Ludington City Council Meeting 2-23-2015: Water, Water Everywhere

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With cold temperatures outdoors, ice a-forming and the snow a-blowing, the cozy confines of the Ludington City Council at the city hall featured a warmer water-themed night.  On the agenda was the council submitting an application to the State for city marina improvements, and the annual reports from 2014 of the three water-based city services:  water treatment, wastewater treatment, and utility maintenance. 

The only other item of note on the agenda was also water-based, approving a low bid for the exterior work on the proposed maritime museum.  Beyond the normal routines of approving agendas, paying the bills, and approving a road closure and 5K run, these rounded off the business of the city this night. 

The night of February 23, 2015 will likely be remembered for three other things that weren't on the agenda.  The first occurred at forty seconds into the meeting, with City Manager John Shay giving the invocation.  Typically, Chief Barnett does this, but for the second straight meeting he was absent, and so was the usual back-up Councilor Rathsack, and another likely alternate, Councilor Castonia. 

Untitled from Mason County District Library on Vimeo.

Listening to Mister Shay speak words of appeasement to God and invoke the name of Jesus Christ in his benediction has got to make one wonder why he has refused to swear an Oath of Office for his position when it is required to do so.  He was hired in 2003, I had got on his case about the oath of office back in 2010, my attorney asked him straight out in 2013 whether he had ever taken an oath of office, and he said he hadn't.  Without such an oath, he has made no covenant with the people of this city to follow the Constitutions of the State and Federal government.  

How can you be found to not follow your oath of office if you never have sworn an oath?  City hall has known of this act of omission for some time and is okay with it; perhaps it's because they realize that the unlawful acts he has been caught up in would have more consequences if he did.

The second event of note was that there was no public comment, not even from me.  For the first time since I started going to council meetings regularly in May 2012, I sat on my chair for the entire meeting.  It wasn't because I did not have something to comment on; I would have liked to comment on the city marina grant issue and a recent FOIA issue that I will both shortly report on, perhaps give notice that a May special election was coming up and it would be a great time to run a Fourth Ward special election to get a legitimate councilor for them.  I will give a "thumbs up" gift to anyone that can decipher why I did not talk at this meeting.

The third item was the arguable lack of a quorum for the last part of the meeting.  At 44:15 into the meeting, Councilor Tykoski was excused from the meeting (probably summoned by his dominant wife) and with his absence and the other two noted absences, there were only four councilors present.  As also noted, the legitimacy of Councilor Krauch is in question to all those who read and follow the written laws, so if we assume his votes are not legitimate, there were only three of seven councilors present, not enough for a quorum to decide issues. 

As there was a vote to later approve the Water Plant report and to accept the low bid for the museum project without a strict quorum, one could argue these votes were not valid if they accept the legal premise that Krauch's councillorship is invalid.

As for the water themes, the city council voted unanimously to approve the application for the first of potentially six grants from the DNR/Waterways to upgrade the four easternmost docks in the city marina (pictured above) at a total cost of over $1.8 million.  They also voted unanimously to accept the reports after asking questions.  Finally, they unanimously voted on accepting the low bid for the exterior work even though it was still about 20% more than the engineer's estimate of what it may cost. 

The City of Ludington will happily tell you that money for both projects do not come from the city's general fund, but they will be leaving out that the majority of funding will come indirectly from out of your pockets through taxation. 

Council packet for this meeting

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I'm betting that the absence of the three men that usually do the invocations, especially by Councilor Rathsack which was probably a late excused absence, had them make a last minute decision on who was going to do it.  Shay either drew the short straw or was reminded of why he gets paid the big bucks, and whipped up a quick invocation.  It seemed to me as a situation not much unlike a Thanksgiving dinner where the usual person that says grace cannot be there and the family's biggest Atheist is called upon to do it.

I can't say that John Shay's one of those, but if he isn't, he has done a lot of bad things in his tenure that he may be called on when he does eventually go to his 'reward'-- or punishment.

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If anyone in their right mind thinks Shyster Shay is going to be at the pearly gated community when his time comes, you must be in a trance/brainwashed. And I wouldn't bet anything on the LPD Chief to be re-thinking his iron fist policy during his tenure on the local citizenry here over the last 10 years either, unless of course you are in the same trance/brainwashed. Even the Mayor of recent, and now, are both scared to death of their co-conspiratorial relationships and possible retaliation that could result if anyone blows the whistle. Both Shay and Barnett wield more power than any other mgr. and chief in the long history since Ludington's inception, and obviously plan to keep it that way until they are fired or retire.