Ludington Marina Board Cuts Annual Dinner

[XLFD]

Some detractors of the Ludington Torch often list our critical and cynical nature as their reason for doing so.  And although there is ample evidence in these pages that many of our topics are either contrary or adversarial as to how our local (mostly) political institutions are being run, this is primarily because of two reasons. 

First, the other local media has a tendency to accept the news releases and packaged Pollyanna propaganda that the agencies give them and offers them to the public without any kind of supplementary data, analysis, or second opinion.  The Ludington Torch digs further, sometimes uncomfortably so, and opens up such material for public discussion, getting reviews that buck the official line quite often.

Second, the local agencies have decided to unilaterally decide on the course of our community without due regard to notifying or informing the people.  Typically, when our leaders do things in secret, hide their records behind subterfuge, violate the rules, and otherwise go against their duties to the people who their decisions affect, they need to be called to the mat.  No other local media regularly does that unlike we do here. 

That's why I was pleasantly surprised with the Ludington Municipal Marina Board that met this morning at 11:30 AM at city hall.  Absent from the meeting were two of their five members, including Chairman Fred Hackert, and usual attendee City Manager John Shay who was involved with something involving the local rotary club of which he is a member. 

Those who know me, know I'm not a fan of the municipal marina.  I strongly believe that they have heavily unfair competitive advantages over our older, private marinas, which presents a problem that cannot be easily resolved.  This was aggravated last year when the municipal marina petitioned the state for over $1 million in help to replace their docks. 

But at this meeting, which had more discussion than usual even with the absences, they did something which probably won't be noted anywhere else beyond here, and gave me some hope that our politicians can sometimes do the right thing and tighten their belt, and be more open at the same time.  Before I heap this praise, however, some background is needed.

Since the previous millennia, the Municipal Marina Board would hold an annual fancy dinner with the city council with special invitations given to their spouses and perhaps a City of Ludington Daily News (COLDNews) reporter or two. 

Out of the invitations was the general public.  When I went to the city hall last April I was told that there was no meeting for the marina board that month, but in reality there was, and it was taking place at PM Steamers; they even took minutes at that meeting five days after I was told there wasn't an April meeting.  It never was noticed to the public and it was effectively in violation of the Open Meetings Act because their lack of notice to the public and the inherent exclusivity of their venue.

The marina fund, as it had in the past, paid the bill of the diners which amounted over $800 last year.  Admittedly, back at prior meetings this annual bill had been as high as $1700 when the marina fund paid the bar tab.  As you can see from the minutes of last year, it was mostly a social affair but, again admittedly, the marina board used it to present themselves in a more favorable light than the other city departments who normally present their annual reports at city council meetings.  Indirectly, it also sheltered the marina board from public critiques of their policies and their unfair competitive advantages. 

But today, the topic was brought up and the three marina board members present:  Chairman pro-tem Dick Boes, Avery Benedict, and Kaye Holman (who doubles as a city councilor, I hear) discussed doing away with the annual dinner and presenting their annual reports the way other departments do. 

Surprisingly after discussing the various pros and cons of discontinuing the tradition, they all decided that the roughly $1000 could be better spent on other items in their purview, and voted unanimously for the motion that Holman made with general concurrence from Marina Manager Christensen. 

I could believe that if the usual chairman and the city manager were there, it may have been a tougher sell, but for today at least, not only was a fiscally responsible decision made by a Ludington public body, but also a move towards greater transparency.  That small success should be looked upon with favor by a grateful public.

[Willy]

Thanks for taking the time to attend this meeting and writing an article about it. I wish I could share your enthusiasm but these pompous board members did no one a favor. The fact that they have succeeded in wasting the taxpayers money on numerous previous dinners doesn't make this small gesture seem all that positive. What they should do is reimburse the taxpayers for wasting their money paying for a night out for themselves. I think the bigger issue in your article is that they have been using tax dollars all these years by paying for their posh meals and we just found out about it. I didn't even know they had regular meetings. Did they discuss all the cronyism granted to the offspring of City officials by hiring them?  They may have just put on a show because you were there. These people cannot be trusted. As jfc123 says Ludington cares only about this area of the City when the potential for positive development of the bayou is ignored.

[shinblind]

You know how it works Willy.

After the city taxes the private owners of the bayou out of existence and confiscates the land, after that then the bayou area will have a Renaissance and the city will develop it to its full potential.  

In the meantime watch the former and current City Officials. When they start buying property in the area the time will be nigh.

(First time I ever used nigh in a sentence.)

[XLFD]

City boards and committees naturally become more accountable when they have people looking in on them, particularly when the people utilize a popular local website and are critical of the precepts of the organization.  Sometimes, just making the right FOIA request for information can make officials think about how they conduct business. 

That's what I think happened here; they were aware that I was interested in several particulars of last years unlawful meeting of the city council and marina board at PM Steamers; aware that they were in arrears of the OMA last year and many other years, and could easily have gotten called on it by anybody in the community.  And being that there is unrest among the private marinas that are forced into very unfair competition with the public marina, they could easily take such a measure up and have strong standing to do so in court.  The time is nigh for such action.