At the Ludington City Council meeting of November 12, 2018, there was an interesting and seemingly impolite exchange in the usually sizable gulf that lies between citizen and city manager.  Let me postpone the usual full recap of that meeting and just concentrate on the accusations I made at the end of this meeting.

With less than five minutes to go in the meeting, a meeting which lasted just under an hour, I rose from my chair (at the 51:30 mark) and revisited the city assessor issue and what I had learned, and perhaps as important, what I had not learned.

November 12, 2018 Ludington City Council meeting from Mason County District Library on Vimeo.

XLFD:  "The veracity of our most powerful city official should be an indicator of his leadership skill. I made a comprehensive FOIA request as to check Steve Brock's accuracy with what he claimed at the city council on record about the city assessor position, and found his facts were lacking.

Steve claims that he and his team interviewed and received proposals from three candidates from three companies, the records received reflect that only the chosen candidate submitted proposals and was never formally interviewed. There were no other written proposals made from other companies, there were no other candidates formally interviewed or notified. Steve claims that Brent Bosley, the old assessor, authored a letter of resignation. There has been no such record produced, an August letter from Steve to Brent infers the resignation was orally made. Our city manager made bold-faced lies.

What the records seem to make clear is that Bosley had a major disagreement with city leaders and the Depot developer about the proper amount for a payment in lieu of Taxes (PILOT). The developer claimed a much lower annual figure than what Bosley, a highly experienced assessor, calculated. This council eventually accepted the figures made by the developer and recommended by Steve a month after Bosley's oral resignation and at the same meeting they agreed to the new assessor's contract with a gigantic raise to that office included.  Thank you. [End of comment]"

Although I had made a 'legal' error in my first comment made earlier about the Brownfield Plan (more on that later), there was nothing wrong in my assessment, yet the interim city manager immediately took issue, wresting the public comment period with a rebuttal immediately after Mayor Holman asked whether anybody else would like to speak.

Steve Brock:  (53:25) "I would.  All that is patently untrue.  It's completely off the charts in regards with any connection to reality, and it's unfortunate that you take that position.  We are where we are with that situation.  I feel really good about the resolution of it, and Mr. Bosley does as well, and your characterization of it are also bold-faced lies (a quick meaningful John-Shay glare)."

As they moved off Brock, I suggested something audibly from my seat:  "Produce the documents."

Brock continued:  "As for documents, I have produced every document that was made.  The fact that we didn't have a lot of documents created doesn't obviate the fact that we didn't produce any.  I've gave you everything in the FOIA request that you asked for, that's all we have, I'm sorry.  That's not enough to satisfy you, but that's the situation."

I once again audibly challenged him:  "You lied." 

At which point, her honor chided me:  "Stop it  (adding a Mike Krauch glare for a couple seconds, and officially closed the public comment period).  Is there any miscellaneous business from anybody reasonably intelligent?"  Apparently nobody fitted that description as she waited a couple of seconds and called for adjournment.  

The Facts

Though local media (COLDNews and WMOM) completely ignored the exchange in their coverage, it was more likely due to the fact that Steve Brock had nothing in his corner.  As noted in a previous article about the October 8th meeting, Steve makes some claims to defend his decisions regarding the city assessor, emphasis added:  

October 8th, 2018 Ludington City Council meeting from Mason County District Library on Vimeo.

Steve Brock:  "We did interview three candidates, two of the other names I can make available, I don't think it's any secret, that's fine. I selected those two people because they're the two people in our office that are dealing with the assessor's role most frequently.
The city council approved the contract. The pricing for that contract was based on submittals by the three companies, and they all came in-- about two of them came in around the same number, one of them was a little bit higher-- ten dollars per parcel and that was kind of misconstrued in the newspaper, ten dollars per parcel is sort of the going rate for those sorts of services.
I don't know what terms were available to the previous assessor, if he gave a better deal than that, obviously he probably did, and that's fine. The reasons for our mutual departure will remain, as I have stated, between him and us, if you will. He wrote a letter of resignation and I accepted it, and that's the end of that..."

His admissions led to my FOIA request:  

a) The three companies/individuals assessing services proposals submitted to the City and any written analysis of those proposals created by the 'selection committee'.
b) The letter of resignation of Brent Bosley, including all other correspondence between Bosley and either of Ludington's city managers (Brock, Shay) since May inclusive
c) Any memo or other transcribed public statement made by Brock before the October 8th meeting where he stated that the 'mutual departure will remain between him (Brent) and us (the City).'

Which should have minimally netted me the three company's/individual's submittals, the letter of resignation, and the three individuals' identities, three things Steve said existed and are definitely public records.  I received nothing in that respect.  

I received four attachments in my E-mailed response.  The first was the letter telling me the request was fully granted (even though much of it was effectively denied since it allegedly 'does not exist'.

The second was a notice dated August 30th from Brock to Bosley acknowledging his resignation made at a meeting.  

The third was an Email exchange notable in that Bosley's communications with the city manager, Heather Tykoski, and the Depot developer, Caroline Kimmel, had a disagreement about the size of the PILOT (combined with a municipal services fee, MSF).  Assessor Bosley saw an increase in revenue of the property of roughly $49,500 per year, as opposed to the $36,000 that they Developer had projected in their proposal.  He noted that if the PILT amount was $26,500 that the City would be granting a discount of $23,000, not $10,000, to the developer.  

As noted in my comment, the City's PILOT/MSA amount was $29,196.80, representing a discount more than $20,000 of what Bosley assessed.  The Depot is getting their taxes nearly halved for their service fees, according to Bosley's double-checked figuring.  This severe discount the city gave Kimmel was never shared with the public at the meeting or with the councilors in their packets.  It was portrayed as a fair amount at the meeting without clarification.

The last file was another Email of Bosley's singularly, which was found in the other E-mail chain.

With this more clear, let's review my assertions in my comments:   There is no indication of a second or third candidate for the assessor position, no submittals from anyone beyond Jared Litwiller, the neophyte assessor who was given a major raise (and these submissions are only found in the above packet, not the FOIA response).  No evidence of any interviews ever conducted, even with Jared.  There is no resignation letter, as claimed.  

The Email exchange shows Bosley's figures did not sit good with the developer or with Steve or Heather Tykoski, you can tell by Bosley's defensive language that he knew his higher figures would be met with disapproval.  Bosley's resignation, allegedly made in a meeting with Brock, followed without any other written documentation in the month between.  As noticed before, the raise was substantial.  

Everything I said is backed by the record released.  Steve says I had all the records I asked for, yet says that all I have said was patently untrue, bold-faced lies, and that I'm not connected with reality.

Yet earlier he said there was submissions from three companies and individuals, that there was a resignation letter.  Now he claims the records don't exist.   Reality sucks for those of us who expect the truth and proper behavior from their most powerful city official and only get a cavalcade of falsehoods from Lying Steve Brock.