Ludington City Council Meeting 1-27-2014: Policy Change from Tyranny to Tyranny

[XLFD]

The City was headlined to be changing the workplace safety policy for the meeting on Jan 27 along with other business such as okaying use of the Waterfront Park by Ludrock for a two day event (watch what you do in those bathrooms, you know the LPD is) and the Lake Jump, renew the ongoing contract with Kevin Spuller's company (formerly Carr Creek )for sidewalk replacement, and hold a public hearing over the recent façade improvements completed at 115 W Ludington (formerly the Oddfellow's Building, Dean's 4 in 1, and now an art gallery), and at 125 S. James (The Blu Moon).

What wasn't mentioned beforehand was an appointment to the City's Building Authority of Frank Sagan, a vacancy which was created by Milan Budde Reed's departure from that board, whom coincidentally was the head of FOTOF LLC, the owner of 115 W Ludington Avenue, and who has reaped quite a public reward from the State of Michigan in renovating that building. 

Also, the City Attorney Richard Wilson revealed that he was successful in showing that Mayor Cox could serve as both mayor and police officer (reserve) in an opinion that he gave to councilors and to this humble citizen, pre-empting my FOIA request.  Like most of his legal opinions it was incomplete, but may show that they are not incompatible if his references hold up.  

 

The councilors did vote to amend the Workplace Safety Policy unanimously, but there was no discussion as to why this policy is necessary, or whether the City Manager was  wrong in applying it to a citizen engaged in Constitutionally-protected acts, therefore, it serves as a very solid, public reminder that Ludington City Hall does not respect the rights of its citizens to ask questions and question the direction of our leaders.  My public speech starts about 3:30 into the video, at 10:05 I speak up on the public hearing for facades.

 

 

 

 

"Tonight the council will vote to amend the workplace safety policy [I had the old WSP displayed on the podium].  This innocent sounding ordinance was created by the joint efforts of City Manager John Shay, City Attorney Wilson, and Police Chief Barnett, because they feared a citizen journalist who exposed unethical and unlawful acts by the Downtown Ludington Board and specifically by Community Development Director Heather Venzky-Tykoski and Nick Tykoski. 

Nick Tykoski was a member of the Downtown Ludington Board, he was on the sign committee of that board, the board voted for a budget in 2008 that put $15,000 aside for 2009 for signage, his company received over $15,000 of payment from that Board without any competitive bid or any contract the next year, in clear violation of the City Charter, and an obvious misuse of public money for private gain by a public official that had the appearance of corruption on a high scale.  When competitive bids were sought the year after, his bid was already on the record, grossly unfair to the other companies which had three days to respond; he was given the contract, at that point assessed at $150,000, and done without ever having a written contract between him and the city.  At least one that they would allow to be inspected by the public.  Numerous, significant violations of state and city charter law were required for this.

This was corruption, and is corruption, yet when I pointed it out, the City manager, attorney and police chief did not go after the corruption within, but instead focused on the messenger who was putting out the incriminating public records on his web site with what has been incontrovertible proof of cronyism and fiscal malfeasance by Ludington's Downtown Board.  The officials did this by creating the benign sounding workplace safety policy, and putting within it unconstitutional powers that they assigned to the City Manager and City Attorney.

Before February 2011 where Councilors Holman, Marrison, Castonia, and four other councilors unanimously voted this shadow policy into existence, I had never attended a city council meeting.  In fact, the only times I would come to the City Hall would be to inspect or pay for FOIA requests, a tool I have used to not only show that this City government has violated ethical and lawful conduct at times, but also to exonerate them from suspected bad conduct.  During those times, I had only been respectful of the venue and the city officials inside. 

However, because I pointed out the records I had received showed ethical lapses and unlawful acts of the Downtown Board, the person deeply involved felt threatened for her political safety.  This was made clear in her petition to the courthouse to get a personal protection order against me, which was dismissed due to the facts that we had never met, I had not contacted her, and the only thing she found threatening about me was what I put up on my site, which was not only constitutionally protected, as the judge said in denying the motion, but also because it was factually backed by public records. 

So with little other recourse, the officials I have mentioned devised this policy and the day after this city council rubber stamped it, they imposed it on me by a letter of trespass.  It prohibited me from stepping foot on City Hall or Police Department property, two public buildings, and in no uncertain terms told me that I would be arrested for trespassing if I did. 

Because of the workplace safety policy, I was prohibited from attending all public meetings that take place here, coming to either property to inspect FOIA requests , and I was even prohibited from voting in two elections, one of which I was running for office.  Fourteen months later, the letter of trespass was taken off of me with as much abruptness as it was put on, and I have been a regular fixture at City Council meetings since, reporting on how our local government is poorly representing our good citizens and breaking laws and modicums of ethical conduct in their roles as public officials. 

The Federal lawsuit I filed in September of 2012 against the City and John Shay pointed out many of the defects of the policy and was resolved last May with a settlement in my favor which included a $15,000 payment to me and a stipulation that the City would review and strongly consider revising the Workplace Safety Policy.  I am glad to see that the City has decided to amend the policy tonight, however, I believe it still is a potential liability to the city if it is employed once again.  And for that reason, it is still bad policy and should not be passed.  [Here's about where I was stopped, I finish my prepared speech herein]

There are already plenty of legal remedies that exist that can handle the problems that the WSP is made to address, without giving our unelected chief operating officer and our contracted attorney, who have yet to file any oaths of office with our clerk, unconstitutional powers and quasi-judicial authority in keeping someone from a public facility at their whim.   What the Ludington City Council should be doing is fully repealing the policy [at this point I would have ripped the policy while continuing] that has already cost them well over $30,000, and gave them the image of an unaccountable, non-transparent, vindictive, and venal agency that works against the people's interests.  Thank you."

 

Just eighty seconds later, I got up to make my comments concerning the public hearing on the façade improvements, you will notice Shay whispering over to Cox when I was starting out.  I believe he was trying to tell Cox to keep me to the point of the public hearing.  The former Mayor, John Henderson, often would interrupt me during public hearings/FOIA appeals, to say I was straying off the main point, even when I wasn't. 

 

"Tonight, I want to just talk a little of how efforts  like Façade Improvement programs work, and who pays the lion’s share of the costs.  The State’s Michigan Strategic Fund decides how much money to delegate to the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) who pays 75% of the costs of these improvements to the owners of the property seeking façade improvements.   The Strategic Fund is more than 80% funded by State and Federal tax dollars.  Therefore, with a little math, over 60% (about 2/3) of these façade improvements are paid for through tax dollars, which could otherwise be put to the uses our State and Federal Constitutions deem as public purposes, before the concept of acceptable economic development displaced the concepts of unacceptable corporate welfare and crony capitalism. 

Are the Reeds and the Cunic’s, the heads of the limited liability companies that own these buildings, too poor to afford fixing up their own storefronts, or do they need the rest of society to unwittingly pay for over 60% of the cost of their improvements through their taxes?   Not to mention all the administrative costs involved with these programs and the costs of the personnel that manage them.  

We can justify the process all we want by saying that if the Reeds and Cunics  do not take advantage of this ‘free money’ then someone else will, but this waste of public money for private gain is unethical any way you try to slice it.  And people that try to take advantage of public money when they can afford not to, should be publicly shamed when they do.

The policy to have public hearings after the money is spent on façade improvement is misguided; they should be done prior to, with public knowledge as to the cost and all the records involved easily accessible.   I am hopeful that the City of Ludington can make some of this data readily available tonight and more later at their website; I have noticed the Community Development Director made no mentions of costs and efforts in the council’s packet."

 

 

Even though I finished well within the five minutes, the City of Ludington Daily News (COLDNews) Managing Editor Steve Begnoche today, mangled my words unabashedly in his review of the meeting.  He insinuates I used the word "wasting" as regards public money, when I said no such thing, and then poorly sums up my stance.  He also poorly translated my brief conversation with him after the meeting, where he asked me about the Workplace Safety Policy vote.  Here's what was said in today's COLDNews regarding the public hearing (followed by his recap of the WSP conversation, which avoided much of my main thesis altogether): 

 

"The only person commenting was Tom Rotta, who detailed where the funds come from — ultimately taxpayers — and questioned the “wasting” taxpayer money for projects that could be considered a form of corporate welfare.

He also noted the pre-meeting information did not include how much was spent.

Tuesday morning, at the request of the Ludington Daily News, City Manager John Shay provided the following information about the grants:

"With respect to the façade improvement project at the Blu Moon Café (125 South James Street), the grant paid for $30,978.00 of the work, and the property owner paid $68,599.50.

"With respect to the façade improvement project at Ryan and Erica Reed’s building at 115 West Ludington Avenue, the grant paid $154,893.61, and the property owner paid $50,264.25.""

 

"After the meeting, Rotta told the Ludington Daily News he believes the changes are an improvement, especially in terms of adding due process. But he said he is concerned with how much authority is given to the two-person administrative board. He said they could rule that a protester outside of city hall was considered threatening and thus issue the letter of trespass. Some might remember Rotta at one time during the original dispute did protest outside of city hall with tape over his mouth on the night of a candidate forum in which he was a candidate for city office. Rotta refused invitations to enter city hall and take part in that forum sponsored by the Ludington Daily News despite assurances from the LDN that the city had said he was free to enter city hall for the forum."

 

Apparently, Steve doesn't understand that when a law (like the WSP still is) says one cannot be on a property without written permission or else be charged with criminal trespassing, unwritten assurances from some nebbish from the City's media outlet just doesn't make me feel very safe.  And that's what the Workplace Safety Policy is all about, isn't it?  Hee Haw.

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[AQUAMAN]

Aren't the Reede's and Cunic's some of the backers of a 4th term extension for the past Mayor Henderson? Both of those financially successful families surely have enough monies from their wealth to well afford facade improvements. Therefore, there has to be a lot lacking in the framework for being eligible for such funding, or else they would not qualify. This to me at least, seems like a credibility gap in being eligible to start with. Though the buildings may need such improvements, how is it that those of means to accomplish it without help from funding qualify for such corporate welfare at the cost of the state taxpayers? As for the WSP, true, it's a sham from start to finish, over one person's inability to defend their grant monies for contracts to people with a very high conflict of interest, their own fiance'. That clearly isn't even an issue for the COL, it's simply the messenger that continues to be hounded. So what does that tell us? Well, again, the COL doesn't make mistakes, nor errors, ever! These people seem to believe whole-heartedly that they walk between rain drops, walk on water, and that they are with powers and qualities of GOD. And so the cronyism and malfeasance will not only be swept under the rug, it will continue into the future without incident or interruption. Nice job folks, you have continued to show your true colors, and shame on you Mayor Cox, you too have shown that you follow your predecessor with the same sheeple purposes and direction.

[Willy]

Good job on recapping your WSP problems. Shay is a trouble maker and his only loyalty is to the Council and Mayor and that is a good reason for not having a City Manager because he does not answer to the voters. It looks like the mayor has stepped into Henderson's shoes and is being controlled like a puppet by Shay. It was very rude of Shay and the Mayor to act like little kids and whisper while a citizen is airing his concerns.

[XLFD]

Recapping everything in under five minutes was impossible, but thanks for your praise, Willy. 

I am willing to give Ryan Cox some latitude on issues as he gets his feet wet with his new job, however, I still wonder why he has effectively assumed the position without any sort of change in direction for the City, because it does make him look like a chosen marionette and a figurehead for the others directing the course of what the City of Ludington tries next. 

Cox has a Bachelor's degree in Social Science Education from Central Michigan, so I would hope that he could use his knowledge to determine that the old and new Workplace Safety Policy is bad for a democratic republic, and that violating the City Charter indiscriminately with his prior board appointments (without subsequently changing them when fully apprised) makes him appear headed in the wrong direction. 

[XLFD]

The Reed family was pretty ardent in their support of the proposal, several members of the family signing the petition and endorsing the effort.  The Cunics probably voted that way, because they have gotten a fair share of help from the Henderson arm of the DDA at the city council meetings, getting favorable downtown dining rules for them, including some initially high noise levels, sidewalk coverage, and bump out considerations.  Not to mention some liberal uses of rooftop dining and other financial help from the DDA, besides this latest façade help. 

The Friends of the Oddfellows (FOTOF) LLC owned by Budde Reed have taken a lot of public money to rehabilitate the Oddfellow's Building at 115 W Ludington.  This will be reviewed shortly. 

[XLFD]

Here's a meme that was put out today presumably to refer to President Obama, but it also describes the current ruler of our burgh, John Shay, rather clearly.

 

[AQUAMAN]

So, in essence, what does Ludington have now? Well, what we have imho, is leadership from downstate big city thug-type people, like Hendy and Shay, and also Barnett, that could give a s**t about the locals and their wants and needs. It's the "tourists from downstate" that must be courted to first and foremost, and most primary budget expenditures must be squandered on. Cox seems to be nothing more than an extension of the sameo politics, and he doesn't even have the guts to be his own man. Yes, cowardice is alive and well with him. It's too bad Ludingtonians are so full of apathy and complacency to let this even happen nowadays. We've reaped a distorted and sour harvest for sure. Then look at the council, full of locals that stand there and just watch as our freedoms and liberties shrink and disappear, and willing and silent accomplices to it all, cowardice is alive and well there too sadly. They will vote for anything just to not be on the losing side, like Marrison has steadfastly done over and over.

[XLFD]

The City Council is the biggest disappointment of the bunch, because at least during Pete Engblade's time there was some room for two views on issues, in the two years since, the biggest debates have been for 1) Downtown dining noise levels- Marrison helps roll it back to reasonable levels, 2) Liquor (ready-made or prepared on the spot)- Taranko argued to make mixed drinks pre-mixed at functions.

As you can see, 'controversial' issues are over the mundane minutia of ordinances concerning downtown events-- the 'tourists from downstate' issues, not anything that positively affects the freedom or property of Ludingtonians or improvements of our public services, utilities or infrastructure (non-downtown).

[AQUAMAN]

Well said X, and speaking of infrastructure: as you look around in traveling out of town, and out of Mason County, look at all the road work being done. It's virtually everywhere EXCEPT our area. Many roads twice as nice as ours are being completely redone in cement and asphalt. Meanwhile, Ludington can pompously claim good deeds for an empty $900K marina wall dock, a $350K pier extension at Loomis St., more Friday Nite Lives, & the list of tourist oriented projects goes on and on. Meanwhile, Ludingtonians are faced with higher taxation and assessments, higher fees, more useless ordinances, and that list too goes on and on. I would have hoped the new admin. would like to reverse these trends in favor of spending more on the things local residents really need, and expect for their tax dollar, but, I guess that is only wishful thinking.

[XLFD]

Don't forget the complete waste of $1.5 million on the painting of two water towers and the Brye Tank, at least ten years before they needed to be painted, while the infrastructure crumbles faster than their modest improvements over the last few years to Staffon, Dowland, Mitchell, and Fifth Street and /or sewer system, plus the Washington Bridge. 

Oh, and I almost forgot those street/sewer repairs on Brother Street.  You know, the repairs the councilors decided via E-mails on.