Ludington City Council Meeting, March 16, 2020: March Madness Crown

[XLFD]

The hysteria generated by the Coronavirus (COVID-19) precautions and preparations over the last week in this country assuredly will be looked at with some amusement by ourselves in a year's time (much like the widespread Y2K panic twenty years ago), but for now it must be endured by the saner elements of our society. 

March madness infected our own local politics earlier than usual in regards to this meeting, as an unclear alert from city hall on Friday, March 13th, had several in belief that city hall meetings were closed for three weeks, just like the schools were earlier in the week.  

It turned out that the meeting was to be held, with City Manager Mitch Foster clarifying that the meeting was still on, pending whether the local health department and/or the governor would allow it.  The governor would close a lot of businesses and non-essential government agencies early on March 16th, but the show would go on at 6:30 PM.

Foster would indicate that the state and the municipal league are working to get some special rules for open meetings during mass pandemic pandemoniums in the future, but there were some special preparations for the night that made the congregation feel more like a leper convention.

As one entered the lobby, they alerted you to be using the provided hand sanitizer which was on a small table before the council chambers along with a copy of the night's agenda.  I have always wondered about the efficacy of a communal hand sanitizer against a supervirus, after all, you touch the same lever on the bottle that everybody else touched before you, so unless you diligently scrub the pressing finger, you may still have somebody else's bad microbes on you.  I used it nevertheless because I was expected to.

The council chambers, had less chairs than normal, but they were spread out so that there was at least six feet between chairs.  It made one feel special since the city officials on their dais were separated only by about four feet from one another and not as well protected by social distancing as the audience was.  

The invocation was led by Chief Barnett strongly aimed at the coronavirus issue, and after the pledge, I was the only one to get up for public comment, and didn't mention anything about the hidden microscopic menace to society, but the unseen threats on the public's right to know.

March 16th, 2020 Ludington City Council meeting from Mason County District Library on Vimeo.

XLFD:  (2:20 in) "Today, March 16th, is National Freedom of Information Day which also recognizes the birthday of President James Madison. Madison was instrumental in the drafting of the United States Constitution, and the key champion and author of the United States Bill of Rights. Madison held individual rights, government accountability, and freedom of information in high importance.

At the very beginning of Sunshine week, I wish the City of Ludington would stress the importance of these issues. The City invests around a couple hundred thousand dollars in a risk management pool each year, and one of the benefits they get from that expense is legal representation when they and their officers get hit with civil lawsuits. It appears that they have waived using the risk management attorneys (MMRMA) to defend against my Open Meetings Act lawsuit and is instead using Carlos Alvarado's law firm at additional expense to the taxpayer, as signified in that firm's notice of appearance.

The City and Alvarado has decided this in total conflict with the agreement entered into between them earlier this year. The agreement states: "Work falling outside of the scope of "general matters" shall only be initiated in direct consultation with and after explicit authorization from the City". Section 3.1 of the charter says: "The Council... shall have power and authority... to exercise all powers conferred upon or possessed by the City."

As acting as a defense attorney for litigation is outside the scope of 'general matters', as defined, Alvarado needs explicit authorization of the City, which can only be lawfully given by this city council. The city council has not met since being served by this litigation on March 2nd, they did not give explicit authorization to Alvarado at that meeting. The city council can only act during open meetings of that body, so there could not have been any legitimate authorization by the city to retain their services.

I will be amending my complaint to show one more count of the City of Ludington violating the Open Meetings Act by unlawfully authorizing Carlos Alvarado's law firm to represent them and three council members without explicitly making a decision to do so at an open meeting. Thank you. [END]

For some unexplained reason, neither of the two new city attorneys were present at the meeting, so the city manager would address this point later in the meeting and afterwards (at a distance).  It appears that they had heard nothing back until this very day from the MMRMA attorneys after sending them my lawsuit about two weeks ago, and so they had Carlos step in to go against a reasonable motion I had made to disqualify the circuit court judge, the same judge who has removed/disqualified herself on her own motion in three other court actions between me and the City (more on this later).  

I do not know whether Foster was winging the excuse for lacking a good reason to assign the case to Alvarado at least temporarily, but I will hope that I can survive going up against three prestigious law firms this time around, with a whole lot of resources I could only dream about.  It looks as if they are already wanting to get another unfair advantage with a judge who has an existing appearance of impropriety that you could drive a truck through. 

The mayor wanted to change the agenda by moving the three action items in the committee sections into the consent agenda, so that the business could be moved forward expediently out of concerns of COVID-19.  After Councilor Lenius moved to do this, Councilor Serna expressed her intent on discussing one of the items.  After a little more discussion, Lenius withdrew his motion and that was approved.  

The three orders of committee generated business were:

 

1) replacement work on the C-dock at the city marina to Hallack Contracting for $432,000.  Passed unanimously.

2) listing the city-inherited property at 404 E Melendy with Bob Budreau.  The thin lot was discussed a bit, Serna raising the question of whether it was appropriate to not consider other realtors, Foster saying Budreau had been reliable with other city properties and wanted to fairly allow it to be put on the market rather than sell it and have the deal look shady.  Passed 6-1, Serna opposed.

3) reviewing the OPRA certificate of 327 S James.  Since I brought this up, the City Assessor found out that the OPRA terms were not in compliance.  Foster was going to bring this back up in June for official council review and possible rejection of the certificate.  

The council packet had the 2019 annual reports from Utility Maintenance, Fire, Cartier Park, and Wastewater Treatment Departments though none of the heads of those departments were present, and the reports were just acknowledged at the meeting.

Foster's report included displaying an engineering award on behalf of the city's water treatment plant upgrades, the chaotic attorney situation for the OMA lawsuit (which should get interesting), and prospective COVID-19 strategy for future meetings and city business.  All committee meetings were cancelled until further notice, the only two essential groups to meet would be the council and planning commission.  

Before the council approved the August event of "Suds on the Shore" unanimously, as their last official decision, Councilor Kathy Winczweski decided to add her own take on the coronavirus:

(29:20) "If you ever watched bacteria grow in a Petri dish, probably one of the most fascinating things that I did in college was watch that grow. It's the same thing with this virus we're seeing; so right now we're not impacted really big by it. Nobody in Mason County has, as we know, got it, but we don't have any testing to verify that, but those things grow exponentially.

If you've seen the numbers... just last night they put out if one person becomes infected, within 21 days they could then spread to 14 million people, just by that exponential. This is real important, this is serious, and I'm really glad that the City is taking precautions to handle that and the state of Michigan is taking really strong precautions too."

Her last numbers are a lot larger than the growth of cases of the coronavirus, which was first detected in mid-December in heavily populated districts of China.  Forty days later, the number of cases in China was reported to be 547. 

Beyond this exaggeration, she confused her microorganisms, assigning bacteria behavior to virus behavior.  Viruses are not considered living organisms, they are not cellular, they do not replicate unless they are amidst a host organism.  You put a virus in a Petri dish by itself and all it will do is sit there, it can't even technically die because it was never living in the first place.  It might degrade itself to a non-threatening presence, or lurk there ready to latch onto a living host and replicate itself. Sounds almost like a city attorney.  Councilor Winczewski is a former science teacher for Ludington schools with a knack for eviscerating science to push her own agenda.

Winczewski was not corrected on this statement, but near the meeting's end (36:30 in), Mayor Steve Miller gave one of those long ambiguous speeches (that he is well known for ) over what could have been understandably related in a sentence or two on point.  In my understanding, he seemed to be pointing a warning finger towards the Fifth Ward and expressing his desire that she would not contradict the coronavirus hysterics of the City by using her acquired knowledge as a nurse to set the record straight.

Clerk Luskin would announce the availability of petitions for various city elective offices until April 21st, when they need to be turned in with the requisite number of signatures.  The council adjourned shortly thereafter.

[Freedom Seeker]

Ambiguity and confusion by the Mayor? Did he have his wars mixed up? Was he referring to the 1918-1919 swine flu pandemic during WWI? Or what pandemic during WWII?

Teacher/Councilor Winczewski comparing bacteria replication to viral replication, confused numbers with no supporting evidence (14 million can be infected from one person in 21 days?). We should be hysterical if that is true.
Run, the sky is falling.

[Du Wright]

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)30260-9/fulltext

No one really knows exactly how the  numbers will go in various countries with many factors, but attached is a link of an epidemiological model based on the studies from Wuhan that started in early December 2019.  Getting to 14 million from one case in 21 days would be hysterical.  I wonder who "they" were who reported this to Teacher Winczewski?

[Du Wright]

China today reports no new cases of Corona virus. The bell curve peaked in little over six weeks. The total cases reported in China were 80, 928. Of those @ 81,000 cases, 70,420 recovered. There have been 3245 deaths in China and their "curve is flat."

The possibility of arriving at "14 million cases in 21 days" is the worst of fear-mongering coming out of the City of Ludington.

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/china/

[Willy]

Thank you for the information Du Wright. I have a feeling that even if there are no more infections or deaths from this virus the U.S. media will not leave it alone. They will play it out to the very end, hoping to keep the people in panic mode and to cause trouble for Trump.

[XLFD]

Thanks for re-emphasizing the link I put up earlier, I reproduce the deaths plotted v. time in China, a bell curve which shows the virus is in remission, and will mean the 'Chinese virus' kill about 2 Chinese in a million when the curve flatlines.  Along with the South Korea recovery, which was even quicker, this virus is going to be defeated without taking the drastic unnecessary steps taken in some countries (including America). 

Wash your hands, avoid other risky behavior voluntarily, avoid social situations when you feel sick, etc.-- don't close schools for the rest of the year, shut down restaurants, government services, etc. and cancel all other forms of entertainment where people may gather just because worldwide media working with junk science and political motives tell you to.  At least for something like this year's coronavirus, a relative lightweight being propped up as a contender; you know, kind of like Joe Biden.

[Freedom Seeker]

And where is the One Last Good Word?" from the Fear-Mongers?

Not only must we endure the legitimate fears, the social isolation, the disruption of life as we know it, we are further stressed by completely false, exaggerated information coming from "our authorities" at City Hall and not one of the other bobbleheads sitting in the Chamber had the sense to correct "Good-word Winczewski."  Thanks, XLFD for your enduring and reporting. 

[Willy]

Well said Freedom Seeker

[XLFD]

Councilor Serna made a Facebook post alluding to the science just after 9 PM that night without naming names:  "FYI bacteria and viruses do not reproduce (or grow) the same..... #justsaying", so it wasn't completely overlooked, especially by one dealing with germs.  

But just as a matter of correction, Councilor Winczewski's bacteria comments was not her 'good word' comment.  That came later where she read from a Washington Post article the following anecdote, slightly edited:

"Isaac Newton was in his early 20s when the Great Plague of London hit.  It would be another 200 years before scientists discovered the bacteria that causes plague, but even without knowing exactly why, folks back then still practiced some of the same things we do to avoid illness.
In 1665, it was a version of “social distancing” — a public health tool making a comeback this week as governments, schools and many businesses send people home to try to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus.  

Cambridge sent students home to continue their studies. For Newton, that meant Woolsthorpe Manor, the family estate about 60 miles northwest of Cambridge.
Without his professors to guide him, Newton apparently thrived. The year-plus he spent away was later referred to as his annus mirabilis, the “year of wonders.”
First, he continued to work on mathematical problems he had begun at Cambridge; the papers he wrote on this became early calculus.
Next, he acquired a few prisms and experimented with them in his bedroom, even going so far as to bore a hole in his shutters so only a small beam could come through. From this sprung his theories on optics.
And right outside his window at Woolsthorpe, there was an apple tree. That apple tree.

In London, a quarter of the population would die of plague from 1665 to 1666. It was one of the last major outbreaks in the 400 years that the Black Death ravaged Europe.
Newton returned to Cambridge in 1667, theories in hand. Within six months, he was made a fellow; two years later, a professor.
So if you’re working or studying from home over the next few weeks, perhaps remember the example Newton set. Having time to muse and experiment in unstructured comfort proved life-changing for him — and no one remembers whether he made it out of his pajamas before noon."

One could say that the Newton story was a bacteria story and again missed the mark, but I think it was one of the best examples yet of the utilization of the city council's ending 'good word'-- despite being derived from an article in our nation's capital's newspaper.

I am pretty much immune from the effects of social distancing, I have experienced it in one form or another over the last dozen years in the form of the local government and/or media picturing me in the worst light.  Like Newton, I have been able to use the down time to good effect and in an attempt to better society. 

Whether you think this national quarantine is legit or not, you're likely finding yourself with a lot of extra time with a lot less available activities around to do; many people will become depressed or sink into their armchair and binge-watch Netflix.  The Newton anecdote serves as a reminder that this three week or more break in your life could be spent doing something great.  And that's a good message from Councilor Winczewski.

[Du Wright]

Thanks for the positive spin, X. I did hear that lesson by Winczewski and at least she held it to about two minutes this time. It seems she has to ever be the teacher teaching the "pupils" how smart she is.  If she is still a teacher in our public schools, she should study up and take her need to teach out on the pupils and stick to her lessons so she doesn't have to think on the spot.

I didn't see any social posts by Councilor Serna on the subject, or why she would have been "corrected" by the Mayor with meaningless ambiguity. I'm sure if she had just had her ears clipped she may have been reticent to counter the exaggerations.

It's ironic that the Mayor's admonishment to be accountable for what you speak would be so applicable to Winczewski encouraging fearmongering but the Mayor said nothing, though it appears that it perked Mitch Foster up.  I suppose it is hard not to be a bobblehead when the Mayor expects everyone to say the same thing.  Good point, Willy--is that how a Council should operate?   So why do they have a "Councilor Comment" section?

[Willy]

Your right X. Viruses are not considered a living entity because they cannot reproduce. They need to enter a living cell and that cell actually produces the virus. I would appreciate the council not exhibiting their ignorance in public and that includes the Mayor. After chastising the Council to tow the line and comment only on what the City regurgitates because he says so is kin to censorship. He seems to forget that they are also citizens who have their own ideas and thoughts. What can be said about Winczewski? She needs a refresher course in biology. They Mayor needs to bone up on his history and statistics. 600,000 people die from cancer in the U.S. every year. That could qualify as a crisis. That's the entire population of Milwaukee.

[AQUAMAN]

The Winczewski factor is again proving to be STUPID to the maximum. Haven't seen one mtg. since she was foolishly elected where she didn't put her lousy 2 cents in. Someone needed to put a nail gun/ stapler on her lips long ago, sorry for the harshness.

[Willy]

I agree that Winczewski should keep her mouth shut unless she knows what she is talking about. I'm not saying she should not be giving an opinion but she went off on a tangent about history and biology of which  she has little understanding. The Plague is a bacterium not a virus. People did not spread the plague by socializing with each other. "Back then, people thought the plague was caused by bad air, an imbalance of the body humors or was a terrible punishment inflicted by God. The disease spared noone, attacking both rich and poor with no end in sight. It wasn’t until the 17th century that revealed the plague’s true cause, Yersenia pestis, a rod shaped bacterium that is transmitted to humans by fleas from infected rats." So Mr. Newton was just lucky that he was not bitten by an infected flea. So much for "social distancing" and Newtons timely escape. In his case it was pure chance but in Winczewski case it's pure ignorance.