The Development of Authority, part 5: Signs of Love

[XLFD]

After three FOIA attempts to get potentially exculpatory material for what seemed like an obvious conflict of interest involving members of the DDA, we were finally successful with the following FOIA request:

“In Ludington DDA's 2008 TIF Plan, page 22, Section 22.6, there is detailed a projected cost of "Signage" of $150,000 for the period of 2009-2012. Section 2-4 of the City Code says "Competitive bids for all purchases and public improvements shall be obtained where practicable and contracts awarded to the lowest responsible bidders." and "Sealed bids shall be asked for in all transactions involving the expenditure of $10,000.00 or more and the transaction evidenced by written contract submitted to and approved by the city council.". The recent budgets show that a significant portion of that money has already been spent, thus at least some of the bidding has been completed.

Under provisions of the Michigan Freedom of Information Act (MCLA 15.231 et seq; MSA 4.1801 (1) et seq) I am requesting, preferably in electronic records sent to this E-Mail address, I wish to inspect :
1) any documents that contains all the "contractors invited to bid" on the signage project. If this is contained on only one document, that is sufficient.
2) the letter(s), or general template, the City had sent out to each Signage contractor invited to bid.
3) any replies from those Signage contractors to the City's bid requests from those invited to bid.”

The conflict arose from the public records suggesting the signage program had been funded in 2008 for $15,000 in 2009 DDA Sept 29,2008 minutes, had begun in 2009 DDA Sept 14 2009 minutes, and yet the bids for sign contractors was done in the spring of 2010 DDA May 2010 minutes .  These latter two will be discussed.

 

The Available Public Record

MCL 15.342 is a state law that describes seven forms of prohibited conduct by a public officer or employee.  The city has much the same in the "Conflict of Interest" Division of the City Code.  A ‘public officer’ by definition is any elected or appointed official whether full-time part-time, paid, or unpaid and shall include members of the various boards appointed by the city. Section 5 states that:

“A public officer or employee shall not engage in a business transaction in which the public officer or employee may profit from his or her official position or authority or benefit financially from confidential information which the public officer or employee has obtained or may obtain by reason of that position or authority…”


Nick Tykoski, who recently ran unsuccessfully for County Commissioner, has been a member of the Downtown Ludington Board of Directors (aka Downtown Development Authority or DDA) for several years. This public officer also runs his own sign business called “Tye’s Signs”, recently renamed “Tye’s Inc.”. He has had prior experience in law enforcement, and currently serves on the Ludington Fire Department. Indications are that he is an excellent firefighter and entrepreneur.

The DDA has had several occasions lately when they have needed services involving the skills of a sign-maker. The city utilized Tye’s Signs for working on store window decals for the successful Halloween event downtown (DDA minutes, 10-12-09). The city also purchased the 6000 lights for the New Year’s Ball from Tye’s Signs (LDN, 12-30-09).  All signs for the dog park were to be made by Tye Sign's.   In neither case were there any mention of any competitive bidding by other companies who may have wanted the public money utilized.

On May 10, 2010, the DDA met at its monthly meeting, Nick was absent from the meeting. From the minutes:

“St Hillare handed out the estimate for continuation of the signage project for Downtown Wayfinding signs. 4 additional requests were faxed to other companies in addition to the one received from Tye’s Inc. Tye’s Inc was the only estimate received. The project is being done in phases.
A Motion was made by Brown and seconded by Johnson to approve the estimate from Tye’s Inc for the current phase.
A motion was made by Brown and seconded by Neal to approve Tye’s Inc as the vendor for the remainder of the signage project for Downtown signage.”

DDA Venzke was the secretary of that meeting, and as usual in her minutes, she left out what the decisions on the motions were, contrary to what the Open Meetings Acts demands (MCL 15.269). But presuming these motions were passed, it sounds from the minutes that Tye’s Inc. did not get faxed a request—that somehow the company gained inside knowledge from some source.  Likewise the word 'continuation' suggests it had already been started-- which it had-- by Nick Tykoski's company.   It is curious also that in these rough times, you’d think at least one of the other four companies would try to get this lucrative deal.

The second motion also seems to go against the city charter (Art. 1, sec. 2-4 Purchases and Contracts) which says: “Competitive bids for all purchases and public improvements shall be obtained where practicable and contracts awarded to the lowest responsible bidders…” To be precise, if Tye’s Inc. effectively gets the remainder of the signage project without the DDA even seeking competitive bids, isn’t it reasonable to assume Tye’s Inc. could charge a non-competitive rate for the work?

The Acquired Public Record

 

On the fourth attempt to get the competitive bids for the $150,000 signage contract through FOIA, we did not receive any competitive bids before April 2010.  This is strange, because the financial records of the DDA show that on 10-12-2009, $15,000.75 was paid out for downtown signs under contractual services  DDA Financial records 2008-10 p. 9 (zoom in).  So who got the money?  Tye's Signs or Tye's Inc. ? 

Now a contract for over $10,000 was awarded to a member of the DDA, a city employee, via his company without a competitive bid, let alone a sealed bid.  But what about the bids in April 2010?

On Tuesday, April 27 the following was faxed to three sign companies, a 4th did not receive theirs.  4-27-10 Fax p 1  4-27-10 Fax p 2  4-27-10 Fax 3

The terms seem very rigid, and the time frame allows only 3 business days to respond with an estimate.  But each received it on the same day.  Sounds fair for this phase-- until you see this:  4-20-10 Tye's Estimation for project  

A week before these faxes were sent out to receive sealed bids, a particular company was able to get their bid in without even being faxed.  Being that Nick was part of the wayfaring sign committee in the DDA, the inflexible demands and the small time frame for bidding seems to work well in his favor. 

But how was Nick able to get all this past the wary eyes of the DDA Director Heather Venzke?  Let's just say that today is Valentine's Day, and love just might be the answer. 

They also got a sweet deal on a Freddy Mac foreclosed home this last summer at 201 N Washington St.  A house that recently sold for twice what they brought it for.  Assessor Info 201 N Washington

How did they do this?  Love found a way.

 

[Guidothesemipsuedocaptitalistpig]

The thing dante doesn't seem to get is the more he posts ..the more he gives himself away to be someone other than what he portrays himself to be very similar to the last time I called out Dis for biting the hand that feeds him showing his immaturity. 

He also seems to mis the point that XL can not be banned from a public place without an accurate account of why he was so banned. I think most courts would see it as ludicrous.

[Freedom Seeker]

Just reading back through this in connection with the Acosta article and how your eviction from city Hall started.  It is worse behavior than I remember.  Funny how time has a way of usually forgetting, but in this little town, the lack of ethics and conflict of interest with the Tykoski's should have been corrected.  The whole DDA gang including buddy John Henderson turned a blind eye.  

[XLFD]

Thanks FS, and it should be mentioned, that despite the passage of nearly eight years there has been zero contrition by any of those involved in the letter of trespass incident, a needless waste of city resources  which should appropriately stay at the top of the true legacy of the Venzke-Tykoskis, Shay, Barnett, and John Henderson.  

[Willy]

A_sholes all. it is disgusting how shameful those people acted.

[Freedom Seeker]

True, Willy. And they call X a pain-n-the-ass for exposing the corruption. This article, I think is the crux of the corruption, but Heather Tykoski had been involved in what other unethical behaviors in DDA/city hall?