Ludington City Council Meeting, August 12, 2019: Coasting Forward

In summer council meetings held three weeks apart rather than the usual two, there often is a full docket, but this was the exception, the agenda shows only a couple of noncontroversial items of business which kept the meeting over ten minutes under an hour, roughly half of what they had been running since the new city manager took over.

Yet the meeting wasn't totally bland, with the mayor calling vacationing Councilor Angela Serna 'absent' during the roll call rather than the almost automatic 'excused absence' noted (in going to council meetings over 8 years, this is the first absence I can recall that wasn't excused). Serna had reportedly told the mayor and both city managers about missing the meeting due to her long-planned trip well in advance and also put it out on her official page, but the mayor just said she was an (unexcused) absent and nobody bothered to correct him.

It seems as if the mayor may still be bearing a grudge against Serna for acting unlike the other six councilors. This was what I commented on when it was my turn to talk at 2:20 into the video:

August 12th, 2019 Ludington City Council meeting from Mason County District Library on Vimeo.

XLFD: "I have been mercilessly raked over the coals by city officials at council meetings in the past for my well-meant comments and observations, but seeing a councilor unfairly burned over those coals at a meeting was a real eye-opener to me. As an answer-seeking audience member who regularly reads over the council packets, I was shocked to hear that the mayor said Councilor Serna impugned the character and performance of Chief Barnett and the rest of the city council, and stunned to hear Councilor Kathy ironically call Serna rude, disrespectful, and a liar in what was an apparent violation of the code of conduct. All was done without proof or further discussion before this council who unanimously declared Serna to be the very essence of evil.


Since then, I have sought out those inflammatory posts and received them from Mayor Miller and found out that the episode at the last meeting was a bit of localized hysteria, fortunately contained before it could spread out from that side of the podium. In question were a couple of social media posts where the police were called out for not doing their jobs, and the council was called out for doing their job in secrecy, which quite frankly, were both true. The allegations were well founded and neither impugned the character or motives of either agency or any individual.


Prior to Councilor Serna's posts, the LPD had not cited anybody for being on the breakwall even though people were walking on it when it was closed. Afterwards, around two dozen visitors to Ludington have taken home citations for doing so. If the beach patrol repurposed one of their units to ward off people from the breakwall when its closed, we would likely have nobody walking on the breakwall during hazardous conditions and no tickets issued, which are both desirable since a couple of dozen disgruntled tourists can dissuade a lot more tourists from coming to Ludington as can one who drowns because the City can't barricade or guard the breakwall effectively.


Another post claimed that Chief Barnett was under the belief that campers were not vehicles even though the state motor vehicle code which the city has adopted by reference clearly says they are. Having debated with the chief myself over vehicle code issues back in 2008, I found it immensely troubling then that he chose which parts of the law to follow and which parts to ignore or change completely, so I found her post highly believable.


With Councilor Serna absent, Chief Barnett can perhaps share with the rest of us why he thinks pop-up or pickup campers are not vehicles or claim he was misrepresented, without her refutation. (END)"

I've made the point before, that Councilor Serna's postings on social media were far more innocent and within the Code of Conduct than the unsupported allegations thrown out by Councilor Kathy Winczewski at the last meeting. That and the mayor's subdued response to city official Jason Adam's much worse posts regarding the public and me. The council would not address the issue, instead the next speaker, another city official, supported their actions taken in a roundabout way.

Lyla McClelland: "Being a councilman is frustrating, time-consuming and often thankless. You're frequently misunderstood. It requires patience, understanding, compromise and thick-skin. If a person is not willing to accept and live with these ramifications and conditions, then the position of councilman is not for them, and (they) should not be a part of our city government. The City of Ludington accomplishes miracles for its size and economic base. We need persons working together in an honorable, dignified, respectful, honest, intelligent, cooperative, and polite manner to continue this great progress. Fellow councilmen and constituents expect and receive nothing less..."

And had she stopped there, we would have been in agreement, since it seemed that we both thought the divisive actions of the last meeting initiated and plotted by the mayor were not conducive to progress for the full city. The four qualities she said were requirements for the position probably apply more to the one councilor singled out for censure as were the three drawbacks mentioned. But then she spoilt the moment and proved herself to just be a tool of the mayor and council majority that appoint her to the Board of Review every year by finishing:

"Mr. Mayor, your city council, city manager, I commend you for quickly and openly, addressing this flagrant disregard for the code of conduct established for council members. Thank you."

The only flagrant disregard for the code of conduct was made by the mayor and Councilor Kathy in persecuting their fellow councilor over nothing. Matt Biolette of Republic gave an update on the recycling program and fielded questions regarding garbage removal and recycling, before the consent agenda was approved. The Prein & Newhof engineering firm gave a price quote for engineering services to fix the collapsed pier just north of the Loomis boat launch, and it was conditionally accepted (pending amendments) with a little discussion over the difficulties involved.

First presentation of text changes to remove unit size minimums for adaptive reuse of buildings was given by Councilor Kathy. She beamed over how restrictive zoning used to be just five years ago and how creative they have gotten since then, without noting that she and the rest of the planning committee and the city council approved the current minimums in January!

Third Coast Development coming in and proffering to fix up the Haskelite (Wolverine) Building to provide 67 units of housing without seeking undue favors from the community sure changed their minds in a few months. This reporter went to Tuesday's meeting with Brad Rosely of 3CD and saw why they did, I will explain why in another article.

The City Manager left off an outline of his report in the council packet, but he went over:

making pools of city contractors rather than choosing one over others routinely without bidding on smaller projects
reviewing pay using the compensation study
sidewalk budget, including fixing Tinkham's shortage within that budget
attracting more people to Ludington
noting that sludge removal will be a higher expense than planned
wanting a special meeting for figuring out budgets and whether to switch
having a brainstorming session for Rath-Melendy solutions for flooding
setting a meeting with the private marinas to discuss issues and an action item:
a residential anti-displacement program, which protects those displaced by various programs of HUD like rental rehabs (which will affect nobody in Ludington currently), which was tabled for review.

The mayor noted that the Marijuana ad hoc committee was almost done and set a committee of the whole meeting at 7:00 PM on September 16 at LACA (the arts center) to review their work. Chuck Sobanski commended the city manager for holding a meeting at the Red Rooster. Lyla said folks should get more involved with the county commission.

Shortly thereafter the meeting adjourned, with Chief Barnett refusing to answer my question about whether a camper (pick-up or pop-up) was a vehicle or not, or whether he was misquoted. For those wondering what my vehicle code issue with the chief was back in 2008. As related here:

"On Wednesday November 5th at around 11:00 AM, I was riding my bicycle over 20 mph ( I have a bicycle computer) on Sixth Street heading east past Taylor St. Several cars were parked alongside the street on both sides, and so I had to ride a couple feet from the ‘car line’. The double yellow line that signifies a no-passing zone was well defined in the middle of the street.
A vehicle passed me from behind, going fully into the other lane, returning after the Lincoln Street intersection. It had covered two blocks as I had covered one at over 20 mph., so it was going 40 mph on the left side of the road in this residential no-passing zone marked for 25 mph. If anyone had popped out of or in between one of the parked cars, or if someone turned right from Lincoln St (concealed behind the parked cars) there could have been an unnecessary disaster caused by this unlawful driver. Kids frequent this area, and it technically falls within a school zone, since it is less than 1000 ft. from PM School. It was a school day and it was during school hours.
The vehicle that endangered everyone in that area: an LPD Tahoe in non-emergency mode, going to Metalworks for parking lot duty."

As I related, I went to LPD after phoning in my complaint and Chief Barnett said his driver was an excellent driver, that I was at fault for having my bicycle in the street at that point, although I was riding it lawfully and as far right as I dared. He half-wanted to give me a ticket for obstructing traffic (stated he could do that for any bicyclist in the city on the streets) even though my speedometer had me riding over 20 mph. The driver was never identified, but Chief Barnett was not at the LPD station when I called in to complain...

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Oooh, or was that ewww ... This post opens a lot of old craziness I've never before seen in the post Mayor rolls out the welcome mat. It is like unreal and unbelievable. I think the COL has come a long way baby when you consider that the former Mayor tried to get the police to intimidate you for riding your bike in their neighborhood and taking pictures of cars parked across sidewalks. This is still clearly a problem all over town. And the mayors wife honking and hollering as she passes you on a bicycle. That's crazy bad behavior by a city officials wife and the Mayor apparently chasing you around in his vehicle.

And what a good example of bicycles strewn all over the lawn and the former city manager violating parking on across sidewalk laws.

We cannot fix the past, we can only learn from our mistakes. Grateful that we now seem to have a reasonable city manager. Jury is out on the Mayor with reprimanding councilor Serna and what else? Is he just a puppet of the crazy authority of the previous administration. Come on Mayor, let's move in a positive direction. Put blame where it belongs on councilors Wincewski and Lenich that have secret meetings and then in public call Serna rude and a liar. Don't reprimand one who calls out police for not doing their job. Seems the Mayor is afraid of his job and correcting the police? Save lives not face.

Laws can have different interpretations, that's why there's so many of them damn lawyers.  To reduce ambiguity, lawmakers create legal definitions.  But our chief would rather ignore those.  Here's what he would see if he did as regards campers and state law.  

“Pickup camper” means a nonself-propelled recreational vehicle (MCL 257.40a),  "Recreational vehicle"... means a new or used vehicle... includes, but is not limited to, a motor home, travel trailer, or pickup camper.  (MCL 257.49a)

A pop-up camper is a form of travel trailer.  This is available to Chief Barnett, it just doesn't fit his world view.

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