On the Ballot

[XLFD]

On Friday afternoon, I became the first candidate in the City of Ludington to file a completed and sufficient nominating ballot.  I am officially running for the office of Third Ward City Councilor. 

To get on the ballot I had to get twenty signatures of registered voters in the third ward in Ludington.  As an additional help, the city clerk, Deb Luskin, gave me a walking voters list that had the 1000+ registered voters in my ward when I went to city hall and expressed my intent to run. 

After looking through the list, I decided to keep close to home and use the signature search as an additional exercise to get to see whether the neighborhood was supportive of me or not.  It was largely a pleasant experience with me getting 24 autographs all from residences less than three blocks from my palatial estate on Dowland.  Only one time did I go to a door and get rejected outright.  It was made up for by a couple of times when I got treated especially nice.

When I took the two petitions with a dozen signatures each to the clerk, she had to check them to make sure the signatures were authentic and that the signers were legitimately registered in the Third Ward.  Nineteen of the people I had were on my voter list, but the five others claimed to have been registered in the Third Ward, so I had them sign. 

It turned out four of those people were mistaken about their data, and one other on my list had came back as a potential problem since they had been living in a different state recently, so verification of their registration needed to be checked by the state.  This left me at nineteen until that was resolved.   

But Clerk Luskin did point out that I hadn't signed my petition and I was qualified to do so.  This was good news, but I hesitated because I just didn't totally trust the guy I was signing for.  I got over that, signed on a new sheet, and then finished the process to become a bona fide candidate for office. 

Now this probably isn't a very interesting, entertaining, or educational story to most of the readers of this, but I want to put it out there as a final call to those who have an interest in taking back some of the control of a city government that keeps going further in the wrong direction.  A trained monkey like myself, vilified and defamed by city officials and the other local media, can get on the ballot with little effort in order to help my fellow citizens fight a corrupt tyranny. 

What's your excuse for not doing so?  What's your excuse for not urging someone you know, who would be a great official, into helping sort the mess out? 

This is the eleventh hour; after Tuesday April 12, you will not be able to get a nominating petition to get on the ballot for this year.  You also will need to get those twenty signatures by April 19, not a difficult task, but one that needs to be done quick.  If you run for the treasurer or at-large councilor, you will need an additional twenty signatures from anybody in the city. 

I appeal especially to those in the Fifth Ward.  Councilor Nick Tykoski is not only a no-show at a great number of meetings, but someone who has used his official position to advantage in getting work for his private business without lawful protocol being followed.  Yet he is (probably) running unopposed, all the while voting for all the tax-raising, rights-lowering litigation of the last five years.

[John Doe Jr]

Hope more people come forward today to take this city back.

[XLFD]

Rob Alway started off his "who's on the Ludington ballot?" article fairly strong, but then he forgot to edit his last few sentences.  He mistakes 'chose' for 'choose', an honest grammar mistake, but then mangles Richard Rathsack's name into "Dick Ward", thankfully he left that 'r' in the last name, or Councilor Rathsack may take it personally.  He took the 'r' out of "Krauch" and replaced it with an 's'.  Lastly, we find that Editor Alway predicts the expiration of the mayor, clerk and two councilors in 2018, when all that actually expires is their terms.  Great job, Rob! 

[Wonder Woman]

While the typos in the MCP story are disappointing, the real tragedy is the poor slate of candidates.  Uncontested races are never a good sign of democracy, but the Councilor at Large race is a shame.  Maybe I'll just write-in Dick Ward for Councilor-at-Large. 

[XLFD]

Tragedy is an understatement.  I double checked with the city clerk this morning to discover whether Lane Dulin in the Fourth Ward returned his candidate petition; he did not.  So what we have are two councilors who have made some extremely poor decisions on votes and ethical choices running unopposed (Tykoski and Krauch) and five 'newbies' into the race, four of which try out for the open seat rather than oppose three incumbents who have a free ride for four more years.

To be precise, however, two of those running for the at-large position come from 2nd ward, one comes from the 6th ward, and only Wallace Cain comes from a ward that has an unopposed incumbent, the 5th. 

This is a truly disheartening result when you consider all of the liberties the city has taken with all of our liberties in the past few years. 

[AQUAMAN]

Too many incumbents want more power, and more benefits, and don't deserve anyone's vote. They are mostly lazy, ineffectual sheep that just follow Shay's orders and requests. I guess Ludington gets what it deserves, no one wants to serve the city for a short few years, except the cronies. It's all our duty to do something like this, at least once in your life. Looks like we're going to get screwed another 4 years, esp. if Brandy also joins the losers at council.

[Willy]

I still think that Councilors should be paid a lot more than what they are getting. Most people won't give up their time and put forth the commitment required to do the job right. A larger salary would attract more people instead of the tiny number of people who are willing to tackle the job. After all anyone doing the job must give up their own time including family time.

[XLFD]

The low pay of the councilors may explain a little bit as to why they consider John Shay's words as gospel, even though it is often anything but.  The combined salary and benefits of the seven city councilors (less than $25,000) is one tenth of what the City Manager's office brings in each year for Shay and Steckel.  Shay makes over 40 times what each councilor brings in, yet legally, Shay is their employee. 

It's one reason why I would like to see the City Manager position scrapped in Ludington and elsewhere.  It's a progressive experiment that has led to unaccountability wherever it has been tried.  Unaccountability leads to corruption and inefficiency in a political body.  The quarter of a million salary could go in part to the mayor, whose office would need a full time participant, perhaps an assistant, and to help paying off the debt Shay has landed us into by not maintaining our facilities.

[Jasper]

Never understood the mayor's role and the city manager role. Of the two positions who has the most power in making decisions?

[AQUAMAN]

I think you guys may be missing the bigger picture here when it comes to serving your city, state, or country. Elected positions aren't supposed to make you a Millionaire. It's theoretically supposed to be a duty to yourself and your city, to oust corruption, make things better and safer, keep infrastructure a priority,  in this case that should prompt people into serving, nothing more. Most on this council already gave themselves a big raise a few years back, X had a thread on that very subject, again, violating the city charter's intent and rules. However, there could be underlying reasons for seeking office thru term limits, like most do nowadays. Some system of unjust payola/kickbacks/powerlust must be behind closed doors that we as citizens aren't privy to. The council mtgs. are bi-weekly or more, and some cmte. meetings are once a month or less, that's not a full time job by any means.

[XLFD]

In a city manager plan, almost all executive powers are conferred upon the CM.  The mayor is often left only with the 'powers' of chairing the city council meetings, being a ceremonial figurehead representing the city, and appointing some appointive positions.  Here is what Ludington's city manager powers are.

[Jasper]

So why the need for a Mayor? Why is a mayor voted into office, but not a city manager who has all this power on decisions that affect everyone. Seems a$$ backwards.

[woodsman]

  That's 100% correct.