The Place Where Ludington Talks
Ludington City Council Meeting, August 12, 2024: Lessons from a Reformed Township Board
In describing what happened at the August 12, 2024 meeting of the Ludington City Council, the Ludington Torch has to describe first about what happened in the township that surrounds us on the north, east, and south: Pere Marquette Charter Township (PMCT).
One year ago, PMCT was still in the midst of a crisis, at this point civil war had broken out among the township board with the late July filing of a recall of two trustees including the clerk by the township treasurer, who along with her husband, the township supervisor, were facing recall elections themselves that November. The November recalls would be successful (the others wouldn't fly) and PMCT began an incredible, regenerative healing process that we have continued to monitor.
On Tuesday afternoon on the 13th, the PMCT Board met and according to the agenda packet they were scheduled to make a decision about hiring a water and sewer rate study consultant. In glancing through the packet beginning on page 3, I discovered a potential problem and brought that up at the meeting:
XLFD: "I am thankful for the township's efforts towards transparency and in justifying their actions, so I am hopeful that the members of the water and sewer committee can justify their recommendation of a contractor for water and sewer rate study consultants. Three applicants submitted proposals introducing themselves and their experience that define what they would do for the township in response to the RFP. Raftelis had the lowest bid at $29,840 for a combined study. Utility Financial Solutions offered two separate studies at a cost of $39,800. Stantec divided their studies and asked for $45,730.
Supervisor Smith indicates the committee has recommended the highest cost service, without any explanation as to why they would choose Stantec when their bid is over 53% higher than Raftelis', nor why they would choose Stantec over UFS when it is about $6000 more. One of the longstanding issues I have with the City of Ludington is that they constantly abuse the competitive bidding process by not choosing the low bid or bids without giving any legitimate justification. I would greatly appreciate it if you could either choose the low bid or fully justify in your discussions as to why you would potentially bypass the low bid, and why you would potentially bypass the second lowest bid. Thank you. [END comment]"
I respect every officer and board member currently serving PMCT based on their past actions, so my comment was made respectfully and with the hope that they would supply me with the justification I asked for. I have seen them go above and beyond their duties in order to get the best results in the past, I have seen them justify their actions when called upon by township residents. The board tolerates occasional interruptions from the public during the time they conduct business and rarely ignore any good question or observation.
And they explicitly came through with a great justification for their selection of Stantec for this study. Unexplained in the memo to the board, Stantec projections would cover the next 10 years, unlike the 5- or 6-year plans of the other two. Stantec's help over the last ten years of their prior contract was stated to have been very accurate and helpful in saving the township a lot of money in modifying the water and sewer rates that were proposed by the City of Ludington (and their contractor, UFS), and following through during that period. I can verify during that time (2015) that PMCT received a tremendous deal on their costs for water and sewer in comparison to the citizens of Ludington which have likely amounted to savings in the millions since.
They approved Stantec for the rate study and then went to the next topic which was to hire a consultant for a water and sewer reliability study where two contractors bid, and once again Stantec had the highest bid. But this time, the particulars of price and timeliness went against hiring them and they were overlooked, so any charges of cronyism for Stantec one could make would be hard to prove in any case.
The City of Ludington had their hired killers take shots at me and missed back on March 12th at Cartier Park
Meanwhile in the City of Ludington, competitive bidding (mandated by charter for almost all instances) has become a running joke. In just this year, you have had the third lowest bid accepted unanimously by the city council for a city manager search where a contractor (Double Haul Solutions) was selected who would use the prior city manager as a consultant, because surely in the minds of our corrupted leaders no conflict of interest would result in taking the third lowest bid without justification.
The third lowest bid was also good enough to our corrupted council for hiring Foster's close friend from Wisconsin, Allyson Brunette and her firm for the strategic planning consultant contract. One wonders why Double Haul Solutions wasn't chosen instead, as they offer strategic planning services too, but apparently the friendship was strong.
They would also unanimously take an unproven out-of-county landscaping business (Nunez) over Larsen's Landscaping to do work at Harbor View Marina back in May, whose bid (we have learned) was about 30% higher than what Larsen's offered. It was stated in the record that Nunez would be able to do the work immediately while Larsen's was not. This has been refuted since the Ludington Torch has determined that Larsen's was never given any time element and could have done the work immediately. It is halfway through August, and the work does not seem to have been done yet.
Unjustified universal cronyism by a public body damages their credibility and ensures that corruption is present and unabated, leading to a future of inflated contracts where the extra money falls in the hand of the corrupted.
While I could have pounded the competitive bidding drum in front of the city council, the light agenda packet with basically uncontroversial items allowed me a leeway to strum the guitar of the city's failures in the taxation and budgeting dominions.
XLFD: (11:40 in) "A recent FOIA request to the City turned up nothing when I asked for an adopted resolution made by the city council for the last two years establishing the additional millage rate that the council proposed to raise taxes by through a truth in taxation hearing and subsequent vote by the council. Statute requires that such resolutions be adopted by public bodies before they establish an additional millage rate, aka raise taxes. Rather than admit a mistake that would likely disqualify those two actions, your city attorney doubled down and said in relevant part of his response: "No 'additional millage rate'... was voted on in 2024 or 2023, in both years the applicable rate either remained the same or actually decreased."
Hammersley is smart enough to know that is incorrect, just as it would be if he said that Headlee rollbacks of tax rates never occurred in both years. They did, and because you effectively neutralized that tax reduction by raising taxes is why city coffers will gain around $300,000 extra for each year than they normally would have without your vote to punish the taxpayers. The "Notice of Public Hearing on Increasing Property Taxes" made clear that you will vote on an additional millage rate by clearly saying the council will "take action on the proposed additional millage" and by saying "if adopted, the proposed additional millage will increase operating revenues by... 5.1 %."
The vote after the hearing to raise tax rates to the proposed additional millage was your action, you all raised taxes, own that fact. Own the fact that our charter says you cannot establish such rates for the next year until you have adopted a budget. That occurs in December, not in the middle of summer when you cannot even justify why you are hiking taxes. Own the fact that by statute you cannot amend the prior year's budget in March and May of the following year, you must do it in the year the budget is for. Why would city leaders be engaged in such obvious illegal chicanery, if they were not cooking numbers to obfuscate corruption and/or mismanagement? Own your cronyism, competitive bidding is a foreign concept to you, as you regularly show in your wasteful spending.
You people continually break the laws found in statute and charter to rob us of more and more money, but you never come clean about it, you hide and ignore the issues, badmouth and slander your critics, but you never own your mistakes and your venality. It's past time that changes. [END comment]
There is a big difference in the way I address the city council than I do the PMCT Board, because city leaders have shown they have bitten the apple and have left the garden with their recent actions, especially over the last two years which coincides with the mayorship of Mark Barnett. They raise your taxes and go after high bids of crony contractors and never justify their corrupt acts other than with their nervous, psychotic laughter when challenged.
The business of the Ludington meeting was best highlighted by a proclamation made by Mayor Barnett indicating September was Diaper Awareness Month. One couldn't help but recall the quote saying that politicians and diapers need to be changed often, and for the same reason.
The council would approve a couple of events (a LACA street party for Sept. 20 and Ludington Bay Brewery's Blessing of the Boats for June 7, 2025). They would appoint Gale Martin to the Senior Citizen Advisory Board, approve the purchase of an odd-shaped tract of land on the Buttersville Peninsula for $300 from the state. They approved a police body cam contract with AXON.
Two items were of interest, they adopted a traffic control ordinance forbidding parking on Loomis west from Ferry Street; interesting because Councilor Terzano thought a better plan could be put in place and voted no. They also upped the election employees rates from $13 to $15 and from $15 to $17 for supervisors. At their meeting, PMCT would raise their rates up to $20 and $22 respectively, so if you plan on going into that field, you may wish to go outside the city.
My last comment would focus on the inherent corruption of having a city councilor resign to immediately assume the position of the highest paid city employee. What should madden every single citizen in Ludington is that city hall is effectively circling the wagons to defend this unethical and unlawful act which involved hiring a 75 year old councilor with zero city administration experience at a rate that vastly exceeded her councilor salary. I tried to make this point at 51:55 into the meeting:
XLFD: "Back in June, Councilor Jeanne Oakes was making $300 per month serving the people before she resigned at a council meeting, but before that she and a bunch of city officials and who knows who else all got together at secret meetings and made a plan to make her public service much more profitable. Why make $300 per month (here's where I get out my Monopoly money), when she could make not $500, not $1000... but $6500? And this would just be a lateral move within the city, no problem with doing it informally and hiring her on the spot minutes after she resigned for this $6500 per month, a 2167% raise.
A problem though that all the corrupt officials involved failed to take into account is that by the charter, councilors cannot take a job with the city until a year has passed since leaving office, due to the appearance of impropriety, or outright impropriety as was seen in this action. That same charter refutes the defense made by the city attorney that she was somehow exempt due to the fact that the council voted her in to fill a vacancy on council and not the public at large in section 3.3: "The council shall elect from its members each year, a mayor pro tem."
The council took a two-step voting process to put Ms. Hoax on the council, just like they took a secretive voting process to install her as interim city manager and finesse the terms of her contract at a secret meeting before the open meeting she resigned and you agreed on the terms of her employment. She is a hoax, she is not allowed to serve as a city employee, and from the packet it sounds as if she will take a two-week vacation at the end of the month and by the terms of her contract, earn as much during her vacation as she would for serving for a year as a city councilor.
If the city plans on finding a city manager by September, why can't they just have the current assistant city manager be an acting city manager, and if she refuses, have a department head step up, rather than create a position which isn't in the charter, not follow the rules to make it an official position, and violate other charter provisions restricting city councilors from benefitting from their service?
The second comment would also feature a plea by Lyla McClellan, who was elected to the now-defunct Charter Revision Commission, urging the City to create their own spin on how to explain why the city gave up on the charter revision process. Attorney Hammersley indicated he would draft a legal memo explaining the decision to disband and have it ready for councilors by the next meeting. The Ludington Torch will have our own version ready before then. Our explanation will not cost the taxpayers a couple of thousand dollars extra, nor will it varnish over the truth.
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Freedom Seeker on
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So true, X. I'm glad you can tell the Ludington City Council how they are not following City Charter or state tax law. I'm glad you point out the corruption. I pray that someday some of the stiff-necks and hard-heads will realize how badly they are behaving and are ripping off tax payers. Shame on this current attorney. I still wonder if Mitch Foster jumped ship because he couldn't tolerate the corruption or couldn't stand having to listen biweekly to the corruption being pointed out by you?
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Permalink Reply by XLFD on
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City officials don't do themselves any favors by avoiding addressing the issues dealing with taxation, spelt out plainly in the law. Such disregard will only show the tribunal this is eventually brought before that they knew all along that they were in clear violation of the law. So don't be surprised when I continue to bring these issues up as the year progresses and 2025's budget finally comes up for approval.
The invocation at this meeting was solid and that prayer doesn't seem to have affected any of those hardheads your prayers are trying to soften. I do look forward to a day when all of our questions can be truthfully and fully answered by our officials and former officials.
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Thanks, it's a little blurry, but it shows Donald Trump extending his middle finger and "You missed, bitches!" memed on it. As we all know, Trump was shot at multiple times by a crazed shooter who for all we know was contracted to make the kill. Over a month has elapsed, with the FBI putting this on the list behind Hunter's laptop, and few answers have emerged.
I had my own July 13th on March 12th, when a dozen shots rang out while I was in Cartier Park during broad daylight without any warning given to me to leave the park for a deer cull which was supposed to happen in the middle of the night. Has the city had the breakdown of public safety that day investigated since then, even by their own police force? Nope, but they did trespass me from stepping foot in a public park for a month, effectively targeting me for doing nothing wrong while they were doing something incredibly wrong and illegal, and remained totally silent since as to how such a catastrophe was allowed to happen. My intention is that they will have such opportunity in the near future.
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