Ludington City Council July 27, 2015, pt. 1: The Blessing of the Golf Carts

[XLFD]

Quite a few things happened on this night concerning the city council, too much to be contained in one video.  So since there was two videos, there will be two articles on the meeting. 

Public Comments

The first comment was from Don Fallis, who has become a regular at the council since the talk of changing the charter came up negating the democratic electing of the clerk and treasurer.  Tonight, he thanked the council for their involvement and addressed this topic again in a non-confrontational way, asking for their opinions about the proposed changes.

Spence Riggs then addressed the new dog beach proposal by his group, Mason County Mutts, and then went on to explain what it would mean.  This would later be addressed by the council in the second part of the video.  His comments tried to address the concerns, but otherwise reminded them of what they already knew.  He apparently was successful, as others clapped afterwards, and later the councilors went against the city manager's recommendation and sent the issue back to committee.

He was followed by Muriel Palco, who argued that the old dog beach had changed, failing to point out that the proposed beach in question had also changed due to the lake's height taking away some of the beach.  Her concerns were that she could not enjoy the same beach her dog was enjoying.  She was followed by "Spence's mom" and Muriel's neighbor, explaining why she looks for places that are dog-friendly when she heads south for the winter. 

Following my comment (at 12:13 in, and with a transcript below) Wallace Cain, a Ludington public official who gets up regularly and kowtows to the council and mayor, spoke at (17:30 in). 

"Regarding the proposed city amendments, I encourage the council to bring them to the attention of the public.  I encourage the council to continue to tweak them as you get feedback from all areas, and I strongly encourage you to put every proposal on the ballot.  I can think of no better form of freedom than letting the citizens of this town to vote.  [Funny, I didn't hear him speak up on citizen freedom when the charter mandated that the Fourth Ward seat should have been placed on last November's ballot.]

As far as change is concerned, I encourage you to always look for how to make things better.  Whether it's been working for weeks or years, or even decades, you should always look for change, you should always look for ways to improve what we're doing.  The only constant is change.  Thank you."

This vague drivel got some applause from the dog beach group, who thought it applied to them, apparently.

Dan Quinn finished off the public comment at 18:30 in, he presented a 'petition' to the mayor with 82 signatures thereon (currently under request through the FOIA) who were allegedly for the ORV ordinance.  It is unknown at this time whether this was also for the golf cart ordinance.  Quinn didn't tell the council or the rest of the public that he has a vested interest in the ordinance, being the owner of U-Win Motor Sports which deals in the selling of ORVs and golf carts. 

He doesn't need to, he's not a public official with ethical rules that says he must, but it's later learned that he was instrumental in getting the 'facts' about such an ordinance delivered to the 'public safety' committee in one of these publicly unnoticed and unattended committee meetings.  Before Quinn's appearance at this meeting, his involvement, and the involvement of others with vested interests in putting golf carts on our city streets were unknown to the general public.

Here is the first half of the meeting followed by a transcript of my comment, which touched base once again on the multiple fraud allegations against Kathy Maclean (and which were left unaddressed for the fifth time by any city official).  I also bring into the mix, Clair Whitcomb, the book girl that had her soliciting permit revoked in Ludington for as of yet undisclosed reasons. 

After comparing her plight to Kathy "the storyteller" Maclean's and winding up confused, I then brought up the fact that the two engineering companies, whose proposals would be accepted by the council later on in the meeting, never went through a competitive bidding process.  I also touched on what should be a sore subject for the council, that the city's wastewater treatment plant has not had a state-mandated discharge permit (NPDES permit).  Both of which was later addressed by John Shay in part two, unsatisfactorily to those that are paying attention to the ineptitude and the non-transparency of the city about this ongoing health and safety problem. 

July 27, 2015 Ludington City Council Part 1 from Mason County District Library on Vimeo.

"At the last four meetings of this body, I have brought to your attention various frauds committed, assisted, and attempted by Ludington officials including the city manager, John Shay, the community development director, Heather Tykoski, and especially the DDA Treasurer, Kathy Maclean.  Two of them were present at the last meeting, remaining mute about the clear and present charges.  The written public records clearly verify the crimes, and the taxpayers of this state have clearly been robbed by these officials acting in coordination. 

Yet, what actions have our police department taken to investigate this clear fraud.  Nothing, even though they are duty bound to do so. 

Despite the clear evidence, some evidence even presented directly to this body in their packets, the city council has failed in their duty to conduct their own investigation per section 6.5 of the charter.  You councilors are our employees, and when your employees have done illegal acts, you owe it to us to hold them accountable.  These subcontractors of yours are pretty much out of our control, but doing illegal acts with our money.  You, by your inaction, are effectively proving to everyone that you have no accountability to your constituents as you let this drag on without comment or investigation. 

But then there's Claire Whitcomb, a humble door-to-door book seller from Texas plying her trade in our fair town.  She applies for and receives a solicitor's permit, does her business within the law from all accounts, and then has the city revoke her permit to conduct business within the city.  Has she been formally accused of fraud, trespassing, or any other illegal act?  Has she been given the due process for such permit revocations as written in our city's laws?

The answer to both, and please correct me if I'm wrong, is 'no'.  So this young lady from Texas, visiting Ludington to bring educational books to our shores is ran out of town for some anecdotal accounts of being a persistent salesperson. 

Meanwhile, our public officials are swindling hundreds of thousands of dollars from the state in fraud; our public officials are allowing their agents the ability to trespass on our properties without proper notice; our public officials in utter neglect of the public's safety has allowed our wastewater treatment plant to run without a discharge permit for four years; our public officials commend their police department for tasering our innocent citizens when they are chained to hospital beds, beating up kids when they are out after curfew, and illegally entering our homes and assaulting our innocent fellow citizens.  Which is the bigger public menace-- the book lady or our so-called public servants?  I know my pick.

With the wide choice of options of engineering firms to choose from, including our own local company Nordlund & Associates, why are we avoiding the competitive bidding process once again to allow Grand Rapids firms Fishbeck and Thompson and Prein & Newhof to do engineering services for the Wastewater Treatment renovations that could cost upwards of $15 million?  The city charter allows our leaders to avoid non-competitive bidding for projects when it is clearly within the city's advantage not to do so.  As has been done repeatedly during this city manager's tenure, he has failed in his duty to the charter and his job to show you or the public why this is clearly to our advantage not to do competitive bids and use competition to our financial advantage. 

If neglecting to have a discharge permit since 2011 is not enough to show how little our city management cares about the public health and safety, we need look no farther than the proposed golf cart and ORV ordinance proposed.  If you have been to our downtown area during Friday Night Lives or other events where the main avenue is blocked, and tried to travel through the detours , just consider how much more dangerous it would be if only 10% of the vehicles would be 10 mph golf carts?

Even with limited use, people die from falling out of golf carts every week in America.  A simple left hand turn can dump a passenger out into the street, and if that doesn't hurt them enough, the car behind them will.  Golf cart and ORV ordinances may be a good fit for some smaller cities, but let's be honest with what it would offer to Ludington.  We have no golf courses or ORV facilities within the city limits.  We have traffic congestion and often poor visibility at our intersections during the summer months; we have nobody calling for such ordinances beyond the inaptly named Public Safety Committee.  [Here is where the mayor cut me off, before I could get in a last line, a statement of a particular conflict of interest that was never noted in their own records and in news reports, before or since, but first, let's look at what the mayor said of these two ordinances.]

Sales and Service!

Mayor Cox:  (24:30 in) "Yup, I think what you'll see is that many other cities that have tried it, have stuck with it.  It seems to make the cities-- you know we've been talking about dog friendly-- more people-friendly to outside resources and what not."

Later on Mayor Cox seems to show a legal and intimate knowledge of the subject of golf carts and ORVs at 31:40 in: 

"And I believe the original concept behind that, is that the ORV is in their concept, can go much faster-- a lot faster than a golf cart.  So the conception of a helmet is that the rider, because of an increase in speed.  I think that that's why the state has a helmet requirement, either a rollover protection system, including a seatbelt, or a helmet, whereas golf carts typically don't exceed 17 mph, around that speed, so that's why there is a difference in that, not that someone can't injure themselves going 17 mph, but it's the same as the moped rules; where mopeds, if you're over a specific age, you don't have to wear a helmet..."

The mayor responds to Councilor Holman's suggestion to send it back to committee at 37:00 in, suggesting himself that such a measure wouldn't be necessary:

"It's been discussed quite extensively at committee, and I believe the committee has weighed most of the positives and negatives for it, and we do have a motion on the floor.  So if it was voted down, we could take it back to committee.

I do believe though, that-- and I would ask the committee chair if he would feel any benefit to that with what we've talked about, with what we've gone over." 

Surely, talking in an unnoticed committee meeting where the public can be shut out of and very rarely attend, and where "golf cart and ORV specialist" Dan Quinn is there offering an unbiased account of why the City of Ludington needs this ordinance is sufficient for deliberations on the topic? 

Chairman Castonia says no to the mayor's question, Cox at 42:20 then says the police chief has gotten favorable feedback from other cities, the chief reminds him that such ordinances could only begin this year, starting in January when the State gave such authority.  That fact calls into question Mayor Cox's first statement about cities that have tried it, have stuck with it.

Three councilors did speak out against the ordinances and voted against them, Councilors Winczewski (also on the committee), Rathsack, and Krauch.  The others primarily had similar misgivings, but said the 'sunset provision' in the ordinance had them convinced they should try it, even if they thought it wasn't the best idea.  Nancy "pass it so you can see what happens" Pelosi reasoning at its finest.  As for my public comment's conclusion...

My public comment would have finished with:  "Unless we include the likely endorsements of the established local companies that could make a bundle out of selling ORVs and golf carts, including the Mayor's own business down there in Scottville."

That's right, Mayor Ryan Cox is the heir apparent and co-owner of Cox's Sales & Service "the all season solution for your small engine needs.", where one of those specialties are ORVs and CS&S Go-Karts, sales and repairs. 

The same mayor who thinks there is no problem with being a reserve police sergeant on the Ludington Police Department and having Chief Mark Barnett be his boss while at the same time serving as one of the chief's supervisors as mayor, thought it wasn't worth sharing with the public when he led the discussion of this topic at the meeting, that he may come out quite well financially as a result of this ordinance being enacted.  Our charter says the Mayor shall have an equal voice with all other members of the Council (sec. 3.2), so he needs to declare such conflicts when discussions take place. 

[shinblind]

I thought that the top pic showed

that when Quinn's payola get here 

all the councilors gonna jump for joy.

(my apologies to Dylan)

REPOST

So Cox didn't disclose that he along with Quinn stand to directly benefit  financially  from this ordinance. Good God what a slimy son of a bitch we have as mayor, His Honor Lying Ryan Cox.

Do school personnel have a code of ethics they have to uphold?  Or when they are off duty, do they get free reign to engage in unethical and potentially  criminal behavior?

[AQUAMAN]

Good observations both X and shinblind. Cox definitely has a strong and direct conflict of interest here he should have noted to both council and the public, yet he continued to support this ordinance without any notice of such. Well, at least he dressed like a Mayor tonight, however, he has a long way to go to act like a good Mayor we can trust for decent decision making. At least three council members are finally waking up to a part of their duty in voting no against this. Can anyone imagine what the roads are going to look like downtown when all these golf carts start going around here, esp. in the summer? I think the vagueness and wishy-washy answers by Chief Barnett also didn't help the issue. He has to know that safety is now going to be greatly compromised in the downtown streets, and someone is going to get seriously hurt, or killed in the near future. I guess the majority of council members must want to put this theory to the test, and give a year sunset provision for it to happen. How dumb can you be? Meanwhile, even after a lengthy time period, I still see no legal nor even casual rebuttal to the serious accusations of fraud and misappropriation of State funds regarding the Shay/Venzke/McLain mess with rentgate/facadegate to this very day. There should be a parade of public citizens by now asking why too. Sad and disgusting that this type of thing happens, and only one messenger is speaking out about it. 

[XLFD]

In his first term, Ryan Cox is at the forefront of many disturbing trends in our city government.  Enacted legislation include changing the junk and tall grass ordinances so that they don't take the rights of the property owners into consideration, changing the fire code into a subjective set of rules that can be used by any fire or law officer, etc.  Proposed has been forced rental inspections, unfunded sidewalk mandates on the selling of property, etc.

When scandals come up, he just ignores them, other than telling us that John Shay, Richard Wilson, etc. are the most capable and ethical people he knows.  His own ethical shortcomings in his dual-official role and disclosing his interests in the new go-kart ordinances do not exist as anything that troubles him.  Mayor Henderson, in his first term, was a lot better, IMHO.  Cox, despite the gee-whiz boyish looks and act, is dangerous for Ludington to have at this point.

[Willy]

It is definitely a violation of ethics that Cox did not publicly reveal his connection to the proposed ORV and golf cart ordinance. Even though he has tried not to show his true colors he has proven a worthy bookend for the other slippery City officials that occupy the Council and Managers office. To bad there isn't a reset button to cleanse the City of these frauds that are supposed to be acting in the public interest.

[shinblind]

Did anybody go to Friday Night live to see the new plans for the Water Treatment and Sewage Treatment Plants?  Is  this going to be the COL's new venue for disseminating information  to the public?  Did they give away a free kitten to any one who had questions?  Will the next forum for dispensing information be The New Years Eve Ball Drop? The West Michigan Fair?

As an aside note I think playing Circus Music during much of the City Council Meeting might be a nice touch.  Sort of set the mood.

[stump]

Are these carts/ORV's going to able to drive on Business 10 through town? I can see it now one of those big sand hauling 18 wheelers that drive to fast through town running someone over, squashing them like a bug. Does this ORV open driving snow mobiles in town in the winter also?

[AQUAMAN]

Stump, the main roads of N. Lakeshore, Lud. Ave., and S. James St. are not allowable streets, so far. All the other side streets are supposed to apply here. Yes, Friday Nite Live did have a CC member in attendance for questions, newer CC member Kathy W.. She really doesn't add much to the flavor of knowledge of the project if asked any questions. She also doesn't like being critiqued on her job on the council. When I asked her why she wasn't more pro-active on her own thoughts & stands, instead of following the rest like a "sheeple", she just walks away. Anyone can hide and run from the truth, but Kathy, you can't shun your votes forever, and your unjust backing of crooks like CM Shay and CA Wilson. 

[XLFD]

Councilor Kathy continues to be a disappointment.  I do appreciate her dissent on this topic by voting "no", but her opposition was lacking any vigor.  Having been double-teamed with unopposed propaganda by ORV and Golf Cart entrepreneurs, Dan Quinn and Mayor Cox, in 'public safety' committee meetings, she refuses to acknowledge such improprieties, and praises the officials who lie, cheat, and steal. 

This is why we need to get rid of these committees, where none of the public come unless they have a special interest they wish to frame and propose away from an open meeting.  Sure, our city council meetings will likely get even longer, but the public will find out about such things earlier than the weekend before and with more detail than a small blurb in a weekend paper that most people do not read.

[shinblind]

DAY 3  WAITING FOR PART 2  "THE BLESSING OF THE GOLF CARTS"

LOL

[XLFD]

Sorry, I devoted my morning to finish it with an increasingly burdensome 'workload' , but I found new data of interest involving other 'things' when researching Shay's latest prevarications.  I have had to hold off for now-- hopefully tomorrow.

[XLFD]

By the way, I was traveling through Scottville earlier today and couldn't help but notice that Cox's Sales and Service had two ORVs parked outside their establishment and a golf cart, ready for selling.  It sounds as if they heard the news.