The Mole Shills that Became Mountains

[XLFD]

At the April 27,2020 Ludington virtual City Council meeting, I warned the councilors that following the DPW Supervisor's recommendation to choose a local company for a three year contract over another qualified company with a significantly lower bid was violating competitive bidding protocols.   If they didn't choose the low bid, I threatened to contact my state senator with a grievance in order to reverse their decision.  That state official just happened to be the owner of the business receiving the potential favor, Curt VanderWall.  

Two reasons were given by the six councilors who voted to give the contract to State Senator Curt VanderWall's business:  that it was a local business and that the city had a good 'working relationship' with them.  Neither of these two criteria were a required part of the request for proposals, that is: to be local and to already have a good working relationship with the City.  By these councilors admissions, the losing company has legal recourse against the City of Ludington.  

Comparisons between the two company's bids and analysis of the difference was looked at in detail in the article Ludington's Mole Dilemma.  Public record requests followed this meeting, where this reporter asked for all records concerning this bid and the exact protocols the City follows when competitive bidding. 

One councilor suggested the low bidder never submitted a weed control rate, which was untrue, this record ( FWC misc) shows it was included free in the other services, rather than the $15/gallon for weed control spray VanderWall's company offered.  When it was explained that the City wanted a rate for spray, their agent said 98 cents a gallon, less than 1/15th of the 'winner'.  The totality of those records indicated VanderWall's company was underbid on all bases.

The bidding protocols were exactly what I thought, section 13.2 of the charter:  "purchases shall be made from the lowest competent bidder meeting bid specifications".  This is the cornerstone of competitive bidding used by public agencies.  It does add:  "unless the Council shall determine that the public interest will be better served by accepting a higher bid." 

Working relations and local offices have nothing to do with the public interest, those reasons just make a better case for favoritism and cronyism being used to waste taxpayer money.  One can only think the six councilors who decided to violate policy looked to gain something by spending $2000-$3200 extra each year to hire our state senator's business.  But undeclared quid pro quos in conducting public business are unethical and often illegal...

As 'threatened', I contacted Senator VanderWall three times on his official site over the next two weeks explaining the problem, left my own contact information.  Receiving no answer either time, I noticed that he was somewhat responsive to commenters on his Facebook page.  Still it took me a couple of times before he decided to answer, and the new 'threat' of growing the message until I received an answer.  The answer told me that his bid was not significantly higher, and in some cases cheaper:

I respectfully replied that his statement was false, and offered him the opportunity to correct the inaccuracies of his assessment.  This was over two days ago.  Despite an additional prod, he decided to wait for a phone call that I will never give him-- unless he does the right and moral thing.

Less than an hour before he first responded to my question, he posted some scripture and talked about kindness in speaking and healing.  He noted that he had received some letters with rather tough language that he couldn't relate to the listener.  

Don't know if he was referring to my questioning him about this appearance of impropriety-- but rather than give me an answer, he decided to paint the bids falsely in his 'public answer'.  Maybe he was given bad data from the DPW supervisor or others, but the records show otherwise; that's why he was given the opportunity to correct the record.   

He refused to do so; he let the lie stand, an easily-disproven fabrication which makes it even easier to consider there was an underlying agreement behind this corrupt contracting.   At last night's meeting, I minced few words (using City Manager Mitch Foster as my proxy speaker) at about 7 minutes into the meeting:

XLFD:  "After the fifth attempt, I finally got a response back from State Senator Curt VanderWall regarding his small business receiving the three year fertilization and weed control contract from the City of Ludington despite another qualified company bidding significantly lower than his. I have also received affirmation through a FOIA response that six of the city councilors violated the City charter's competitive bidding procedures in choosing VanderWall's business over the qualified low bidder, in a process that could be labelled improper and corrupt.

Competitive bidding in it's true form is meant not only to save public money, but to show the public that there is no favoritism or cronyism in awarding contracts. The six of you who went boldly against the competitive process are worthy of censure, alas the only one who didn't betray the people has been the only one censured by the corrupted six for speaking out about bad policies in the past. It doesn't take a brain surgeon to realize where the cancer resides in the noggin of Ludington.

By the way, Honorable Senator Curt VanderWall's response to winning the bid the way he did amounted to saying: "we where (sic) not significantly higher if you saw and in some cases cheaper." DPW's Joe Stickney in his recommendation to ignore the low bid noted that the other company was cheaper in all seven categories of charges, the records affirm that. One of those services the senator offered was 58% higher, which is significant when you are comparing bids. Honorable Senator VanderWall flat out lied to everyone on his social media page. Rather than clarify his misstatement, he walked away rather than admit that his graft and your collective corruption got him this contract, not merit and a legitimate bidding process.

When the people need most to trust their elected leaders to do the right thing, this council and State Senator VanderWall let everybody down."

I am hopeful that Senator VanderWall will recognize that being a City of Ludington crony is not a suitable second job, that taking money he hasn't earned from his Ludington constituents/neighbors is an evil act, and ultimately allow the low bid to win the day.

[Freedom Seeker]

Great effort, X, to force the moles out of a hole. Not only should VanderWall answer publicly, six of seven Ludington public servants should also. It is way past time for Ludington to become transparent and to provide competitive bidding (not just give the bid to family or friends, or employees who appear to be "public servants" serving themselves primarily for their own economic gain) time and again.

[XLFD]

Agreed.  If you liked your job consisting of selecting contractors for your company, and one of your bosses was one of those contractors you had to pick from, mightn't you choose the boss' company, even at a loss to your parent company, out of fear of offending your boss and losing your job?

This is the conflict of interest involved here on a grander scale.  The City of Ludington is one division of the State of Michigan, where Boss VanderWall holds a position of great authority.  If he is not chosen, even when it's not merited, a city councilor could be logically fearful of repercussions.  

[Willy]

Great job of reporting X. Just when you think those in charge might be going on the straight and narrow, wham! more corruption explodes out of City Hall.

I wonder just how much of the $100,000,000 school money is being wasted on inflated price gouging and rigged bidding. That school money is just to tempting for the snakes running Ludington. Everyone of those people involved with the school project should be subject to taking a lie detector test, before, during and after the construction of the unneeded school debt.

[XLFD]

No less of an authority than the MI Constitution allows a state senator to engage in this kind of activity with a local government under his purview, because it gives him an undue advantage and a conflict of interest.  If one argues in this case that it didn't give him an advantage, then why was the low bid on every single criteria overlooked just to choose the state senator's business.  Article IV, sec, 10:

No member of the legislature nor any state officer shall be interested directly or indirectly in any contract with the state or any political subdivision thereof which shall cause a substantial conflict of interest.

[XLFD]

After a little over a week's worth of trying to get further replies from Senator VanderWall, I was blocked by his official Facebook page and every bit of content I had shared with him and his followers was lost to the ether.  Thankfully, I predicted that Honorable Senator VanderWall, who has already violated the Michigan Constitution's conflict of interest section by participating in a bid (conducted unfairly) for his own private gain with a political subdivision of the district he represents, and then outright lied about his bid performance, would cowardly shrink from an honest debate over his corrupt acts.  

I have every single post I made, so if he crookedly claims I have done anything inappropriate (like threats, profanity, etc.) he will once again be in error.  This mole needs to go back in his hole.  I will be making the case in a future article that he has did several wrong things and needs to answer for his misdeeds that are multiplying as he tries to avoid any kind of accountability for his graft.

[AQUAMAN]

Good job again X, and perhaps some legal action again is warranted. Same as so many other such acts by COL officials in their warped capacity to govern our small village of honest and good people. Very sad and shocking again to the public.

[Epictetus]

Now as a public official, is he allowed to block you like this? I would think it is similar to other instances you have discussed on here previously. I do not understand the value to doing this instead of addressing the issue(s) directly and trying to figure out a better way forward. Without dealing with issues head on and not taking it personal, progress can not be made!

[XLFD]

It may have to come down to legal action, Aquaman, if he fails to repair the already considerable damage he has wrought by his own self-serving acts.  Unfortunately, I'd have to include the City in such litigation, as they play an integral part in the corrupted bidding scheme, and have also kept me blocked from commenting on the official LPD and DDA Facebook sites for no other reason other than my tendency to be outspoken in other venues.

Epictetus, the senator is not only heavily involved in issues like duck hunting, but also ducking issues when he is hunted for an opinion.  In my understanding of current judicial interpretations that it is illegal for a public official/website blocking/deleting social media commenters/comments strictly because they express criticism or a differing viewpoint.  This has been upheld on several occasions, even dealing with President Trump's Twitter account.  Currently, my former attorney Phil Ellison, has an active case against the city manager of Port Huron for what appears to be a more minor infraction along these lines.

[Du Wright]

Really sick and tired of our city that just can't get it right causing legal action. There should be no reason, except for profanity or threat of harm, for blocking a citizen from commenting on Facebook, DDA and LPD. I thought Mitch Foster was setting it straight?

[Freedom Seeker]

The City of Ludington has figuratively been like putting its knee on your neck while you are handcuffed and forced to the ground on your belly--for more than nine YEARS.  Stop the corruption, breathe honestly Ludington.  Uphold the laws of our U.S. constitution and city charter.

[XLFD]

Any lawsuit anticipated to be launched against Senator VanderWall for First Amendment violations, would likely be paired with the 'conflict of interest' section of the MI Constitution-- which likely has a like counterpart in Federal codes, to include the unfair contracting procedures.  Since I would need to retain an attorney, I'm sure he would add the City of Ludington as a defendant because they not only took part in the unfair bidding scheme, but have kept me from commenting at several city public websites, without any reasonable rationale.  These bans preceded Mitch Foster, I doubt he agrees with them, but he has done nothing about it since I apprised him of the violation about a year ago.

[Du Wright]

XLFD, have you contacted Curt VanderWall through his "contact page" in the link attached,

https://www.senatorcurtvanderwall.com/meet-your-senator/

It would be an added piece of artillery if he deletes you from this, or refuses to answer your first amendment right to comment and citizen interaction.

He should senator up and answer.