Belding Council Removes Beleaguered City Manager Meg Mullendore

[XLFD]

Fourteen months ago, in a town of 5000 about a 100 miles away, an incredible action by the City's manager and police department on a curious citizen aroused our suspicion here at the Ludington Torch that something was incredibly wrong.  The newly appointed City Manager of Belding, Meg Mullendore, acting in cooperation with BPD had former public servant Kimberly Orlich transported to the upper peninsula on an outstanding civil warrant, while promptly denying over a dozen FOIA requests made by her due to her incarceration. 

Ten months ago, the Torch reported their own dead ends and frustrations with getting any information from Belding, stating: 

" I submitted three separate FOIA requests in November of last year, including one for their FOIA policy, which I later found at their website.  She replied with one form, over a week late than statute prefacing it with:  "Attached, please find the City’s response. We apologize for the delay as your requests went into our junk mail account due to our span filter." 

I believe she meant "spam", but when you look at one of my  simple requests, you may wonder why Belding adopts a spam filter which makes something clearly labeled a FOIA Request, and references that law throughout, sent to a 'junk mail account'. The reply.pdf continued the assault on the people's right to get information by charging me for 12 minutes of a police officer's time and 45 minutes of a secretary's time, as well as a non-incremental charge for paper copies, of which I never asked for in the first place.  The FOIA does not allow for such charges."

Many citizens of Belding as noted in the Belding the Cat article were similarly frustrated, but popular attempts at getting the Belding Council to terminate her contract after one year's service were unsuccessful.  But still the unrest continued after the failed try. 

A local lawyer, Katherine Henry filed a 35 page lawsuit in Federal Court on her own behalf had eight counts against Mullendore, including; (1) Declaratory Relief, (2) Malicious Prosecution, (3) Abuse of Process, (4) Equal Protection Violations, (5) Defamation Libel, (6) Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress, (7) Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Violations, and (8) Free Speech Infringement.  The disposition of the case is undetermined as of yet, but alleges quite a lot against the manager. 

Meanwhile, grievances by townsfolk have only increased as City Manager Mullendore and other Belding officials tried to carry on.  Kimberly Orlich, has a long list of violations, chief among them being the lack of transparency and the unlawful ways Mullendore withheld that information, mirroring but expanding the various allegations of Attorney Henry.  Beyond her abduction by the BPD in 2013, she had many routes of legal action against the City of Belding, and only discovering more due to the refusal of the City of Belding to provide her with information as per everyone's right. 

              Belding City Councilor's (from left):  Dennis Cooper, Mike Scheid, Jerome Lallo, Ron Gunderson (Mayor), Tom Jones

On Tuesday, January 20, 2015, new Belding City Councilor Dennis Cooper (who was elected in November to replace a recalled member of the council) made an impromptu motion to terminate Mullendore's employment.  Mullendore was absent from the meeting due to her recovering from a recent surgery.

The first hour of the council (here) on video had a few citizens express some displeasure at the current leadership of the City, a recurring theme for the last year and a half, due in large part to the behavior, past misdeeds, and public policies of City Manager Meg Mullendore.  Most of the business covered was the usual city dealings.  But then the meeting got down to the brass tacks, as seen below, and lightly annotated thereafter:

At 1:10 into the video, Councilor Cooper make a motion to dismiss Mullendore from her position, seconded by Scheid.  It went down the table with Lallo adding a motion to postpone such a vote until after the April year-end evaluation, followed by Mayor Gunderson also commenting on Cooper's move only five meetings into his career, insisting he did not have enough experience with interacting with the city manager.  The motion to postpone fails 3-2, with Lallo and Gunderson supplying the 'aye' votes. 

The mayor further laments at 13:20 in about the council having to stoop to such levels:  "... the residents of this town need to be represented tonight.  I can't believe we are entertaining this."

At 16:40 the council votes on Cooper's motion, Scheid and Cooper vote 'yes', Lallo and Gunderson vote 'no', the deciding vote comes to Jones.  Ten seconds tick by until he says 'yes'.  The immediate reaction by the audience is priceless and illustrates that Gunderson was deaf as to his own representation of the residents.  It was something to applaud about, Councilor Jones; the removal of an incompetent and corrupt public officer with too much power granted to her by you.

Contrary to what the mayor might believe, City Manager Mullendore was not the people's representative; she was the council's choice, and their insensitivity to all the well-founded public complaints about the now-ex-City-Manager Meg Mulendore speak volumes about their own level of public service. 

Read more here:  http://www.sentinel-standard.com/article/20150120/NEWS/150129872/19...

[Willy]

I noticed that the Mayor kept harping on Councilor Cooper. It always seems that the messenger is the point of focus. I think the Mayor was correct in wanting an evaluation of the Manager, something that  probably could have been done before the next meeting and would not have to wait until April. There must be a real problem when a majority of the Council wants the Manager removed but I also agree that the this situation should have been put on  the agenda so that public input could have been heard and made part of the official record. This was a good example of Democracy at work, however, if the Manager is as contentious as she is made out to be then I'm sure Belding is in for a legal battle with the now ousted Manager. When I opened up this discussion I noticed that 450 views had already been registered on this topic. That's a lot for the short period of time that his topic has been posted, especially without any comments.

[XLFD]

The high view number is likely a result of the cross-posting of this article on the relatively popular 'Citizens holding Belding City Government Accountable' page on Facebook.   I have a regular contact from Belding in my E-mails who drops me updates and discusses tactics over the situations in Belding and Ludington.  They have recently given me a splendid idea as to how to bring some accountability to Ludington.

XBCM (ex-Belding City Manager) Meg says there’s a “very strong possibility” that she’ll make a federal complaint about her dismissal.  

“Dismissing me (during medical leave), especially with no real reason other than turmoil, it begs the question of the legality,” Mullendore said Wednesday by phone. “If anything, it’s unethical on their part.

“There was an agenda. That’s obvious.”

[stump]

I'm sure they will end up paying Mulendore the rest of the contract. The city attorney will earn his keep and every one will be happy except Mulendore. Maybe the city can get back to normal.

[XLFD]

Undoubtedly they will pay off the severance conditions of her contract, but I doubt whether Mullendore will get anything else through a lawsuit.  The CM serves at the city council's will, and they can get rid of her at any time without any reason unless the contract says otherwise.  The two who didn't want to remove her are shortly going to be up for recall if the petitions get the required sigs by January 30:  http://thedailynews.cc/2015/01/10/recall-language-approved-against-... 

[XLFD]

An unintendedly comical Facebook post was made by Belding Mayor Gunderson earlier today very critical of his fellow councilors, who appear to have the favor of the citizens, while he faces the spectre of an upcoming recall vote:

[AQUAMAN]

Great points willy. The Mayor, whether you believe is good or bad, has a valid point. The State of Michigan Labor Dept. has rule books for employers to reference for many years now. Unless the employee was arrested for some serious felony, or acted in some other way that requires immediate firing, she will be able to win with both the state and her lawyer easily. The event should have been on the agenda, she should be present when any charges are brought against her, she is entitled to a verbal/written warning, and her contract terms must be followed. The way I see it, whether she is a good mgr. or not, or liked by the public or not, the council did not follow proper legal protocol at all. The council instead decided to act like a bull in a china shop, without legalities backing them up. Too bad the Belding officials don't know how to properly carry out their duties, and the town will suffer serious financial setbacks as a result.

[XLFD]

The legal ramifications have likely been mulled over by the councilors, and discussed with either private or city attorneys who have read the CM agreement.  Mullendore will have to make some claims based on discrimination or the like that would be hard to prove if she wants to litigate it.  Such actions will definitely make her less marketable if she wants to work as a city manager elsewhere.  Franky, I don't think she has the temperament for a position of public service.

[AQUAMAN]

Can you spell out or give examples of her contract terms that would vindicate the council's decision X? Right now, as I see it, her proofs are in the job firing alone. As far as a fair and pleasant temperament for a city mgr's. job, just look at Shyster Shay. He lacks sorely in that dept. too, and is doing fine irregardless imho.

[XLFD]

 On November 6, 2014, two days after Councilor Cooper was elected to office, the lame duck Councilor Feuerstein who was recalled by the November recall vote and in his last meeting, motioned to extend Mullendore's contract for one year, even though such action was not on the meeting's agenda and 2014 saw incredible amounts of criticism from the public about the CM's performance. 

If it had waited for the next meeting, Cooper would have been in place and likely not to extend the contract which was up for discussion then.  Political posturing was performed against the mandate of the recall votes to try and secure Mullendore's position, since Scheid, Jones and Cooper would have likely voted against such a deal at that next meeting.

Here's what happened in November.  My belief is that Cooper and friends did their homework and figured out they could get out of the contract with minimal damage to the city coffers in legal fees.  I haven't seen the contract, however, to gauge their chances further.