Life Rings and Lie Things

[XLFD]

Just before the end of 2013, Ludington DPW Superintendent, and two-time interim City Manager Shawn McDonald retired from the public sector to devote some time to the private sector, working at the locally based West Shore Bank. 

"He will be missed,” Ludington City Manager John Shay said about McDonald. “Shawn has always been a wealth of information — he’s been working for the city for 30 years and built up a wealth of information." 

A wealth of information, or a poor purveyor of misinformation?  Just one day before that, even before I had known of his retirement, I received a FOIA response back from the City of Ludington regarding 2011 "Water Safety" purchases.  I had made the request through a FOIA proxy two years prior to find out what the $40,000 budgeted for water safety went for and the City of Ludington asked for $91.79 just for that information, and finally received it for no price after asking for it directly from the new FOIA Coordinator this fall.  

One of the causes of my original FOIA request was to verify what I thought was an inflated bogus figure offered by Mr. McDonald to replace these life rings that were purchased in early 2011, after three drownings at Stearn's Park coinciding with the City of Ludington abandoning and vacating the successful lifeguard program that year which Mayor Henderson and other officials felt was unnecessary.  According to this City of Ludington Daily News (COLDNews) report (which was never revised): 

"The rings were mounted on the north breakwater sometime before Memorial Day and cost roughly $250 each, McDonald said. Attached to each ring is a canvas bag filled with rope so the rings can be retrieved if necessary."

My own research into pricing those life rings, plus rope bags, got a much lower figure, about $80 to $85 each, roughly one-third of Shawn McDonald's approximation.  The receipts show that even I had over-valuated the price, and that Shawn McDonald was the one who executed the purchases, and therefore had no reason to be so far off-- by a factor of three-- when it came to approximating the price for the unquestioning sounding-board reporter for the COLDNews.  The first receipt shows the costs of the life rings themselves ($46 OR $54 depending on size): 

 

This second receipt shows how much the rope bags cost.  Even though the DPW Superintendent does not relate that these were also taken, they were tied to the rings.  As you can see they cost $24 each, a good deal for McDonald to get:

The grand total to replace one life ring, complete with rope and bag, would thus be between $70 and $78, plus about 5% in shipping costs, makes the most expensive ring just a tad over $80. 

If you have some money at the place where Mr. McDonald has his new job, West Shore Bank, you may wish to take that into account-- particularly if you ask him to estimate your returns on investment.  You may find yourself going underwater.

Coincidentally, just three years after these 35 life rings were purchased, the City of Ludington plans to replace them with new ones this year, due to some weathering noticed on some of them. That would be a cost to the city of about $9000 (more when adjusted for inflation) if McDonald's estimate was correct, under $3000 otherwise. 

[AQUAMAN]

Hmm, can't remember seeing 35 life rings at the beach anytime. Did they put them at the two marinas and waterfront park too? And if they are being vandalized/stolen, what's the new plan to prevent this in the future? Also, I note 24" & 30" as sizes, and that is puny for the intended usage. Ok for a pool or some smaller kids, but you aren't going to float long in the big lake if you weigh over 150 lbs. or so.

[XLFD]

The COLDNews in the 2011 story in the thread head said that McDonald noted there are 14 deployed at a time.  Either the theft problem has been under-reported, or they should have about 20 life rings in storage that haven't been used. 

Would not be too surprised to find that some of those wound up at the Ludington City Marina and elsewhere.

[AQUAMAN]

If the COL wants to have spy cameras out there, why not move some over to where they display the life buoys to catch the thieves? COL says they need money, and too much is wasted on FOIA's, how about this little known fact, $2,000 down the drain every season?

[XLFD]

You wouldn't think it makes too much sense to have $4000-5000 cameras trained on a marina dock in the interior at the City Marina, but they have since they purchased those cameras several years ago. 

But you can't get very close to the life ring areas with camera coverage without mounting one beyond Stearn's Outer Drive.  I'd rather not encourage the City to begin putting electrical hookups along the still-mostly-pristine beach.  Figuring most thieves and vandals act when its dark, having a camera pointed towards the rings, would not work out too well for identifying folks, but it would give them a new use for Port Security Grant money. 

[krazzz]

A 24" life ring has 35 lbs of buoyancy and 30" ring has 53 lbs. The minimum rating for a Type IV (throwable device) is 18 lbs. The USCG requirements for a Type I life jacket (the highest rated) has a minimum buoyancy of 22 lbs. Both of 24' and 30" rings exceed they USCG requirements by double the buoyancy. Even a very large person would have no problem staying afloat. The human body is only slightly under neutral buoyancy and doesn't need very much to stay up. The average adult only needs 7-12 lbs to stay afloat. 

[AQUAMAN]

Thanks for the correction krazzz, information I probably should have investigated. Still, I think that's more theory than fact, in real life. Take for instance, the 280 lb. man that fell off at the end of the pier one Labor Day and drowned, would that 30" ring support him with his waders full of water too? How about the college kid that got blown off in 60 mph winds and 12' waves? And if the rope isn't already attached to the rings, who's going to fiddle with them and still have time to throw it to a drowning person? What's the USCG say is the average adult weight? I have two life rings on my boat, one is 24", the other 36", they were never tested for man overboard, and hope they never will be. Keeping your head above water in very hazardous waves like 12'-15', or even 6'-8', isn't the kind of weather I would bet my life on with these rings.

[Willy]

I wonder if any City Officials have pools at their homes that were in need of some of those rings?

[AQUAMAN]

Another interesting observation Willy...lol. But, in all the safety devices I've seen the DPW leave outside, they have them clearly stenciled/marked as such, so if anyone steals them, they are quickly identifiable. Wonder if they did this with these rings like normal procedure or not? I'm betting not, thus the repeated thefts.

[XLFD]

Or maybe used as an added incentive to charter boat captains so as to anchor at one of the City Marina slips or the Ludington Yacht Club. 

Creative accounting is the name of the game at the Ludington City Hall, and so even if you believe Shawn McDonald may have made a 'slight error' in his approximation, he may have added on the $180 of administrative costs to get a life ring from storage to the place where they turn up missing.  That this stood uncorrected, even after I tried to get the information and was blocked by City Manager Shay putting a FOIA price tag of nearly $100 on it, should tell you something about how transparent our government is here.