Kimberly Orlich vs. City of Belding: FOIA Feuding

[XLFD]

I offer this story up to those that believe my FOIA requests on local and state government units are excessive.  A Belding woman, Kimberly Orlich has allegedly made 400 FOIA requests this year alone (that's about nine per week) from the local City of Belding (population:  5752).  This is her right, unfortunately, she doesn't seem to be publicly releasing what she is determining from these requests, so it cannot be readily apparent if she is doing this because she is just extremely interested in what is going on in her city or for some other purpose.

In this article published earlier this year, the Belding Daily News published that city officials were frustrated, and published her various requests for information.  The request's material make her inquiries appear to be directed in a focused investigation, so one could hope the material she has received, and the material that have been denied, are cogent to her understanding of how the City of Belding is conducting their business. 

But it looks as if her curiosity has led to some reaction by the Belding Police, who are often the targets of her requests, as this WOOD TV article shows.  What are your thoughts on what's happening there? 

 Belding police took Kimberly Orlich to jail in Mackinac County on an outstanding civil warrant. In the 13 hours she was in jail, the City of Belding denied 17 Freedom of Information Act requests from her. (Nov. 26, 2013)

 

BELDING, Mich. (WOOD) - There's no question that Belding officials consider Kimberly Orlich a major pain.

So far this year, they say, she has made 400 Freedom of Information Act requests that they say interfere with operating the small local government.

Then in October, Belding police got a tip, they say, that Orlich was driving without a valid license. That led to a record check that revealed a civil warrant for her arrest from Mackinac County in the Upper Peninsula.

Belding police took her to St. Ignace and turned her over to local sheriff's authorities. In the 13 hours she was in jail there, 17 of her FOIA requests were denied because she was incarcerated

[XLFD]

No, I assure you I am not "welfare Kim" as you call her.  I've lived in Ludington all my life, I am a different gender/sex, and I am in the fifth year of running this website.  If you've looked through the archives of the Ludington Torch you could have easily figured that out. 

Your lack of diligence and ignorance on these matters make you a prime candidate for someone who needs information from the government... or anyone else for that matter. 

Maybe if enough people like yourself would have used more FOIA requests to their local government for your stated hometown of Detroit, it would have fared better than it has, having been ran into bankruptcy by the corrupt liberal kakistocracy that has taken it down that path.  No wonder you are trying to get freebie work from Kimberly to that now-pathetic blot on the map you have allowed to fester all these years, probably assisting it to do so by defending Kwami and friends and their lack of transparency.

But then again, you are more likely chiming in from the computers that Belding tax dollars have paid for.  I'll ask again, and you can feel free to ignore it again, but tell us about any brands you have in the fire and why you are in defense of non-transparency by the City of Belding?

[A. Murphy]

This isn't about me, or conspiracy theories or even any indication of improper conduct by the City of Belding. It's about a woman who wastes taxpayer dollars with a goofy hobby when she should be out applying for jobs and getting off welfare. It's been seven freaking years since she got fired and the rest of us have been supporting her ever since because she just plain doesn't want to work. And if that's not bad enough, instead of just sitting back and eating the free cheese and saying "thank you", she wastes her days pestering government employees at 9 different state and local agencies with multiple frivolous FOIA requests every week and she'd done it for years with nothing to show for it. Enough. She needs to get back to working 40 hours even if it's as a cook at Wendys. And once she's off welfare, she can buy as many government documents as she likes with her own money. 

[XLFD]

A. Murphy,

You say it isn't about you, but you come on here and cast aspersions about Kimberly Orlich by using class warfare against her in a very discriminatory way to paint your position that she should not get public information because for some reason she is not entitled to it.  You claim she has been on welfare for seven years, she was fired from her public service job, she doesn't want to work, and that she should find work at Wendy's to afford these government documents-- all in just one large paragraph above, as you've said even more discriminatory things before.

If you check the first link, you'll find she has a very directed 'investigation' of certain things regarding Belding which should be publicly available.  It's ridiculous that the City even wants to charge for most of those requests, unless they are indeed trying to keep the information out of the public sphere. 

I don't know Kimberly Orlich, but I have went through a lot of the same grief for making considerably less numbers of FOIA requests, many of which have shown illegal or unethical actions by the City of Ludington.  Though I qualify for indigent status because of my income (until last year when I settled for $15,000 in my favor with the City of Ludington in Federal Court over an issue peripherally involving FOIA), I have never received any public assistance, welfare, disability, food stamps, etc. but I have been lambasted on this forum and even by a councilor at a meeting,by people like yourself that say I am living on welfare and would be better off using my time on other 'worthwhile' projects. 

Keeping corrupt governments in line is one of the most worthwhile projects one can aspire to, and it is a thankless task, because the more corrupt a government is the more they go after the whistleblower and the ones who seek information.  I admire what Kimberly Orlich is doing, and I hope she gains community support so the City of Belding can become accountable.

[A. Murphy]

You keep claiming that Belding is doing something wrong that needs to be exposed. How about you tell us what that is? I'm sure that by now, you and/or Kim can lay a case out before the rest of us. And I have to ask, because it appears that based on her FOIA requests, she's only targeting the officers that arrested her and anyone that was involved in her DUI and/or has subsequently crossed her. Where's the public issue here? All I'm seeing is a one-woman personal vendetta. If that's all she's doing, then it's all just a scam and a waste of time. But yes, I stick by what I've said, and that's that welfare is supposed to be a temporary help, not a lifestyle. People like Kim Orlich are using the social safety net as a hammock and we should not have to support her and pay for her unending campaign or harassment to boot.

But again, let's stay focused on the cause here. Exactly what "corruption" is she trying to expose? By now, she, you or anyone else who is a party to this nonsense should be able to at least make a claim, and since it's a public matter, we all have a right to know, right?

[XLFD]

I have not made any claim that Belding is doing something wrong other than they were not following the FOIA when they responded to me, which is what they are sworn to abide by.  If you have read any minutes of the Belding city council, you must also see she finely details exactly what parts of the FOIA the City has violated, and she's right on the mark almost all of the time.

The one affirmation I did get back from the City of Belding in my three FOIA requests is that they had no policy allowing their police department to detain and transport Kimberly Orlich to St. Ignace for a civil warrant.  Not only is there a cost for the personnel and transport expenses to and from the U.P., there probably will be a civil claim filed by Ms. Orlich for the assault on her basic rights involved in this action, if she has not been threatened and intimidated into submission by the tin gods of Belding. 

If you have some stake in what happens in Belding, you must understand that the only people that have so far acted outside the law, are the agents of that city hall, not Ms. Orlich.  The only people that have cost the citizens of Belding money by operating outside the realm of law and ethics is none other than agents of city hall. 

She uses her own resources to make these requests, and the City needs to begin to provide the records that belong to the public, not owned by public employees, who are only stewards of those records, and use legitimate fees.

Lastly,let me advise you that any further unsubstantiated claim on Ms. Orlich's character or motives will be looked at as a violation of this site's terms of service.  If you want to make points without denigrating her character or motives (if you can), please do so.

[Willy]

From what I have read, I agree completely with X.

Murphy is way out of line by slandering Orlich and if I had my druthers I would toss him/her off the forum.

[A. Murphy]

So you admit that there is no corruption that Orlich is trying to expose. She's merely on a massive fishing expedition as part of a personal vendetta, which is not what FOIA is for, and because you're losing the argument on the issues, you want to ban me. Whatever. Do what makes you feel better. But at least don't lie and say that she uses her own resources. There is a cost for the records that she seeks and she's currently in arrears to Belding alone to the tune of over six hundred dollars. She claims that since she's on welfare--living out of the public pockets--that she's entitled to anything that she wants for free. The manager at Belding is refusing and won't give her anything else until she pays what she already owes. Let's see her use "her resources" (which are what exactly, since every penny that she has comes from the wallet of her working neighbors?) to pay that back bill.

As to her trip to Mackinac, let's focus again. She had an active arrest warrant signed by a judge (because she was a deadbeat up there, too). So what if they drove her up there? Are you saying that she should have been able to evade that warrant forever just by moving a few hundred miles away from the court instead of taking care of it? You and Willy have to be either friends of hers or just her posting under aliases because nothing else would explain your bias on behalf of this woman who has been proven to be:

A drunk driver,

a former state employee who was fired for breaking serious prison rules regarding contact with inmates,

a serial deadbeat who refuses to pay bills in multiple jurisdictions and evades a valid warrant signed by a judge,

a welfare abuser who refuses to get a job while playing at a hobby that costs taxpayers even more money than her food stamps and taxpayer-subsidized rent.

Now none of that is "unsubstantiated" and none of it is slanderous--it's all borne out by the record and you can't dispute any of it because it's true--but I have a feeling that you're just going to ban me regardless because you can't handle the truth and don't like it being discussed. For two pages now you've refused to discuss any of these facts, yet had we been discussing the non-existent dirt that Orlich is trying to dig up on any and every city official and police officer that has ever been involved in any of her arrests, I doubt you'd show the same reluctance.

Now do you want to try again, and this time stick to the issues that I keep raising? 

[XLFD]

In our terms of service it says:  "You agree that you will not post, email or make available any content or use this Network:

• in a manner that is libelous or defamatory, or in a way that is otherwise threatening, abusive, violent, harassing, malicious or harmful to any person or entity, or invasive of another's privacy;

I am sorry, A. Murphy, but that is how you used this forum to discuss Kimberly Orlich.  Unsubstantiated claim after unsubstantiated claim libeling Ms. Orlich's character without any proof to the veracity of your claims.  You have only served to show that the other side of this story has no argument other than to slander Ms. Orlich and try to make her look ridiculous.  You are being banned for not following the rules after being duly warned-- pretty much like the City of Belding does repeatedly with their FOIA responses.  Your drivel will be left on to show the vapidity of your arguments and to illustrate the character of those who go against a citizen's right to know about what their government is doing.

[XLFD]

A.  Murphy said:  "She's merely on a massive fishing expedition as part of a personal vendetta"

Why is it that the same people who want to give the NSA billions of dollars and a free pass to collect every single E-mail you send, and store every phone call you make, think that when citizens ask for specific records regarding public business that should be made available and they have a definite right to look at, that they are on a vendetta-backed fishing expedition?

Why was this essentially the same argument used by Kaye Holman in her "Indigent, Indigent, Stack, Stack" speech ?  Is this what the Michigan Municipal League instructs corrupt local governments to do when people ask for a little accountability?

[Kimberly Orlich]

A Murphy,

Your defamation must stop.

Kimberly Orlich

[XLFD]

He/She has been removed from this website for a violation of the terms of service.  If you advise, I will remove his defamatory material, Ms. Orlich.

[XLFD]

Anything that is said about you that is harmful and tending to discredit or malign your good name, even if it may have some truth to it, is defamatory. 

A legal suit trying to  show defamation would have more stricter parameters, of course, But Kim Orlich does not have " at least temporary access to the means to counteract false statements about them", she's indigent and effectively has no more power than any other citizen.  Nor has she voluntarily placed herself in the public eye; the unethical actions of Belding officials have done that.  Making what some would consider an inordinate amount of FOIA requests is a right that she decides to exercise. 

The City of Belding refusing to follow the FOIA and make their own unlawful policies to halt information from reaching the public, is what should be at issue.  Not to mention that matter of them using the City's tax money to transport an apparently unlawfully detained Ms. Orlich up to the U.P. and back.