Objects in the Minutes are Closer to Fiction Than They Appear

[XLFD]

Websites dedicated to writing minutes of public meetings are fairly standard in saying that minute should be accurate, use neutral language and be consistent to be proper:

Accurate minutes of public meetings are a key tool for conducting the public's business in an open and accountable fashion. Minutes are a vital organizational tool for any government body, and they are a crucial way for citizens to review or examine public action taken on their behalf.  

Meeting minutes are written, accurate accounts of the proceedings that take place at meetings. They should record important details, decisions and assignments. Meeting minutes provide references for future meetings and clarification of previous meeting details. Written minutes can help prevent disagreements and misunderstandings because people can review the minutes to determine exactly what occurred at the meetings.

Minutes should be written in neutral, plain third party language.  From meeting to meeting, minutes should be written in a consistent format, writing style, and tone.

None suggest that minutes record things verbatim, rather they minimally record the basic essentials of who is at the meeting, their decisions and few other things, as noted in state law:

When the minutes record more than the minimum they should be internally consistent, fairly/neutrally recorded and accurate with that material.  One person should not have a full recitation of their comment with a favorable spin by the minutes-taker, when others get their points summed up in a sentence or two and stamped with the record keeper's disapproval.  It becomes even worse when comments are included that go against the normal rules of order.

Deb Luskin, Ludington City Clerk, appears to have done this at the last meeting of the city council on July 9th.  In the fore and aft comments, I had gotten up and I listed three specific points of John Shay's legacy involving violations of the Whistleblower Protection Act, the Open Meetings Act, the FOIA, and knowingly lying on a sworn affidavit (perjury) for nearly three minutes (see transcripts of all comments made here).   The minutes have me citing 5 points without any specificity:

Other than saying it was 'my opinion' which I never did (as all cases were documented in court records), this would be a fine summation (after changing the 5 to a more accurate 3)-- if she would have consistently summarized Former Mayor, current DDA Chairman, John Henderson's statement in a similar way.  Instead his equally long comment without many specifics other than his own personal observations/generalizations on another citizen was over three times longer on the minutes:

Highlighted are comments where the former mayor who led meetings of the city council for twelve years is calling another citizen vindictive, a twister-of-truth, and somebody who he has corrected on numerous occasions.  While the minutes relates he absolves the city manager of everything including making the decision to swear on and sign a false affidavit in his official capacity, and switches that blame over to his masters in the city council (but not himself, even though the ex-mayor was complicit in two-thirds of the events mentioned).   

The past three mayors have regularly said at the beginning of the public comment meetings that speakers must keep their comments directed to the chair.  Regular cities that actually spell out their rules of order, unlike Ludington, do the same and rule out 'personal comments':

As a city official, recall he chairs the DDA, Henderson bends the rules so that he can insinuate motives and infer a history of inaccuracy of another individual, when he could have used his time to actually refute the record or refer to an instance where he actually did correct me in the past, rather than spin the facts in a different direction away from him and his neighbor Shay.  He could have just said, Shay never perjured himself, had anything to do with the Workplace Safety Policy and never did all those things Jack Byers alleged.  But damn, that pesky record.

At the end of the meeting, my two minutes merited a line without any of the substantive material I spoke of:

But John Henderson, he not only got seven lines of self-centered drivel (the minutes reflect him thanking Shay, (but it was "we" in the actual transcript) but additional time from a city councilor's daughter (and a COL firefighter) in an unprecedented bending of the rules that I had tried during the Henderson years but was shot down.  

At the end of both comments he started clapping and inciting others to clap.  At a meeting held on October 26, 2015, Mayor Ryan Cox made it a point to state that the public withhold applause for speakers and emphasized that when some of the audience clapped for those speaking about rental inspections.  That's the etiquette I have followed since then and even before; I think I should start clapping freely in the future when somebody defends the charter or decries acts of public officials or aberrant public policy.  

Clearly, the minutes of the July 9, 2018 Ludington City Council meeting are not accurate, internally consistent, or neutral in their drafting.  One might expect that from a public meeting which effectively devolved into a tribute to one person who had no real accomplishments for the city.  The resolution and even Henderson could not bring out anything specific. 

I had five big anti-accomplishments, all explicitly documented; but it never fit the script that the city council made for the night.  And so they were taken out, but the personal attacks against the 'vindictive and exaggerating' citizen were left in.  That's fair and accurate in Ludington official terms.

As for Ludington City Manager John Shay, he was a very bad boy in the month of May, stealing from his still-current employers without shame.  But that's another documented story.

[John Doe Jr]

Absolutely Appalling!  I would sue Henderson and the City Counsel for willful and intentional defamation. That was nothing less than an Orchestrated character assassination of a Public person by a former Mayor, a City Manager, and his accomplices, The City Counsel.

[XLFD]

That's a fair and accurate depiction, but we won't have any of our united-against-the-people city officials debate the point.  All that was missing was Chief Barnett joining the feeding frenzy, I think his mind was on the taxpayer-subsidized cake and beverages waiting out in the hall.