Ludington City Council August 26, 2019: Sludge, Fudge, and Misjudge

[XLFD]

The Ludington City Council became the Tons of Sludge city council for just under an hour at its August 26th meeting, hearing that there once again was more sludge in the neglected-for-decades wastewater treatment plant (WWTP), sending costs and city debt up over a million more than expected.

Because of the buildup of sludge (a polite term for the solid waste that accumulates at the bottom of the wastewater lagoons) over time, the WWTP project is quickly approaching the $25 million mark and taking more time than planned due to the necessary drying and removal of sludge.

The council agenda packet showed a docket that had a lot of items that would come up at the next meeting, including the public hearings and approval/denial of three separate Obsolete Property Rehabilitation Act (OPRA) tax breaks, and an ordinance that would allow buskers to operate in the James Street Plaza area. Buskers are effectively street performers/musicians who entertain for donations and tips.

Yet there was still plenty of material that was discussed for the first time and acted upon, and it was a small miracle that with Councilor Serna's return, and continued quest for opening the city's operations to the public more than other officials would like, that the meeting lasted under an hour before going into closed session, then coming out, voting without discussion, and adjourning.

With Chief Mark Barnett's absence, the mayor had 20 seconds of silence instead of an invocation, and after the pledge made an announcement of a new policy the City would carry on regarding absences by councilors. Due to it having been noted here and elsewhere that Serna's first absence for a long-planned family vacation at the last meeting was the first time ever a councilor had not been marked as excused, the council will from this point count all absences the same-- as absences, whether it's excusable under somebody's metric or not. He did apologize for any slight that may have been inferred.

The public comment started off with Laurel Felsenfeld at 3:30 into the meeting, a close neighbor to Copeyon Park living nearby at 217 Lakeside Drive. Like many others in the area, she had several concerns regarding the proposed splash pad scheduled to be put in the grassy area of the park. She noted that Florida splash pads were always near beaches with artificial turf nearby, for the geese are attracted to the grass and that poop is abundant in the area. She did make a minor mistake in thinking that the proposed pad would use recirculated water, which doesn't seem to be the plan from what has been told the public-- which isn't enough, and definitely not timely.

I followed with a comment about the DDA Development Area Citizen's Council (DACC):

XLFD: "The City has the blueprint available for establishing committees working on a public purpose. Witness the ad hoc Recreational Marijuana Committee, established and empowered by this city council on February 11, it was given both direction and directives in accomplishing its objectives, clearly defined by this council. It's personnel was appointed at a later date.

So with that successful template at hand, why did the city council fail to establish a development area citizen's council for the tax increment finance (TIF) plan that's scheduled to be in force over the next 45 years? The state requires that If a development area has residing within it 100 or more residents, and I've heard officials claim that is the case, a citizen's council must be established at least 90 days before the public hearing on the TIF plan.

The big shocker is that somebody established this citizen's council and it wasn't this city council; the law says the citizen's council shall be established by the governing body of the municipality, which is this city council, only. They also must be appointed by the governing body, this city council. These facts, incredibly, are displayed on the DDA website as well. Another shocker, is that a city council member actually sits on this fake citizen's council which has already had meetings despite being unauthorized.

This city council has on its agenda tonight, the resignation of a citizen's council member who never was, and the placing of four members on a non-existent entity. What this council must do first and foremost is finally establish the citizen's council. The 90 day time clock for a public hearing on the TIF plan will not start ticking unless and until they do. I will make sure the state is apprised of any attempt by the city to rush the process and avert state laws. So please go forward responsibly. Thank you [END]."

Councilor Angela Serna would reintroduce this 'doubt' later on when she would ask the mayor of the origin of the citizen's council. His reply was a good diversion, but it still didn't alter the facts that the Ludington City Council hasn't and needs to set up a Development Area Citizen's Council (DACC) and empanel it in accordance to law three months before this TIF Plan ever has a hearing.

C. Dale Bannon closed up the comments by opining that if trailers and motorhomes would be banned from Rath Street, as per the proposed traffic control order (TCO), that other vehicles that may be used for 'vehicle camping' also be banned. He sat down and the council got down to committee business with Les Johnson starting with an environmental study (phase 1) for Harbor View Marina, to be paid by the city marina fund. The $2150 contract was given to Lakeshore Environment Inc.

With minimal discussion, Love Wines was given a permit to allow wine tasting at their new location at 925 S Washington. This company and location was also one of the entities seeking OPRA tax breaks next meeting. Two TCOs were adopted, with Councilor Angela Serna taking C. Dale's point in the first and asking for details regarding the new parking configurations around the art center.

The councilors then got down and dirty with discussing the change order to remove more sludge than they ever imagined from the wastewater lagoons. They had the prim and impeccably dressed Fishbeck engineer Josh available who definitely knew his sh... sludge. The lack of any sort of plan over the last twenty years (coinciding with the 'who me?' era of John Shay) left a lot of sh... sludge at the bottom, they plan to annually take care of the sludge from this point on.

The council followed the approval of the million dollar change order with a change of their adaptive reuse of existing buildings to not include area minimums for living quarters in such reuses. Quite odd that the minimums were passed earlier by the planning commission and city council as a requirement, then they were quickly dropped without meaningful discussion shortly after the appearance of a contractor wanting to rehabilitate the Haskellite (Wolverine) Building.

The three OPRA hearings were announced that will take place at the next meeting, one regarding the aforementioned building and the new Love Wines building. The other located in the downtown at 115 S James Street, where they propose to do nearly a half of a million of work, in which they hope to get a lot of help from the state.

The taxable value of the location was less than 1/10th of that amount in 2018, and nothing other than updating the structure and the two second floor rental units that were abandoned to bring them up to code seem to be driving this renovation of the building owned by a well-off eye doctor who shouldn't need to be getting grants from the state taxpayers and OPRA tax breaks from the City for this overpriced maintenance work.

After first reading of the busker ordinance, the city officials went over their own stuff. City Manager Mitch Foster noted he had been quoted about the water level crisis in the New York Times, so don't blame him for the paper failing. He noted an energy audit to be performed by Johnson Controls. He noted Fishbeck's engineer Josh and other city officials conferred and they were going to use a floating submersible pump in order to hopefully alleviate the flooding at the west end of Melendy Street. Lastly, they passed the residential anti-displacement and relocation plan, a prerequisite for applying for certain block grants.

The mayor gave a timeline for the remaining tasks for the Rec Marijuana Committee, a notice that he and Councilor Serna would be getting together for a Safe Routes to School event (didn't give a time or place), and then announced the resignation of Kaye Holman from the DDA and a few appointments to the council that has yet to be formed, the DACC.

Councilor Serna asked at 50:50 in: "When was this citizen's advisory council formed?"

Mayor Steve Miller, who has sat on the DDA for a couple of years, replied: "It was formed years ago I believe... they only... they're not active, however the TIF Plan calls for their input, so they were reassembled."

That was kind of funny, being that neither of the previous TIF Plans needed a DACC and the DDA notes earlier this year said they needed to create one, and the DDA website says they needed it established by the council (just like statute says). Read more here.

Actually, it helped set up my second comment, a prepared statement since I figured they would not heed my advice (do they ever unless there's a lawsuit behind it?):

XLFD:  "It's a shame that some city officials cannot accept the burden of admitting that they have made a mistake, and other officials prop them up when they do. This isn't the mark of having strong character. Rather some would burden their fellow officials and inconvenience everyone else by trying to justify their error even when it flies in the face of lawful conduct. The mark of a weak character. This council appears to have not decided to establish a mandated citizen's council tonight, but rather pretend that it exists when it surely does not as a legal entity required by state law for the introduction of the proposed TIF plan. Failing to establish it tonight, has pushed the public hearing for the TIF plan into December at the earliest.
That's fine with me, I find that the money the TIF would take from the city, county, college and mass transit to be better used by those agencies than what it will be used for by the DDA. But what should not be fine with anybody is for city officials to maintain they are right when they are most definitely in the wrong. Thank you. [END]"

I also had a prepared statement for the thin chance they might listen to reason, but I should have saved the ink, I guess.

The council finished by moving into closed session to discuss the Open Meetings Act (OMA) lawsuit pending between the City and two citizens (one being myself) in order to consult over trial and settlement strategy with their attorney, Bradley Yanalunas. They then limited the participation into a bunch of officials, neither of which included the city manager.

The city manager originally was outside the chambers for a short bit of time, but apparently the city council made a decision in closed session to add him to the discussion, and admitted him into the closed session. Technically, a public body like the city council cannot make such a decision in closed session like this. What they needed to do was to go out of closed session temporarily to make a revised vote to add the city manager, at which point they could resume their privileged talks.

It just goes to show that once you get used to violating the OMA as a public body, it becomes second nature to continue doing so. Sludge happens.

When they came back into session, the city council voted to accept the terms of settlement as presented by the City's legal counsel (no details made public) and then adjourned the meeting.  The problem with the exercise was that they agreed to terms of a settlement that both plaintiffs had said expressly in writing beforehand that they would never agree to, a fact I learned after adjournment.  Fudge and misjudge happens.

[Freedom Seeker]

Like Tons of Fun? If our taxes and water hasn't gone up enuf, just see how we wiggle out of this debt. Sad state of affairs new city manager has to clean up. And, we are going to have a new $100 million plus new school complex with bad infrastructure. Seems a young population has been pushing through their agenda without experience in necessities such as infrastructure. At some time the council needs to wake up and smell the budget and and tell the kiddies no for unnecessary projects.

[stump]

I believe the contractor { Fishbeck } should go back to grade school. It would seem that by multiplying width x length  x depth would give you the the cubic feet of sludge in the containment pit. Why would there be a million dollar increase? the contract I'm sure said removal and proper disposal of all sludge. So why would the city have a open contract ? Sludge is sludge , dry, hard or runny.  It shouldn't be the tax payers burden to cover the contractors screwup if there even was one. Do we have a good old boy dealing going on here?  Sure , I'll slip you another Million , no problem. Somethings smells with this deal and it's not only the SHIT!!!!!!!

[XLFD]

Something definitely seems malodorous, but I think the additional sludge may be arising from a forty year deterioration of the membrane, and ergo a wider field of feces than imagined.  Consider they should know the dimensions of the original pools, and have a good idea of the amount of sludge by simple volume geometry.  

From what I've gained from looking at the minutes of old council meetings, the last catch-up maintenance was done in early 1990's, the next should have come at latest around 2007.  Close to two decades of doing nothing, other than a half-decade of fighting with the DEQ and DNR about making their WWTP compliant was John Shay.  The build up of sludge and the infiltration of sludge beyond the pools is his brown baby. 

Mitch Foster and the city council at least have a plan to regularly maintain the new stuff, I hope they have figured out a way to do it efficiently and economically-sound, unlike it has been done.  The negligence I am sure has cost us over the years.

[Freedom Seeker]

Fighting the DEQ for years, because we didn't maintain the sewer lagoons, rather than fixing the problem, is a lame operating procedure and is totally counter-productive. That was the mindset of the previous administration and we can only hope with Mitch Foster that we admit mistakes and fix them, not only in sewer lagoons.

[stump]

A million bucks? How much was the original contract for?   Thats just crazy to add on . Someone should do a lot of explaining why.  I would have told them, you got your shit, now get out of town. 

[AQUAMAN]

What's the good of having written legal contracts signed for work, when the revisions for more money repeat themselves over and over again? Legal contracts are there for a specific reason, so that both parties agree on the total amount to be paid, and if no provisions for overruns in cost are there, they simply don't get extra pay. And we're not talking about petty cash now either, but $Millions of taxpayer dollars.

[Freedom Seeker]

Exactly, Aquaman! It seems we have a city council that is just ignorant of costs of engineering services and ready to hand the baby away with the bathwater. And it seems decisions are made so fast without discussion of competitive bids that they take whatever numbers are thrown out.

[shinblind]

Seems about 250 years ago there was another disagreement about opening a meeting with a prayer.  Looks like British cannons aided in deciding the issue.  

John Adams to Abigail Adams
“Phyladelphia Septr. 16. 1774
Having a Leisure Moment, while the Congress is assembling, I gladly embrace it to write you a Line.
When the Congress first met, Mr. Cushing made a Motion, that it should be opened with Prayer. It was opposed by Mr. Jay of N. York and Mr. Rutledge of South Carolina, because we were so divided in religious Sentiments, some Episcopalians, some Quakers, some Aanabaptists, some Presbyterians and some Congregationalists, so that We could not join in the same Act of Worship.—Mr. S. Adams arose and said he was no Bigot, and could hear a Prayer from a Gentleman of Piety and Virtue, who was at the same Time a Friend to his Country. He was a Stranger in Phyladelphia, but had heard that Mr. Duchè (Dushay they pronounce it) deserved that Character, and therefore he moved that Mr. Duchè, an episcopal Clergyman, might be desired, to read Prayers to the Congress, tomorrow Morning. The Motion was seconded and passed in the Affirmative. Mr. Randolph our President, waited on Mr. Duchè, and received for Answer that if his Health would permit, he certainly would. Accordingly next Morning he appeared with his Clerk and in his Pontificallibus, and read several Prayers, in the established Form; and then read the Collect for the seventh day of September, which was the Thirty fifth Psalm.—You must remember this was the next Morning after we heard the horrible Rumour, of the Cannonade of Boston.—I never saw a greater Effect upon an Audience. It seemed as if Heaven had ordained that Psalm to be read on that Morning.
After this Mr. Duche, unexpected to every Body struck out into an extemporary Prayer, which filled the Bosom of every Man present. I must confess I never heard a better Prayer or one, so well pronounced. Episcopalian as he is, Dr. Cooper himself never prayed with such fervour, such Ardor, such Earnestness and Pathos, and in Language so elegant and sublime—for America, for the Congress, for The Province of Massachusetts Bay, and especially the Town of Boston. It has had an excellent Effect upon every Body here.
I must beg you to read that Psalm. If there was any Faith in the sortes Virgilianae, or sortes Homericae, or especially the Sortes biblicae, it would be thought providential.
It will amuse your Friends to read this Letter and the 35th. Psalm to them. Read it to your Father and Mr. Wibirt.—I wonder what our Braintree Churchmen would think of this?—Mr. Duchè is one of the most ingenious Men, and best Characters, and greatest orators in the Episcopal order, upon this Continent—Yet a Zealous Friend of Liberty and his Country.
I long to see my dear Family. God bless, preserve and prosper it. Adieu.
John Adams”

[Freedom Seeker]

Thanks for that thought-provoking insight, shinblind!