The Place Where Ludington Talks
Oktet of Ludington Liquor License Violations, #6 of 8: Friday Night Lite Beer
This article is the sixth of eight articles on the violation of State of Michigan liquor laws by the City of Ludington by submitting knowingly insufficient or false data to the state as regards their application for a special liquor license for a special event. This negligence was compounded by Ludington's Chief of Police Mark Barnett certifying each and every one of these events by signing his approval after 'investigating the application'.
I am not a prude by any means, but there has been a shift away from the Ludington community throwing family-friendly events that can be enjoyed by all members of the public, into a series of special events spotlighting drinking which necessarily exclude parts of the public, often from the public squares and streets of our fair city. New events including the New Year's Eve Ball Drop, St. Patrick's Day beer tents, Oktoberfest, Friday Night Lives (starting this year), Ludington Area Art Council dinner theatres, and other drinking-centered events held outside of our local drinking establishments have popped up since then.
Such changes reflect an organized effort to change the direction of how Ludington is perceived, and one can soberly reflect that this trend does not help that perception. Back ten years ago, you could probably be hard pressed to see a handful of special events with drinks being served by Ludington publicly funded entities in twenty months. But a recent FOIA request to the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs (DLRA) shows that about 40 events have sought these special permits in the last 20 months.
Does this reflect that the current leadership of our community love to hit the bottle, or that the suppliers of beer, wine and spirit for these special events (who happen to serve as Ludington officials) are out looking for private gain? Not necessarily; but one should begin to question the agenda being covertly set around town. In our goals for representing Ludington as a great tourist destination, do we want to appeal to families or just appeal to the tourist looking for a drinking party?
We can't successfully do both. We should at least make sure our public officials follow the rules however, when they apply for liquor permits.
The sixth violation of liquor applications occurred during the last Friday Night Live (FNL). The event included the "Blessing of the Badges", where area law enforcement and fire personnel are featured. The FNL had their scheduled blessing presentation two hours into the festivities, and the emergency vehicles proceeded into a parade around the town shortly thereafter. And just after that, at nine o'clock, the drinking began, and lasted until midnight in the North James Plaza.
This sub-event was named the "James Street Plaza Garden Party", they specified the partiers must be 21 or older, and featured the band Single Malt Quartet to entertain the revelers the three hours. One can imagine that several of the badges gravitated to the garden after the motorcade was finished to celebrate their blessings with an adult beverage. Good for them if they did, but one has to wonder if the roads were safer that night for it.
Speaking of badges, Ludington firefighter/Mayor John Henderson and Ludington Police Chief Mark Barnett were signers of this event's liquor license. Henderson led a triumvirate of City officials that we've seen before in their capacity of secretary and witness, City Councilor Les Johnson and Assistant City Manager Jackie Steckel.
And Barnett's signature is on the certification that we have seen him sign before without any real interest in what church's officials have also signed on. In this case, they get the usual one pastor from the Community Church only.
Once again, no additional sheets are added for the four other churches in the 500 ft. vicinity of this garden party. Two of these churches are located to the north on James Street: the Reorganized Church of Jesus of 201 N James and the Grace Episopal Church of 301 N James (I use the same map from the Oktoberfest/New Year's Eve events, also sponsored and signed by the same cast of characters using the same one church):
And to the south, you have the two churches noted prior: the Greater Life Church at 208 S James, and the People's Church at 115 W Loomis Street.
And once again, the public paid for this festivity, as the budget records displayed in the 8-26-2013 council packet, the public paid at least $1500 for this three hour party:
Ted Malt was the performer for the garden party, the State took $80 for their licensing (which looks to be just 'rubber-stamping' applications), City Official Budde Reed's Ludington Beverage supplied the beer, and once again 'petty cash' of $400 is about the usual amount they've spent on liquors and spirits in the past, giving that to City Councilor/ DLB Secretary Les Johnson's business (AJ's Party Port). Now that he's a city councilor, his business isn't ever mentioned in these records as the beneficiary of the funds he has control over. Other government agencies might consider that unethical, but for Ludington's City Hall, unethical is the normal way of doing business.
More of the series:
Views: 182
© 2024 Created by XLFD.
Powered by
