Back on December 10, 2012, the Ludington Torch sent a simple request to the Mason County Sheriff's Office (MCSO) asking to inspect or receive electronic records of their conflict of interest policy.  Such policy ideally would be on their website or easily accessible in a computer file or handbook at the MCSO.  But it is now five weeks later and I have contacted the sheriff's FOIA Coordinator, Mary Fulton, six times in writing regarding this simple request, and have yet to see it or be apprised of the arbitrary and capriciously stated fee of $5 that has been quoted to me without any declaration of what the $5 is for.  Nothing that the FOIA condones, that's for sure.

 

                   Kim Cole swearing to faithfully discharge the duties of sheriff according to the best of his ability in December

 

This period coincides with the ascension of Kim Cole to the Undersheriff and his early rebuff of a FOIA appeal, without yet having the authority to do so without being so designated, and then his assumption of the office of Sheriff on January First.  I have dealt with the MCSO before this and they have been a bit more responsive than they have been over these last two months.  But here is the story of this one FOIA request for the MCSO Conflict of Interest policy. 

 

To this I received by mail (for FOIAs I made during this summer, an E-mail response was used) asking for a 10 day extension, as per their ability to do so by the FOIA.  I received a response in the mail on Dec. 26, with a new FOIA response form within the time but they requested $5

 

 

The new form restricted me to only getting these records mailed to me and copied.  This was not part of the request, and as the public body, they have no such ability to restrict me from viewing the original records (which would have no exempt material). 

How wasteful can you get?  No wonder our local governments are asking for new taxes all the time.  I reminded them of my parameters, their duties, and my formal affidavit for the County agencies being drafted (since the County intelligentsia recently decided the City of Ludington affidavit was no longer valid for them) in my second E-mail:

True to my word, I sent her a copy of my affidavit, and notified her that Fabian had the original, and I expected the $5 FOIA sent to me without charge, and a request to find out what the charges were for, which was never clarified. 

 

This threat of a legal action is not empty; there have been a variety of FOIA violations by the sheriff's office and the prosecutor's office that I have accumulated over the last year.  Just one year ago, I prevailed over a FOIA appeal involving the prosecutor tried in front of Judge Cooper, getting the records and my court costs back (outside of a court order), including a revision of a public record by the prosecutor.  The prosecutor has bore a grudge, as seen in his FOIA replies (which shall be revealed shortly).  I sent a follow up the next week when I heard nothing:

 

This was just a reminder, I made another FOIA requesting crash reports of three Mason County motorcycle accidents before the new year, and they were totally ignored:

 

I had CC-ed the new sheriff, but got an out-of-office notice.  I got another 10 day extension a couple days later in the regular mail for the motorcycle accidents, with nothing about the conflict of interest request

 

 

Notice that I did CC the County Administrator in this last request, Mr. Knizacky has done responsible things in the past to correct oversights by County agents and himself.  But two business days later, there is still no reply. 

Kim Cole never ran for sheriff on the issues of transparency and respecting the rights of individuals, so I am not too surprised by the changes in policy that makes it takes at least five weeks and six letters of correspondence with only the two statutorily-mandated replies to see the MCSO's conflict of interest policy, in total neglect of the public's right to view such records. 

And why does the Sheriff's FOIA Coordinator assign an illegitimate $5 charge without any explanation over this period, to see a page or two of policy if it actually exists?  Would they charge $5 to anybody who asked to view their policies, and ignore a duly sworn and notarized affidavit of indigency?  Why are those hired to enforce the laws, supervised by the elected sheriff, violating the laws themselves?   It's another secret I guess.

 

 

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This is amazing. What is it with City and County officials. Is the drinking water in those buildings tainted. Even this easy, slam dunk FOIA request is met with hostility. It sure appears that the Sheriff is flexing his political muscles to show you who's boss. I guess he wants to dish out a little pay back for any negative postings that appeared on the Torch. Even the Sheriff's office is showing how insensitive it is. All I can say is that the citizens of Mason County and the City of Ludinginton are not being  properly served by those in power and these people are showing how little respect they have for those that pay the bills.

Perhaps this explains why the City of Ludington Daily News (COLDNews) also known as the County of Mason Edgeless Daily Yellow News (COMEDYNews) serve as apologists for bad behavior by our local governments, instead of ever challenging them.  Having to actually analyze and verify information from your friends in City Hall and the Courthouse is just too much to expect; let the politicos write the story and publish it.  They will remain your friends and tell you what the people want to hear.

Wow, it looks like Kim Cole's being trained by John Shay.  Kim, Jody, Mary, and the rest of the girls of the Mason County Sheriffs Dept. look like they want to set a bad example for the county govt. like Shay and the crew at city hall have made for Ludington City. 

I would presume you are looking for a possible incident of conflict of interest, X, and want to verify with their policy?  I don't know what you have, but they look as guilty as sin so far. 

Marty,

Kim Cole and Jody Hartley, Undersheriff, are guys.  Mary, however, is probably a woman. 

Sheriff's offices can either run by general conflict of interest rules, or create their own that may be more lenient or restrictive.  Your question will be answered at a later date. 

I would challenge any if you to walk in their shoes at any time. They perform a very difficult job and all you can do is complian because you don't know how or why they do their jobs.

Chuck,

Does it disturb you one iota that these guys and gals doing a very difficult job cannot do a very simple job of letting me view their conflict of interest policy and tell me why it costs $5 to do so.  Not responding to FOIA in a timely manner, assigning unlawful fees, and ignoring a sworn affidavit of indigency is breaking the law. 

I seriously don't know how or why they are NOT doing their jobs.

I would think that you would be the last if their thoughts with a new admin taking over and trying to make right all the internal problems and that the last two admins have created. I guess I don't see how you should be put ahead of the pack in the first month with them on the job. I do think that is selfish of you,

I'm sure they would reciprocate the same tolerance back to people who were mandated by law to get records to police agencies or the courts in by a specific time, LOL.  Or people that want $5 from the policeman when they're asked for license and proof of insurance, ROFL.

That sure would be selfish of them not to understand we have our own petty lives too. 

They pry wont give you an answer because they have more  important things to do than deal with your pitty crap.  They already know your name and that your just around to cause a disturbance, so why even respond to you and waste their time.  Once again, if this was Jeffy, you wouldn't start a post about it, but since you dont like the person in power, you have to start up something.

You have such a high opinion of their professionalism, Sean, LOL. 

And if you notice, in this thread and the prior thread "Jumping the Gun" (where I bemoaned the fact that Jeff Fiers, as sheriff, should have been the legit FOIA appeal judge) began in the Jeff Fiers era.  Ever since the details of the McAdam lawsuit has come out, I have a much lower regard for Fiers' words, ideals, and administrative abilities. 

Sean

A main point you seem to be missing here is that the individuals hired by and paid by the taxpayers to make sure all of us obey the law and who is sworn to enforce the law is defying and refusing to obey the law.

Guys, look at the lack of quality and content of posts by Chuck, Sean, and a few others out here. They really appear to be out of touch with reality, probably teenagers of someone in city council or such, and thus, only post like Sheeple can and do over and over. No real debate, just empathy and Sheeple-like knee jerk responses, really not worth the bother imho.

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