Today's Secret Piggyback Meeting of the Ludington School Board

[XLFD]

Public bodies need to follow the rules when it comes to the Michigan Open Meetings Act (OMA), whether it be a city council, a county commission, a township board, or a local school board.  I have found the local school board here in Ludington to be far from perfect in trying to be open with the public about anything of consequence, and I will continue to beat my head against the school walls to bring that public body back up to serving the community openly, instead of serving the dark recesses of surreptitiously violating the laws of this state.

 

I originally noted that the school had failed to comply with the Open Meetings Act in terms of posting proper public notice for a special meeting in March of 2013 in this thread, and further elaborated on here.  The last school year's record of complying with the OMA was further detailed here, with three special meetings coming into question.

 

These all involved primarily the public posting at the Central Business Office (CBO) of the Ludington Area School District (LASD).  But a recent legislative amendment to the OMA passed last year and signed by the governor makes extra duties owed to the public by the public body that serves them.  Please review particularly the highlighted area in this excerpt from the OMA:  

 

Yesterday, in the local newspaper, the City of Ludington Daily News (COLDNews), it was related that the LASD Board was going to meet in special session to consider disciplinary actions against a Journey student bringing a long knife to school, and that it was to be held the next day at 4:00 PM. 

 

 

So due to the school's history of not posting public notices properly for special meetings, I went down to visit their CBO and take a look at their new posting board designed to thwart the wind and unauthorized persons from taking the public notices they post.  I applaud that system, it removes acts of God and allegations of impropriety by unauthorized people taking the notice down and places the accountability of posting proper notice squarely on the shoulders of the school administration.  And I found the notice of that meeting posted thereon, along with the agenda items for that meeting, as one would hope:

 

 

But I also found something very interesting beside it, just to the left of this notice for this 4:00 PM meeting on October 30, is another public notice for a meeting to be held at 4:45 PM that very day:

 

 

This was odd, since there was no mention of this extra meeting, with it's own agenda complete with more audience participation and three discussions over actions that were not in its press release to the news, in the COLDNews.  Nor was it mentioned in any other local media sources on the radio and internet.  A look at the LASD website does not even mention it, but does mention the 4:00 meeting, complete with what was happening there:

 

But the above screen shot was from last night before 18 hours prior to the special 4:45 PM meeting, however, by this morning, and right now as I type these words shortly before noon, about 5 hours prior to the meeting, the website announcing special meetings has not been updated for this meeting with a posted notice outside their building, the CBO:

 

 

That means the LASD Board has not properly posted the public notice for this second special meeting to be held today (by the above section of the OMA, since there is no notice on their internet site) to discuss three topics that have not been presented to the public unless you have actually physically went to the CBO side door and noticed the posting board since early yesterday:

 

Unless you actually had some business with the CBO during that time, I find that is probably unlikely.

 

One has to question why the people that run the LASD website thought of publicly noticing the disciplinary meeting, but not noticing the meeting where at least three definitely more-substantive issues affecting the running of the schools is not mentioned-- anywhere except near a side door few of the public ever pass.

[XLFD]

If anyone happened to attend the meeting at 4:45 PM this afternoon, please let me know if they still held it.  I wasn't physically able to get there.

[AQUAMAN]

Well, I guess you caught them, again, the LASD/COLDNEWS of the same accomplice acts as before, or did you? Perhaps "the Buck" doesn't stop anywhere, where these two agencies are concerned. Either way, great find and reporting again X, as per the usual. Of course the "culprits" will have their standard excuses for this error. Remember though, an error doesn't become a "mistake", unless you refuse to admit it, and of course, correct it promptly. Will that HAPPEN? I really "doubt it"! When you are a legend in your own mind, how on earth can you expect any admissions of error?

[XLFD]

Thanks, Aquaman.  If the LASD Board is willing to violate the law by not properly posting their special meetings or telling the public what's going on, they are not serving the public, nor are they setting good examples for our kids.  There is a history of the LASD administration cutting corners and keeping the public uninformed, more of which will be coming out after the city election.  Maybe they will get the hint before then.

[Willy]

Nice work X.

How soon they forget. If it wasn't for your diligence no one would know about all the shenanigans that go on with the people in charge of running things. I don't understand where they get the attitude that they are not required to comply with the law. It seems to be a pervasive mode of thinking with Ludingtons elite.

[XLFD]

After going to almost all of the Ludington City Council meetings, I think I can offer an analysis of why these people don't consider the OMA to be important.  They see few people coming to their 'open' meetings, where almost all decisions have been decided at the 'closed' committee level few people even know about.  They rationalize that few people care, and those that come to talk of things which are contrary to the City's opinion represent only that one person or a very small group of people.  They believe they need to think of the many rather than the few, even though the few are making those decisions for the many.  That's why they can deliberate and discuss issues outside of open meetings without any regard for laws that prohibit that and allow the public to make their diverse opinions known.

They give the public a blurb on the Saturday before their Monday meetings to let them know what's coming up that may interest them, few people see the notices and fewer people have the ability or desire to properly research the issue over the weekend.  As noted, when people come, even with other like minded people, the city council dresses them down if they go against the City's proposed  direction.  It's not just me, check out how they've handled Mr. Henry at their last meeting, the charter boat captain at the prior meeting, Daryl Finkelstein (trash entrepreneur) earlier this year, etc.  They lurk in wait until the end of the meeting and come back with mostly insubstantial rhetoric by the talking heads without any chance by the public to set the record straight.

The one exception to this is the historic district proposal.  Holman, Rathsack, and Taranko all expressed their desire to vote for this district, but relented to the 70% of the owners of buildings in that district who didn't want it, some willing to challenge it, and so voted against it.  None of those councilors really vocalized a reason for or against the district through the long process.  But in hindsight, they botched the whole process, resulting in a big waste of money and resources when they started, by not getting the facts out to the public and the public pulse to a district that would undermine the values of private property to those that live there.

The City of Ludington has a couple of its own on the school board, and so we should not expect anything much different.