The Place Where Ludington Talks

Marina and the Hendersons

The Father, The Son, and The Wholly Legal

Back in 2001, I remember John Henderson announcing to the rest of the Ludington Fire Department at a meeting that he was running for Mayor. I innocently asked him in passing at the end of the meeting about whether he would still be able to serve on the LFD if he got the job. He was an excellent firefighter, and I was concerned that he might have to resign due to a potential conflict of interest between the two jobs. At that point he hadn't really considered it, but was going to look into it.

He was elected that fall, and it was noted that he definitely had to resign from the County Commission, and eventually it was judged ( by City Attorney Anderson(?)) that he was able to serve on the LFD, but could not be LFD's Secretary anymore. It seemed reasonable at the time, and I was happy we retained a quality fireman.

But some people were troubled by this aspect. As Mayor, he exerted employment/disciplinary control over the Fire Chief (his father -in-law) according to the city charter. The Chief similarly exerted such control over the Mayor who remained a fireman. Hence, the Mayor/firefighter bossed the Fire Chief who bossed the Mayor/FF who bossed the Fire Chief... Both are in each others chain of command; meaning if one acts against the other, he has to worry about the other acting against him.
A circularity of power which could go against the public's interest and which Michigan law seems to invalidate by the Incompatible Public Offices Act, which say that one person can not hold incompatible offices as defined by: Incompatible Offices Def.. State law, however, does offer a proviso for those cities with less than 25,000 people which allows a public employee/official to be a volunteer firefighter and someone who exerts control over the fire department at the same time MCL 15.183.

By no means does this relieve the ethical conundrum produced, but it allows the retention of a good firefighter in a small city who just so happens to have political aspirations. It can, and did, however, invoke a measure of politics into the LFD which were sometimes uncomfortable to the members who joined to put out fires and rescue lives.

Nepotism: Family Interest over Public Interest

In the above scenario, situations may arise more easily not only due to the incompatible public offices but also due to the close relationship the two share. The concept of nepotism was part of former Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox's Model Ethic's Ordinances for Local Government AG of MI Ethics Ord . Section 2-12 states an Anti-Nepotism Policy: "

Unless the [name of governing body] shall by a two thirds (2/3) vote, which shall be recorded as part of its official proceedings, determine that the best interests of the [type of unit] shall be served and the individual considered by such a vote has met the qualifications for appointive office or employment, the following relatives of any elected or appointed officer are disqualified from holding any appointed office or employment

during the term for which said elected or appointed officer was elected or appointed: spouse, child, parent, grandchild, grandparent, brother, sister, half-brother, half-sister, or the spouse of any of them. This Section shall in no way disqualify such relatives or their spouses who are bona fide appointed officers or employees of the [type of unit] at the time of the election or appointment of said officer to elective [type of unit] office.

Many Michigan cities (such as nearby Fremont : Fremont's Nepotism Law) and many other states have solid rules against hiring and appointing relatives.

Private businesses are often run by families, passed down through generations-- so why is nepotism bad in government? Here's a short list of why, courtesy of City Ethics Expert, Robert Wechsler:

• Nepotism includes many of the basic government ethics issues: conflict of interest, misuse of office, preferential treatment, and patronage.
• Nepotism undermines public trust by making government look like a family business run not for the community, but for the families in power.
• Nepotism is bad for morale within the government organization. It goes far beyond hiring. It remains a problem every time raises and promotions occur.
• Nepotism and its cousin, hiring friends, are the leading methods of keeping other ethnic and racial groups out of local government.
• Nepotism puts officials in an awkward position when they don't want to hire a relative, but feel it's expected of them. Nepotism laws protect officials as well as the public.

Nepotism also exacerbates problems. A culture of loyalty and secrecy flourishes within families. As does crime. Nepotism in government naturally leads to nepotism in contracting, which means a failure to competitively bid, or bid-rigging. This can cost taxpayers millions of dollars a year. (http://www.cityethics.org/node/811).

The Mayor And the Marina

Our city code calls for an elected Mayor whose main power is the making of appointments. The mayor appoints people to fill most all of the boards and committees the City maintains, which are then almost always affirmed by vote of the City Council. The Municipal Marina Board is one of those, and this board oversees the operations of the Municipal Marina, and meets monthly with the Marina Manager and City Manager.

I was somewhat amazed to find out (through an FOIA request) that throughout the summer the City Marina has about 13 workers at the marina doing about 450 hours of work each week. This means that there is at least 4 workers there every hour of the week that they are open.

What do these workers do? Well, my request had also asked for document(s) that described the job duties that were performed by a certain employee there. None was provided, although the payroll and other data were. The marina manager has their job description, but the seasonal help does not. So last year, over 400 hours each week were paid with public money to these seasonal employees who seem to have no defined job. Who were these people, and where do they hide when you walk by the marina?

This is the top part of a sample weekly payroll from last year. The typical employee went to LHS (not surprising), and if they're old enough will likely be going to college, with GVSU being attended by at least five of them. If you are at all familiar with Ludington politics, you'll see a lot of surnames that look familiar.

From what I've gauged through peoplesearch, Allard, Wroble, Britton, and Barnett are offspring of -Wastewater Treatment Supervisor Rob Allard, Public Works Crew Leader Dave Wroble, Building Inspector Ed Britton, and LPD Chief Mark Barnett. If you check their names out on Facebook, you'll find that most all the MM workers are friends with each other. You'll also happen to notice that two have the last name of Henderson. Yes these are two of John Henderson's daughters, Brandy and Chelsea.

It seemed kind of weird that an equal opportunity employer like the Municipal Marina would be so stocked up with Hendersons and City employee's children, so the last month, before the marina season began, I did some research. Remember there are at least 12 seasonal jobs available, and I have made some FOIA requests regarding employment at the marina. Checking the LHS job bank, Michigan Works!, the LDN help wanted ads and the City website, there was no call for seasonal help at the marina.

Undaunted, the first half of this month, I sent an undercover teen to check at the Marina itself. I myself had cased the Marina by walking around it four different times during the hours they were open before this. You would figure there would be staff outside getting the Marina ready. But even though past year's payroll records indicated there would be 3-4 people around at that time of year, I didn't see anyone outside either time.

Neither did my help. They went inside and found one person who I am presuming to be Mr. Christensen, the Marina Manager. They were informed by him that the jobs at the marina were taken for this summer, but they were given an application they could fill out. It was a generic application form, letting us know that they were an Equal Opportunity Employer. When asked about the job's duties, it seems they were defined as "to do whatever he or the boaters needed to be done".

Summary

Public employees and officials have a duty to work for the public good rather than use their position for their own-- or their family and friends-- good. The Municipal Marina Board, complete with City Manager Shay and City Councilor Holman, allow the Ludington Municipal Marina to be guaranteed summer employment for the children of the City's officials/employees and their best friends. These positions cost the City $70,000 each year. There was a time when these positions were actually advertised to the public at large and perhaps anybody had a chance at these easy summer jobs; now you just need the proper pedigree.

Our most powerful elected official, Mayor John Henderson, thinks it is fair to be able to control who is on the Municipal Marina Board, have the Board okay the expenditure of nearly $830,000 taxpayer dollars on an unnecessary marina improvement of his devising, and have them hire his daughters (since 2005) without giving you or your children a fair opportunity for employment.

If so many of Ludington's leaders are able to look the other way at such unfair hiring practices taking place right under their nose, you have to wonder what other evils they can overlook. And what extent is the damage that has been done to the morally good people of City Hall, who have to accept the situation just so they can keep their jobs, or worse, become corrupted themselves by figuring out how to make 'the system' work for them as well.

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Permalink Reply by AQUAMAN on June 10, 2011 at 4:03pm

Just goes to show, even with the Nepotism plainly there with right or wrong names to boot, the arrogance to defy any changes continues into infinity. Have a nice day indeed, on the taxpayers dollars no less.

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Permalink Reply by XLFD on June 11, 2011 at 10:01pm

I don't think I mentioned this in the thread head, but the Marina Board consists of four members of the public appointed directly by the Mayor, the City Councilor who heads the Finance Committee (Kaye Holman has had that position over the last four years), the City Manager John Shay and the Mayor himself, the last two being ex-officio members. If you think the two Johns are oblivious to this or don't lead the direction of the Mun. Marina Board, you would be surprised that Santa Claus may not be real.