Mayor Candidate Forum: Showcase on Ho-Hum

[XLFD]

On Tuesday night at 7:00 PM, 7-16-2013, the four Ludington mayor candidates had a debate... sort of.  The sponsors of the get-together was the City of Ludington Daily News (COLDNews) and the Ludington/Scottville Chamber of Commerce, which had the two moderators for the event Jeff Evans, Publishing Editor of COLDNews and Kathy MacLean, President of the chamber.  This was held at the amphitheater at the beautiful Waterfront Park, and featured candidates Wally Taranko, Dave Kosla, Pete Engblade, and Ryan Cox.

 

 

The newspaper's record of obedience to the city officials, at the expense of their supposed duties to the citizen readers, along with MacLean's own position as the Treasurer of the Ludington Downtown Development Authority (not to mention the beneficiary of a lot of taxpayer money via her official friends in rehabilitating her holding at 102 W Ludington Avenue-- before she held title to the building), meant a lot of softballs were likely to be pitched dealing with economic development canards, praise for the current administration, and few meaty question dealing with getting the City back on track after the disastrous last few years of the Shay/Henderson administration (since they have been generous to both sponsors).

 

Even the questions from the audience were pre-diluted for hygiene purposes, though in truth I didn't even submit any myself since I am sure they would not touch any I thought were essential to ask.  The most cogent thing asked was a question about bidding out contracts or going with contractors that the City was already doing business with, and they diluted that by asking candidate Engblade about bidding out the garbage hauling contract in 2002, instead of giving it to the old contractor, as if that was a bad thing. 

 

If you recall, the old hauling contractor upped their amount and no other bids were received.  This was primarily because the City Manager situation was in transition at that time, and the management of the bidding was very suspect.  At the debate, candidate Taranko said the most inaccurate statement by claiming that the current hauler was the only hauler within 100 miles that would haul our garbage.  Tell that to Darrell Fenstermacher and the dozen plus other contractors that meet that criteria.

 

I couldn't help but glance over at Nick and Heather Tykoski, city employees that benefitted by the no-bid contract procedures adopted by the current administration, during this discussion.  They were sitting to the right of me a little ways back, and I saw that they were looking my way.  I no doubt will be accused of 'staring' at them and threateningly and intimidatingly chuckling.

 

MacLean's and Evans' questions that weren't from the audience were mostly insipid and self-serving ones that had most of the candidates agreeing with each other.  I can't recall, for example, any questions they asked where candidates Taranko, Engblade, and Cox disagreed with each other significantly. 

 

Kosla bucked the trend, by explaining his conservative ideals and how he would apply those.  He explained how important it was to get community involvement, as a normal politician would, but then detailed a plan to bridge that gap.  His call for getting an open and responsive government, his call for fiscal restraint, and his pledge to take his oath of office very seriously, was a very different mesage than any of the other candidates.  He may have very well set himself up as the best candidate for those who are wanting a change from what we have had over the last few years. A contingent of the 75 people in the audience were wearing his campaign's recognizable red shirt.

 

In a yes/no vote, each candidate voiced support over the West End project, designed to take $3 million of mostly local money to develop the far end of Ludington Avenue.   This surprised me because nobody I know of supports the development when they learn the cost and scope of it. 

 

But as noted, the questions were more arranged to showcase style over substance, and about the only thing I got out of it was that three of three of the candidates I thought were different, were actually very similar, and indicated that they wanted the direction of Ludington to continue on Henderon's wagon ruts.  As Kathy MacLean stated:  "It was a Love-Ludington-Fest" (that I helped direct)".  It definitely wasn't a debate, and it definitely didn't bring out the majority of issues affecting our citizens.

 

For those who want more of the nut and bolts over this mostly colorless debate please check out this article from MCP:   Square-Off  The COLDNews, which proclaimed it a "showcase night" has their story presented here:  Showcase

We will try to post video or audio when it becomes available.

 

[XLFD]

My early reads on some of the candidates seem to have been off.  When I was making my decision to go for it or not, I presumed that besides Taranko (and Holman who officially dropped out before me) the other three would be 'change' or 'outsider' candidates, which would make it a four way race for the second spot out of the primaries.  Now it looks like there are three candidates fighting for the inside track.  Kosla once again impressed me as someone getting into politics for the right reasons.

[Willy]

Good job X.

[XLFD]

Thanks.  One of my two computers gave up the ghost, and it happened to be the newer one, so I have been having to deal with a slow five year old computer that has a faulty 'e' and 's' and 'z' keys (making it an irritating chore to write "sneezes") over the last couple weeks, and the loss of some of my data. 

Thankfully, I recently got a check for $15,000 from John Shay and friends to help me through this technological blight, and will have the new E-Torch computer up and burning shortly.

[AQUAMAN]

That's funny stuff X, get-r-done. Maybe Shay has an outlet online for new supercomputers at bargain prices, unlike the COL contracts of recent, lol.

[Johnny]

Wouldn't that check really be from us, the City Tax Payers, I don't believe that John Shay and his "friends" for you an absurd $15k check.  I am guessing that the check was from the city of Ludington and not Shays bank account.  Not only am I paying for people around the country not to work and collect money and shop with their bridge card, I am now paying for a new computer for you.

What a Country...

 

You're Welcome...

[AQUAMAN]

The way it stands now, yes, the COL is the payor. The payor's trustee and hired employee, made the obvious legal errors, which became big expensive mistakes. If the money had come out of Shay's pocket directly on two losses, perhaps he would adjust his actions into the future. As it stands now, he will simply continue to make the same errors, as there is no punishment, neither professionally, nor financially, to curb his attitude. Plus he has the full backing for this type of behavior from the Mayor, and the city council. What a town, and no, we're not welcome to make public comments at cc mtgs. that go beyond 5 minutes, nor might expose these injustices for the entire public to know. Thank you too.

[XLFD]

To be precise E Murph, the check is from the City's liability insurer, MMRMA, Michigan Municipal Risk Management Association, the same place their attorney fees were paid for.  Technically, no taxpayer funds were used directly, since the City pays its sizable fees into this 'liability insurance' each year whether I sue the City Manager or not for his transgressions. 

As with most insurance providers, they do gauge what your premiums are by looking at the risky behaviors you allow.  Allow me an analogy:  If you let your trained attack dog out and he regularly bites people, it is likely your insurance premiums will rise when you get a bunch of lawsuits against you for the damage that you caused by your negligence; perhaps they'll drop you entirely as a bad risk after a couple lawsuits where you have shown no indication to change your behavior in the future.

The City of Ludington sent out its attack dog with its slanderous bite back in February 2011 in an effort to silence the critic who pointed out their illegal and unethical behavior in actually taking public dollars.  The attack dog then got up at the end of a recent meeting and bit once again. 

The City violated the Open Meetings Act with a secret E-mail scheme to get into a nearly $100,000 contract and admitted to the same in February 2013 when I sued them, and my fees, and their fees were paid for by MMRMA.  Months later I made a point of order that they would once again violate the OMA if they deliberated and discussed issues in the illegal meeting that followed.  They decided to go forth anyway, despite the "DANGER" sign in front of them.  I can offer other older examples.  Thank you for your understanding the facts.

[XLFD]

WMOM radio is interviewing the candidates in the morning all this week.  This morning, going first, was Dave Kosla, and I didn't really get much more out of the interview other than what he's already went into before.  It was revealed that he has a bunch of coke paraphernalia around his house.  That's coke as in Coca Cola-- you think he would actually admit to the other with all the other mayor candidates having police backgrounds and him with that long-haired-hippy look?

Wally Taranko will be interviewed at around 8:45 AM tomorrow.  I would like to see some questions asked about some of these recent lawsuits he was part of involving the Letter of Trespass or the OMA.  Or the other lawsuits involving the LPD, which he spent years as Chief on-- when it was respected.

[AQUAMAN]

The interview/debates seem about worthless, as does most of the responses. Almost dedicated to script. The repeated "visionary" stances make me sick. Who really has a "vision for the future"? So, go figure, and make your own assessments, as to whom told the tales, and the truth. Not really rocket science, more like common sense, at least to me anyhow. We see most pondering to the local digest, not the real truths. Kosla sure does seem to have a differing slant though. Pete, disgusted with your voting for more of the same, thought you were really objective/conservative, and differing in this administration's obvious actions, esp. on the westerly waterfront proposal. That in itself, is not a good thing, imho. It's quite contrary to the local's wants, and needs. Plowing down a sand dune in downtown, doesn't exactly bestow my trust, just for another sidewalk, in place of local's beaches that are at bay from the main beach of 500 guests that are tourists.

[XLFD]

I've heard of 'canned responses' for candidates answering questions, but it almost seemed as if the questions at the COLDNews/Chamber of Converse forum were canned as well. 

Another interview with current 2nd ward Councilor Wally Taranko this morning yielded very little.  Wally has a record of what he believes in in his service to the City and his votes as a councilor, so I was miffed a bit that he was asked questions about tax abatements and other crap that he's already shown his hand, so to speak, by his actions, or allowed to follow the same tracks he used during the other forum. 

Pete Engblade has to do something special in the next week to survive the primary.  The mix of candidates right now works against him; his base has been compromised by his lackluster performances so far.  He interviews at WMOM (102.7 FM) at around 8 AM tomorrow. 

It's a pity that all of our local media have to pull their punches or risk being blacklisted by the local governments and business cabals.  The two survivors of the primary, and I believe Taranko will be one of those, will get some real questions from The Ludington Torch in September/October.  The real question is:  Will we get answers?