Wine

In case you missed the reports, a high profile arrest for drunk driving took place at the Oleson's parking lot in Manistee.  Long term West Shore Community College (WSCC) President, Chuck Dillon, was stopped, evaluated and arrested by the Manistee Police Department around 9 PM on Wednesday after they had received reports that someone was seemingly driving while intoxicated.  Dillon refused a Breathalyzer test (PBT), but did have his blood drawn so as to determine whether he was indeed drunk.  Those results won't be known until about two weeks, but he did spend the night in jail for suspected DWI. 

Before the news was publicly released, the Board of Trustees of WSCC was informed of his stop and detainment, and Board Chairman James Jensen issued the typical statement of how they are taking this seriously and conducting their own investigation.  Dr. Charles Dillon up to this point has remained mute on the topic, showing the lack of any true leadership on his part. 

Don't get me wrong; I believe in his innocence of the charge until the blood test comes back and says otherwise, just like I would for anyone else.  But he is the leader of an institution where we send our kids to become better people, to learn how to be professionals, and this is a serious crime he is charged of.  We expect more from the people that lead our higher institutions.  

So saying nothing is inexcusable.   Either vociferously denounce this stop as a witch hunt where you assure us the results of the blood test will fully exonerate yourself, or own up to your problem and your foolish action of getting behind the steering wheel when you had too much to drink.  Dr. Dillon, you're smart enough to know what the result of that blood test will be in the range of, why don't you give us the truth, rather than make us all wait for it?  If you are guilty of DWI at 9 PM on Wednesday, it betokens other problems, which many people who respect WSCC as an institution may transfer negatively to that institution. 

In disclosure, I once served as an associate professor out at WSCC in the field of mathematics, and gave a student in one of my classes a grade of 'D', because that was what she had earned by scoring lowest in the class.  It turns out that the student fibbed about her scores to her mother who had used her position and influence to protest the grade to the WSCC Board three marking periods later; she wanted an 'A' or 'B'.  I probably would have taken a 'C' grade under strong consideration, if not for the student's misrepresentations of her grades, which were given to her throughout.  The board eventually approved the amending of the grade without showing why the initial evaluation wasn't flawed, and I appealed it to Dr. Dillon. 

Dr. Dillon didn't spend a lot of time on the matter in deciding to uphold the board's decision, but did accede to the fact once I confronted him that there was more at work behind the change than my evaluation methods, and implied that the change was needed to appease the proper people.  Rather than drink myself silly and wind up in an Oleson's parking lot, I just resolved not to work at WSCC any more after that semester. 

Mayhaps the pressures of the job finally caught up with him, but I saw the lack of good leadership in my ten minutes with him.  And even though he remained in his job, while I moved on, I believed he was the one who had the poor judgment.  He is just another pragmatist put into a leadership role, whose decisions are made to primarily satisfy those who may have influence over his future.  It seems to have caught up to him in his weaving car in Manistee.

Water

At the latest Manistee City Council meeting, the topic of water came up-- as in the cost of water to the poor and the people who don't use it went up greatly.  This has to do with a recent change in how the water bill is figured out in Manistee with a newly charged "ready-to-serve" fee. 

At the latest council meeting, Ray Fortier discussed the impact of the new charges on low-income people (along with the prohibitive subsidies the City is giving the marina and Ramsdell Theatre).  Bob Grabowski complained more of this and spoke of the ready-to-serve charge applying to outdoor (sprinkler) meters year round.  Ross Spencer argued how the new policy discriminated against the low-income users.

Before the change, Manistee did not have this charge.  A ready to serve charge is a fixed monthly charge that is designed to recover a portion of the costs of operating the system.  When initially introduced into a system that had only a charge per water unit used, it greatly affects those who use little or no water in their city system.  Effectively, the poor, the water conservers, and those who are absent most of the time pay a lot more than they used to.  This can be illustrated with the chart provided in this link from the City's website reproduced below, check the link for other frequently asked questions: 

A)  Someone who is away from his house for an extended period used to have only a fixed $6.60 per month for sewer, now they will see their bill more than double to $13.84 because of the RTS charge.

B)  A household that uses 2000 or fewer gallons per month (quite common for one or two person households-- check this link to see how much yours uses if you don't have access to your water bill) will see at least a 22% jump. 

C)  Big time users, like businesses and larger, wealthier households that use a little over 10,000 gallons a month, will actually see a drop in their bill because the nominal decrease in the charge per unit of water eclipses the RTS charge.

Therefore, the RTS is a fee that will be a lot more burdensome on those who use little or no water, and since few poor households will/could actually use enough water to see anything more than a double digit percentage increase in their water bill, it is fair to say they are being hit hard by the new system.  These users typically do not 'stress' the system like the high volume users, so it is fair to question this standard being implemented rather than a straight user fee, particularly when a user who has a hook up for one sprinkler pays the same RTS fee as an industrial entity that goes through hundreds of thousands of gallons each month.

Views: 1655

Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Here's an amusing, slightly ironic story out of Grand Blanc, Michigan involving a superdrunk driver like Dr. Dillon was on August 6.  This happened on August 23; it is not known whether the driver ever attended WSCC:

Police say a 34-year-old man crashed a truck through a construction zone, drove through the police department's front yard, hitting a "Drive Sober or get Pulled Over" sign before being arrested.

Grand Blanc Township Police say that on at about 2 a.m. on Aug. 23, police noticed vehicle stopped in the 2000 block of Lincoln Manor Drive and Frank Avenue, although there was no stop sign.

As it pulled into a driveway on the west side of Frank Avenue, police saw both tires were flat and pulled over the vehicle.

After noticing more vehicle damage to the Ford F-150, police said the driver wouldn't answer what he hit.

When the man exited the vehicle, police saw that he wasn't wearing any shoes and, after initially refusing to answer how much he drank, he eventually told police "he had a lot," according to the report.

After arresting him for operating while intoxicated, he gave a sample of 0.25 blood-alcohol content -- three times the legal limit -- with a breath test.

Nearly 10 hours later, at 12:30 p.m., officers found damaged property in front of the department, 5405 S. Saginaw Road including tire tracks that left the road to strike a "watch for fire trucks sign," a ground flood light and a "Drive Sober or get Pulled Over" sign.

The "Drive Sober or get Pulled Over" campaign is happening in 40 counties across the state and features more than 150 officers enforcing in the area in an effort to look for seat belt or drunken driving violations.

In the process of going into the yard, police say the man hit two sand hills that were in the area for construction and, after hitting the signs, stopped near the broken signs, where police found a receipt with his name on it.

The Ford truck that the man was driving was owned by a Linden resident, who told police the man did not have permission to drive the vehicle and was supposed to be working on it.

http://www.mlive.com/news/flint/index.ssf/2014/09/police_say_drunk_...

This would be a humorous story if it wasn't such a  potentially dangerous situation. He could have killed pedestrians and would never had known or realized it. Driving "super drunk" requires serious penalties.

I guess we have to accept this from a 34 yr. old Generation X nowadays, afterall, they've usually been raised by a single parent. As for President Dillon though, there IS NO EXCUSE! As X accurately pointed out earlier, he's a community leader and role model. He has to extol the best behavior to young students and fellow instructors. He screwed up, big time, and should be honest and forthright, and just resign. If he can't do that now, after all that has happened, with all the evidence against him, then he never deserved that Presidency in the first place imho. And that does NOT bode well as a reflection on his fellow board members either. Maybe they too should resign, because they offer up an excuse, delay, and unreasonable stand for him to be on their board into the future by delaying what should have been a quick and honorable decision that was required long ago. And it hasn't happened yet? WTH! Is the "entire institutional organization" rigged against fairness and honesty? In Mason County? Well, maybe it's time for big changes in many many organizations around here, not just the COL cronies! 

The board members and the good doctor himself have put the welfare of Chuck Dillon over the welfare of WSCC, same as the Scottville City Commission and the old mayor of Scottville originally did for Joe Baxter when he drove into the Scottville gully less than a mile from his house. 

It's a common theme in our local corrupted agencies; it's why people that are actually paying attention have come to the conclusion that CYOA (Cover Your Official A$$) and COOA (Cover Other Officials' A$$) is more important than regular official duties to all but a small minority.   

RSS

© 2024   Created by XLFD.   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service