Ludington City Council Meeting, December 9 and 16, 2019: A Complete 360

[XLFD]

These two December council meetings were very close together in time and yet very different.  Two aspects of the meeting held on the ninth were discussed in The Statecraft of Floracraft and "Two Illegal Closed Sessions Don't Make Lawful Open Meetings".  The first was where I passive-aggressively wondered why a local company only wanted lower taxes for itself rather than for all, and why the council thought that was fair to all of their constituents.  The second was an analysis of their flawed process in trying to cure an obvious violation of state law by obviously violating the law again.  

I had also made an opening comment in that same meeting regarding the deficiencies in the Brownfield Plan for the Haskellite (Wolverine) Building on Rowe, the very next night I would reiterate those problems at the county commissioner's meeting where they held a public hearing over it.  The commissioner who had the project in his district, Nick Krieger, was forced to vote against the plan due to those insufficiencies, and if the state abides by the law, you will likely see this tax abatement nullified, until they can follow the rules.  I will be writing more on this once I get a reply from the state either way.

Needless to say, those three points of opposition to how the City approached tax abatements, following the rules and open meeting principles, you might think the December 16th meeting would find me contentious at the city hall podium with freshly sharpened rhetorical knives.  But I was like the month of March, coming in (the first meeting) like a lion, and going out (the last meeting of the year) as a lamb.  

Before the latter meetings, I had set aside some time and personalized greetings on over a dozen fancy Christmas cards, giving them to each councilor*, the mayor, the city manager, clerk, treasurer, attorney, both chiefs, and regular attendees, Planning Commissioner John Terzano, COLDNews reporter Noah Hausmann, and the camera lady.  I also had spent a little money on some gifts, about $8, which I gave to the clerk, treasurer and mayor.  

These gifts all were 'birdcage gifts' to a degree.  If you have heard the new term wegifting which you're most likely to have done yourself, you would understand the term.  My father as a kid brought his mom a nice birdcage for Christmas, the problem was, she didn't own a bird, he did.  Think of O. Henry's "Gift of the Magi" with the woman buying him combs for her hair and the man buying her a chain for his pocket watch.  

The clerk got a spindle of 20 recordable data CDs; this was in gratitude for the City providing me with about a half-dozen CDs for FOIA requests over the last couple of years without expecting any money in return for the digital media that costs around a quarter each.  The treasurer got a pocket book of Sudoku puzzles.  The treasurer as a citizen had organized Sudoku tournaments back when they were first trending (2005 or so) and I had won both.  My hope was that he would get reenergized to organize more in the future so that I could earn more plaques.  

The mayor's gift was an easy to read book on Robert's Rules of Order.  Arguably, Mayor Steve Miller has been the most consistent parliamentarian of the three previous mayors, so this manual was not meant to disparage his performance but to supplement his skills in meeting-craft.  I, and others have been encouraging the City to re-adopt Robert's Rules, since there have been times when the City's lack of following formal rules have made them look silly and arbitrary in what they do absent such protocols.  The City is on record voting to implement Robert's Rules at least three times, all in the 20th century, but they don't currently think they are in force.

This token 'influence-peddling' was all done before the camera clicked on at the December 16th meeting, and I have no idea whether the officials were expecting me to rail about the unresolved issues of the last meeting, or bring up other issues due to the lack of much anything on the agenda other than a budget hearing.  So, I just gave them another gift of compliments:

191216lcc from Mason County District Library on Vimeo.

XLFD:  (3:00 in) "First off, I would like to thank the agenda scheduler for making the last meeting of the year contain regular last-meeting-of the-year activities only, like approving the budget, setting meeting dates and approving committee appointments. It gives one a little time to reflect on all that has improved in the City in an otherwise tough year to run it.

Since I made my first FOIA request over 10 years ago, I've seen the City acting with some very bad intent to avoid letting the people view records in the public domain. This year, the City has made commendable advancement in this field. They have not only made documents available, the mayor and city manager has made time to further explain supplemental information not present in the written records.

The City has upgraded its commitment to transparency at meetings this year. Instead of having standing committee meetings held with no public notice with invitees only, these groups now have a regular schedule and regularly report updates to this council at every meeting. Hopefully gone are the days when important topics get discussed at multiple committees, multiple times and the general public only becomes aware of that topic the weekend before the topic becomes law at the council level.

There is still room for improvement in my opinion, as you can probably tell since I've come before this council at over 20 plus meetings this year airing well over 20 grievances of one sort or another. We may have similar objectives, but we often have different perspectives. As a citizen, I appreciate the adaptive and resilient leadership at city hall and the fresh perspectives of recent council additions of ditching some bad habits that city hall had over the previous ten years which led to strife between officials and citizens.

This year has shown us that city leadership can own and correct a mistake, that they can actively communicate with and solicit advice from the public, that they can operate more transparently and even that they can sincerely compliment a historical antagonist. That is progress which I would like to see continue into the new year. Merry Christmas [END]."

I cannot remember ever making a more complimentary comment, and yet I think that some of the councilors may have only heard the criticisms of past practices included therein of which I spoke of to show the contrast of the old with the new.  Either that or they figured that something was amiss-- what with me giving out cards, gifts and praise.  My presents came with no strings attached other than my presence.

The public hearing had nobody approach the podium, and little of substance discussed by councilors before it passed.  They approved the low bid submitted by Hardman Construction of $185K for the seawall between the Loomis boat launch area and the stub pier just west of the coast guard station.  Other than that they filled the standing committees which stayed with the same personnel; the budget and committee particulars can be found here. 

Next year's meeting dates were set, same as this year (6:30 PM, 2nd and 4th Monday of each month except for March, May and December where meetings are on the 1st and 3rd Monday).  I can understand the conflicts of Memorial Day and Christmas in May and December, but can't figure out why March has it different.   

Nevertheless, officials seemed to be wanting to get through and call it a year, with no reports from councilors and a small report from the city manager.  A small bit of mirth crept out in the beginning, when I discovered I had lost Councilor Johnson's Christmas card somewhere, and he was the only regular attendee that didn't get a card, I apologized profusely for the oversight.  That's why it's extra funny that Clerk Luskin skipped over Johnson's name when going down the roll, it was like an episode of the Twilight Zone or something.

The three areas of friction noted between the City and myself at the December 9th meeting and the passage of the opt-out of state reforms (with Councilor Angela Serna making a principled 'no' vote) which I had criticized at the prior meeting, was in high contrast to the gifts and goodwill at this meeting, so much that someone remarked to me afterwards it as being a 'complete 360'. 

I didn't want to spoil the night by reminding them that the correct phrase was a 'complete 180'.  Three-sixty rotations get you back to the same vantage you started with.  

[XLFD]

Unfortunately, the struggle isn't over, the prevailing winds at city hall are getting more favorable but there's still some doldrums present holding us all back from seeing Ludington at its full potential.  Eighteen year LPD Chief Mark Barnett recently announced he is retiring in the spring, I don't know all the particulars, it may have been planned for awhile, but there's reason to suspect his degree of comfort has been down over the last 16 months since John Shay bailed and left him more open for review which has certainly cramped his style.  

I am more apt than I used to be to negotiate deals with city officials when they do not follow the letter of the law in matters of transparency and accountability.  I am less forgiving when they do so with an intent repugnant of keeping things out of the public eye.  Mitch Foster is commended primarily because he has chosen the path of transparency over the path of denial when the City has made mistakes.  The hope is that less mistakes are made in the future, and those that are should not be deemed to be intentional.  

[Freedom Seeker]

I'm wondering if the City council is just holding secret squirrel meetings and going on like that brewery meeting until they get caught? Then just do a reenact? At some time they should learn how to conduct an open meeting shouldn't they? They all can't be that ignnorant of the Laws can they?

[AQUAMAN]

Well, I have to ask why CM Foster is using such a fancy and probably expensive timer then what was used previously. A simple held stopwatch can do just as good a job, and if he's not recording, why is the unit always pointed at the commenter?  Also, just fyi, Chief Barnett is my age, about 65-66, and it's proper and timely to retire now next spring. I will miss his invocations too, always the best, and I wish him good luck in retirement and the future for relaxation overdue.

[Du Wright]

I agree, Aquaman, as to chief Barnett's invocations.  He says the right words which are generally comforting, if not somewhat optimistic.  He would make a good preacher in retirement, imo.

As far as the timer, I think it is a helpful tool to the speaker.  I complained of having no timer to mayor Holman because she didn't use one and I think she arbitrarily cut people off without  properly timing.  The timer is aimed at the speaker so they know  how long they have.  The device  is the electronic tablet which the city bought the councilors to cut down on paper costs, I think.

[Freedom Seeker]

Barnett says good words, at times.  I'm not sure they are followed so well.  And I will probably never appreciate his "shame on you, Tom Rotta" rants against XLFD.  They seem to  confirm the bully-attitude of the Council, lacking understanding of the message and the law.  The law of not putting cameras pointed at stalls in bathrooms, the state law of ethics for using city resources to promote Shop with a Cop, the law of volunteer police force (which shortly thereafter has been looked at to be standardized in training).  

[Willy]

Very interesting. Are the meals paid by each participant or paid out of the City's petty cash box? If this does not mirror the way Washington is run I don't know what does. A small group of individuals who have deemed themselves as being elite and above the law. A group that has taken Ludington down the rat hole of debt without considering the future burden on tax payers. Thanks Diane and X for your dedication.

[Du Wright]

Thanks, Willy.  I'm not sure how the meal bill was handled, and that made it awkward.  The server hollered to me across the room from the center table bank, "Are you eating?" with rather rude, questioning tone that said I shouldn't.  It added to the awkwardness of the meeting to say the least.   Noah Hausmann, LDN, sat next to me and told me he was offered a meal on the "tab" when he came in, but I was never offered.  To Noahs' good credit he told me he ordered and paid for his meal himself.

[Freedom Seeker]

Well said, Willy.  Maybe those people down at city hall have gone debt crazy--and blind--if you can't get it under control, why even try."  And who cares about the taxpayer anyway?  Taxpayers will foot the bill for the extravagance of the West End and splash pad repairs and maintenance, James St. Plaza and the corporate tax breaks, while their lead gooseneck pipes and roads go to ruin.

[XLFD]

Thanks for helping me out on my tenth anniversary by keeping the conversation alive, I've been feeling sick most of the last two days and had to leave some uncompleted projects incomplete for now.  Maybe I've got the same bug that the city manager has.  I will consider these projects as end of the year projects, including a recent inspiration.