Manistee's Jack Garber Cleared of Wrongdoing. Questions Remain for Public.

[XLFD]

A Legal Scrap

Back in May, the Ludington Torch heralded that former Manistee DPW Executive Jack Garber was bound over to circuit court for trial after having been accused of misappropriating public funds received from selling scrap metal owned by the city.  On Thursday November 20, retiring Circuit Court Judge James Batzer dismissed all charges against Garber in a surprising ruling, saying that the district court judge abused his authority in sending the case to him for trial.  Here is the story from the Manistee News Advocate's Friday paper followed by some analysis limited by this author's reliance on public records and comments made available:

Justice Thrown on the Scrap Heap

Readers of this website will know I am not a big fan of the special prosecutor for these charges, Paul Spaniola, but in this case I am on his side and I empathize with his frustration.  Embezzlement by a public officer or general embezzlement and Safe Keeping of Public Money are all implied here, and I don't see where the evidence does not warrant this is the case. 

The judge says that the prosecution has failed to show evidence that the money was not spent on a public use.  Yet consider, evidence presented indicate the DPW used public workers operating on public time, traveling in public vehicles, scrapping metal under ownership by the public, and then failing to put that money earned by the scrap metal sales back into the public coffers and instead used it for non-public parties for city employees.  All this with the alleged approval of city management for years. 

At the minimum it clearly establishes the lesser charge of 'safe keeping':  "All moneys which shall come into the hands of any officer... shall be denominated public moneys.  No such officer shall, under any pretext, use, or allow to be used, any such moneys for any purpose other than in accordance with the provisions of law."  Prosecutor Spaniola is right in believing that proof going contrary to the given evidence of non-public use should need to be presented to alleviate this charge.

The elements of embezzlement discussed by the judge is more problematical to show, and were probably added by Spaniola to induce Garber into plea bargaining with him.  Embezzlement by a public officer could possibly have been shown given the evidence.

Garber wins and the public loses, but at least the City of Manistee has a written policy to cover a practice which wastefully used public resources.  I would urge the people of Manistee to hold the city management accountable for this waste of public resources at their next council meeting and beyond. 

But one may wonder why a couple thousand dollars led to these serious charges against Garber, and that's a good question.  Last year, Jack Garber ran (unsuccessfully) for a city council seat and during his run, the state police investigated these charges from a complaint.  One may believe the complaint was politically motivated, and probably be right. 

In this testimonial for a recyclable asphalt producer made during his DPW days, Jack Garber explains that  "it's a good way to spend taxpayer's money" in a bit of ironic humor.

Let's hope that Jack Garber and Paul Spaniola can team up and go against such wasteful public spending practices in their future.

[Willy]

According to what I read, Mr Garber was selling the scrap for money then spending it on employee's functions. Mr. Garber did not keep the money for himself. If he were trying to hide this then why would he send City employees to the scrapyard with the material if he was operating a hush hush scam. The City  knew this was going on but said nothing because the benefit for the sale was going toward employees. With no policy in place and Mr Garber knowing that his bosses were aware and gave their nod of approval I can't see a problem. This was not done in secrecy nor was the money stuffed into a Swiss bank account. I am surprised that no City policy was in place to handle this kind of situation.

[XLFD]

If we presume that Garber did have the approval of past and current city managers in doing this practice, then the safe keeping of the public funds onus should be off him.  But shouldn't the violation then move to the City Manager for allowing and accepting the unaccounted use of these public funds by his underlings? 

Consider the City of Manistee as if it was a business where you (and several thousand others) are the owner, and the person who is managing your business allows the employees to use money they never report to you, and that you are entitled to, for throwing office parties.  Would you be more likely to discipline the employee following standing orders from the manager, or discipline the manager?  

This is why I hope that Jack Garber shows the courage and fortitude to do what's right for the business and the business owners of Manistee.

[stump]

So does the city of Ludington have a process to put money back into the coffers? I'm sure that the maintenance building has scrap metal also. What happens to it or better question where is that money going in our town?

[XLFD]

Neither the Ludington Charter or the City Code has anything that would prohibit the DPW from selling the scrap metal in the DPW's possession to Padnos' and keeping the money for their own purposes, public or not.  Remarkably, the commonsense reform for public officers and their handling of public moneys was not one of the proposed charter amendments offered by the current regime of Ludington.