The Scent of Mischief: Shay's Press Releases Reek with Deception

[XLFD]

In Mid April of this year, people in the Fourth Ward and across Ludington and PM Township got lungfuls of foul aromas originating from the Ludington Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP).  On April 18, the Ludington Torch weighed in on the phenomenon, a Facebook Page called Concerned Citizens was created by discomforted Fourth Warders, and an official reaction began to form. 

The City of Ludington through it's City manager John Shay offered the public a narrative that they were diligently working to correct the problem and offering other assurances.  This article will review the veracity of those releases when put up against the facts. 

John Shay is quoted on April 18 on the MCP when asked first about the smell emanating from the Ludington WWTP:  "In the short term, we are working with the industrial users to reduce their BOD waste to the WWTP to a level that can be properly handled by the current aeration system."

In an April 20 release from the city Shay informed us among other things that:  "The odor is occurring, as the amount of Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD) waste coming from industrial users is higher than what the City's WWTP can handle... The City is working with the industrial users to reduce the amount of BOD waste that they send to the WWTP to a level that can be properly handled by the current aeration system. The City is confident that reducing the amount of BOD waste entering the WWTP will have a significant effect on reducing or eliminating the odor issue."

Chatter on social media and other nearby TV news agencies further indicated that cooperative efforts were occurring between the unnamed 'industrial users' and the City of Ludington.  The lack of specific 'industrial users' and the lack of details about any such agreements moved me to seek those answers through a FOIA request.  On April 27, I sent out the following FOIA request to the City of Ludington: 

"Two way written communications (e-mails, letters, memos) between City of Ludington officials and agencies/businesses/individuals in Ludington during the month of April 2016 (up to April 25) referencing the reduction of Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD) in wastewater.  Please include any agreements, contracts, or concessions."

On the day after, the city appeared to get more specific in their news releases as to their success in getting industrial users to agree to cut demand.  On an April 28 update they alerted us that:  "the City has requested the appropriate industrial users to reduce the amount of biological oxygen demand (BOD) waste that they send to the WWTP. All have agreed to cooperate with the City in this regard."

But a week later I received my FOIA request back with a variety of content.  There was talk between the House of Flavors (HOF) and the City Manager and their engineering firm Fishbeck, et. al. (FTCH) regarding the issues of high Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD) waste coming from their downtown factory. 

On March 21, 2016 (a month before the odor issues originated) the city was sent this from FTCH:  House of Flavors-FTCH Proposal for Preliminary Evaluation of  Pretr...  It involved hiring the engineering firm to seek a way to pre-treat the waste of HOF to make it have less BOD.  The contract in that link had a cost of $4400, with the E-mails indicating a 50-50 split in the costs between the city and HOF.  You will note that John Shay signs the contract on behalf of the city. 

Yet a perusal of the minutes of the council meetings during that time shows that the city council never authorized John Shay to get into a special contractual agreement for this $4400 price tag.  I attended all these meetings and nothing close was passed giving him that authority.  The city charter section 13.1 says the council must:  "The power to authorize the making of purchases, contracts, and leases on behalf of the City is vested in the Council".  Without this authorization, City Manager Shay broke the law in expending funds on this unbudgeted contract.

But even if it was technically an illegal, secret agreement, wasn't it being done to correct a problem, a problem that would introduce itself to the public in the middle of April with the sulfurous odor permeating the city? 

The wastewater treatment plant manager had indicated in his annual report given on February 22, 2016 (see p. 67+ and the snippet above) that no industrial users had a pretreatment problem.  Just a couple of weeks later in March, these three-sided talks were scheduled.  The meeting at the HOF with FTCH and the City Manager to look over pretreatment and other options was scheduled for April 19th on April 14th. 

Is it mere coincidence that the stench originated on the days leading up to that meeting?  Maybe there was an increase in BOD waste made by the HOF preparatory to that meeting in an effort to avert unfavorable assessments against them? 

What is clear in the entirety of the records sent to me is that there are two things that fly in the face of what the city manager allowed in his press releases.  The 'industrial users' he had discussions with should not have been pluralized.  There is no indication he communicated with any other user other than HOF, or any other HOF contact other than Whit Gallagher.  Even back in 1998, the city knew of and charged the HOF for excessive BODs, which often accounted for greater than 50% of the city's BOD waste.

Nor is there any sort of written record indicating that the HOF has agreed to any sort of reduction of BOD waste.  Absent any sort of written pledge, we must assume that any sort of agreement/contract/concession like this was made orally between our city manager and Whit Gallagher of the HOF, which effectively is worth the paper it is printed on. 

This bears repeating: the FOIA response indicates there is no written agreement between the City and the House of Flavors, the only heavy BOD waste industrial user contacted, restricting them on their load of BOD waste.  Read those press releases again and see how inaccurate they were.

[shinblind]

Why Hell's Belles X you don't expect the ice cream for the Guinness World Record Sundae to make itself do you?

Sure there might be a little unpleasant fragrance downwind of the Waste Water Treatment Plant but it is nothing to worry about. John Shay is right on top of things. Ole Johnny Boy got the situation under control. Why I bet right now Shay is busy collecting hermetically sealed vials of air from the WWTP to foward to Otwell & Mawby for further analysis, courtesy of the special slush funds provided by the taxpayers of Ludington.

And Shay earnestly believes  the residents of the Fourth Ward will  just have to learn to suck it up again like they did with the PM Bayou disaster. Shay wonders why the constituents there can't learn to hold their noses, this matter will eventually pass in 2 or 3 years. You don't see the people of Shay's neighborhood complain.

Why just the other day Shay and Councilor Krauchski caucused in a secret closed door session discussing this matter. Mikey Krauchski was rumored to comment that they all mouth breathers anyway and why don't they just move to their summer dacha's like he does until the weather cools off.

So come June 11 the folks of the Fourth will be allowed to belly up to the sundae bar just like normal people and do their finest eating  sins  of Shay's stench.

[Willy]

Why are there no reins being used on Shay by the Council. He works for them not the other way around. Exactly who on the Council is responsible for keeping tabs on what Shay is doing. If the Mayor speaks for the Council then he should get off his a_s and do his job. The truth is that no Councilor knows how the City operates and they must rely on Shay to spoon feed them with the information they should already be aware of. Each Councilor should be required to take "City operations 101" so they won't continue to be duped by those they have put in charge. My guess is that if the ice cream contest were to be held next to the treatment plant the odor would be gone before the first spoon full of ice cream is consumed.

[shinblind]

In Shay they trust.