Same Auld Ludington Syne

[XLFD]

The end of 2023 saw some changes within Ludington's ruling class, but overall, they ended it by doing the same old inefficient and/or corrupt acts they normally reserve for the rest of the year.  Unless we get more good people to step up and expect some accountability this year from city hall, unless we get some of those to run for city council positions and actually make the effort to represent both the Constitution and their constituents in their actions and votes, we will just see the same pattern going on and on even after 2024 ends.

The Ludington Torch offers three things that came up at the year's end that showed how off-base the city council was in their duties to the people of Ludington over the last several years, and how they are unwilling to change their course.  

Mathematics is Taxing: Taking Away an Extra Ten Percent

Before the Ludington City Council passed their 2023 budget in early December of 2022, I wrote a comment for them while I was checking to see whether the Scottville City Commission would have a quorum for once, this was read into the record by City Manager Mitch Foster:

The city's budget team (Foster, Asst. City Manager Jackie Steckel, and Clerk Deb Luskin) without outside input couldn't figure out over the prior four years that if the city is getting only 37% and the county is getting 73% of the taxes, then obviously the taxpayers are giving 110%.  That budget package was passed unamended, but surely they corrected themselves for this year's budget:

Nope.  If these guys can't figure out simple math addition (37 + 73 = 110) and that percentages in such situations must equal 100% when added up, even after they have been explicitly told their error, how can we expect them to do more complex tasks like drafting budgets for the approximately $7 million they spend each year?  

Are the actual percentages of taxation 37/63, 27/73, or something else entirely?  Not a big deal, just keep copying-and-pasting this error for every budget going forward, the city council won't notice it anyway.  

Johnson Send-off:  Celebrating Many Years of Service by Raiding the Treasury

Ludington City Councilor Les Johnson was in the process of being recalled for raising taxes significantly earlier this summer.  A recall petition stating his tax-hungry votes as the chairman of the Finance Committee and council had passed review by the county's election commission and was in the process of circulation.  Johnson was facing an early end to his political career, when two things happened at the county level.

The first thing that came up was the county board's denial of the city council's fraudulent gift to a developer.  Ludington leaders, including their finance committee chair, unanimously gave a developer a Commercial Rehabilitation Act Certificate for the Foster School playground site, claiming it had historically been a commercial property, when it had been a playground for decades, and housed a former school before it had been razed.  The county was apprised of the fraud involved in this tax giveaway by the Ludington Torch, and they would take no part in it, denying the application. 

Despite this, a resignation by a county commissioner who sat on Ludington's council with Johnson for two terms offered Johnson a lifeline to grab onto.  A county commission known for repurposing city councilors chose Johnson over eight other qualified candidates in November.  Johnson would have to resign from the city council immediately to assume the county position. 

Just before these two events, PM Township Supervisor Jerry Bleau, who was further along in the recall process than Johnson, resigned from his position to take a job as building inspector for the City of Manistee rather than face the recall election's results.  The reasons for his recall was similar to Johnson's and they both had underlying fraud issues.  There was no formal recognition or celebration of his many years of service to the township. 

Johnson, on the other hand, was given an open house party after he abdicated his job to move onto greener pastures (commissioner wages are significantly higher).  One would normally think that the hundred-plus fellow employees of the city would pass a hat around to buy cake and punch and other items in order to hold such a celebration.  But why do that when Johnson was instrumental in raising everyone's taxes by over a quarter of a million dollars. 

Let them eat cake, and charge it directly to the taxpayers, as witnessed in the latest batch of city invoices:

One might justify the city's action by saying that it was only a little over $100 spent and it was said to be opened to the public.  We would argue that this is an improper use of the city's general fund, and this was strictly a private purpose, not a public purpose.  When expenses like this can be justified by waving them off as insignificant and within their power to make, they can justify using the city's (taxpayer's) credit card for anything else, like an office pizza party or an even bigger event costing the better part of $1000 across the street at a bar.  And they do this quite a bit, as seen in this past article.  They attribute about $30 more to this open house later on in an invoice to Family Fare. 

Let those who think he did an acceptable job fund this soiree, not the general public, most of who know that he is just a political hack that has little regard for his constituents, jumped ship from a job he was duly elected to in order to avoid formal recall, and offered nothing of standout value over his three terms as councilor other than his lust for your money and his willingness to commit fraud just to please private developers.

Same Auld Sygns:  Employee-owned Business Monopolizes City Purchases

From the same invoice list that showed we funded the open house of a councilor who voluntarily took another job rather than serve out his term, we find that there was more public money to be spent on him further down in the general fund list:

One can see, just above the $6000 Shop with a Cop entry (which we have argued should not be in the general fund section of invoices in the first place), is the purchase of a plaque and engraving from Safety Decals for $127.  This was the special plaque given to Johnson as seen in the mayor's hand in the first picture of this article.  If $127 sounds like an awful lot for a plaque to you, then you are absolutely correct, one can get a custom-made plaque for well under $20 if they are worried about spending a lot of money on the occasion:

But saving money isn't high on the list of city priorities, so they spend ten times that.  And why not, the beneficiary of the sale is Community Development Director Heather Tykoski and her family-owned business, Safety Decals.  No need to find competitive prices when you win by finding the highest price around and convert all that public money to more income for a city official.

Did they spend tenfold more on stickers for garbage barrels in the following purchase, found deeper in the invoices?:

One wonders whether the city would spend nearly $250 on garbage barrel signs/stickers if the recipient wasn't Safety Decals, and our long-term readers probably wonder if these 'signs' will match our gold-plated parking signs made for the city by the same company at a cost of $60,000 (originally budgeted for twice that before their deception was caught). 

Those readers can do a simple search of our archives and find many years of purchases from Safety Decals/Tye's Signs that do not make fiscal sense until you understand that the city in each case wasn't looking for a bargain, but just a payoff to one or two city officials.  Payoffs that Councilor Johnson approved throughout his long years of service, sometimes getting his own payoffs back when he ran a party store that supplied wine, spirits, and champagne for the City's sponsored New Year's Eve Ball Drop party.

It's a different year but expect the same auld Ludington syne once again from our elected officials throughout their 151st year.

[Willy]

Although city officials can't add they sure can act like they care about the citizens while they are stealing their money. All of the conniving and deceit would have sent the common person to a prison farm to bunk with Cool Hand Luke. Instead this den of thieves continues to deal in political malpractice even when their actions have been revealed. Thanks X for the reminders of how selfish people can gain power and corrupt an entire city. Don't forget that boondoggle water tower paint job.

Even when Ma and Pa city executives are confronted with their low math IQ's they still can't seem to grasp the concept of basic arithmetic.



https://ludingtoncitizen.ning.com/video/ma-pa-math-of-ludington-cit...

[Freedom Seeker]

That Ma/Pa clip says it all! True, Willy. Just another clerical error for the city of Ludington who doesn't seem to hold themselves responsible, but don't have problem adding more taxes and fees to the taxpayer. If the city would listen to X, we'd be so much better off in so many aspects.

[XLFD]

Out of self-preservation at least, I do think the councilors and other officials listen to what I have to say.  The problem is that they rarely heed my words unless there's a summons attached.  When I go to the podium and rail about this or that my goal is typically to remind them of the finer points of the law, how their actions affect their voters, how their actions could be perceived by reasonable people (whoever they are) as corrupt or unethical, and otherwise serve as a counterpoint to their prevailing way of illogically doing things. 

The council has never wanted independent thoughts that go against the tired dogma running rampant among the rest.  When they get it, they immediately look at ways of neutralizing and assimilating it (see the Angela Serna era).  When they have the opportunity to get a fresh voice, they choose a classic team player instead (see the recent Third Ward appointment).  

[Freedom Seeker]

Listen, heed, comprehend. I've seen some try not to listen (seem to be intentionally hanging their heads in other papers).  Yes, they do not heed or they'd be in better positions, especially when it comes to going to court.  And comprehend? That might be the problem.

[Willy]

I agree with FS. These people are just arrogant as well as ignorant. They also demonstrate an air of superiority, thinking they know better than the voters what needs to be done. This has been demonstrated for many years now. Until the old establishment has given up their power nothing is going to change. The only way their power can be diminished is through the ballot box but I don't see that in Ludington's future. X has been right on all the important issues for years and has backed up his opinions with research and information, but the voters either don't care or aren't paying attention.

https://ludingtoncitizen.ning.com/photo/dumb-voters?context=user

[stump]

Willy, a new term for A I , arrogant and ignorance . Maybe we'd be better of using the Artificial Intelligence