On Thursday, April 15, 2021, the Scottville City Commission hosted an interview of three candidates at a 6:30 PM meeting open to the public at the Scottville Optimist Building.  This was a special meeting of that body for that sole purpose, where once again they approved an agenda without an initial public comment period, as required by Scottville's City Charter section 7.6.  Once Mayor Marcy Spencer moved from that approval to communications I stood:  "I rise for a point of order."

I was hoping to be recognized so that I could get her ruling on why removing the public comment period wasn't against the city charter, but she refused to recognize me and continued on with the meeting.  Under Robert's Rules of Order, which that charter section notes Scottville meetings follow, she had no duty to recognize me as a member of the public.  It was unfortunate that she did not hear me out, for it just further shows a disdain for the city charter by this commission.  In two successive meetings, the city commission has unanimously approved two agendas that go against their charter.

But then the main portion of the meeting took place, with O'Neil James Newkirk taking the hot seat first (with the other candidates sequestered).  After a short break, Jessica Lapointe followed, another break, and then Chris Frazer.  Each candidate was grilled by Mayor Spencer and Commissioner Rob Alway using the same questions for each.  Other officials were all present, but did not participate in the inquiry.  Lapointe asked several reasonable questions afterward, prompting some of those officials to respond.

Rather than compare their answers in detail (as Commissioner Alway did on his blog),  I will concentrate on themes of each candidate.  These themes, used to describe themselves or their philosophy, are what I perceived as being in the candidates well of go-to answers when pressed by the variety of questions.  I then reduced them down to three themes, noting that 'communication' was a theme used by each at least once, but by one in particular.

Newkirk:  innovation, adaptation, communication 

Lapointe:  prioritization, transparency, curiosity 

Frazer:  empathy, analysis, commitment 

Each had their own set of weaknesses and strengths.  Universally, none had experience in running a city/village on their own, yet each had some other experience in administration as a qualification.  This allowed for an easier assessment of each candidate's humility as they could not overawe the commission with their resume, nor could they easily cover up any holes thereon.  In my estimation using their answers and demeanor, Lapointe was the most humble, followed by Newkirk and Frazer.

One had a connection to Scottville in that they had three children already going to school at MCC (Lapointe), another that had strong legacy involvement in the area (Newkirk), and one that had no connection, but did have an internship in city administration at a city roughly twice the size of Scottville.  

As far as the human factor, Newkirk came off as knowledgeable, grounded, and competent in administration.  Lapointe came off as personable, approachable and efficient (her answers were terse but comprehensive, leading to her interview being much shorter than the others, even with her questions at the end).  Frazer came off as organized, pedantic, and businesslike.  

If one were to handicap these candidates, Newkirk appears to appeal to the older commissioners, has the most dominant presence, and seems to have the most positive and extensive write-up in the MCP article.  Frazer may appeal to the younger male councilors (Yeoman, Graham and Benyo) and potentially other optimists in the commission disappointed in the admission by the other candidates that Scottville's best years seem to be in the past.  Lapointe, despite her many positive qualities and local ties, is potentially hampered by her demographic similarity to the prior manager and her inquisitiveness, which isn't a characteristic the current commission treats as a virtue.  Nor is transparency.  

Which is why Frazer likely blew his chances when he stressed that he wanted to be especially transparent with the budget.  It definitely didn't sit well with the embezzling police chief and treasurer, or those on the commission that allow such behavior to continue unabated.   

Over two hours in, the commission allowed public comment at the end of the meeting.  A proponent of Lapointe talked of her qualifications and qualities.  I followed and reminded each of them of their malfeasance.  

XLFD:  "Section 7.6 of the Scottville City Charter contains procedures for holding commission meetings.  In these procedures, after the prior minutes are approved and before the reading of correspondence, the public has the right to comment.  That ordinary order of business can only be suspended by vote of this commission.  Section 7.4 of the city charter says:  "All special meetings of the commission shall be open to the public and citizens shall have a reasonable opportunity to be heard under such rules and regulations as the commission may proscribe.  Those rules are proscribed in section 7.6.

I hope our city manager applicants notice that a mayor and city commission that chooses to violate the city charter in order to stifle public comment at a meeting is not a mayor and city commission that would make a good employer of your services [END]."

Whoever gets the job will have a lot of damage to repair from the start, and faces a city commission that will likely interfere with positive changes of the damaged goods.  

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Knowing the makeup of the Commission and the City officials I wouldn't touch that job for all the tea in China. Live and learn potential candidates.

They chose O'Neil Newkirk tonight in a unanimous vote.  I am not taking credit for anything, because he may have been the best candidate in their eyes after the interviews, but I used some Machiavellian tactics to get Newkirk to the top as I foreshadowed in one of my communications to one of many members of the Scottville Underground Network ten days ago (before the interviews, my comment is in blue) I will reveal some of the elegance of the plan at a much later date:

Clowncilor Rob Alway ended tonight's meeting, after I excoriated city hall staff with still unrefuted charges, including new ones, of criminal behavior, with some malarkey about everyone other than myself was very happy with what was happening in Scottville and the direction Matt Murphy led it to over the last few months. 

Either he's totally deluded, or he lives in an echo chamber where the common folks of Scottville are excluded.  In Alway's odd defense, he never addressed why the charges I made, supported by the public record, were incorrect in any way.  Rob Alway supports criminal behavior.  Tonight, the council totally ignored the city charter, showing he's a major part of the problem too.  I will provide a full story tomorrow on the ignoble character of the city clowncil of Scottville.

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