Ludington City Council 10-14-2013: A Clear Look at Opacity

[XLFD]

The councilors and the people had both gotten a three week respite between meetings rather than the usual two, so everyone was more rested, and able to go.  The main topics of conversation involved closing the meeting so that the council could discuss the McAdam lawsuit, a messy affair where a Ludington citizen was treated like crap by our area's police.  It had went to arbitration, and all parties:  McAdam, the City, and the County need to agree to whether a settlement is reached. 

 

 

A few changes that would influence city employees were brought forth by the Personnel Committee, a hearing to force a property owner to fix his sidewalk with an extra penalty thrown in, and approval of a few Chamber of Commerce events rounded up the rest of the regular business for public perusal.

 

At the meeting they also accepted the resignation of a firefighter from the Ludington Fire Department.  The latest XLFD is none other than City Councilor Nick Tykoski, which is a likely reason why it reached the city council level.  Nick served as a firefighter for Ludington since June 1, 2006, (I served on LFD longer than that) and in the two years I worked with him, I found him beyond competent at his job as a firefighter.  Similarly, I have found him to be beyond incompetent in his role as a city official, first as a member of the DDA who mixed business with public service, and then as a far-less-than-heroic rubber-stamping city councilor.  In true Peter Principle fashion, he quit the occupation he was best equipped to perform.

 

                    Firefighters (right to left):  John Henderson, Larry Gaylord (PM Fire Dept.), Nick Tykoski

 

The points of interest at the meeting amounted to my public comment and the courageous unrebuttable comments of Councilor Holman and Mayor Henderson in answer to those comments.  You will not see the mayor's rant on the tape that came after the closed meeting came back into open session, but it was the usual mayor assurances that we have the best police force, police chief, and policies-- and that I was sorely mistaken with my characterizations of them as acting like a gang.  In the process he sounded to me like one of those cinematic mobster bosses telling us that his associates are a bunch of choirboys and angels. 

 

He left out, however, any specificities on his position or any discussion of the suit at hand.  Since the other police brutality lawsuit was settled, the public still is waiting for the City's response as to why a LPD officer broke into a citizen's house without displaying a warrant and manhandled an innocent visitor.  I'm sure they will be just as open about this one.

 

Ironically, in a meeting which featured a closed session (where the council voted later on accepting the advice of Attorney Dick Wilson-- heaven help us all, whatever he said), votes on privacy requirements and a mystery firefighter, not to mention the hidden motives behind why one property was singled out for sidewalk maintenance, I did a speech (02:00 in) on our public servants behaving like cockroaches-- seeking dark corners to do their nasty little business. 

 

  

Hailing from Dowland Street, I'm Tom Rotta.

 

Tonight the City Council is to go into closed session once again to discuss settlement strategies with a lawsuit the Daily News says is about how Ludington police violated Joseph McAdams' civil rights and tased him.  That is a very incomplete picture of what happened on a summer night in 2009 as painted by the depositions of both parties to this lawsuit.  Three law enforcement officers, all who now still work on road patrol for the County Sheriff's office, gang tackled and gang tased Joe McAdam while he was walking away from them. 

McAdam was not suspected or notified of having committed any crime that night-- but he became a victim of gang violence by people wearing uniforms who swear oaths to protect and serve the community.  They later tased him repeatedly again at the hospital when he was chained to the hospital bed, after he refused to have an abrasion treated, and he was told he would not get his phone back.  When he did, the events of earlier that night were conveniently erased from it.

Ironically, the people who inflicted such brutality upon Mr. McAdam maliciously prosecuted him shortly thereafter for multiple charges of assault and battery on police officers.  If the City accedes to the settlement based on arbitration tonight, they are basically acceding to the facts of the case: that our local police agencies used excessive force, destroyed evidence of their guilt, and helped maliciously prosecute one of our own innocent citizens.  Police brutality walks hand in hand with unethical tyranny.  A City Hall that tries to cover-up the crimes of their own officials covertly rather than correct them overtly are guilty at the least of not following their oaths of office.

 

Is that how Ludington City Government operates?  Our police chief that does each meeting's invocations, has certified numerous liquor permits over the last couple of years, that he must know are prepared falsely.  An event put on by AM Galleries was certified by the police chief that there were no churches within 500 ft. of it.  There are five churches within that radius.  Is his negligence in this matter tell us why we have so many registered sex offenders in our community plainly living within school safety zones or living homeless in our small city's limits.  Because he doesn't pay attention to what his job entails. 

Every single liquor permit I FOIAed from the state had improper certification by the police chief, most also being signed by a trio or more of high city officials.  I pointed such discrepanies out in my blog over a year ago about that year's Oktoberfest, put eight threads out about such violations recently, but the City Council has routinely passed incomplete and fraudulent license applications to the State for every single event involving drinking they have held since 2011.   

 

Speaking of FOIA and oversight, the new FOIA Coordinator partially rejected one of my requests concerning another lawsuit that the City settled with another party for a large amount of taxpayer money.  The new FOIA Coordinator did so without sufficient explanation of why, and how the exorbitant fees were calculated.  I sent an appeal to each member of the city council early last Thursday as per my right, but my appeal has not been acknowledged by that body.  Nor is it on the agenda tonight.  This abrogation of their responsibilities to the public means that they have denied my appeal and I am forced to seek relief at the next level, which I will in time. 

 

Tonight will also feature the City mandating that a property owner maintains his sidewalk and enforcing a penalty for not doing so willingly.  Having seen the sidewalk in question, it makes one wonder why this sidewalk is being repaired when there is a lot more sidewalks in Ludington in much more need of repair.  The most interesting part of this is how Councilors Taranko and Holman will vote, since they live at two properties that should have sidewalks in front of them by our City's laws, but they don't.  Shouldn't the senior councilor and the mayoral candidate explain why they vote for sidewalk repairs for others when they should be paying for sidewalk installation on their own property?

 

Lack of transparency, accountability, and ethical behavior is a common thread as to how our City is proceeding in these times, whether it be what I mention today or what I've mentioned over the last couple of meetings such as the lack of a public purpose in acquiring a property through privilege, then selling part of that property to other private purveyors.  Or the unfair and illegitimate practices of the City Marina [My five minutes are up, according to the mayor, I finish my remarks here.]

...in their efforts to be more than just a haven for recreational boaters, which was what they agreed to be from the start.  Or the lack of fair, competitive bids with water tower maintenance companies, sign companies and many others.  Pick any one, they're all symptomatic of a diseased public body.  Thank you."

 

[Willy]

Well done X.