More 'Open Meetings Act Blues' for Ludington

[XLFD]

The Michigan Supreme Court rendered Governor Gretchen Whitmer's executive orders meaningless this last Friday, this includes the most recent ones dealing with holding public meetings remotely, such as EO 2020-129 issued on June 18th, which effectively replaced an earlier one that first showed up in March.  Between March and now, the city council has been using Zoom twice a month to hold their regularly scheduled meetings with city officials and attendees using computer devices to simulate an in-person meeting without anybody having to leave their home.  The City of Ludington (COL) has been substantially compliant with the rules as regards their city council meetings.

Other public meetings of import have not been compliant throughout the six months, and I brought some of this to the city council's attention at their September 14th meeting, where I informed them that I had went to the Downtown Development Authority (DDA) meeting for that day and nobody was at the dark basement where it was supposed to be being held at.  They were actually meeting at the time I was in the basement, but almost everyone was doing it on a Zoom location that wasn't made available anywhere, not on the city's webpage or their bulletin board-- you had to have a special invitation from Jen Tooman.  The mayor admitted the oversight, and the COL Facebook page actually noticed the October 5th DDA meeting held earlier today on September 15th and gave Zoom directions.  

Now, nobody can really claim that the September DDA meeting was held in compliance with the Michigan Open Meetings Act (OMA), but today's meeting, which was held in Zoom format, also failed-- even if we allow scheduled Zoom meetings to be still considered legal if properly done, after the supreme court ruling.  From the EO:

"If a public body directly maintains an official internet presence, the public body must, consistent with and in addition to any other applicable notice requirements under the OMA, post advance notice of a meeting held electronically on a portion of the public body’s website that is fully accessible to the public. The public notice on the website must be included on either the homepage or on a separate webpage dedicated to public notices for non-regularly scheduled public meetings or electronic meetings and accessible through a prominent and conspicuous link on the website’s homepage that clearly describes its purpose for public notification of those non-regularly scheduled or electronic public meetings." 

Monitoring their website, the homepage has had nothing on today's meeting, nor has it ever made it to the Non-Regularly Scheduled Meetings page.  The latter has had no NRSMs for the length of the shutdown, while the homepage has had very few of the many 'rescheduled' meetings held in Zoom format.  So even though there was an early notice on Facebook, it doesn't matter, this meeting was not properly noticed on their official web page, nor did the COL allow the general public to join in, only those who are on Facebook and who like the COL government page and who may have noticed a Facebook post nearly a month ago.

The extent of the OMA violations are numerous and worthy of note since I do have an OMA lawsuit against the COL seeking injunctive relief (effectively asking the court to order them to quit breaking the OMA because they keep doing it!).  One of the councilors named in the lawsuit (Brandy Miller) also happens to be a member of the DDA, which helps to show that her initial violations were made intentionally, since she doesn't take simple precautions to stop these additional violations. 

The DDA had three special meetings not held at the regular times.  If you had no special invitation, you never knew about these meetings on May 26 and June 26 and August 27.   There were no directions publicly given to attend the Zoom conference.  Regular meetings held on June 1st and August 3rd via Zoom were never accessible to the public.  

Other committees and boards may be meeting via Zoom, such as the Planning Commission, the Tree Advisory Board, and the Marina Board, but it is not readily discernible from the minutes whether they are or not.  That will have to be determined.  It should be noted that several DDA meetings are transcribed as if they took place in the city hall basement, like the one I went to, but the minutes are actually telling fiction.  

[Willy]

Thanks for your hard work X.

Two things stand out as being obvious when it comes to leftists and dictators. The first is secrecy. Planning and controlling Governments and controlling people is much more easily done when people are left out of the Governmental process. This has been going on for years all around the World, and across the U.S. and even closer still, right here in Ludington. A certain mindset wants to be in control and not have their agenda's disturbed. The best way to accomplish that is to secretly carry out projects and craft controlling regulations under a dark cloud. We find these same people in Ludington who operate just  like those  in Washington, who prefer to control others without due process. The second is lack of empathy or should I say, they don't give a crap about what the public thinks, wants or is concerned with. Take Whitmer as a prime example. She takes it upon herself to shut down the State without the consent of the people or their representatives. After ignoring the legislatures and then ignoring a massive backlash by the people in the form of millions of people protesting about her unconstitutional shut down, she tells the people to go p_ss off. Even after the Supreme Court tells her she is wrong she is still battling like an alley cat trying to retain her control over us. She is a perfect example of the leftist / Marxist mindset. She is going to do what she wants and doesn't care how it affects the citizens. People like her are a danger to Democracy and freedom just like the Ludington City officials who continue to ignore the law even though they know better. And we would still be under Ludington's dark cloud if not for X.

[Freedom Seeker]

Very well said, Willy. Thanks X for keeping on top of the OMA violations, even through the pandemic. I think Ludington Council and administration has taken advantage of the pandemonium to do their own thing and not include the citizens. There were plenty of opportunity to have outdoor meetings during the summer, much like the County just did with the Dow land recreation meeting. I'm disappointed that the city did not try to reach out in an innovative way, even once but it seems like they hid deeper in their basements.

[XLFD]

The interesting take I have found on further research is that the only board or committee who seems to be in definite arrears for any meeting is the DDA.  The Planning Commission, Tree Advisory Board, Municipal Marina Board seem to have been following their regular meeting schedule and doing so in-person if they are not called off.  Ironically, those two people in charge of getting the DDA ready for these meetings (Heather Tykoski and Jen Tooman) are supposed to be the most tech-savvy of the city hall bunch, but they can't even prepare a proper electronic meeting notice seven months into a pandemic.

[Freedom Seeker]

Maybe the City of Ludington learned something from being sued for OMA violations!  I was talking about reaching out to citizens with an outdoor meeting like the County had.  City is too lazy or secluded to reach out to citizens?

Maybe the DDA should be sued right of their own pockets so they learn a lesson with an attitude like, "who is going to check me Boo?" Or am I confusing officials?  That attitude is an outright challenge, a most arrogant attitude that says, "I am, we are, above the law, and we will do what we want."