Shooting the Sh*t with Ludington City Manager John Shay and Police Chief Barnett

Tonight's Ludington City Council had a limited agenda where they would be passing a fireworks ban, which they did unanimously, tout the travelling veteran wall that is scheduled to be in Ludington this week, and do the usual business, but they apparently weren't ready to discuss a matter of business dealing with the honesty and integrity of their two top hirelings:  the police chief and the city manager. 

 

This year I have decided to revisit the bathroom camera issue, because I believe that both City Manager John Shay and Police Chief Mark Barnett are unwilling to take them out and unwilling to tell the public the truth about them. 

 

If you don't know yet, the public bathrooms around downtown Ludington have cameras in them.  One that is visible and pointed at the urinals in the men's room, which is supposedly a 'dummy camera'.  Two which are concealed in the air vents of both men's and women's bathrooms that can record activity within the stall.  Thanks to this cub reporters expose back in 2013, dozens of news outlets and blogs rightly acknowledged the perversity of the city leaders that allowed this.

 

But one thing I did not press last year was the contradiction of our most powerful, unelected leaders in their response to this hidden shame.  City Manager Shay wanted to sell me VHS video footage of the two days of July 13 and 14, 2013 last July, via a FOIA request I made.  He wanted to charge me for an unnamed city employee looking through the footage to edit out naughty bits that would be an invasion of privacy.  He even sent a copy of his E-mail to Chief Barnett.

 

However, shortly thereafter Chief Barnett was explaining things to the Michigan State Police retired Lieutenant Kevin Leavitt and thanks to the Michigan ACLU, I eventually received their report albeit after the initial hubbub died down, which had Chief Barnett contradicting John Shay.  I described it in the first part of my five minutes of public comment, which follows this vent camera:

 



 

"Last week from Mt. Pleasant, Michigan: A mid-Michigan bank branch manager faces charges after a camera was found in a bank's restroom.  David Prawdzik is charged with capturing/distributing an image of an unclothed person, tampering with evidence, eavesdropping and using a computer to commit a crime.

Police were called Thursday to the branch after an employee found a camera behind a restroom stall. Police say the camera was taken to the manager who then tried to destroy it.

Prawdzik was later arrested and was being held in the Isabella County Jail on a $50,000 bond.

I brought this same problem to this council about a year ago, the existence of recording cameras placed covertly in the waterfront park bathrooms. 

 

 

 

I once again offer the Michigan State Police Report on that very subject last August, where they investigated my original complaint.  Chief Barnett advises the investigating officer that the two cameras hidden in the vents were placed there by city officials and had been "installed so long ago and the equipment was in such repair that he was going to have these units permanently removed from the restroom." 

 

 

 

They are still there over a year after he made that statement, and after two more weeks of being reminded he had made that statement at the last meeting.

Earlier in the report he said that the central recording unit for these hidden cameras had not been working for years. 

 

 

Yet, a month earlier, then FOIA Coordinator John Shay replied to my FOIA request for Video footage of both these hidden cameras during the daytime hours of July 13, and 14, 2013." by saying and I quote:

"The denial portion of the City’s response is tentative only until such time that the City reviews the video tape to determine if any of the cameras inadvertently captured footage that could be considered an invasion of someone’s privacy.  If no such inadvertent footage is found, your request will be granted in full.  It is estimated that it will take approximately 6 hours of time to view the VHS video tape.  At $23.32 per hour (including fringe benefits), this would cost $139.92.  Upon receipt of your deposit in the amount of $69.96, the City will begin its review of the video tape.  Upon receipt of the entire payment of $139.92, the City will release the video tape in accordance with the City’s response."

Chief Barnett stated the recording unit had not been working for years last August.  However, City Manager Shay affirmed that the cameras were working last July, and required city officials six hours to review that recent footage so that the incidences of 'invasion of privacy' would not be given out.  

One of these two men is lying.  But what the city manager and the chief do not seem to understand is that recording people in these bathrooms including within the stalls is an invasion of privacy just like the what happened with the Mt. Pleasant Bank Manager, and not releasing this footage to myself or the state police unedited is effectively tampering with evidence of capturing/distributing an image of an unclothed person and perhaps using a computer to commit a crime.

Like manager David Prawdzik, your executive status should not grant you special immunity from the law.  But barring any responsible, uncorrupted official in the area coming forth and demanding the law being enforced or removing the offensive cameras, I will donate my time over this next weekend to remove the hidden cameras from the vents inside the Waterfront Park bathrooms, and will deliver those two cameras to the LPD next Tuesday. 

 

If I need to clip some wires to do so, I will supply a properly sized wire nut with the understanding that these cameras will not once again go up in a manner that is against the law, and against common decency.  In the meantime, please let the public know whose story is correct:  Mr. Shay's or Chief Barnett's. 

 

Ludington City Council, you are the folks who hire these two people, after the mayor appoints them, so these two are a reflection on you, not the people who elect only you to do their business."

Both John Shay and Chief Barnett had the opportunity to refute, dispute, or otherwise dissemble about what the deal was, at the end of the meeting, without having to worry about any of the public interrupting or correcting them.  They waived that opportunity.  Nor did any of their city council employers or City Attorney Wilson comment on the issue.  That's Pure Ludington accountability.

Views: 1122

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by AQUAMAN on August 25, 2014 at 10:30pm

Excellent reporting again X. Got their panty's pulled down again it appears...lol. Pure Ludington "accountability" = PURE BS imho. Tricky Dick is sure to respond at the next meeting on this. And charge us all another $2,000 or more to prove his deception, and deny any wrongdoing.  

Permalink Reply by XLFD on August 25, 2014 at 10:52pm

I forgot to mention that I gave copies of the Shay E-mail and the relevant parts of the MSP report to each of the five councilors in attendance tonight, so that our city councilors could see the contradictions for themselves. 

When they can't even formulate a proper rebuttal for a serious matter like this, it only shows they are corrupt and unaccountable to more and more people.  And that there is no proper rebuttal; either one or both are lying about this criminal issue.

Permalink Reply by Willy on August 25, 2014 at 10:44pm

Well done X. It's to bad this is still going on. Did anyone really expect them to obey the law. Again, the City Council accepts this bad behavior by the officials they have hired. And again no one on the Council see's fit to set things straight. What purpose is the Council fulfilling? They rubber stamp everything presented to them and act as if they are the employees of Shay and the Chief.

Permalink Reply by AQUAMAN on August 25, 2014 at 11:20pm

It just occurred to me that FEAR could be a prime motivator in the CC chickenpoops. If you take into effect that combined together Shay and Barnett wield some 90% of the power around here, is it any wonder? Whom wants to be on their shit list? Even Holman and Engblade finally came into Shay's camp in recent times. The teflon don Shay has a big pulpit of power unequaled to any previous City Mgr. I can ever remember. 

Permalink Reply by XLFD on August 26, 2014 at 8:37am

And why isn't Mayor Ryan Cox weighing in?  Maybe it's because the Reserve Ludington Police Department Sergeant that he is has to obey what his boss Chief Barnett tells him.  Either that or he doesn't mind pulling duty in the LPD's video monitoring room this time of year.

Permalink Reply by Dave on August 26, 2014 at 1:33am

If the cameras don't work, why have them in the bathrooms at all? Seems like all the hubbub could of been avoided had they simply took them out if the case was that they were not working.

Permalink Reply by XLFD on August 26, 2014 at 8:30am

Seems like reasonable thinking that a reasonable person might think in a reasonable thinking person world; but nobody among our officials and their employees is going to do it without orders from Chief Barnett or John Shay.  Who apparently believe that having cameras still stuck in their bathroom vents with lenses clearly visible from inside the stalls over one year after the kink was caught is a great way to market Ludington.

Permalink Reply by Willy on August 26, 2014 at 4:30pm
Permalink Reply by Willy on August 26, 2014 at 4:51pm

I obtained this video from a FOIA request of one of the bathrooms in question

Permalink Reply by XLFD on August 26, 2014 at 5:55pm

That story went viral and fast, once FOX 17 picked it up.  We had over 50,000 hits on the original story.  I'd suggest that FOIA response was in error because that isn't the Waterfront Park bathroom.  More than likely it's another bathroom where the City of Ludington have set up their cameras.  These guys.

If you checked out the City of Ludington Daily News (COLDNews) today you wouldn't know that the councilors were given evidence that one or both of their chief officials lied about serious matters.  The COLDNews completely ignored me just like the city council.  Another success in illustrating the extent of corruption in the city, and the lack of any ethical official to nip it in the bud.  At least directly. 

Permalink Reply by AQUAMAN on August 27, 2014 at 12:25am

Nip what? 

Permalink Reply by XLFD on August 27, 2014 at 8:15am

The culture of corruption.

RSS

© 2024   Created by XLFD.   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service