason for family members getting contracts, employees getting reduced tax rates and purchase prices on city property, smearing citizens and harrassing them as in the case with XFLD and others who dare question waste.  Maybe if accountability begins at the local level, citizens would dare expect it of all governmental levels.

[Sweater Cows!]

masonco said "  Maybe if accountability begins at the local level, citizens would dare expect it of all governmental levels." Isn't that something, we can't even get it at the local level and considering what a quagmire this ordeal has beeen over bid issues can you imagine what those find digging around at state and federal level.

This is prime example of why we need to stop voting for career politicians.

[masonco]

Atlas....So true