Public Marinas Harboring Secret, Private Recruitments

[XLFD]

The two public marinas in Ludington, Ludington Municipal Marina (LMM) and Harbor View Marina (HVM), are engaged in unethical hiring practices that prohibit fair consideration of suitable candidates for positions and encourages cronyism and nepotism, both of which currently exists. Such practices are often considered illegal and actionable upon by those who have not been given a just opportunity to apply and be considered for public positions.

In this expose, the history of the inadequate hiring practices of the LMM will be revisited by looking back at the Ludington Torch archives from 2011, when we exposed flagrant nepotism and favoritism. We will then look at the current situation and find that nothing has changed, other than that the current mayor isn't providing summer jobs for his three daughters at the public marina (noting that the mayor not only serves as a member of the marina board, he also appoints the other members who are charged with forming policies for the operation of the marina, such as hiring practices).

History of Patronage

In Marina and the Hendersons, it was revealed that not only were Mayor John Henderson's daughters working full-time at the marina (the third daughter would, in an incredible act of corruption, be hired later during Henderson's term with zero consideration for publicly posting the job), but also that many other LMM workers had parents working for the City of Ludington. They also had offspring of Wastewater Treatment Supervisor Rob Allard, Public Works Crew Leader Dave Wroble, Building Inspector Ed Britton, and LPD Chief Mark Barnett.

FOIA requests for job postings of all types were denied due to them not existing. They did not post job openings on the website, the newspaper, or at any city posting board-- ever. They did not try to recruit from the schools or the local college by advertising positions there. It was pure political favoritism where employees were chosen for whom they live with or whom they were friends with.

Why is this nepotism (and cronyism) an unjust and corrupt way to run a public enterprise? Robert Wechsler's 2009 arguments are as true today as they were back then, when he penned:

• Nepotism includes many of the basic government ethics issues: conflict of interest, misuse of office, preferential treatment, and patronage.
• Nepotism undermines public trust by making government look like a family business run not for the community, but for the families in power.
• Nepotism is bad for morale within the government organization. It goes far beyond hiring. It remains a problem every time raises and promotions occur.
• Nepotism and its cousin, hiring friends (cronyism) are the leading methods of keeping other ethnic and racial groups out of local government.
• Nepotism puts officials in an awkward position when they don't want to hire a relative, but feel it's expected of them. Nepotism laws protect officials as well as the public.

Nepotism also exacerbates problems. A culture of loyalty and secrecy flourishes within families. As does crime. Nepotism in government naturally leads to nepotism/cronyism in contracting, which means a failure to competitively bid, or bid-rigging. This can cost taxpayers millions of dollars a year.

And this 'bid-rigging' happens regularly with the Ludington City Council, the most glaring example of recent vintage being the 2020 contract with Turf Care, where six councilors ignored the city charter's rules and picked State Senator Curt VanderWall's company over one that significantly underbid the senator's bids on all seven criteria. It's not surprising that the council has petitioned VanderWall for favors from the state over the last four years multiple times.

These displays of corruption through nepotism and cronyism in bidding and employment has continued unabated over the years even after exposure. As noted, Henderson's third daughter and Assistant City Manager Jackie Steckel's daughter both received jobs at the LMM shortly after the 2011 article came out. The competitive bidding process loses to cronyism at least once every year, costing the public a lot of money. No anti-nepotism ordinance has ever been considered since, no unfairly decided contract has ever been reconsidered since.

Favoritism Flourishes Today

The State of Michigan effectively gifted the City of Ludington with HVM last fall. Both HVM and LMM have a similar amount of boat slips (160-176), with roughly the same amenities. One would believe that the number of employees hired by Ludington would nearly double. Did the city advertise for any jobs in the new marina?

Only one. They posted notice for the position of assistant marina manager, effectively so that each marina could have an on-site manager. They did this both in early 2019, when the HVM acquisition by the City was almost guaranteed, and this year in January when the HVM lease was official (they now have two assistant managers). No other positions have been advertised, they have all been filled in by appointment because they are either related to somebody with the City or were apprised by the openings through a friendly source. Here are some of the names from July 2019, who were on the payroll at the marina:

Tyler Sniegowski is reportedly related to Tom Sniegowski (of the City DPW) and Assistant City Manager Jackie Steckel. Cody Kuster is the son of Tony Kuster (currently employed by the marina as an assistant manager also), Jake Plamondon is the son of Utility Maintenance Supervisor Darryll Plamondon. Officer Tony Kuster was on the marina payroll and also on the LPD during that time.

Other names on the roster have interesting things in common that may explain how they got the public job without the rest of the public finding out; should the city deny impropriety this would be further explored. Other folks in 2020 that got on the list (which remarkably had the same amount of people (minus the additional manager added) that were hired when the city had only one marina) are Jake Plamondon's cousin, and the daughter of a Ludington firefighter. Both were also working in 2019:

Americans have long believed in equal employment opportunity, and we have a right to expect our local government agencies to provide such opportunities. But unless I am mistaken, there is nobody of color working at either marina (perhaps one Hispanic), and nobody with disabilities. Since the City has only sought assistant managers and have appointed or reappointed 22 other marina workers without any regard to marketing their job openings, it appears discriminatory-- the fact that so many relatives of city workers have been employed over the years lends strong credence to this.

It is well past time for the city marinas to adopt equal employment opportunity policies for all departments that conform with the law and with the ethics that many other less corrupt local governments follow.

[XLFD]

City government is reaching further into your deep (and almost empty) pockets once again to lift up sewer rates 14.9% with a new ordinance set for first reading at Monday's meeting.  Thank John Shay for leaving such deep sludge (I refrained from using another 's' word) in our WWTP pools by never doing any real or preventative maintenance during his 16 year tenure until the end after he and the city law firm fought the state tooth and nail in the background to avoid doing it.  The water & sewer debt will be covered ostensibly by raising the rates as drastically as they have. 

I'm pretty sure we were told in the recent past that the substantial rate increases they had already planned would cover these repairs and that we wouldn't see raises in the rates beyond what was planned.

[Freedom Seeker]

Thanks X for that commentary on why there will be another near 15% raise in sewer rates.  16 years of neglect.  I agree, and imo, that's what we paid a short-sighted, book-educated, inexperienced infrastructure moron who got paid at least three times more than he should have for mostly being defensive of FOIA and OMA violations and Beyers and excessive force police lawsuits and instituting a workplace safety act to keep a certain whistle-blower under his knee.  Runs our debt up, neglects the infrastructure and goes off to Ottawa county where they are more fiscally minded.  But that's not all JS fault.  The mayor and city council are ultimately responsible for seeing through it and directing the city manager, imo, according to the train of culpability in the city Charter.

[Willy]

It's disgusting how this keeps going on and on and on. No shame from those involved. This should make every taxpayer angry as hell. Thanks for digging into this X.

[XLFD]

I am having some dialog with the city manager on this topic; I am hopeful that the impropriety of past acts can be addressed in the future, I will likely address the marina board on why it needs to change, as well.

[shinblind]

 

Some states spell out the restrictions in a straight forward manner along with the penalties. Michigan like a lot of states ignores the issue. 

Looks like an issue that would be easy enough to remediate but the old guard sees no reason to change it. One of the unseen perks of the job.

At the Federal level things are different. Statutes  spell out both the restrictions and the penalties. Am uncertain if their are currently any Federal funding is used to employ these summer hires.

The following link is to the nepotism restrictions enacted by the legislatures of the 50 states.

https://www.ncsl.org/research/ethics/50-state-table-nepotism-restri...

[XLFD]

Michigan legislators first have to lose their full-time status.  They are useless as they have shown repeatedly this spring, and so while we are voting yes on am initiated proposal to reign in the governor's powers, we should be doing the exact same thing with these clowns because they have made Michigan the laughingstock of the nation due to their incompetence and lack of ability to be accountable and transparent to the public, and that lack of scruples filters down to the local governments.

[shinblind]

While that is true X that a law against nepotism should be adapted at the State level there is nothing that would prohibit the city of Ludington from adapting it's own ordinance against this practice, save for the will of the old guard city council and the people. 

They wouldn't even have go that far to come up with he language of an ordinance. They could use law adapted by the Wyoming as a template.   

''No public official, public member or public employee shall advocate or cause the employment, appointment, promotion, transfer or advancement of a family member to an office or position of the state, a county, municipality or a school district.''

Changing the ending to the municipality of Ludington instead of written '' ...state, county, municipality or school district.''

They could even adapt a similar penalty, ''Penalty is a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of not more than $1,000 and removal from office.''  Only need to add''... the loss of all benefits.''

Indiana's more stringent penalties could also be considered.* 

But as long as we keep electing the same old guard council members things will never change. And the shakedown of the taxpayers of Ludington will continue.

*Indiana's penalty for violating the nepotism statue.

Possible penalties for violation of this chapter include: (from Ind. Code Ann. § 4-2-6-12)

• (1) Impose a civil penalty upon a respondent not to exceed 3 times the value of any benefit received from the violation.
• (2) Cancel a contract.
• (3) Bar a person from entering into a contract with an agency or a state officer for a period specified by the commission.
• (4) Order restitution or disgorgement.
• (5) Reprimand, suspend, or terminate an employee or a special state appointee.
• (6) Reprimand or recommend the impeachment of a state officer.
• (7) Bar a person from future state employment as an employee or future appointment as a special state appointee.
• (8) Revoke a license or permit issued by an agency.
• (9) Bar a person from obtaining a license or permit issued by an agency.
• (10) Revoke the registration of a person registered as a lobbyist under IC 4-2-8.
• (11) Bar a person from future lobbying activity with a state officer or agency.

[Du Wright]

thanks shinblind for the interesting facts on other state's nepotism laws.  I think the trouble is getting any of the elites downtown to even consider adding it to Ludington's charter.  Everyone down there just slaps one another's back and seem  happy to reward no bid contracts and nepotism perks, for after all, it is the city employees and ONLY they who can do the best job for the city.  Really, it is so ingrained that they don't even know what a good job might be.   And when they get paid two to three times the average local pay, why would they want anything else?  Case in point, as mentioned above, they put up with John Shays neglect of sewer issues for 16 years, and yet thought he was doing a wonderful job.  If john Shay hadn't had the sense to quit we might still be dealing with stinking sewers.  Well, now I guess they are at least perfumed.

[Willy]

If the new mayor and manager wanted to really show they are serious about an open government they would start with presenting some of the procedures outlined in shinblind’s very fine post.