Local Media Lapdogs Bite the Hahn That Feeds Them

[XLFD]

When Ed Hahn was elected to be a Scottville Commissioner late last year, politics in Scottville was a bit laid back.  City meetings would be quiet affairs where the councilors, city manager and city attorney would get together, go through the routines and be done within fifteen minutes.  Few citizens would drop by, and even fewer would dare speak out about anything.

In Hahn's first year, there has been a complete change in how city business has went in Scottville.  While not all change is good, he has started the conversations in the commission chambers and around the town, where he actively goes door to door to find out what the common folks of Scottville are thinking.  Hahn has made some people feel uneasy by attacking several sacred cows of political dogma in Scottville, especially the necessity of maintaining a costly local police department. 

Overall, it has widened the perspective of many in Scottville as to what is going on in their government, and empowered some as to what they can do to make their friendly town better.  Meetings are now often standing room only affairs, with dozens of people coming in and many of them adding their voice.  This is good for democracy and good for Scottville, no matter whether you mostly agree with Commissioner Hahn or not. 

I liken his effect on Scottville politics to the effect that Donald Trump has had on the national Republican primary race.  Both are flamboyant and bring many people in who wouldn't otherwise talk politics.  They almost have a bit of a physical resemblance, with Ed having more orange in the background than in his hair and face.

The Mainstream Media is infatuated with Trump not because they like him or his politics, but because he gives them ratings when he says something out of the ordinary or carries on bombastically.  Our local media (the City of Ludington Daily News and the Mason County Press) are much like their national counterparts in how they deal with Commissioner Hahn and the issues he raises. 

But like the national press normally does with 'The Donald', the local news media cannot seem to rise above their prejudices and present a fair story about 'The Ed'.  A case in point is the recently released story by both outlets which are amazingly similar to each other.  When this happens it usually indicates that someone in the city sent a news release to both with the same talking points.  Here, it is fairly evident that City Manager Amy Wiliams provided the information.  

Here are links to the two stories, feel free to read them in their entirety, I provide a few snippets right after: 

COLDNews: Scottville commissioner Ed Hahn delivers letter around city featuring Hahn's letter

COLDNews: Scottville commissioner delivers letter door to door, aud....

MCP: Scottville commissioner accuses city of over-charging water, s...

Both include Amy Williams refutation:  "Attached is a page from the June 30, 2015 City of Scottville Audit that shows what the water & Sewer funds did for the fiscal year.  I’ve highlighted the net income/loss for each.  For sewer they had a net income of $28,635 and the water fund had a net loss of $34,726 so together the funds had a net loss of $6,091.  So you can easily see that the water and sewer funds do not make three times as much as they expend as Mr. Hahn notes in his letter.  These numbers have been shared with him on several occasions and this audit was presented by our Auditors back in October and he was present at that meeting.  However, he continues to give erroneous information out to the public."

The MCP includes:  "Commissioner Ed Hahn continues to prove he either does not understand the city’s finances or is purposely misleading the public."

The first thing you may note is that Scottville Planning Commission Chairman Rob Alway, who doubles as editor for the MCP, leaves out the contents of the full letter and launches a thinly disguised attack at Mr. Hahn's understanding of the situation and/or his character.  The second thing you may notice is that neither of the two news outlets have any feedback from Commissioner Hahn as to what the city manager has presented. 

This is the typical tact our local media takes when someone takes a stand against the local system of government.  This happens because too much of the media's own 'success' is dependent on the current system's success, so they must preserve that at all costs-- even if one of those costs is the loss of journalistic integrity.

City Manager Williams and both outlets look at a single line in Hahn's letter that says:  "I have shown that the residents are paying three times the amount for water and sewer that the city pays out." and then tries to debunk it with a document which shows clearly that Hahn is technically correct about the sewer payments made by the city at face value:

The City is paid $329,323 (+ $1693) by the residents, but about one-third of this actually goes to the supplier of the service who gets $108,476; it should also be noted that there is no full time sewer employee, the $29,094 paid is the city managers assessment on how much of the Scottville's DPW's personnel resources are used.  This does amount to the residents paying three times more than what they pay out for sewer.  The excess is used on knocking down debt and 'future maintenance' of the water/sewer system, so City Manager Williams has her own point. 

Commissioner Hahn is fully willing and able to go over his own material this coming Monday at 5:30 PM at Scottville City Hall, so he can better explain that situation for all who take up his invitation in the letter he hand delivered in a manner that no other councilor or commissioner in this county would.  I discussed the controversy with him over the phone for about an hour, so I can guarantee you will find it interesting and prudent if you are fiscally conservative, and care about Scottville's financial future.

The scope of his letter was not meant to go into statistics few actually care about unless it reflects badly on their own statistics.  It was to point out something that the other city leaders of Scottville will have to come to grips with in the future:  reining in costs for residents so that people can still afford to live there in the future.  

[Willy]

Good information X. One particular thing that irritates me about Alway is how he editorializes some of his articles. If he's going to write an objective article he should include only the facts and information pertinent to that subject and not interject his own opinion. He also has no business being involved with Government proceedings while at the same time acting as a news gathering entity. This makes his news gathering suspect. I'd like to think that he wants to be considered a serious news agency but his methods of reporting tell a different story. Good luck to Mr. Hahn. Even if he is wrong about this, the people of Scottville  should be happy that there is someone who cares enough about the community and who is willing to stick their neck out in order to show what it takes to assure that Government officials must be held accountable. 

[Edward Hahn]

Thank you for the support.  The residents are beginning to take notice of what is going on in Scottville Government and starting to speak up.  Ed Hahn

[XLFD]

The Ludington Torch team supports all people, groups or causes that promote an open, honest, responsible, efficient and accountable government.  You are one of the few elected officials around that touts the same philosophy, and strives to implement it in your actions.

[jfc123]

Why  cant Mr.  Hahn be the 4th ward council rep that I have been trying to contact for weeks? This is how our elected officials should be, working for their constituents!

[AQUAMAN]

jfc, my best guess is that Councilor/Attorney Mike Krauch is back with his family in Illinois on vacation. Probably garnering more crooked ideas from the Chicago political machine on how to bilk more citizens in Ludington in 2016.

[XLFD]

I've heard that he was preparing for tonight when he will be taking his sled down to Whoville with his dog Max to do some redistribution stuff.

[jfc123]

Great more cards stacked against us! There has got to be a change in the works from what I see and hear. This is absolutely ridiculous!

 

[XLFD]

You may have missed an article on page three of the COLDNews in the weekend edition titled:  "Scottville Faces Higher Water, Sewer Rates than Expected".  Apparently, Scottville CM Amy Williams was not aware that Ludington was scheduling major increases in the sewer rates over the next few years (19% increase per year), and thought that the sewer rates were set to remain stagnant (unintended sewer pun) for Ludington.  She also had presumed the rates for water would go  up only 5% per year and found they were going up 6.5%. 

Get ready to have your wallet reamed out Scottville citizens (intended sewer pun).  Their city commission meeting is only three hours hence at 5:30 today.

[XLFD]

Had to read the write up of today's meeting in Scottville at the MCP.  Editor in chief Alway did what he and the Scottville City Manager accused Hahn of doing:  being misleading. 

"Hahn also lectured the commission about how the city will continue to see a decrease in property values if it doesn’t start cutting costs, not seeing the irony that a city without police protection or waste hauling would most likely result in reduced property values."

Under Hahn's plan, Scottville would have police protection still (via the Mason County Sheriff's Office), and still have waste hauling, albeit not city-provided but contractor-provided.  Plenty of prosperous, thriving smaller towns do not have their own police departments and have contracted waste hauling.  Their prosperity often comes due to the efficiency of their city government, something Scottville (and Ludington) is currently lacking.

[Jasper]

I have been commenting on Ed Hahn's status page.

[AQUAMAN]

Thanks for posting the youtube video on the mtg. Mr. Hahn. It's pretty obvious many on that council believe in hushing any refutation of the status-quo on their audits and public statements. I also find it very curious that an audience person gets to scream out loud during a mtg. to hush Ed up several moments toward the end. That is an out of order issue that the Mayor did NOT address, so he's lost control of the mtg. at that point. When the Mayor doesn't do his duty, he's a lame duck, not a leader. I also noticed the Mayor made a motion for adjournment just when the issue was about to get more clarification and be up for some public comment. He's not a Mayor of good stead and loyalty, he's a coward and using force of will to cancel out further comment. Imho, he needs to be recalled, or at least, censored. Or just resign, as he doesn't do justice to the council nor the public interest he was elected for.

[Jasper]

Amen to that Aquaman.  Precisely on point.  Did I hear correctly at the end of this outburst one of the  Commissioner's stating they agree with Rob?  Or was it my hearing.  Was that Rob Alway they were referencing?  The same Rob from the Mason County Press??