What a Difference a Year Makes for Election Signs...

[XLFD]

...Yet No Change for Hypocrisy by Ludington City Officials

 

Last year I was a candidate for public office, running half-heartedly for the City Councilor at large position right here in Ludington.  Yet after I had handed in my 40 signatures to get my name on the ballot to the City Clerk, I was not allowed into City Hall the rest of the election (and for six months after) due to a Letter of Trespass (LOT) issued under the aegis of a Workplace Safety Policy that was rushed through the Ludington legislative process in February 2011.  This policy permitted the City Manager to place a LOT on any citizen if any city employee 'felt' someone presented a danger to them at their public workplace. 

I was given one for the City Hall and the Police Department, effectively barring me from going to either of these agencies to inspect records asked for by me in the year and a half before they passed it, and many times since then.  It also prohibited me from utilizing the City Hall unless I got written permission from the City Manager.  I asked three times, and was ignored between May and election day, and was disallowed to come in on election day, and for a candidate forum, because the City Manager would not afford me that permission.  This does not include my attorney's three tries to revoke this unconstitutional policy before election time. 

But I've complained about this before, and am looking for legal relief from it, so I will review another incident that also had me up in arms for the sheer audacity of the Ludington city officials.  Some may have written me off as a whiner who couldn't follow the rules then, but less than one year later, my point is once again proven.  It has to deal with campaign signs.

 

As reported in  nazis-on-the-march  the City of Ludington Code Enforcer Jerry Welton had been given a quest in October 2011:  to remove election signs that were in the public right-of-way.  But the only signs he was removing, or moving to a less strategic location, had to deal with my campaign.  My opponents signs still obstructed the view of traffic at several road corners the days and weeks after this photo of Jerry's City car's backseat was taken

My 'low profile' signs found themselves in the public right-of-way on the side of the street, but this was totally allowable by the City's zoning law on temporary signs, section 800.1:  No sign shall be located in a public right-of-way or dedicated easement, except those maintained by a unit of government, permitted by the City on a temporary basis {election signs}, or specifically permitted by this Ordinance. 

But the City once again decided to 'adjust the law' for their own benefit, and stole my signs off private property (that right of way still belongs to the adjacent lot owner) and kept them at the City Hall.  I am betting they thought it was pretty funny that I had to call up other people to retrieve these signs, because of the LOT and the inability of City Manager John Shay to admit me there via requests for written permission.

But most of the County races for this year is going to be decided in the primary on August 7, which has left our tourist-friendly City of Ludington littered with campaign signs for two County Commissioner districts, for County Sheriff, for County Treasurer, for Oakview millage renewal, etc. along the streets during the middle of tourist season.  This doesn't help promote our natural beauty, and if you look around the streets you'll also notice a prevalence of campaign signs violating what Jerry Welton and City Clerk Deb Luskin last year called 'a city zoning law' and 'a rule that has always been enforced'.  Campaign signs in the right of way.

Is this an isolated case of a couple of campaigners putting some out unjudiciously until Code Enforcer Welton gets out his wheely device to find where the sign needs to be placed?  As if.  These pictures (just a small subset of the so-called violations) show how extensive the problem is.  You will notice a lot of the violations was done by the "Cole for Sheriff" team members, but everyone was guilty, it's just that the Cole campaign had a lot more signs out in early June (these photos were taken on June 2 and 4, the signs are still there).  It's six weeks later.  Where's Welton?

This sign for "Jeff Nellis" not only falls with the ROW for both streets, but obstructs the vision of cars looking to the east on Bryant for traffic.  The graveyard in the back may be appropriate.

This sign for "Kim Cole" does the same thing for this street.

"Ol' Kim Cole was a merry old soul, and a merry old soul was he; he called for his pipe and he called for his bowl, and he called for his violative signs three"

One "Kim Cole" sign on the ROW on one street, and on the other street in the same lot.

Owner likes Cole and the Orioles, also likes putting sign in the 'turning triangle'.

More "Kim Cole" signs in corner lots ROWs.

See more here:  100_2205.JPG  100_2206.JPG  100_2208.JPG  100_2210.JPG  100_2214.JPG  100_2218.JPG  etc.

At the beginning of this month, we find more candidates taking advantage of the apparently totally new policy of ignoring signs in the ROW in Ludington.

Those three signs in the background are all in the ROW, blocking a long swath of passage.

And quite a few others that have moved into the ROW:  100_2246.JPG  100_2247.JPG  100_2251.JPG  100_2252.JPG  100_2258.JPG  100_2261.JPG  etc.  The Cole campaign is still the clear leader in these rogue signs.  But let's not forget:  there is absolutely nothing in the City zoning law that says these signs are illegitimately placed. 

But ILLEGAL was the way the City of Ludington authorities last year defined it when the orange and white signs asking the citizens to "Join the Revolution" and vote for Rotta were in the right of way.  But the City would never adopt a policy just to discriminate against one citizen who just so happens to run a local website that wishes to expose the truth about local politics, would they?  If you are having a hard time answering that question, go back to the first paragraph, and click on the link if you haven't already.

[Willy]

Thanks for the reminder of how disgusting some of the actions are of local officials. And to think the Mayor, at the last Council meeting, praised Shay and other officials for the great job they are doing. He forgot to add a few adjectives "great corrupt and prejudicial job". These good ol boy's have got to go and I hope voters will wake up some day and give them the boot.

[AQUAMAN]

I've been noticing this scenario more and more on the local election primaries this year. A lot of signage that is totally illegal, or it was. It was a totally different story last fall, coincidence, or more crony actions? You look and decide as you drive in the city limits and elsewhere, it's quite a folly imho. As for praise and pats on the back, a few months more and we will probably witness the same LDN/CC pictures as last year, more praise, patting one another on the backs, and more award plaques to spend taxpayer money on, so everyone knows just how proud they are of themselves. I think this is the kind of stuff the taxpayers/private groups/industry should be doing if they indeed are so proud and happy of their respective officers and council members, not the city council and it's clique of members. I mean really, how vain can these people get? Answer: the sky seems to be the limit.............lol.

[XLFD]

I read the City of Ludington zoning law on signage last year, and decided to go with a lot of small signs instead of a few large signs with my shoestring budget, but I lost about one third of my hundred signs to thievery during the election.  Perhaps the numerous hunters in the Ludington Police and Fire Departments used them for target practice last fall.

Kim Cole has a lot of large nicely-made signs all over the place, and I haven't seen one moved significantly away from where it was in early June, or missing.  Same for the others, and the Oakview millage signs.

[Marty Redman]

Ha Ha.  I make a quip about election signs being annoying as all get out then I noticed this thread.  Just when you think the City Hall Uppity Meddling Politicians (CHUMPs) have ran their course, they show there true colors in something as minor as election signs.  Whats next, is the City Manager going to be given the power to ban election signs of certain candidates by a new  'Safety Policy'.

[XLFD]

A Voter's Safety Policy may be needed if the general public does wise up about the activities of the general public servant of Ludington.  They effectively already used it last year when they kept a candidate out of the only public candidates forum, when they actively participated in the daytime thievery of that same candidate's legally placed election signs, and the disallowal of that candidate to vote because he couldn't get into his polling place.   

[XLFD]

Unfortunately I had a SD card malfunction with my camera yesterday, but if you went down the main drag of Ludington (referred to coincidentally as Ludington Avenue), you couldn't help but notice every ten yards signs for the "Rhythm and Dunes" event that happened down at the Waterfront Park. 

Before I complain vociferously about these signs being located in the right of way within a couple of feet from the roadway (which even violates County and State laws for sign placement), I would just like to say the R&D is a good idea, as from what I understand about it, West Shore Bank pays for this free concert series (not thousands of your tax dollars, like all those bands at the four Friday Night Lives are). 

What a novel idea, an area business actually using their own money to attract the public to the downtown area.  But the signs were never officially okayed to be in the right of way by the City of Ludington, and neither did it seem that the property owners of that land had any say in whether the signs went there.

[XLFD]

Also noticed.  A certain Director of the Ludington Department of Public Works who lives at 412 East Ludington Avenue, not only had a Rhythm & Dunes signs within inches of the street, but a "Garage Sale" sign in the same location.  You would think Shawn MacDonald would know better, having likely taken down more than his own share of such nonconforming signs in his career.