Mayor John Henderson of Ludington: A Leap Back

[XLFD]

I had the privilege of sitting through a half-hour power point presentation noticing the accomplishments of Mayor John Henderson, narrated by none other than his Honor himself, and made by his eldest daughter.  I have got a copy of the power point presentation presented at the city council meeting on December 16, 2013, and I have decided to narrate a much different narrative about what those accomplishments actually were. 

I swear the power point I present will take less time, and bring more reliable knowledge than the mayor's, but feel free to check his out in the video from this thread.  I offer this offering on the twilight of his mayor's career to set the record straight about what was actually accomplished over the last twelve years under his leadership or willing participation therein.  I will also be showing the vigorous agenda of what Mayor Henderson set out to accomplish twelve years ago, and how close he came to accomplishing these goals in a companion piece, and let you judge how successful he actually was.

I found it slightly ironic that the mayor used the SS Badger as the focus in the picture of his look back, being that Lake Michigan Carferry Vice-President Don Clingan rode interference for him at the council meeting where this power-point was showed.  And ironic since during Henderson's twelve years, the LMC ran into several challenges, including a government-backed competitor ferry service between Muskegon and Milwaukee, plus an energized EPA looking to throw water on the Badger's coal-fired hull.  The latter being almost fatal to the enterprise. 

He leads off by commending the council and staff, and boasting a variety of cohesiveness and efficiency, but here is the reality.  Council committees lead to an appearance of unity among the city council, since most of the work is done in these three-councilor committees, and packaged neatly before it comes in front of the public at the bimonthly meetings.  Council committees do not have to abide by the Open Meetings Act, and it is very hard to defeat recommendations that come to the full council from a committee.  The appearance of unity and/or vision by committee action is more than displaced by the loss of public input and knowledge of what is going on in crafting policy. 

Efficiency was helped along by some of the realities of what was happening, not by any expressed desires of the mayor late in his tenure.  The reduction of construction beginning in 2008 led to the Building Inspector and Assessor's offices sitting idle the majority of time, and the resulting shortfall that led to the City streamlining in 2010 led to the positions becoming part-time.  A former Building Inspector's lawsuit  settled in 2008 (Jack Byers) concerning violations by many of the pictured officials of the Open Meetings Act and Whistleblower's Protection Act may have also led to the office's disfavor and the axe coming down on it. 

The three year budget plan was not really an innovation since it was already part of the calculus prior to Mayor Henderson.  The three-year capital plan was already in the charter, and before 2002 these were already part of the budget.  Even though the current budget does project a couple of more years in the future, the council only votes for the upcoming year, and is not held to the constraints of those other projections in future budget votes.  Before John Henderson, the budget planners obviously used similar projections. 

Technical upgrades have mostly happened in the clerk's office, where the city has developed an acceptable website for itself, but the manager's office has worked backwards, making those members of the public who want to receive public records electronically have to pay for expensive paper copies in a spiteful manner to quell curiosity and blacken transparency.  If technical upgrades have been used for the public's benefit otherwise, I would like to hear about it.

In Cartier Park, the creation of the multi-use paved pathway was almost solely a project of the Planning Commission, grants being secured from the state more than likely with the help of Tom Coleman.  I can empathize with those who believe it is an improvement to the park, as now more people, even handicapped people, can enjoy the scenery.  Yet as a frequent visitor to Cartier before the improvement, the pavement is a detraction from my enjoyment of the park and what it had to offer in its myriad of foot and bike trails, now mostly ignored because of the omnipresence of the paved trail.

The gazebo is a transplant from North James Street, looking somewhat neglected nowadays, and the fish docks are also in disrepair.  Both are seldom used for any purpose.  The campground hasn't suffered many renovations since Henderson took over, some new pavement and upgrades, that the general Ludington public has paid for.  But now we are not able to even use the park during the offseason. 

The dog park fiasco, where a portion of the park was set up to become a dog park showed a complete disregard for Ludington's charter which says that such a move needed the approval of the electorate, not just a vote of the dog-eared council.  It also showed that a Ludington public officer (Joe Moloney) can represent a private organization and use his office and influence to secure public lands for private use.  This is not something the mayor should be proud of. 

The Mayor's Youth Advisory Council-- when was the last time you heard of them?  On January 21, 2008, the City Council met at Peterson Auditorium, but since then they have been pretty much an afterthought, one of the YAC-kers attending the meeting about once every year since, according to the minutes, and never contributing to the discussion or public policy.   The YAC is not a bad idea, because our youth's importance is often overlooked, but just take a look at what they have done in twelve years.  Supplied themselves as volunteers and as recipients to a scholarship program (does anyone else wonder whose three daughters may have benefitted from this program?). 

John Henderson wanted the Skate Plaza as it is, and should be recognized for that fact, managing to get money from groups as diverse as Dow Chemical (his employer) and the Ludington Municipal Marina (whom he exerts power over), and others.  Now our kids won't move out of the area to seek better places to do skateboard tricks.

And, of course, you can thank your YAC for all those needless/nuisance bicycle ordinances passed back in 2003 and 2004.  "Trick riding" whatever that is, is now a civil infraction (sec. 58-159), as is riding on any sidewalk in the downtown (sec. 58-157), not dismounting when appropriate (!?- sec. 58-156), and not being registered/licensed with the city (sec. 58-160), among others.  The mayor's group effectively made a lot of restrictive, ill-defined legislation that makes what used to be legitimate bicycle riding against the law. 

Quite an accomplishment if you hate freedom, and a good reason why this group should have been named the Henderson Youth.  It should be noted, that this was done during a period where Brandy Henderson was quite active in the YAC, and is why she would likely be proud of it.

The Ludington Municipal Marina was existing before Mayor Henderson, and operating within the charter boat standards set by the state.  When that expired in 2002, the mayor didn't realize that until this year, when the illegality of their operation at the marina was caught by private marina owners.  During the last twelve years, the City Marina have been blessed with several gifts courtesy of the taxpayers of our area or the State, including an ill-conceived transient dock that cost nearly a million dollars and the life of a Chinese visitor to the area back in 2012.

Meanwhile, with their benefits of cheap gas, no taxes, and state grants for just about anything beyond normal operating expenses, the city marina has unfairly competed with the already-established private sector marinas for over thirty years, and violated many of the existing agreements they have had with the State and their competitors.  And let's not forget the nepotism that Mayor Henderson has allowed to exist during his terms, having his daughters earn big bucks at the marina, while yours are trying to find minimum wage work.  is this helping the have-nots, John Henderson?

Community partnerships is just a code word for saying these are the people we have helped with your tax money, by having them helping us with sponsoring our events and/or not moving from our area.  Brandy misspelled "Straits", but the ordinances for tax abatements and their cousins given to them and the other two below them were not, so their tax burden went to your back.  

Tye's Signs is not even a business that is established in Ludington, but the Tykoski's love the positive portrayal of their partnership, not the negative portrayal of cronyism that it actually was.  A city official is approved for a $150,000 sign contract, without any fair bidding process, after doing over $15,000 of work without a contract.  But then again, their never was a contract drawn up between the two entities.  Partnerships like this are called corruption in more enlightened areas.

The Mayor's biggest accomplishment in his first year, according to himself back in 2002, was the establishment of the lifeguard program at Stearn's Park, yet it isn't even mentioned here.  That was because he stood mute while the City Manager took out the rescue capabilities that it proved they had even during the year the program was discontinued.  The result was that three people drowned within the confines of Stearn's Park the very next year, one that wouldn't have if lifeguards had been present.  Life rings placed on the lighthouse pier is an improvement in safety, but the beach patrol, who cost more, but patrol and do less than the lifeguards, are what we had before Henderson came, and said were inadequate at that time. 

As with the dog park, the skate park should have gotten voter approval if the city charter were to be followed by officials during this mayor's terms.  The list of community partners along with Henderson-influenced enterprises and the donors to this park is remarkably similar, which could provide an argument for quid pro quo.

The walkway was put in to help handicapped people use the beach by a private concern, and was attempted to be used by the City Manager as a community match when he applied for a state DNR grant.  However, he also said we had handicapped accessible restrooms when there was none near the walkway.  To make this come true, he agreed to spend about $100,000  to modify a men's and lady's room in the north beach concession hut.  How do you rationalize spending that amount of our taxpayer's money to modify two bathrooms we rarely use? 

The downtown was John's favorite pastime, and if you like siphoning public money from the people of the city and the county to give to downtown businesses the City favors, then you'll like John's work here and believe it's a good thing to keep him on the DLB.  When there wasn't enough money available for this purpose, they upped the tax increment financing percentage drastically, without giving the community proper notice, and thereby violating the law.  The yearly manipulations of the North James Street Plaza is enough to make one's head spin and wonder about how much of the downtown money is being wasted converting it from brick road, to stamped concrete, to a mix, to a green space. 

Downtown events may at first glance look as beneficial, but these events are funded by the same millage and TIF funds used by the DLB with little oversight.  Witness Friday Night Live records that show taxpayer money was used to buy t-shirts, pop and items from DLB members and sold back to the public for going into private pocketbooks.  The same was did for the New Year's Eve Ball Drop, nearly $15,000 spent, but nothing received back as revenue to the city, and plenty of money sent over to DLB members.  And as they sell liquor and beer at most of these events, they need liquor licenses, most of which they do not fill out legitimately, thanks to Mayor Henderson's oversights.

 

And besides all the favored businesses that received tax abatements, and the favored officials that received a pass and commendations from the mayor when they acted against ethical norms or the law (such as Councilor Tykoski and his Community Development Director wife, Aaron Sailor, Matthew Warmuskerken, John Shay, to name but a few), the producer of this power point presentation, has perhaps the fondest memories of these twelve years.

Since she started out being the most influential Youth Advisory Council member who always landed a sweet summer job at the City Marina for years before transitioning through jobs with the chamber of commerce, the Downtown Ludington Board, and the Ludington Convention and Visitor's Bureau without really showing any notable degree of competence in either of the positions.  But it just goes to show you that Mayor John Henderson did have the influence to do a lot of things for certain members of the city of Ludington when he put himself behind the task.

[Willy]

You can't forget his support for the workplace safety ordinance which is a major violation of the Constitution and one of the worst pieces of legislation to rise out of the den of characters  called the City Council with Henderson at it's helm. And also the fact that it is still being held over your head even as of today is, in itself, a testament to the vindictiveness  and incompetence that exit at Ludington's city hall. Very nice laying out this article.

[XLFD]

I can't forget that, but he and his daughter seems to have overlooked this aspect of the mayor in the power point presentation.  

It's odd that he did, since it contributed so much to the safety of city workers-- by violating the basic civil rights of the people by making a law wherein the City Manager can bar any citizen from a public facility for anything, even a perception that someone runs a website that "insights a mob mentality". 

When it was in force, I was blocked from attending (also in violation of the Open Meetings Act) twenty-eight city council meetings, all meetings of the Downtown Ludington Board, Planning Commission, Municipal Marina Board, etc.  This was done with full knowledge and approval of the mayor, who believed my criticism of his ethical lapses and policies were enough to warrant such action.  All City of Ludington officials who took part, as you have noted, have never apologized for the slight to the Constitution or to me that they willingly proceeded to make with that policy, although they did agree to send me $15,000 to settle.  That obstinacy, incompetence  and vindictiveness is still very present at City Hall, despite Mayor Henderson's departure.