Hindersome Amendment Approved by State, Denied by City

[XLFD]

Word has been heard, and WMOM seems to confirm it tonight, and probably will tomorrow, that the State of Michigan has okayed the ballot proposal recently passed along to it from the Ludington City Council who passed it along through with their unanimous vote at the meeting of August 13, 2012.  This amendment just changes one word in the  Ludington Charter sec. 3.2 which says that the Mayor of Ludington is limited to three four-year terms; the three is changed to five. 

 

I recently sent a FOIA request to look at the petition signatures, and was rewarded with 47 pages.  It was enlightening to see who had signed it, and who didn't.  Even to those who signed it twice, which there were several, those who circulated the petiion who were not circulators, people whose signatures didn't match up, who weren't registered in Ludington, or at the address supplied, etc.  That's material for another thread, but the basic fact that there was 302 valid signatures on the petition, and 5% of the registered voters of the previous election required 298. 

 

Cutting it close, but above 5%, which the Home Rule City Act (state law) says is adequate enough for an initiative  MCL 117.25(1).  But that same act gives cities the right to draft their own laws.

 

But now here's the snag, and I brought this up at the last meeting and it was swept under the table as far as being addressed, by the Councilors or by the City of Ludington Daily News (COLDNews); the City journalists were more mesmerized by Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny as pertains to beach safety, as I fully predicted they would be. 

 

The City Charter, section 7.5 states quite plainly in subsection c(1): Number of Signatures. Initiative and referendum petitions must be signed by registered voters of the city equal in number to at least ten (10) percent of the total number of registered voters registered to vote at the last General City Election.

 

Submitting this initiative proposal before the City Council on August 13, the 302 signatures represented only about half of the signatures the City needed for this petition.  Ten percent of Ludington's registered voters is 596 electors.  As I see it, to be legitimate under the laws of the City of Ludington, the Petition Committee for the Citizen's for a Stronger Henderson need 294 more signatures.  Our City officials still have time to make that quota before the November election, but will they? 

 

Of course not, that would be following the laws of the City of Ludington, something they have been breaking over and over again since 2007, whether it's passing tax levies without a quorum, violating the Open Meetings Act, Whistleblower Act, Freedom of Information Act, or a host of Constitutional amendments.  More to come.

[XLFD]

LOL.  A man after my own heart. 

Come over to Ludington, Brian,and we can all hop on our ORVs and head down to Stearn's Beach with pugil sticks and do some jousting on the shifting sands.  We'll tell the beach patrol that it's Mayor Henderson's latest idea. 

[Brian Carlson]

I was in Ludington i

[Brian Carlson]

I was in Ludington in July 2011 for my class reunion. I paid over $1,000.00 for tickets to fly there, and then they cancelled the the reunion. We had a mini reunion at the Sportsman's. I don't know when I'll pass the way again. Maybe for the next reunion, if it does not get cancelled.