Feeling the Heat: The City Strikes Back

[XLFD]

You may be wondering after hearing that I was served on March 1st by a LPD LEO with a Notice that prevented me from going to City Hall, the Ludington Police Department, and an address I never went to before, and then having a piece in the local paper broadcast this news to everyone in the area, why I am getting such a sanction and why now.

Besides some E-mails to Torch member and City Councilor Wanda Marrison, I have not contacted anyone connected with the City via mail or phone since January 17. This was a E-Mail request to John Shay to receive an electronic copy of, or to come in and view, the compiled city ordinances, which he replied to in kind. Furthermore, the last time I visited City Hall was January 28th, at the behest of a friend who made a FOIA request and wanted me to come along to help scan the documents.  We wound up just picking up copies with nary a frown on anyone's face.
So why did I receive a  vague Notice of Trespass, and why did the Daily News print its unflattering attack on my character three days later?

Last summer, I retained the services of a lawyer who makes a habit of going after corrupt practices in government. His name is J. Nicholas Bostic, and he has a busy docket nowadays as there is plenty of government depravity going on everywhere. He took my case because he took the time to look at what happened in the aftermath of my simple bicycle traffic stop, and even noted other problems with the process than I did. He is familiar with the area, and with what passes for governance around here. 

I am not going to share the correspondence we’ve had, that would give the other side in this long story an advantage, but I am going to share with you some of Barrister Bostic’s letters to the City requesting some legal relief, as these would be available to all with a properly worded FOIA request on this topic.

After a period of getting extra documents and facts confirmed, Mr. Bostic sent the following 15-point stipulation and order to whom we thought was the City Attorney (and whom tried my case), John Bulger.

JNB letter p1

JNB letter p2

Stipulation p1

Stipulation p2

Stipulation p3

Order

 

For those people in Rio Linda who believe I blew past a stop sign and am just whining about getting caught, consider what the stipulation contends:
1) The City didn’t properly designate or notify me of the charge against me.
2) The City charged me with violating a state law, but the City prosecuted the case.
3) The stop sign involved was not placed according to the Uniform Manual of Traffic Control devices (it was 25 ft. beyond the crosswalk).
4) The City acknowledged there was no Traffic Control Order for the stop sign in question, as required by the Uniform Traffic Code for regulatory value.
5) The County has shown there was no proper assignment orders for Probate Court Judge Raven to serve as judge over my requested formal hearing.
6) The District Court changed the designation of the case without notice, motion, or hearing on my part.

The City violated my rights of due process in the first two, the City violated everyone’s safety by their negligence in the next two, and the County violated my due process rights in the last two.

But the City had quietly changed the ‘Criminal’ City Attorney to former Susan (Kasley) Sniegowski last January. Mr. Bulger apprised me of that fact in a reply, and said he passed it onto her.

Bulger Response

 
Two months had passed with no reply, but a FOIA request found out that Ludington's  Manistee City Attorney, Richard Wilson and his firm, had been given extra powers to try City ‘crimes’    Latest City Attorney Agreement   , so I passed this along. Apparently, CA Wilson did not want to handle it and he passed this assignment on to Susan, who apparently was still hired by the City.
It seems kind of redundant to have two ‘Criminal City Attorneys’ but apparently our City Manager believes we need them and can afford them both, even though we have not had two such attorneys assigned to that task in the past. Here’s her reply:
Sniegowski's Snub

 
I don’t know Mrs. Sniegowski’s informant, but the Attorney General and SCAO have not been contacted by me in regards as to any of the facts presented in the stipulation. Be that as it may, my attorney took her rejection in stride in this letter they received about a week before I got banned from the various places    JNB Lets roll letter   .   It portends a legal fight to set the record straight.

In the past, I seem to remember the former Building Inspector Jack Byers was roundly denigrated by city officials when he filed suit for ethical rule violations by the Ludington Government. I remember how lies were spread, by an agency where confidentiality and accuracy is required, about a bicycle traffic stop and because of that I was told that I would get a written reprimand from the LFD if I did not drop my formal hearing in court and admit responsibility for yielding properly at an intersection with an illegally placed stop sign with no traffic control order backing it up.

Ludington City Hall does not like being challenged, even when wrong, and needs an overhaul desperately so that honest citizens can live freely without fearing their government. Today it’s my rights taken away, my reputation besmirched; tomorrow, it’s yours.

[masonco]

Rom

 

You don't need to reveal yourself...Your posts do it for you.

It is rather obvious who you are based on the verbiage you post in your effort to provoke ire to use that as an effort to have NING shut the site down.

 

Oops...sorry forgot that you have limited vocabulary...Rom if you are capable of clicking on a link, here is a definition of verbiage for you... Wait never mind...I'll just post the definition here for you. (From Mirriam-webster dictionary)

Definition of VERBIAGE

1

: a profusion of words usually of little or obscure content <such a tangled maze of evasive verbiage as a typical party platform — Marcia Davenport>

[AQUAMAN]

Good Masonco, and I could add the old saying: Oh what a tangled web we weave, what at first we seek to deceive, eh ROM?

[XLFD]

Rom Totta, I seem to remember that I and the officer were the only ones at the bicycle traffic stop.  For the life of me, I never said anything even close to "go ahead, give me a ticket".  I am not surprised about hearing this, however, as so many other people who have talked with the austere LPD have stated so many different versions of this incident. 

Who's out for money?  Nick goes after corrupt political systems, and to clear the names of the people they've ran over.  The guy has integrity, and I like to think I have some too.  Besides, any money I would get from civil legal actions against the City would just make them rob more from the rest of us.  I depose corrupt leaders, and I seek justice, not $$$. 

The City had the chance to sign the hard-to-refute Stipulation and Order, they declined.  Big mistake, as Arnold would say. 

[Dave]

I think this quote from Voltaire sums up our friend Rom pretty good:

"It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere."

[AQUAMAN]

Dittos Dave, well said.

[Dave]

Heh, maybe your a little blind, among other things, but apparently what Tom has been doing plenty and has been getting noticed. Would he of gotten the notice of trespass if he was just poking away, trying to be secretive? And he's been in the newspaper a few times in regards to what he's been doing. If he's getting press he's obviously not hiding in the shadows.... unlike someone we know *cough*romtotta*cough*

Seriously, do you think through anything you have to say? lol

I've seen grade school kids make more sense. I'd suggest NOT appearing on that "Are You Smarter Then a 5th Grader" show as it doesn't look like you have what it takes... heck, you might have trouble challenging a 1st grader.. lol.

[XLFD]

Good quote, Rom Totta, and quite ironic that you posted it.  Here's one for you, more attributable to those who handle Play-Dough:  "I'm rubber and you're glue, you're words bounce off me and stick back to you."  Dave has set up a quotes thread if you want to add more.

If you hadn't noticed, there are plenty of people who are distraught with the way the city is run, and many don't even tune in to this channel.  Yet one can be distraught with the services of their doctor, and not have the ambition to become one.  Besides, it would be rather limiting if the local hospitals banned that doctor from their premises, LOL. 

[Sweater Cows!]

ROM, Do you have any clue as to what is actually going on? Or is it that you just are being contrarian for the point of being contrary. In either case I am suggesting that you actually spend the time to read all the previous threads relating to the  Governmental Watchdog  here at Ludington Torch  . Then perhaps you will be able to comment in a educated and relevant manner on the topics of which you appear interested.

 

If you are not doing your research before commenting your opinion is only based on heresay and assumptions and presumtions, and therefore irrelevant and meaningless to anyone who actually cares about seeing there own local government act ON BEHALF of its electors and IN AN ETHICAL way.

 

Of course if you prefer the local governmental agencies to continue with the status quo of self serving, unethical, possibly illegal and in the interests of themselves and not the citizens of the local community carry on with your un-researched comments. because whenit is you or your friends or family who are bent over by the corrupt system, there will be nobody there to help or support you because you wil lhave crapped on the plate of the very people who are at this point trying to bring ethics and transparency to out local government.

[Sweater Cows!]

So aside from all the work X has done as a watchdog(which is documented) that appears far from just "talking" about it, what would you suggest?

 

You are welcome to start a revolt on our own, march on city hall with a bag of stones, like the Egyptians, Tunisians, Libyans ET. AL.

The rest  here it appears prefer the mature and legal, through FOIA requests and documentation and using the current courts system to accomplish goals. Perhaps that is the slow road, but is also the one that will accomplish results.

 

To "revolt" as you say may satisfy your need for something physical to do to make yourself feel important but in the end you will accopmlish nothing, other than an arrest for disordly conduct or some such mis--demeanor. Stomping ones feet in revolt may work for a toddler or child, but to try it  on the lawn of city hall will do nothing.

 

Apparently you aren't old enough to see how the world really works, or you would have figured that out for yourself.

 

[Guidothesemipsuedocaptitalistpig]

Gee how do you think all the revolts in Egypt and such started there Rom.. Facebook you have to organize and be on the same sheet of music first. Then selectively pick your battles.

Or be like you ..and pick at anything that doesn't suit your particular frame of how things should work.

[AQUAMAN]

Better make up your mind Rom Dom, Rum Dummy, either your serious, or sarcastic, which is it?, or does the mood change with every counter-post to you back and forth as the sun rises and sets?....lol. Wise words Sheila, making strides for transparency in government, esp. in Ludington these days, would seem to be an imposition on the elected/appointees there. And the ones appointed, not elected, the CM Shay and DDA Director Heather V., seem to be the ONLY ONES making the case against the FOIA requester, not the Elected officials in the city hall offices. So, yes, the fight for right goes on, not in the manner some would suggest, violence and throwing rocks at city hall Will ONLY get one in jail. But, fighting for right with FOIA's and court hearings and more paperwork, while tedious and slow, will finally get results, or die on the vine. Either way, it's the only course Law Abiding Citizens are allowed to follow, lest we be criminal, and we all know who the true criminal element may be.

[masonco]

Was thinking and that is dangerous...which city hall member is posing as Rom?