Sheriff Cole Answers Questions and Updates Scottville on Policing Issues

[XLFD]

The notice on the Mason County Sheriff's Office (MCSO) social media pages announced:  "On Friday, Feb. 7, at 9 a.m., Sheriff Cole will host Coffee with Sheriff Kim Cole at State and Main Coffee Shop, 101 S. Main St. He will discuss his plan for patrols in Scottville and will also share information relevant to the sheriff’s office around the county."  

As a lot of confusion has surrounded Scottville's future with police protection following a simple motion made at their first meeting in January making way for the dissolution of their longstanding police department.  Few details have been volunteered from the City of Scottville since, and so it was a good gesture by the sheriff to hold the forum to provide details and seek order from amongst the chaos encircling the city over the last year or so, resulting in multiple city commission resignations and the selection of a new city manager to replace one that left a fiscal mess where the new city leaders felt compelled to disband the SPD in order to right the ship of state.  

A couple dozen of folks, including this reporter, attended the event this morning, representing a wide swath of interests.  Sheriff Cole himself was freshly repatriated in Mason County very early this morning after a weekend trip to Washington DC to attend the National Sheriff's Association Winter meeting.  Despite the red-eye flight back, the sheriff gave a quality presentation and fielded a fair number of questions admirably in the informal meeting that lasted a little over an hour.

                 Sheriff Kim Cole (standing) fields a question regarding statistics regarding drugs and overdose incidents

Cole would credit Smith & Eddy Insurance for organizing the event to get the information out there.  He would then introduce a few in his department, highlighting Chief Deputy of Road Patrol Oscar Davila, saying he would be the one to oversee the deputies acting in the Scottville area, and be the one to go to if one had a problem with one of the road patrol deputies.  Davila, who also serves on the Mason County Central School Board, is very familiar with the area.

Cole briefly related the history behind the city and its talks with the MCSO.  Back in 2013, City Manager Amy Williams approached him to see the feasibility of having the MCSO take over some or all of the police work in Scottville.  Cole had only 12 members for his road patrol, so they decided that it was not in the best interests of either party at that time.  Since then, the MCSO has doubled it's road patrol personnel, so when he was approached last year after Scottville's new city manager, Clarence Goodlein, recognized significant shortfalls in the city treasury, the sheriff was able to give him a couple of options should the city abandon its own police department.

With the shortfalls, the city isn't likely to overcome its money issues for about three years (Commissioner Randy Wyman who was the only city official present affirmed this) unless they dissolved the SPD and opted for general coverage by the MCSO, which would come at no additional cost beyond the Scottville citizen's normal property taxes paid to support the MCSO.  Once the current survivor of the SPD, Interim Chief Katrina Skinner, retires or June 30, 2025 arrives, the MCSO will help the city adapt by having Scottville City Hall serve as a centralized 'satellite office' for the road patrol, especially those serving on the east and middle part of the county.  They also plan to increase their presence in the city and have already contacted the Hart post of the MSP for additional help which they have pledged.

While Cole would admit that response times may suffer for incidents during the times when the SPD has traditionally been able to cover and that their deputies wouldn't be able to enforce city ordinances, he stated that their response times would likely fall within the 5- or 6-minute range and often be quicker if it was an emergency that the MCC resource officer on duty could respond to.  They would also respond to incidents where ordinances might be part of the dispute between parties in order to intercede or avoid crimes from happening.  

One of the potential ideas the MCSO is exploring is to eventually have two dedicated officers for the jurisdictions of Scottville, Amber Township, WSCC, and MCC, somewhat like they have in PM Township, where the SRO for the LASD Elementary School serves as a dedicated deputy for the township when school is not in session.

Cole would relate that the MCSO is currently running with a full contingent of personnel, receiving a couple of deputies recently from the Muskegon area.  He stated he would like to be able to hold meetings like today's meeting, every other Friday in the Scottville area, and then fielded around a dozen questions on topic.

These dealt with the feasibility of instituting a Neighborhood Watch and fostering cooperation between businesses to help with their mutual security.  Cole indicated that NWs currently operate only in Branch Township, after having been in Hamlin, Grant & Sheridan Townships, but encouraged both, and the use of security cameras.  

In an interesting turn, the sheriff was asked about whether Scottville's fiscal shortfalls were due to criminal acts by the past city manager or others.  Cole said he had conferred with Goodlein, whom he highly regarded, and determined that it seemed more like money mismanagement more than some fraud or other crime, noting that the MSP had did an investigation that cleared former City Manager Newkirk of criminal activity (in what we've been told by a reliable source was city credit card activity).

A couple of citizens asked about providing more statistics and analysis (as needed) on the county's (and city's) criminal activity; the sheriff disclosed that drug arrests amount to about 80-90% of the arrestees in the county, relating his own family issue, where his brother Tony is spending time in jail in Oceana County for possession, arrested by the MCSO back in October 2024 in what was surely an uncomfortable situation for all. 

No future dates were set on the calendar for updates, but it's probable that we will see more in the coming months on Friday in the Scottville area to give updates and field more questions.  

[Willy]

Thanks for attending this meeting and gathering this information. Has anyone explained how a small town like Scottville could possibly mismanage funds so badly that $500,000 disappears? If no crime was involved then where did the money go? Why hasn't an audit been done to pinpoint exactly what happened. To me, that is the bigger question because the loss of that money is why this meeting took place and until that is answered whose to say this will not happen again.

[XLFD]

Scottville got to where it is due to serious money mismanagement by the prior city manager, Jimmy Newkirk, who took a budget that was just making it by, and then added a lot of extras, including the expensive contracts with SAFEbilt for building inspector services and Mika Myers for counsel which added around $100,000 extra expenses over revenue to the budget each year they were used.  I warned the commission about both contractors being too costly for the city at meetings where they were considered, but I wasn't heeded.  Other records show that city staff were allowed to get a lot of overtime by Newkirk and appear to have regularly abused the privilege with Newkirk's blessing.

In my viewpoint, Newkirk seems to have violated the state constitution by loaning out $50,000 of the city's credit to a developer after he had believed that a grant had been awarded to that business, and he effectively gave them an advance using city funds before learning later that the grant was not actually awarded.  That issue really should be explored because to my knowledge the money is still in the hands of the developer.  

This abuse of the city's wealth amounted to an average of about $150,000 in shortfalls for the three years of Newkirk and Mayor Spencer, who let it all happen and is back on the commission thanks to three misguided commissioners. 

[woodsman]

  The Police where getting their share of Overtime but nothing compared to the DPW who have created lots of phony needs for overtime.   Funny part is everyone who works for the COS their wages where revealed except the DPW not A WORD ON THEIR WAGES.  City trucks for all, use of the DPW building as if they owned it while the fine people of Scottville are paying everything.  If a accident or fire would happen while using the cities DPW building or vehicles for personal use and a  fire might burn the place up the Insurance Company would not cover the loss. Would the commissioners write the check for that loss ? Probable not even though they are the ones who approve and let all this personal use of the cities assets buy DPW employees. What would be a good guess for a destroyed DPW building and a couple plow trucks and everything else the city has in it, 2-3 million would be a good guess and risk that much so the DPW workers can have their own personal shop completely paid for by the city of Scottville fine people.  Seems like a BIG GAMBLE as it is also illegal according to STATE LAW, must be why insurance companies will NOT pay for personal use damage... 

[XLFD]

Woodsman, Jim Durfee brought this up the taboo subject about the Scottville DPW about three years ago and truthfully, that part of his mike-dropping comment was sublimated by the rest of his speech that was caustically critical of Jimmy Newkirk's management style and temperament.  Durfee was one of the Scottville citizens (B&C owner Don Pasco was the other) who tried to get on the commission late last year but were denied consideration because of a faux rule invoked that secured Marcy Spencer her seat uncontested.  Durfee's long experience with the Mason County Road Commission and no-nonsense style would have served the city well in fixing the DPW, opening up the convo, and more problems.  

The current commission should switch their meeting place over to Commissioner Wyman's funeral home since most appear to be brain dead zombies incapable of action unless led the way by city hall staff.