Ludington City Council Meeting, January, 14, 2019: Buried Treasurers and Loans

[XLFD]

A new mayor, two new young councilors, and a year-beginning batch of items on the agenda were on display the evening of January 14, 2019 at the Ludington City Council meeting.  Moments after the mayor loudly brought down the gavel, three new items were added.  These amounted to a City Manager search update, an approval letter for bond testing, and an approval of the open meeting held on January 14.

The update began when City Attorney Richard Wilson assured the attendees that the MML and council followed the Open Meetings Act (OMA) in that January 10 meeting, City Manager Steve Brock then disclosed the three names:  James Van Ess, Patrick Reagan, and Mitchell Foster.  Those applicants will be interviewed openly and formally at a January 24th meeting at 3:30 PM.   They will be reviewed here on the Ludington Torch before that.

The meeting then became open for public comment, and I had to adapt my prepared statement because they originally planned on just approving the closed session minutes of the prior meeting, and I was curious as to why they would not approve of both.  

January 15th, 2019 Ludington City Council meeting from Mason County District Library on Vimeo.

XLFD:  (5:50 in):  "I wish to welcome the new mayor and councilors to their first regular meeting, and extend the hope that you will be transparent and work with the public as you progress through your term. I notice that the first item on the agenda after comments is to approve the minutes of the "closed meeting" held on January 10th. Correct me if I'm wrong, but there was no closed meeting, only an open meeting that went into closed session for 135 minutes before coming out of that session and immediately selecting three candidates and two alternates for city manager.

There are some serious issues dealing with the legality of that meeting under the Open Meetings Act, and it is not good optics for the City to be involved with such an ultra-secretive process in making one of their most important decisions that will affect the public for years to come. This council can both respect the confidentiality of the candidates and have the process conducted openly, with just a little more preparation by the Michigan Municipal League, the group you paid the big bucks for this search. Unfortunately, that wasn't the City's goal; it hasn't been the city's goal for ages.
As for Steve Brock, Interim City Manager, he momentarily broke the festive mood at the last meeting by claiming two things. He assured the public like Councilor Winczewski had before, that they had nothing to fear in their water supply from the lead in some of the city's archaic water infrastructure, despite the prevalence of lead goosenecks in the City and the $500,000 Pilot Grant the City received to remove some lead joints from pipes on North James. This, despite the fact I immersed one of these pipes in Ludington tap water for six hours and my results from a private lab showed lead off the charts.
So let me offer Mr. Brock and Kathy a challenge, I will bring here one of Ludington's notorious lead goosenecks one morning, stop up one side and fill the other with water from city hall's bathroom under observation. We can secure that pipe from tampering for six hours, at which point it will be poured into a cup and sent to any mutually agreed upon testing agency. Either of you are free to drink any leftover water. If the report doesn't come back with unsafe results like I got earlier, I expect a full retraction by Kathy and Mr. Brock about the safety of our water system. If it comes back safe, I will offer a retraction myself. The loser has to pay for the testing. Let me know by the end of the meeting whether you accept."

True to my word, I did offer up a gooseneck challenge to Mr. Brock and Kathy Winczewski the next day complete with a 10 step process to insure neither side could be accused of cheating or fudging the outcome, and offered a willingness to add any further safeguards they might desire.  Steve formally declined, Kathy, in typical elected Ludington official form, has yet to respond.

But immediately after my comment, former Mayor Kaye Holman commented about a former episode where she drank the water, and said she would be willing to drink the Kool Aid water again in two weeks.  She and former councilor Wally Cain lurked behind me for the meeting, thankfully I wasn't wearing my shirt with the knife-target on the back of it.

They went on to approve appointments to the standing committees, and all other boards; Les Johnson was nominated and elected without problems to be the mayor pro-tem.  Johnson would then lead into the next three items all approved without discussion:  the paying of the bills, the designation of depositories for the city's 'savings', and setting the city marina rates as unchanged.

I had overlooked the retention and loan agreement which was decided upon next, but new Councilor Angela Serna looked at enough to engage the city attorney regarding it.  They had a refreshing back and forth concerning the agreement for minutes (19:30 to 26:40), but this topic really deserves to be scrutinized even more and I will publish another article dealing with this topic in depth and link to it here.

They approved a pricy bid by Davis Construction for the Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) contingent on the federal government opening back up and getting funding from Rural Development.  In Councilor Winczewski's absence, a couple of changes to zoning law was proposed for first reading:  rezoning 106 E. Filer from CBD to GSD (public parking) and adapting re-use of existing buildings into parts of the zoning code, making it easier to do without requiring a special land-use permit from the City.

The last committee item was to approve the contract with Tridonn Construction, where some of the project has been pared, basically the main lighting fixtures/stanchions, some stamped concrete, and a drinking fountain have been removed from the project.  Parking at the far east seems to have been added.

The mayor publicly introduced his 'Neighborhood Initiatives' plan whereas the City and citizens in committees would try to look for 'public projects' to support, up to $25,000 a year.  He then introduced the idea of a Marijuana ad-hoc Committee, also including citizens, to study and address the issue of how to proceed with the issue once it comes before the council again.  Both shall be further addressed at Committee of the Whole meetings in the future.  I doubt either idea will go any further than promoting the City's perspectives, but we will have to wait and see.

Chuck Sobanski forwarded the second comment period and offered his congratulations to the new officials and soberly told them to keep the citizens who are struggling to make enough to pay their taxes in mind as they go about their business.  This is a good warning for a city hall that seems to have went on a spending spree lately without much of a worry as to how it will be paid for.  Which was what I addressed in my next comment which was related in this prior article:  Thievin'Steven Brock.

I should add that here is Steve Brock's refutation after Chief Barnett's synopsis of 2018's Shop with a Cop program (still being funded through money from the General Fund).  

Brock (55:00 in):  "...First, the lead issue in the water, I addressed that at the last meeting.  If you properly treat the water that's in the system, the lead pipes stay coated and none of the lead leaches into the water.  I take the challenge every day and drink Ludington water, I'll drink some right now if you'd like.  And that's not an issue, I don't know what other treatments have gone on with other pipes, but I know how we treat ours.  I'm very confident in our water tests, lead free, so not to worry.  [Yet he declines a challenge that would cost me a lot of money along with a lot of credibility, and the city nothing, if his assertions prove correct.] 

Second is the issue of Hudsonville City Manager, the fact that you can't find the information, isn't my fault.  It's available there, somehow or other, I don't know how they construct their budget, Ludington doesn't do it that way.  We put all our city management, assistant city management in that same account and very transparent, so you can see exactly what the costs are.

And with regard to the treasurer, I noted that at the last meeting as well, part of that salary is for the treasurer and part of that $87,000 goes to the deputy treasurer and his assistant in that office and that should answer that question.  Thank you."

The prior meeting on December 17, he said nothing about the treasurer.  Back just eight months ago there was one treasurer, Linda Rogers.  Now there appears to be a treasurer, a deputy treasurer, and an assistant if we trust Thievin' Steven.  But he appears to have walked it back a little since then:

The truth only has one version, and reality says that the city council has never elevated anybody to a treasurer position since Tom Ezdebski was hired as her replacement.  They are the only group with that authority.  When I finally receive the FOIA response he references, maybe the story will change again.  One thing I will agree with Steve Brock is that if my supplementary research from Hudsonville is correct, the City of Hudsonville has a publicly-offered budget that defies transparency and hides quite a bit of stuff.  Much like our interim city manager.  The meeting adjourned without any other sparring.

[Willy]

Clever idea for testing the water in lead piping X. Of course they will not take you up on it because they would have to face the public if proven wrong. Mr Brock does not seem to realize that coating the pipes to prevent lead leaching into the water is exactly why Flint found itself in water quality trouble. Coating the pipes is a band-aid approach that will eventually backfire. The only  way to be sure that lead is not seeping into the water from piping is to eliminate the lead. The citizens of Michigan will be paying for a very long time because of Flint's careless approach of coating the pipes instead of replacing them. The Council should put this issue to bed once and for all.

Isn't Brock the one who brought up the Hudsonville comparison in the first place but now wants to brush it aside?