John Shay as a Man'ger

[XLFD]

A Christmas tradition around the Ludington Torch is to engage in a little political satire by associating our bleak political plight with themes from the yuletide holiday.  In the past, we mangled the night before Christmas (Twas the Night Before Christmas in Ludington), twisted Charles Dickens classic (A Christmas COL), totally disrupted O Little Town of Bethlehem (O City Council Ludington), and realigned the twelve days of Christmas (The Twelve Days of Ludington Christmas). 

This year, in honor of the unfortunate people that have lost or will lose their rental units due to the housing market reacting to the new rental inspection, we offer a variation of the classic song dealing with the nativity, "Away in a Manger".  They may find themselves locating no affordable room left in Ludington to live, which is unfortunate and very sad, so a manger might be a better alternative than what they face.  Even sadder, is that it was totally unnecessary and will be a waste of resources better used for local government's core functions.

A karaoke style video is provided to keep the proper metre of the Christmas favorite as you read the Ludington-appropriate lyrics.  Merry Christmas and Happy Sixth Anniversary of the Ludington Torch.

John Shay as a man'ger,
No fib is too small
The city council's man
He takes from us all.

The shores of the West End
Looked fine whilst he lied
To the DNR lords
Who said "It's denied"

The streets they are crumbling
Old pipes beneath break
But 'pathetic John Shay
No repairs He make.

Fees rising, once more Shay
And I must ask you why,
You don't fair bid contracts,
You make taxes high.

And tell me, Man'ger Shay,
If you could please leave,
Spare us any more of,

Attempts to deceive.

Bless all our fair city
By saying farewell,
Before our fair town turns,
To an empty shell.

[Willy]

That's hilarious X.

[AQUAMAN]

Sounded to me like in another thread X stated Shyster Shay got another vote of confidence for another year of employment as City Mgr.. If that is true again after all that has been on the table this past year, what does that say of the city robots in charge of the council? A year filled of chaos, perjury, approving illegal city attorney over-billings, lying on grant applications, wrongfully denying more FOIA requests, taking funds out of taxpayer coffers to raise monies for private charitable causes, getting the city sued over and over again, and losing lawsuits, forcing new ordinances and charter changes not needed, and opposed by the public, ignoring long overdue infrastructure funding in place of fluf tourist projects, and the list goes on. That is a person to lead and be proud of again for the COL for the next calendar year? My GOD, when are the people around Ludington going to speak up and oust this Shyster from appointed office? After 10 long years of Gestapo type tactics, when? Is everyone lazy and blind to this Shyster? Say it aint so! And say it aint my Ludington this is happening to!

[Willy]

Shay is only doing what the City Council wants him to do. He is their employee and represents them, not the citizens of Ludington. And this is the danger of a Council appointed City Manager. When X stands before the Council and complains about Shay's improprieties, all Shay does is look at the Councilors and seeing no reaction from them he then just shrugs his shoulders and says under his breath "tough luck Rotta, my bosses have no objection to how the City is being managed so get off by back so I can continue to act out my fantasy of being a dictator".

[snide]

Can anyone tell me when the vote for Shay's latest absurd power grab is....? The actual voting date... Is it in with the State Of Michigan Primary....?

[AQUAMAN]

None snide, he's an appointed official. He took the place of James Miller some 10-11 years ago when Miller finally said enough is enough of dealing cards from the bottom of the deck to the public at the behest of former Mayor Henderson. They then interviewed candidates from all over the state and republic to find another "yes man" for this position. They found Shyster Shay as the best candidate to take orders blindly and do whatever it takes to achieve the fixed agenda. Someone with the credentials per se, but no ethics nor morals. His contract by the single year is reviewed and voted on by the city council at the end of the calendar year. Shay has recently been trying to get his required residency in the city of Ludington revoked per city charter, and also get a multiple-year renewal clause invoked, also against the city charter, for his pleasure and benefit alone. 

[shinblind]

Snide, I believe the Ludington City Charter Amendment Resolutions will be voted on in the August 2 Primary.

The Michigan Presidential Primary is March 8.

And yes it is nothing more than an power hungry attempt by madcap John Shay and the insipid City Council to take control from the city voters and hand it over to Shay.

None of these Resolutions have any merit.

[AQUAMAN]

Okay shinblind, maybe snide was referring to the city charter changes, didn't see that at first. City Charter Amendments are a different horse of a different color. Of course Aug. 2nd would be a very advantageous timing on the part of the city officials to have a vote on anything. Everyone around Ludington and Michigan is totally in summer mode, enjoying what few weeks we have for summer weather and events to enjoy. The other best timing is of course during mid-winter, when most are at home around the fireplace trying to keep warm and fight off the blizzards. "None of the resolutions have any merit", not to the locals, and not to the big picture of the future. That is exactly what Shyster Shay III and others are counting on, it's been a tradition for many years to count on a turnout of voters that only favors their greedy agendas as usual. Which basically means a low voter turnout, except for the local cronies that support their fixed agendas, and are mostly on the payrolls and committees of appointed officials.

[Willy]

Absolutely correct,AQUAMAN.

[XLFD]

Shay is shooting for the August 2 primary as noted from the January 25, 2016 LCC packet.  The city plans on spending a lot of your money advocating these bombs, which is why they made a strong resolution against the recently passed campaign finance reform that would not allow any communication regarding  ballot proposals by local agencies 60 days before a vote.  They will work around the reforms anyway, they always do, because they know better.

[Willy]

If ever there was an example of why the State passed the law prohibiting local Governments from promoting ballot proposals, Ludingtons 8-2-16 election would be the poster child for it. Power grabbing politicians who are trying to consolidate more power onto an unelected official is absolutely what that law is trying to prevent. Another example of abuse that should have been prevented was the Mayoral term extension election where even billboard time was purchased to promote that power grabbing move by Henderson and his cronies. Sometimes the State Legislature gets it right.

[XLFD]

Is the time ripe for a re-emergence of the "Committee for a Stranger Ludington" campaign?

The City Proposal of 2012 was proof positive of why the recent legislation is good for the community.  The billboards, the ice cream giveaways, the proponent web site created by city officials, and including Ludington public bodies among its adherents. 

One can only conjecture on how many dollars were wasted at city hall in trying to make that proposal a reality.  And when we had real issues in the city, senior City Councilor's Holman and Castonia shilling wherever they could for the cause, telling us that Democracy was well served by having a mayor-for-life. 

These proposals definitely will provide a lot of fodder for the Torch to burn this year, especially if the law remains intact through August and is not gutted because of a bunch of whiny school districts and aristocratic city councils.