Ludington/Scottville Chamber of Commerce President, City Manager, Lie on Their Applications

[XLFD]

In my reporting of our local governments, I try to not pull too many punches on what I perceive as corrupted officials behaving badly.  In my point of view, there should be little forgiveness to thoe who willfully behave contrary to the public good, when they have decided to swear that oath of office and become a public servant.  I have even less forgiveness to those who become public officers or employees and don't swear a required oath, like Ludington City Manager John Shay or our acting city attorney Richard Wilson. 

John Shay was once again at the center of controversy at the June 8, 2015 city council meeting as he submitted to the city council a state application for building façade grants with answers he knew were inaccurate.  He did this on behalf of KDMAC Ventures LLC, which include both David and Kathy Maclean. 

Kathy Maclean [pictured left with husband David], as you might know, is the President of the Ludington and Scottville Chamber of Commerce.  But she also serves as the Treasurer of the Downtown Ludington Board aka the Ludington Downtown Development Authority.  Right before Mayor John Henderson's bid to have a fourth and fifth term as Mayor with a charter change which failed by a two to one margin, I had brought to light five of Mrs. Maclean's ethical challenges in this article in this article, intending to develop the last after the election.  Sadly, my daughter died suddenly from an enlarged heart on the day of that election, and such proofs were not forthcoming as I had a lot of other issues to resolve.

It seems that Chamber President Maclean has even more ethical lapses, and she is dutifully assisted by our city manager and community development director in a façade to receive façade grants, when she is not even complying at all with her rental rehabilitation grants.   

The State requires a public hearing whenever these Community Development Block Grants are applied for, to give the public a chance to comment favorably or unfavorably towards them.  I used the opportunity to declare the public records and reality conflicted with the public officials.

I referenced the June 8, 2015 Council Packet through the speech and include snippets from the pages I make note of in my five minute comment.  The result was that the city council did table the application until it could be corrected.  John Shay, who prepared the document with all the willfully prepared false answers, did not receive any kind of blame for his bogus application by the council. 

The city council, by the way, was trying to make the case why they were better than you for picking the city clerk and treasurer.  They never hold their other hires accountable for their unlawful and unethical actions, why allow them to put cronies and patrons in those positions who have no respect for the law or moral behavior?

"I will restrict my comments only to the issuance of Community Development Block Grants to 102 West Ludington, owned by a limited liability company KDMAC with members Kathy and David Maclean benefitting from the proposed grants. 

Kathy Maclean has been the treasurer of Ludington's Downtown Development Authority (DDA) since January of 2006, just after she was appointed to the DDA position by Mayor Henderson, and affirmed by this city council.  By statutory law [MCL125.1654], as a member she must subscribe to a constitutional oath of office, which she recently has, I have seen it through a FOIA request.   This makes her an appointed Ludington public official.

The DDA must make all of its decisions and deliberations on public policy at an open meeting where precise minutes are kept [MCL125.1654].  The treasurer by statute [MCL 125.1655] " shall keep the financial records of the authority and who, together with the director, shall approve all vouchers for the expenditure of funds of the authority."

With this background in hand, please look at page eight of your council packets, part of KDMAC's application:  Question 4: 

  Kathy and David Maclean are KDMAC Ventures LLC, this was noted in official minutes back in [March 15] 2010 when they were looking for and got OPRA tax relief from this council.  This question here should have been answered yes, and explained.

Was this a simple mistake?  Look at page 9, Question 5 asks will any person who is an appointed official of the City of Ludington obtain a financial interest or benefit from the façade grants;

Repeating-- both Kathy and her husband are members of KDMAC Ventures LLC, the beneficiary of these façade grants.  Saying 'no' to this question is fraud, pure and simple.  Our city manager is contributing to this fraud by allowing this application to come before you with this obvious false information.  Even as late as the June DDA meeting, this relationship has not been noted.

His signature of the application on page 16 denotes he has reviewed the application and found nothing amiss, even though he has served on the DDA Board with Kathy Maclean since 2006, ten years, and knows full well she is an official of this city. 

On this same page, question 31's answer states that "The DDA is contributing $1000 per building towards architectural drawings."  

Kathy Maclean as treasurer of the DDA by law "shall approve all vouchers for the expenditure of funds of the authority."

Therefore, Kathy is effectively writing a $1000 check using local public funds to benefit her and her husbands company.  Section 2-72 of our city code says:  "No officer shall make or participate in a decision in his or her capacity as an officer knowing that the decision will provide such officer, a member of the officer's immediate family or a business with which the officer is associated, a financial benefit of more than a de minimis nature [over $100]"  Other city and state laws regarding a code of conduct for public officers apply here as well.  This is dishonest and against the law to cover up this relationship.

Back in 2009, it should be noted, the Macleans pre-applied and applied for substantial rental rehabilitation loans to renovate four rental units for the upper apartments at 102 West Ludington.  These applications were made months before they owned the property itself, which was also against the law and fraudulent [evidence of this will be shown, if Kathy and David Maclean claim otherwise].  According to an April 2011 article in the Daily News, those apartments were fixed up and ready to rent. 

Four years later, we learn that none of those apartments have renters in them, look at page 23 and 24 of your packets.  

The state's rental rehab mandates are for the created apartments to be rented out during the first five years, and marketed to the general public when vacancies occur.  There has been no advertising to fill these vacancies noted, though I've looked diligently [see below].   The Community Development Director assured me just a couple of months ago, that the city's rental rehab units are filled with renters.  That too was a lie.

Kathy Maclean, John Shay, and Heather Tykoski are defrauding the state and the citizens of Ludington to make façade improvements on a property [around here I was interrupted by the mayor informing me my time was up, I would have continued...], it is in actuality a façade of legitimacy, covering up fraud and abrogations of public duties by each officer.  If the council approves this as written, you are as guilty as these officials of doing the same."

Here is the State's guide from the Michigan State Housing Development Authority (MSHDA) telling us about landlord obligations:

As of June 8, 2015 a view of MichiganHousingLocator.com for zip code 49431 has no listing for 102 West Ludington Avenue, or for that matter, any of the other downtown rental rehabilitation projects within the last five years, though there are thirteen other listings.  Oops.

There comes a time when we must ask ourselves why should we tolerate these three public servants appointed and affirmed by our elected officials to disobey the law and rules of ethical conduct when the city council allows it so openly.  Are you to that point yet?  Wait for more shoes to fall on this one.

[XLFD]

In today's City of Ludington Daily News (COLDNews): absolutely nothing about the city council meeting other than a page three article on the four charter amendment proposals that were discussed. 

[shinblind]

Of course that is twice now you have beaten the City of Ludington Daily Snooze (COLDS) to the punch.

The first time was BillinGate the City being overcharged by the City Attorney's firm.

And now we have GrantGate.

You would hope that the local paper rather than acting like a public relations firm for the City Council would be embarrassed enough to actually get off their dead ass and do some real reporting once in awhile instead of relying on a private citizen to do their job. 

[Willy]

Thanks for the information X. Is there  something in Ludington's water that makes local officials act in a unethical, illegal and corrupt manner. What is the matter with these people. Before you came along X, these people got away with all kinds of shady dealings without the citizens knowing what is going on. With information you have provided, one has to wonder why the newer Council members do not stand up and try to remedy all the bad behavior that is right under their noses. They are either bamboozled, ignorant, stupidly blind to what's going on around them or they are neck deep in the political sewage themselves.

Great job of reporting.

 

[XLFD]

The city hall staff probably know enough about the water and sewage infrastructure challenges we've faced for many years in the city to rely on drinking bottled water instead of what comes from our tap.

I lift my glass of tap water to you, Willy, and all those ever-increasing amount of folks who keep contacting me when I'm out and about on my business who are realizing that there is a problem, and thinking maybe, just maybe, I am not it.  I can assure you all that I want to expose and clean up the corruption that has been allowed to fester in our city hall and other public agencies in this county.  I have found the officials will not often correct it themselves, found a lowly, indigent citizen like myself has few options, and so I welcome those that are willing to listen, even if they cannot get involved themselves because of their own delicate situations in their life.

It's a task I know is fair, just, and worth doing.  It is definitely not profitable (at least the way I've been doing it), nor are the other non-monetary costs involved insignificant.

[stump]

X , I must say you come up with the most interesting things. Is there anybody not trying to screw the general citizens of Ludington out of their tax paying dollars?
Who on the council is up for re-election in the next city election? It's on the voters to make change, and we need it big time.

[XLFD]

There are five councilor spots up for reelection in 2016, First, Third, Fifth Wards, At-large, and Fourth Ward, unless our city attorney decides that Michael Krauch can avoid another election cycle for some bizarre reason.  If you are in one of those wards and you agree that there is a major problem with our current leadership and direction, I encourage you to run.  If reform candidates win two or three of the wards, there's a good chance the at-large spot will be fair game, so please run for this spot if you are in the Second or Sixth Ward and are fed up. 

Councilor Holman will be term-limited out after giving us thirteen lucky years of her wisdom, so this is the only one that probably wont have an incumbent running.

I haven't been able to identify any official in the City of Ludington who has any qualms about taking away property and rights of the citizens; the last we had was Pete Engblade, and even he faltered in his third term in that regard. 

[stump]

I know for a fact that filling out paperwork to and receive government money by lying on the application will send you to prison. The guy next door did , he got 6 months, had to pay it back , plus cost, a nice ankle bracelet and house confinement for a year, Maybe that should happen to the people that OK those grant applications for money also.

[Willy]

If that happened to Ludington's elite I'm sure there would be a whole bunch of people wearing ankle bracelets and spending a lot of time at home.

[XLFD]

It's that two-tiered system that we live in.  If you are a government official and lie on these applications, it's a bit different than when you are a private citizen who does the same thing.  Think about what unlawful brutality police officers can get away with without justification and outside their realm, and the punishments a private citizen without a badge who does the same thing will get. 

A republic is not supposed to function that way; if anything, the official should be held to a higher standard, and they should be holding their fellow officials to that higher standard.  It's not happening here, and not at a lot of other places either. 

[AQUAMAN]

Grantgate is a very good name here shinblind. Looks like Shyster Shay is still acting aloof and arrogant, irregardless the serious discrepancies that have now been uncovered, again! And this again shows that a vast conspiracy of participants at high levels of local government are active participants in lies, deceit, and fraud, no less. This alone should be, imho, terms for the removal of Shay, Venzke/Tykoski, and Maclean. I guess they will now have to go back into a huddle with shyster attorney Wilson to see what kind of illegal mechanism they can dream up for excuses to the public on this matter. Meanwhile, the wool is still over the publics' eyes, and the public, does nothing to remove it, except for our local hero, XLFD. I do hope ALL, and I mean ALL of this is being reported to the authorities in charge of these grants. They can either act honorably to deny past grants and have them repaid, or to act in liason with their fraudulent officials here in Ludington and make some excuse to let this slide. The main problem with this scenario, given past history, is that if the officials of the grants see this as just as much their fault as the conspirators. I don't understand that view. Afterall, the application of the grant was lied on, and they have no control over people lieing on grants to receive ill-gotten gains. 

[stump]

Has our News paper ever wrote anything that put a dim view of our city fathers? NO! That might cut into any monies that the city might send them for the the grass cutting ads. This is poor journalism on the papers part for not reporting the real news. The only people that know anything about this is the 20 people that were at the meeting and the people that read the torch, and most of those are from the city council ,police, fire and Shay. It seems to me Shay would be calling Rotta and asking for advice on how to do his job.

[Willy]

Good points and observations all. Your comments make very good sense. That's  something the LDN and City leaders lack.