Ludington City Council Meeting, November 26, 2018: Flyboards and Gadflies

[XLFD]

If you managed to save some money on Black Friday, you may need it in order to weather the interim city manager's introduction of the 2019 budget held on Red Monday. ICM Steve Brock gave his budget message while downplaying the massive salary hikes gifted to employees, along with a lot of other presents to various departments that he implied have been neglected in previous years.

But that part of the meeting was overlooked by the news media whose attention was keyed instead on a decision by the council to deny the request of a local company to establish a paddle board rental service at Stearns' Beach for next summer. The drama unfolded shortly after public comment began, with the current Stearns' food concessionaire urging the council to vote no on the rental service citing her trepidations (starting at 3:20 in).

Kelly Morrison, owner of Lakeshore Water Sports, attempted to explain her business model right afterwards, and how it shouldn't conflict with the other business or other park activities. Later on the council would mull the issue over and after noticing the added tumult that might come with it from flyboarding and jet-skiing, voted against the enterprise.

According to the council packet (p.150), this business was geared to be in a small 25' X 25' area just south of the north breakwall, offering canoes and paddleboards. The West End trailhead is scheduled to be ready for business by the end of July 2019 (lest they lose the MI DNR Trust Fund $300,000 grant), and is supposed to be offering all this at approximately the same place, except for the flyboarding activity. It will be interesting to find out what they determine for that and whether it may have influenced their vote this night.

After Kelly sat down, I got up and gave them three minutes regarding their excesses as regards the budget. Don't worry, I still have plenty of material for the budget hearing on December 10 (rescheduled from December 3rd).

November 26th, 2018 Ludington City Council meeting from Mason County District Library on Vimeo.

XLFD: (9:30 in) "At the end of 2017, this council established a salary of $53.2 thousand for the city treasurer position, where the officer had ten years of experience at that position. At the end of this year, with a new council-appointee without municipal treasurer experience, you are scheduled to give this same position an $87 thousand salary according to the budget.

That's well over a 60% raise. The raise in fringe benefits alone is over $22,000. That increase in the fringes amounts to the salary of somebody working an $11 an hour full time job for a year. There is no sane rationale given to the public for this insane raise, there is no sane rationale given to the public for why Ludington city employees get fringe benefits over 70% of their wages.
We just get a song and dance each year since 2011 saying that the City intelligentsia knows better than state officials how best to handle compensation to their own employees, so they opt out of an act passed in 2011 to gain control over runaway benefits. And so the entitlements and pension liabilities keep going up and up, without an adult left in the room to say fringe benefits at 75% of wages is way too high.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics issued a news release on September 18th of this year saying the following: "Employer costs for employee compensation averaged $36.22 per hour worked in June 2018. Wages and salaries averaged $24.72 per hour worked and accounted for 68.3 percent of these costs, while benefit costs averaged $11.50 and accounted for the remaining 31.7 percent."
Consider, a person getting around $65,000 at a private job around Ludington would be expected to get around $30,000 in fringe benefits each year. If he was working for the City of Ludington, those fringes would be at the $50,000 mark. That undeserved $20,000 extra comes from indigent tenants paying their doubling water & sewer bill and struggling homeowners trying to pay their ever-increasing property taxes and cutting more and more into their standard of living.
The news release also noted: "Total employer compensation costs for private industry workers averaged $34.19 per hour worked. Total employer compensation costs for state and local government workers averaged $49.23 per hour worked." Doesn't it disturb you that city workers are making on average 44% more [the mayor informed me my time was up, I would have concluded] … than comparable workers in the private sector, and that this disparity is growing? Only you councilors, who make a whopping $3600 per year with few benefits to speak of can set things right, but instead it looks as if you will just be throwing a lot more money to your peers over the next three years."

I was followed by an interesting fellow from Hamlin Township who had some familiarity with Steve Brock, but not too much with the unwritten rules of the Ludington City Council as regards expecting two-way communication. He wanted to have the ability to drive ATVs down the beach from Hamlin to Stearns. He would later stand up for Ms. Morrison's business in the second comments, saying that the council treated her unfairly.

The committee reports followed with a lot of time spent with Steve Brock's presentation of the budget. Due to a glitch with the projector, which would not work (perhaps forecasting a similar fate for his budget) he gave a presentation not much different than what was in the council packet. Rather than focus on that it's more instructive to show the raises he gave to your public servants, and the implementation of a new administration tax which has yet to be presented for a vote.  Note, none of these departments are slated for expansion of personnel.

Heather Tykoski is getting a 17% raise as Community Development Director:

The DPW full timers are seeing a 36% raise overall without any explanation:

Carol Foote is getting a 14% raise, going along with the part-time assessor's jump in salary (which is smaller only because the new guy served half of this year, and the City will not have to pay Bosley a $10,000 balloon payment at the end of his contract):

The city management crew of Jackie Steckel and whoever the next city manager is will share a 15% raise:

The rest of the city team will actually see much smaller raises hovering around 2-4 %. This includes the police department, WWTP and WTP crews, motor pool, utility maintenance, etc. They were the unfortunate ones that never got the benefits of having a compensation study performed whose sole purpose was to justify raises among the city's administrative staff. Will they note that unfairness?

Of course, the council voted to opt out of PA 152 of 2011 without any discussion other than their own trite and unconvincing arguments used since 2011, so that they could offer premium health plans to all city employees and keep their fringe benefits growing and aligned with their increased wages, and offer the additional health insurance reimbursements in addition.

In passing the traffic control orders for three blocks of angled parking on one side of the street, they did note that it has slowed traffic down and has of yet created no accidents. The temporary TCOs did not have to deal with any of the heavy summer traffic as of yet, which may see these feelings change. I believe from my research that these should have no problem during the off-season (when they're really not needed), but will create additional hazards during the summer time, when they are needed.  Kind of like the proposed road diet our city leaders were enamored with.

The second comment period started off with a couple of appeals to the council for reconsideration of their denial, which likely fell on deaf ears since no official commented on it later. I then got up once again, reminded ICM Brock that the Treasurer numbers were on his proposed budget and then launched into my prepared statement:

XLFD: (1:22:40 in) "Since last meeting, City Manager Steve Brock has admitted that there was no letter of resignation from former assessor Brent Bosley. Brock has discovered since that the city's FOIA Coordinator was asked for specific records including the submissions of proposals by two assessor firms that he referenced at a meeting, and never included those records in a response. To his credit, he has brought forth those submissions after the fact and I have checked with both Dan Kirwin and Great Lakes Assessing Services to find that they were indeed interviewed for the position.
Whatever happened, the City messed up my FOIA request and because of that violation of public records law, it led to my allegations against the city manager's veracity and his counter allegations to mine, with a punctuation made by the mayor (with my apologies to polite company at this meeting) that I was additionally a "pain in the ass".
And so it should be noted at this meeting that Mr. Brock's statement recorded in the just-approved minutes of the last meeting saying that the City had provided me with all the records that I had asked for, was incorrect. That the absence of certain records including the submitted proposals and the letter of resignation in my FOIA response would make a reasonable 'pain in the ass' believe that Brock had made outright lies at public meetings when he said they existed.
While those same minutes said that I called Brock a liar at the meeting, which I didn't, I said "You lied.", it failed to record Honorable Mayor Holman's truly abrasive and derogatory 'pain in the ass' comment. Will this council find fault with their FOIA Coordinator, interim city manager, or mayor for their respective breaches of protocol? I know that answer from experience."

Mayor Holman couldn't stop laughing for a few seconds, either thinking that her city violating FOIA is hilarious, or me saying 'pain in the ass' thrice was a funny tribute to her professionalism at the last meeting; other officials were more stoic, not getting the humor of either situation.  They adjourned shortly thereafter.

[XLFD]

Facebook and there community standards are so lame.  A girl in a modest bikini on a flyboard apparently is against the rules.  I even lost this case on Facebook appeals court:  

[jfc123]

Yeah some tool that hates the truth reported you and the weak ass facebook team axed it. They are under a lot of fire due to their stupidity! Again, there should be no kayak stuff closer to the pier head then Madison and Water st! Its for sale! Contact me, includes a launch.

[Freedom Seeker]

That was a strange laughter by the mayor after your correcting the interim cm on not telling the truth about documents being produced, correcting the minute taker to use the action rather than personifying the act (difference between telling someone they lied or calling them a liar ... But to be more politically correct it could be said:. "that was a lie (or misrepresentation of facts)" and reminding the mayor that she wasn't very politically correct by calling you a pain in the ass even though the meeting was over the mic was on.

Mayor Holman's laughter maybe was a relief laughter, or a nervous laughter, or what psychologists call "a uniting laughter"-- reaction to get the group to agree. Amazingly very few laughed.

[XLFD]

As noted in yesterday's COLDNews, Holman has been a public servant in one form or another over her latter years, starting in city boards after being an involved citizen, then 13 years as a councilor-at-large, a couple of years plus as mayor.  What the young 'reporter' writing the story fails to relate is her gradual metamorphosis over the years from a regular person into somebody so detached from the actual concerns of the citizens. 

I saw this when I ran against her in 2011; even then she stood for nothing other than keeping the city juggernaut trampling over the desires and rights of citizens so that a select few can set the overall agenda.  Even though she has mellowed in moving from councilor to mayor, she has remained blind to Ludington's growing problems, deaf to the concerns of citizens, and mute to addressing corruption when it is pointed out.

[Freedom Seeker]

I don't know if that is a cut and paste fake picture, but not a bad picture of Holman maybe a few years back, but the symbolism is so true for the people of Ludington, unfortunately.  One of Holman's saddest legacies was not to speak up on the corruption at city Hall that led to the ppo against you, then when that failed in court, the letter of trespass by Shay and gang and maybe she was instrumental in the workplace safety act and subsequent settlement because they totally violated your rights Constitutional rights.  Seems like since Heather Vendor has worked at city Hall they've spent more time defending lawsuits than working for the people.  Just my opinion, but I think that was the apple that started the basket rotting at city hall and it makes the rest of the look bad.  Not saying that Shay didnt have his operational and administrative faults, but but covering up for staff was one of his worst deeds.  I wonder if he is covering up in Ottawa?  

How many years does it take for council members to comprehend the wrongdoing at city Hall that has cost the taxpayer plenty defending?  I hope the two new councilors will have their eyes and ears open and speak up when it needs to be done.  

[Freedom Seeker]

17% raise to the Community development director who as Secretary of the DDA allegedly gave her soon to be husband significant no bid $150k contract for gold signs downtown and now drives a new Mercedes while the average taxpayer can hardly pay the water and sewer increases doesn't look good and smells almost as bad as the sewer plant.  Consider that Mr. Brock.  Laugh about that Mayor Holman.

[stump]

Back before Holman was elected Mayor there was a meet the candidates running for a elected seat within the city of Ludington government. When Holman was asked a question, she blurted out  "I JUST WANT TO BE MAYOR" . The rest is history. You have to wonder who has the feeble mind, Holman or the people who voted for her. Thank God that her term is about to end. Hopefully the new elected Mayor has a better vocabulary and will treat the citizens of our city with respect.

[XLFD]

I appreciated Kaye's honesty when she blurted those six words out, and I believe she meant it.  She had no other agenda other than getting the spot that I can remember, so other than a few homilies about how well the city was moving along and how she wanted to keep it that way, the people narrowly chose her over the unknown Cheri Rozelle (who was defeated by twice as small a percentage than Wally Cain was this year, but chose not to have a recount). 

In my honest analysis, Cheri likely would have won if some folks weren't bothered by young Mayor Ryan Cox's resignation and worried Cheri would be either overwhelmed or lose interest in the position and the politics like Ryan did.  

[Freedom Seeker]

I kind of like the mayor saying "you're a pain in the ass" because it sets a precedent that the rest of the citizens and even young people can be justified in being rude, and maybe calling their teachers a pain in the ass or worse. I almost forgot the euphemism because I don't usually use either and was going to say "piece of shit". What's next? File that under raca with holey turbin. I still have a little gag reflex when I remember the great campaign slogan or blurt, but still her local colloquialism is interesting.  It will be interesting to see how X's public comment of three "pain in the asses" get recorded in official minutes.

[XLFD]

We should find out later in the day whether those PITA comments made the cut in the minutes.  My bet is that they'll be left out so that the previous minutes look more complete.  As I see it, I have two more meetings this year to get more PITA comments out and I am sure they will be fine with them if the PITA reference is to me and not an official, who as we know are the official pains in the asses.