Ludington City Council Meeting November 23, 2015: Blessing of the Bad

[XLFD]

This surprisingly long but not very well attended Ludington City Council meeting had some things happening of note.  Two 'routine' public hearings were at the beginning of the affair.  If the first of these looked familiar, it's because it was held at the last meeting, where a citizen came forth and noted the public notice was obviously not proper, but the council voted on it anyway.  It was only held again because this citizen contacted the grant authorities (see Ludington City Council Has a Do-Over on Grants).

The second also had a deja vu quality, as it was finishing the process of getting 102 Second Street an OPRA certificate so that it's property taxes would be cut in half-- after it triples if all of the improvements are made.  Our city's leaders sometimes wonder why they see blighted properties when they go through Ludington, but their decisions on property taxes often play into the equation.  Consider, you spend a lot of money to fix your property up, the city notices and adjusts your taxes dramatically upward accordingly.  It's definitely a disincentive for you, but quite the reverse for the city.

I spoke during both hearings, keeping on point, and was pleasantly surprised that council meeting regular Tom Tyron added a few words against the Home Purchase with Rehabilitation grants.  Tom has a way of conveying a lot in only a few words, and he did not disappoint at this meeting.  He reminded them that this program had shades of what caused the crisis in 2008 and that the city had a love affair with grants. 

Our city leaders showed us he was absolutely right thereafter, with Councilor Winczewski telling us all that if we don't apply for the grants someone else will get the money instead.  But as a point of refutation, if every city has the same disdain for such ridiculous grants, the grant program will go away, and perhaps the state will devote the money to some program that is useful, has an actual public purpose, and is not so prone to corruption. 

Mike Krauch also chimes in about the homeowner educational program (such as he runs for MSUE as their director, and benefits directly from such a grant program) which will somehow make the purchasers not as likely to recreate 2008.  The council certainly has no deficit in faith in government programs (something equivalent to stupidity).

The meeting started with a nod to the blessings of Thanksgiving in Chief Barnett's invocation and my public comment.  I offered a month-by-month analysis of how our citizens were blessed over the year by the actions of our city leaders.  It is transcribed right after the video, and as a warning, it does contain a high level of sarcasm.

The most interesting, yet paradoxically the most boring, part of the meeting was when Mark Beauchamp (pictured, presenting his analysis to the Clarkburg Council) from Utility Financial Solutions (UFS) weighed in about the coming hikes in our water and sewer bills.  About one year ago, during the time I was bringing to the council's attention that the city attorney had blatantly overbilled the city for three years, I had also brought to their attention that the city attorney was siphoning funds from the city to pay UFS and their consultant Mr. Beauchamp. 

The invoices I received through FOIA requests clearly showed that Beauchamp's consultant work for cost of service analysis and studies was being done for the City of Ludington with plenty of conferences with City Manager Shay and others in the city's utility wing.  Yet, our city council had been out of the loop-- they never approved anybody contracting with UFS, as they need to do by charter, especially when the funds used are tens of thousands of dollars. 

Our City Manager and Attorney concocted a scheme wherein Attorney Wilson would contract with UFS, he would receive the invoices from UFS for services rendered, then submit invoices to John Shay to cover those invoices, where this money would come from the general fund to pay the attorney for attorney services rendered.  It's highly unethical, and clearly goes against the charter.

The public record has plenty of examples where cities have done it the proper way:  Village of Pentwater  City of Muskegon, City of Marshall, etc.  It's conceivable that our leaders felt the secret meetings and discussions with Michigan Power to eke out a water service plan may have been jeopardized if it had been done the lawful way.  

His presentation was informational, with the gist of it being that Ludington residents will see their water rates go up over 25% over the next five years, and see the sewer rates climb up over 70% over the same period in order to make the required renovations on their 40 year old plus system.  Perhaps if our city manager didn't waste $1.5 million from the water fund by painting water towers/tanks without competitive bids at least ten years before they needed to be, while the real problem was growing worse, we would have had more of the means to tackle this problem better.  But in his twelve years, it has been neglect of the infrastructure and focus on grants and needless city projects (the City Marina's transient docks, West End, etc.) 

The city business ended with recent DDA member Wally Taranko resigning from the organization, after the city discussed an easement with the Maritime Museum for electrical conduit right-of-ways along South Lakeshore Drive with him.  His other hat has him being on the Mason County Historical Society which is reconstructing the old coast guard station into a maritime museum. 

Video Timeline and Highlights

My initial comments:  3:15 in

My comments (in my camouflaged fleece hoodie in celebration of deer hunting season) about the HPR Grants:  10:00 into the video

Tom Tyron's comments:  13:00 in (followed by council's grant lovefest)

My questions on OPRA certificates at 102 Second Street hearing:  16:20

John Shay's 'answers' to my question:  18:20

John Shay's posturing, followed by regular business:  20:40

Beauchamp's 35 minute presentation:  29:00

Taranko's resignation vote (the controversial vote):  1:13:15

A transcript of my comments and questions follow the video:

November 23, 2015 Ludington City Council from Mason County District Library on Vimeo.

Public Comment:  This Thursday, most of us will be observing Thanksgiving, a time to reflect on all of our blessings and to give thanks for all that we have.  All too often, I come before this council and point out the  improper acts of our city officials and the deficiencies of our local public policies.  Too often, it has led with contacting state agencies and using the court system to set things right.  At this time of the year, it is only proper that I give thanks for all that this council has done for us Ludington citizens throughout 2015 month by month. 

In January, this council blessed us with revisions of the junk and tall grass ordinances.  These rewrites kept the spirit of the original but took out the due process protections that were way too burdensome and wasted everyone's time.   Few cities will come and mow the lawn for you if you fall behind, without even feeling the need to notify you.  Ours will even defer immediate payment.  We are surely blessed.

In February, you introduced a proposed sidewalk replacement program which would have put our existing sidewalk funds into installing sidewalks based on recent sales, instead of installing them at all those needless places around schools, medical and housing facilities that are currently without sidewalks.  Before our city could be blessed with random sidewalks, however, our leaders recanted a few months later.  Thanks for trying.

In March, you blessed us with our second water and sewer rate increase of the year, a 5% raise over and above the inflation rate increase at the beginning of the year.  I forgot to thank you on both occasions, but I'm taking the time now to do so, seeing that rates are scheduled to be raised three times incrementally by 20% over the next three years. 

In April, you blessed not only us, but the US Congress with a resolution for them to repeal a fundamental federal civil rights law, admittedly because you were frustrated with settling with those who have been treated unfairly by city officials out of a fear that a jury would believe the truth.  We are truly blessed to have leaders that blame the federal government and the victims when they mess up, but never themselves.

In May, the city was blessed with a second property for a future fire station thanks to the hard work and hard money of our taxpayers.  Thankfully our students walking in the street due to the lack of sidewalks will admire the responding firefighters and the firetrucks pass quickly and closely  as they go to and from the nearby station.  Blessed are those in the far northeast corner of the city who will be the only people seeing their response times drop.

In June, the city introduced its plans for a rental inspection ordinance, and blessed us with their legal wisdom behind this costly program that thankfully had no input from landlords and renters who may have injected some of their own cursed ideas into the mix.  Bless you for rarely answering the publics questions or establishing the need for such an invasive procedure and eventually passing this ordinance.  Everyone knows both landlords and tenants are unsavory characters unworthy of the rights guaranteed in state and federal constitutions to the rest of us. 

In July, we were blessed with ordinances to allow both an ORV and golf cart operate within the city, yet we have not been blessed with any golf courses or ORV trails inside the city limits.  We are truly blessed to have had a mayor whose family business sells both ORVs and golf carts advocate freely for this and not admit his own conflict of interest throughout.  The people are thankful for their ignorance of such things, and this city never fails them in that regard.

In August, we were blessed to have our city leaders get rid of the worst invader ever, a young girl selling educational books door to door.   This menace came during dinnertime and tried to sell books that went against the orthodoxy of how we teach things here in Ludington.  Thankfully, this heretic was driven out by our leaders so that we never again had to deal with this energetic entrepreneur.  Let it be a message to all who intend to run a small business here in Ludington, whether they work door to door, rent out apartments, or establish marinas, that your kind will not be tolerated. 

In September, as a token of appreciation to the city they were presented a lawsuit at this venue admitting the fact that I hadn't been blessed with certain non-exempt records.  I have since then, and yet they still think for some reason the records were exempt at some point in time.  Thankfully, they have yet to make a cogent argument as to why that is the case, so I am likely to be further blessed when I prevail next year.

HPR Grant Public Hearing Comments:  In the city manager's memorandum to this council in your packets, he declared the wrong information given to the public about the original public hearing was minor, in that it referred to grants benefitting homeowners rather than home purchasers.  The difference is not minor, as they comprise a wholly different segment of the public, one who already owns a house and one who does not.  This was not significant enough to this group at the last meeting to re-post the notice and try again, as I cautioned them to do.

But the reason public hearings are held is for the government unit to provide the facts behind what's proposed, and for the public to address their concerns based on the factual data they have been presented.  The public has not been presented with anything about Homebuyer Purchase with Rehabilitation Grants, other than what our community development director has presented in very general terms at a meeting where much less than 1% of our city's population attended. 

We have a new website with a lot of bells and whistles, why not use it for such hearings? 

As for these grants and the level of openness we have seen with Ludington, I see this nearly $300,000 of grant and donation money being utilized in a fashion that is inefficient, where the funds will not go to the truly needy but the truly connected, and not solely for the purpose they are intended for.  

Let me one again offer a case in point concerning our Downtown Development Authority Treasurer and local Chamber of Commerce President Kathy Maclean.  She fraudulently pre-applied and applied for Rental Rehab grants, before she had the title to the property in question.  After this well-off public official got hundreds of thousands to make four apartments, she brazenly ignored the condition that she needed to either be renting those apartments at a reasonable level or at least marketing them as such for five years after completion.

And yet, a bit earlier than that, she begged for more state funds, this time through a façade grant when she claimed she wasn't a city official, devoted money from the DDA where she served as treasurer to her effort even before it was committed, and said her rental units were vacant.  Nor were they being marketed. 

Instead of public money being redistributed by a corrupt system, why don't we just allow that money to either stay in the hands of private individuals or used to buy the truly needy some fishing lessons rather than just a fish.  Thank you.

102 Second OPRA Hearing Comment:  I just want to ask three questions concerning what I have already brought up about this , and see whether the city council will ignore them once again.

1.  Why did the adjacent parcel, a vacant lot owned by Nolan Family Investments, have it's taxes propelled from $40 to over $1000 in a three year period after Nolan Family Investment's acquired the lot?

2.  John Shay and NFI acquired their current properties in 2003.  Why did the property at 201 Second Street have its taxes rise by 500% in 2012, while John Shay's taxes decreased by 25% during that time?

3.  The records show that the 201 Second Street's value will triple if the proposed changes planned get executed, so why has Councilor and community development director Tykoski's property value went down by 40% after they made significant approvements at 201 N Washington?

Good luck to NFI in getting their property improved and for eventually achieving some reasonable answers to the questions I posed today. 

[XLFD]

Having been friends with my share of lower income people, I have at times allowed them to buy me some food I was going to get and reimbursing them afterwards for it on an even basis, because when the SNAP program was at it's headiest, a mother with two kids could earn $600 per month for food, $20 a day.  If you're a frugal spender, you can't spend that much without significant hoarding and/or weight gain.

That's why you see a lot of good-sized poor folks, and when you see a skinny one, you might be inclined to think they are trading off their food stamps for drugs.

I look back at my regimen in college when I was pinching pennies, and even with today's prices it would be under $20 per week for food.  Food stamps could be scaled back and nobody would starve because of it, and see a lot less fraud. 

When merchants engage in this fraud, it should not be tolerated because they are the ones who redeem them.

[AQUAMAN]

Here's a page from the Tykoski property that shows almost $6,000 due in taxes from 2007-2010, before the foreclosure. This tax dropped to almost half afterwards, about $3300. The valuation of home as of 1995 was $120,000, that's 20 years ago now. Easy to figure the value now has at least tripled or quadrupled.

[XLFD]

One other thing I would like to touch on regarding City Manager Shay's allegation that I was misrepresenting his properties decline in value on purpose.  I had only been using the data I found on the city's assessor site and pairing that with the fact that he moved to Ludington in February of 2003 to manage the city.  I erroneously presumed he brought his current property in the early part of the year and received and paid the 2003 summer tax bill. 

In perusing further last Monday after the meeting, I found sublinks that showed John Shay was correct, that 2003 was paid without a homestead credit, presumably by the people who sold him the house in what I found out was late in the year 2003.  So instead of going down by about 25%, his summer taxes went up by 16% in the period between 2004 and 2015.  

But as a contrast, there are three residences that have been owned by people with my surname in Ludington since 2004, and two of them have saw their property taxes increase by over 50%, and one that increased in the high 40 percents.  That last one converted from a commercially zoned apartment building to a single family residential in that period, so one might think it would have it's taxes go down significantly.  It didn't. 

Using a Home Price Indicator, we can find that the average $100,000 house sold in the fourth quarter of 2003, would likely only sell for $97,500 during this year.  One could say Shay is being overcharged for his taxes, but then my relatives are really being overcharged as is most everybody else in town.

Contrarily, an average $100,000 house sold in the fourth quarter of 2010 would be selling for $130,500 this year.  Yet, somehow, the assessed value has went down 40% the other way at the Tykoski house.  Shay has a defense which is sound and should be used by everyone who has had their taxes rise dramatically while the local average home value has depreciated.  The Tykoski house, as always, is mysterious, opposite to the 26-fold tax increase for the 1001 Washington vacant lot.

[AQUAMAN]

Shay: born in Mass., grew up in Rhode Island, then moved to Detroit for high school. Then went back to Boston College for a History degree. At 6'4" tall, he looks down on locals all the time. He has no business here, nor in our pocketbooks now, nor then. He is a trusty one to trot out for all the shenanigans that he imposes on the city charter changes as well as nuisance ordinances. Yes, a fine fit for Ludville, if you like the unethical conduct that is just the opposite of the former city manager Jim Miller whom grew up in Ludington, and was at the post for 14 years previous. Funny that Miller wasn't a capable manager after that long tenure, because Mayor Heinrich Henderson didn't see eye to eye with a local for the locals. Aren't we so much better off now too looking back? Methinks NOT! This BOZO should have never got in here to begin with, and surely needs replacement after all I've witnessed in his poor character, and actions to date. He needs to join Cox out at Home Depot for the balance of his career imho.

[jfc123]

Shay and the rest of Mason County touching the creamy corners drain are gonna shit when we come after them with this DEQ report!

[AQUAMAN]

Good post jfc, now let's see the proofs if you can. And even if you want to keep that confidential till the right time, don't plan on skunking the skunks. They (he) has/have been found guilty on numerous occasions of fraud, perjury, malfeasance, arrogant behavior, illegal behavior, and guilty in court of violating many constitutional and state laws. Just write another one off to the hired legal staff, and say it's another case of settling to save money. Charge it to the City's insurance company, and don't look back. They can't win in a court outside Mason County, the deck is stacked against any lawful citizens that try to overturn their corruptness here for many years. Good luck with your efforts anyhow.

[XLFD]

We should not expect anything less from a Creamery Corner's DEQ report, since we have seen our City Manager avoiding the topic of the Ludington Waste Water Treatent Plant (LWWTP) since he was informed that there would not be a discharge permit issued after the existing one expired in 2011.

Instead of openly seeking to address the problem, Shay kept all information away from the public and apparently the city council for years, while attorneys and consultants were paid big money from your pockets to work for getting some sort of relaxation of the standards or to look at all the alternatives he thought was best.   These contracts and decisions were all crafted out of the public view, typical of the current administration, and a good reason as to why it needs to go. 

He may be able to move when he inevitably gets fired and avoid the fruits of the city management malpractice he has created, but many of us do not have that choice.