Who Retained Ronald Redick?: An Animated Whodunit Mystery

[XLFD]

The Public Notice of the August 6 special meeting of the Ludington City Council gave no indication of what it would be about, other than going into closed session in order to review a written opinion by a "City attorney".  The agenda was equally vague, fortunately the packet gave an indication that the topic under discussion in the closed session would involve construction issues dealing with the restaurant development named "AndyS", down at the SE corner of Rath and Ludington Avenue.

Therein was a letter from Mika Meyers attorney, Ronald Redick (above, Zooming in at the meeting), to the developer Dr. Andrew Riemer, on behalf of the City of Ludington (COL), a response by Riemer's lawyer arguing against those claims, followed by about three dozen pages showing diagrams and agreements primarily made back in 2021 and seeming to support Dr. Riemer's position of substantial compliance with agreements made four years in the past.  

The COL, apparently feeling the need to get in front of the issue would send out a press release early on Wednesday to emphasize their core position, that support columns were about a foot away from where the COL would like them, the government-friendly MCP received this and ran with it; however, they also contacted the other side and came out with an article that defended their own position:  the pillars and building were in the exact same position as the COL-approved site plan.  

As noted in the article's headline and threatened in the "City attorney" letter, the COL threw a tantrum and put out a stop order on AndyS completion, citing their recently passed Unified Development Ordinance (UDO), throwing another level of complexity into the proceedings as it was passed after all of the agreements between the COL and Riemer were made, effectively making the UDO an ex post facto law that is changing the original agreement's terms.  Article I, Section 10 of the Michigan Constitution guarantees no ex post facto law or law impairing the obligation of contract shall be enacted.  As a political subdivision of the state, the COL must abide by that dictum.

If Dr. Andrew Riemer pursues the courses of remedial action his attorney threatens in his reply against the COL's course of action (including claims for regulatory taking, inverse condemnation, etc.), he appears to have a strong case and may have quite a future payoff by the COL and all of those taxpayers who were very inconvenienced for over a year by the road and sidewalk closures needed for this construction of one more downtown bar and eatery aimed mainly at our tourists.  After all those issues, many of us will find it hard to side with Dr. Riemer, but on this point of conflict with city leaders quibbling over a couple of inches like the size queens so many of them are, the facts are on his side.

The meeting was attended by every councilor, but was missing the mayor, so Mayor Pro Tem Cheri Stibitz called the meeting to order at 5 PM.  The city attorney was nowhere to be seen, but Redick was on the big Zoom screen.  No invocations were given, signaling perhaps that the council was preparing to do something that they didn't want the Almighty looking in on, and I was the only one to comment in front of an audience consisting of COLDNews reporter Shanna Avery, three representatives of Dr. Riemer's, a variety of city officials in the zoning and building departments, and LPD Captain Mike Haveman. 

 XLFD:  "Before you vote to go into closed session to talk of public policy concerning what appears to be an issue which should likely be discussed in open session, I hope someone here can answer one question.  Who retained Ronald Red-dick of the Mika Meyers law firm to act on behalf of the City of Ludington? 

 

Right at the top of page 2 of your packet, Redick claims in his first sentence:  "We are attorneys for the City of Ludington", and over the next few pages he asserts the desires and authority of the City of Ludington.  Reviewing the records, we find that for the last five months Mika Myers has been paid hundred or thousands of dollars by the city for their services, but we also find that their services were never approved by this council. 

The city charter does not allow the city manager or any other officer to hire outside legal counsel, the only one with the authority to approve such an appointment is this city council and they have never done so.  

The people of Ludington have been forced to pay for this unlawful retainer hired in secret by at least one lawbreaking city official who bypassed the city council for approval of lawyers who charge several hundred dollars an hour for their services.  In one year, an incompetent Mika Myer lawyer charged the City of Scottville over $100,000 to provide legal advice that took that city to the brink of economic ruin.  Now you want to discuss what appears to be esoteric zoning concepts in private with a Mika Meyers lawyer that this city has never officially retained?  Councilors: for five months, you've been paying Mika Meyers money without ever wondering why.  If you were responsive to the law and to your constituents, you would investigate who performed this illegal retainment and exact discipline accordingly. 

To me, it sounds like it would be the same person who authorized unlawful "no fishing" signs in the city marina and then tried to claim that the marina was a public park.  Follow the law.  [END comment]

And my instincts were right.  At the end of the meeting I went up to re-ask the city manager my question of "Who retained Ronald Redick?" and she admitted to doing it herself.  Rather than subject the city to FOIA requests I threatened, she told me she would send me copies of the agreements she had signed with Mika Meyers and get it to me this very morning.  As I write this sentence, noon has arrived and there is still nothing in my email inbox from her or anyone else showing this unlawful relationship.  One more thing our freshman city manager has directly lied about.  She is a dishonest, dishonorable, failure and it's time to look for a replacement before the COL is deluged with more lawsuits than even it can deal with.

I indicated that she did not have any authority to hire outside legal counsel for the COL, here's why.  The compiled meeting minutes of the Ludington City Council and even their standing committees show that they have never approved hiring outside legal counsel of any type in recent years, including the period when AndyS hadn't even been thought of just yet.  

The city charter delineates and limits the powers of city officials, in the section defining powers of the city manager, the most powerful of unelected officers, there is no power to hire outside legal counsel (OLC), only to appoint and suspend/remove employees and appointees.  Hiring OLC to speak and act with city authority does not fall within that power.

That power is the city council's.  A lawyer usurping the duties of the City Attorney, an administrative officer of the city, would fall under the category of other administrative officers, and as such requires council to pass an ordinance to prescribe his powers and duties:  

If that isn't clear enough, section 3.5 also notes that additional offices deemed necessary to the city needs to be approved by council:

The closed session contained all city officials in attendance, and they took approximately 90 minutes to review the faux city attorney's written opinion while Ronald Redick beamed in his appearance from Grand Rapids.  We were ushered outside council chambers, and about 10 minutes in, I decided to hang out quietly by the chamber doors.  Captain Haveman took issue with that, thinking that I might be able to hear what was being said inside, and closed down the interior of city hall while the illicit session was taking place.  

I went outside, without complaint, and stood outside the door you see above on the right, which serves as an emergency exit for the council chambers on the other side.  Not five minutes later, I was accosted by Haveman again for silently standing on the pavement, too close to that door for his liking and that I was disrupting the meeting.  

While reminding him that I was not doing anything to disrupt the meeting, I asked him whether he was once again trespassing me from public property.  He said he was, but he wouldn't give me a "Letter of Trespass" even when he indicated he was and went to the LPD Building and would show up once again after two officers from the LPD Building came over and those two road pirate vehicles you see above showed up.  

They were ready to trespass me for the rest of the day off of the property my taxes pay for, simply because I was at a location they thought I might be able to hear what was going on inside, when I couldn't do so even if they had left me alone.  I had to remind them that there would be a big problem if I wasn't allowed to come back for the rest of the meeting once they come out of their unlawful secret session, so they allowed me to reposition myself in front of the LPD.  

And that's the last point I want to discuss.  If our police department's job was to understand and actually enforce laws, they would have prevented the city council from illegally going into closed session.  For MCL 15.268(1)(h) allows a public body to meet in closed session to consider material exempt from discussion or disclosure by invoking the attorney/client privilege for an opinion written by their legal counsel.  The COL has never established a legitimate attorney-client relationship with Mika Meyers, since they were fired back in late 2019 by this council and replaced with another law firm.  If no legitimate attorney-client relationship exists, invoking the privilege fails, and this was an unlawfully held secret session of the Ludington City Council, once again. 

We deserve open and honest representation by our city officials, what we get is lies and lawbreaking.  Every time, especially over the last three years.  Ninety minutes of deliberation, zero actions taken.  What the Hell are these people doing?

[AnxiousGuy]

I read that one of the complaints was people opening car doors and hitting the pillars. But wouldn’t somebody be obstructing traffic opening a car door there? Is stopped traffic even relevant? The picture provided on MCP shows a turn lane.

[Viktor Frankl]

That is correct. There is a turn lane right along that curb. It would seem a better solution would be to remove the turn lane or narrow up the south bound lane to give the additional space. Interesting that the pillars had been there for sometime and this issue has just taken over in the last few months.