Preview of November 9, 2015 City Council Meeting

[XLFD]

I rarely furnish straight news without a twist, but along with the other area news media I get the Ludington city council packets on the Friday afternoon just before a Monday council meeting.  Typically, the City of Ludington Daily News (COLDNews) will run their own article regarding what is scheduled for the meeting or the Mason Clown Depressed (MCDP) will put one up regarding important things happening at the meeting.  The MCDP will often have a story by Friday evening, the COLDNews almost always has their preview in the Saturday paper.

This week, neither of those outlets have anything about the upcoming meeting, leaving an informational vacuum for the public.  Whereas, that in itself is nothing new, they usually tell the public at least what's in store for us when the council gets through with their meeting.

Perhaps they were daunted by the size of the packet itself which was over 200 pages Council Packet Nov. 9, 2015 but the majority of the mass is from next year's budget for the City of Ludington, which will be presented to the council this meeting and voted on in about a month at December's first meeting on the seventh.

One can quickly get a feel of the meeting's topics by looking at the very first page, summarizing the meeting in agenda format.  As you can see there's quite a few things going on, here's a brief recap:

Hearing on MSHDA Grant Application:   This was announced with no real explanation of what it entails at the last meeting, the only clarification of what's going on is the council's declaration in the packet on page 12:

As far as I can tell, the HP&R program is one like the the City of Portage has already in place.  If so, the housing program provides up to $25,000 in home buyer and rehabilitation assistance to households who purchase and occupy a home located in eligible neighborhoods.

Assistance is provided to participants in the form of a second MSHDA mortgage, which is a 10-year forgivable, no interest, deferred loan.  Applicants must be residents of Mason County, complete a homeownership class and have their mortgage and project approved by MSHDA prior to closing.

As noted in his resume, appointed Fourth Ward Councilor Michael Krauch taught homeownership classes for MSU Extension before becoming regional director of that organization.  This housing initiative hopes to capitalize on the decrease of affordable rentals in the area created by their other housing initiative (the rental inspection ordinance) by making it more enticing to purchase a property.  End result is that people who can't afford to attain or upkeep a house get a house because it's cheaper than renting, a lot of tax money is spent to help them keep that house (didn't we learn anything from 2008?), the local government gets 25% or more in administration fees, and teaching programs like the MSUE offers gain more tax money for themselves. 

These are the housing initiatives we are likely to see coming from our city leaders, where money from all (taxes) go to a select few to patch up their other attempts at social engineering.  If the government stayed out of the mix, the housing market would stabilize over time, and the money saved in taxes could actually go into people maintaining their properties.

The 2016 City budget comes after this, I will be looking over it in the next month, feel free to look at it now and submit a comment or question during that time in this or other articles. 

The Hazard Mitigation Plan is tucked behind the budget starting on page 152, but is worthy of a close look to see whether our local county and city government plan on using some emergency to snatch more of your personal and property rights.

Such a plan, created by mostly appointed bureaucrats, may find itself used to mitigate the hazard your otherwise innocent actions pose to the society, perhaps in the name of global warming or social inequality.  The review has a listing of all known disasters/hazards in the county since our inception and ranks Ludington's hazard index.  When you review the 50 pages plus of material, are you thankful that they have done such research and regimentalization, or frustrated that these well-paid officials have so much extra time to do so?

201 Second Street, Edgar Struble Property:  Just a notice there will be another public hearing for the OPRA district next meeting.

Raising rates of Cartier Campground:  Ironic that a mostly rustic campground has to raise rates to cover increased electrical costs, but if it's still competitive enough to be filling up, why not? 

Copeyon Park/Consumer's Energy shared property:  Over time, this will cost the taxpayer a little, but provide that the Copeyon Park area will look better, as the Ludington DPW or contractor will be groundskeeping some of Consumer's property.  Basically a win for all.

Sculpture for City (Rotary) Park:  the council will likely approve the installation of a bronze statue depicting a young boy holding an umbrella over a younger girl, to be installed at the fountain area where the water is currently up and running.  The $47,000 donated statue will allow water to flow through it and cascade over the umbrella.

Five year recreation plan ready for review:  The packet indicates that it is viewable at the city's website, though I could not access it at all even though a dedicated space has been made for it:  http://www.ludington.mi.us/CommunityVoice/Ideas?initiativeID=5-year...

This plan will be eventually up for public discussion in January. 

If you don't want the steamroller of local government to run over you, get behind the wheel, become informed and involved with that you care about close to home.

[Willy]

Thanks for the information X. My understanding is that the west end of Ludington Ave. is now being considered as a kayak launching site for the water trail project which will include a handicap launch. Just how many people kayak. My request is to leave the damn thing alone.

[XLFD]

Did you get to that meeting the other night at City Hall when they were discussing that, or know somebody who did?  I was interested, but would have had to set aside some other plans for it.  That, and it would have been hard to suppress my mirth at grown men and women talking about kayak trails.  I prefer free-range kayaking.

[Willy]

X, someone told me there was a big write up about it in the LDN last week along with simulated photos of what it would resemble. I think they said that the article discussed installing bathrooms as well.

[XLFD]

Thanks for the heads up; I just read last Friday's (November 6) paper with that information.  What a bunch of insane ideas-- and I like kayaking.  Look for an article dealing with the absurdity in the future.

I likely missed it because it as my father's 90th birthday, spent most of the day with him and my mom. 

[Willy]

Congratulations to your dad. You definitely  have the longevity gene in your family and that means you have a long future ahead of you to remind all of the misbehaving politicians that they should become the decent people that folks want to have in charge of our Government.

[Barry R. Schrader]

From the response I have received from the two questions asked I am beginning to think that we are talkers, but not doers. Questions:

1. I do not know just what the government grants that you all talk are about so could someone explain what they are and who will benefit?

2. Understanding the cleverness of government officials has any one accessed a for sure “legal and binding” recall petition form we can use to remove 4 city commissioners. It will also allow us to vote in officials who will rescind the rental ordnance.

I can make copies of the petition and deliver them anywhere. I can pick them up and present them to the proper authorities. Being a retired person I cannot afford to go to a lawyer. We certainly cannot stop now. If we show them how much we care about this issue and then do nothing when they ignore us and pass it anyway, just what does that tell them? What is going to be next? Will they block the view of the lake for snow removal? Will they refuse to give the dog owners a little more play area like every other town? Will they consider alowing condos to be built on the east side of Stearns drive? Oh sorry, they have already done that. . . .

[AQUAMAN]

Hi Barry, your questions are valid. See the other thread that X posted that gave specific links about recalls, it covers everything you asked about. To my knowledge, there is no "form", but someone should ask Clerk Luskin that question asap, perhaps she does have something. Otherwise, it's a special custom form we would have to create. Petitions have to be started by each ward's voters, and signed by each ward's registered voters too. More to come later, game time now. 

[Barry R. Schrader]

It seems to take a while for me to get up to speed here.  The format here is a little cumbersome, but I will get it.

[XLFD]

If you do get lost and are looking for something, in the upper right corner the Ludington Torch has its own search engine, you just have to put in key words and it will look for articles and posts with those.  Otherwise, most everything else is chronological, esp. on the main page; if you are trying to find a post put up last week in the forum and know what type of article it was, just look at the forum section and work your way back. 

Any other problem shoot me a message, or just ask in a relevant article.

[XLFD]

Barry,

In order to do recalls based on the vote on the RIO, it will take up to five dedicated teams of petitioners in Wards 1,2,4,5, and 6, since to my understanding of recall law, the people who circulate and sign the petition must be a member of the district where the recall is sought (see MCL 168.957). 

In ward 3, of which you and I are in, we could start up a petition to recall Councilor Johnson or even at-large councilor Holman, but it could easily be misinterpreted by the local press and people that he/she is being recalled for NOT voting for the ordinance especially if it is the only one that gets validated.  For this reason, about the only thing we can do is encourage others and be ready to mobilize for a better representative for Ward 3 in next November's election.

I hope to see some of the rental inspection people at this next meeting to make public comments, since our council, unlike the other public bodies in the area, do not allow public comment at the end of the meeting too.  Hope to see some progress in fighting this by the end of the month at least.  If they don't do anything, this city council will only get further emboldened to do worse deeds. 

[AQUAMAN]

This RIO is only a tip of a large iceberg of problematic changes to our city charter and new silly ordinances that have been already passed in recent memory, and there is much more on the agenda of unwanted and unnecessary projects yet to come. The West End of Ludington Ave. is just one, and then there's the unnecessary painting of water towers for Millions of dollars that went to a no-bid, out-of-state company too. Who knows how many kick-backs to city officials in out-of-state banks came of that? Something about that in itself stinks of dead fish to begin with. Then, there's the in-town 22 Kt. gold signage that shows us where to park, and such, by the illustrious team of Heather Venzke and her husband the councilor Tykoski, which is now a part of illegal and unethical history. This is NOT a NEW THING, it's been going on for years, and without any participation by voters/taxpayers, it's going to continue, and get a LOT WORSE! This was just a small current sampling of what is, and what is to come, given the crew of appointed and unopposed council members there now! Just let them continue in this path, unopposed, and not recalled, and pray you aren't the next on the list of enemies of the city, and it's out-of-town and out-of-state participants. 

[Barry R. Schrader]

The operating object is to get the landlords to start this movement and get the renters to realize just what a mess they are in.  From there maybe four wards will be vacated and the very thing they do not want (XLFD on city counsel) will come about.  The key is that a recall is starting and starting now.  Working on it.