The Place Where Ludington Talks
Ludington City Council Meeting May 22, 2017: Flames and Games
This last weekend's edition of the City of Ludington Daily News (COLDNews) prepared the public for what was to be covered at the May 22, 2017 Ludington City Council meeting in an article entitled "City seeks Fifth Ward Councilor Applications". This referenced the recent resignation of 5.5 year incumbent councilor Nick Tykoski, who would receive a commemorative plaque of appreciation and a key to the city in yet another award presentation by Mayor Kaye Holman.
Frankly speaking, Councilor Nick was a frequent recipient of gifts from the city before and after he became councilor and was just a modest city firefighter. Back in 2011, it was uncovered that his company received over $15,001 from the city for wayfaring signs many months before a compromised competitive bidding process was undertaken; the DDA would vote him that contract, but no contract was ever made, while Nick gained $50,000 more dollars for some durable signs that were effectively useless and confusing.
Nick's business underwent a metamorphosis of names throughout his public career, from Tye's Signs Inc., to Tye's Inc., to SafetyDecals.com, but has found a steady customer with the City of Ludington, and a steady silence from Nick Tykoski as to the contractual work he has performed, while voting to 'pay the bills' at council meetings. Tonight would be no different, on the bottom of page 17 of the 5-20-17 council packet, you will see his company getting paid over $5000 for having the proper connections
Back on December 1, 2014, Tykoski introduced the city's commitment to the pickleball courts he gained that money from, and noted that the maintenance costs of the courts would be borne by the city once they were created. This was after City Manager Shay stated that would happen on September 14, 2014.
I will leave it up to our readers to go and inspect the $5000 signs at the pickleball courts and gauge whether they are worth it, yet I doubt you will ever find a competitive bid request for proposals ever sent out to our other local sign companies.
But the night belonged to Councilor Nick, so I didn't want to embarrass him with reminding him of his continual lack of ethics throughout his tenure of office. He would receive his commendation and key without any grief from any corner, and he will undoubtedly still get lucrative unbid contracts with the city as long as his wife, Community Development Director Heather Tykoski, keeps her job and John Shay keeps on avoiding legitimate bidding processes.
It was revealed at meeting's end by the city clerk that four people had expressed interest in Tykoski's seat, two in writing, two orally. The city will hold their June 12th meeting at 4:00 PM to interview all contestants for the office. They also signaled they would be hosting a goal-setting meeting this summer, but haven't decided on a date yet.
The weekend COLDNews stated that there would be a request by MCC Food Service to provide meals at Waterfront Park for kids this summer, but it wasn't on the agenda or in the council packet and never added or discussed, so perhaps this will be in an upcoming meeting.
The city did grant two resolutions recognizing two environmentally conscious entities, AFFEW and the Mason County Garden Club, as non-profit local groups so that they could attain gaming licenses from the State. The city has a long history of gambling with your environment (i.e. last year's WWTP air quality crisis, lead conduits in our water system, raw sewage spills, having high-ammonia, mercury levels at their WWTP, etc.), so they had no problem doing this unanimously, AFFEW President (and City Councilor) Kathy Winczewski properly abstaining, and explaining why AFFEW needed it.
Under committee reports, you had the bills paid, the monthly police report reviewed, two mundane changes in two contracts passed, and the first reading of the new agreement between the city and its waste-haulers, the conditions of which has been developed at prior meetings. Effectively, the costs are likely to go up at a steeper rate each year, and spring cleaning has been removed from the calendar.
The only other thing on the agenda was approving the sunset bonfires that have been held over the last few years at the beach. This was what I keyed into in my initial comments, comparing the ease with which the Convention and Visitor's Bureau (CVB) has had getting these fires requiring plenty of city resources, with the difficulty I had in getting such a request figured out the previous year, this started 2:45 into the video. You can read more details about that in the article Ludington Campfire Games .
May 22nd, 2017 Ludington City Council meeting from Mason County District Library on Vimeo.
XLFD: "Tonight the city council is set to approve three beach bonfires petitioned by the Convention and Visitor's Bureau Executive Director Kathy MacLean in a May 12 letter to this council. The first of these bonfires are to take place on June 22, therefore showing she has given the city only 40 day notice of these events.
At an August 8, 2016 meeting I similarly petitioned this body for permission of a public beach campfire to give away free food and drink, and otherwise expose the citizens to a debate between me and my city council opponent on issues of interest to them. This was to be held on September 29th, 52 days from my first notification. Forty-eight days before the proposed campfire, I sent a full proposal to the city manager, who by our city charter, has the ultimate authority to affirm or deny such application, since fires on the beach of any kind are not allowed under the charter, and such a gathering would need permission from him or his designee in accordance with city law.
He wanted to send it back to a committee, and give me a definite answer over a month after I made my request; recognizing his past libels and the special ordinance he created to prevent me from coming to open meetings, I presumed his delayed answer would be ‘no’ and withdrew my request three weeks after making it. This was contrary to past practices of the city and the letter of the city charter, It should be noted that last year this city council voted to approve the CVB's June 11 bonfire less than three days after MacLean made a proposal for it.
In 2014, the year of the first CVB beach bonfire, there was no approval sought from the city council, this was solely granted by the tacit approval of the city manager without any sort of vote at a DDA meeting. When this city council permits beach bonfires submitted by their own city official--Kathy MacLean is the DDA Treasurer also-- but establishes a process which is totally inconsistent with the law and established practices for other petitioners, it deservedly could be said that you are practicing unlawful discrimination, a liability that is against the public interests of the citizens you supposedly serve and their rights under the Fourteenth Amendment. That’s the legacy of this council and the city manager. Thank you."
My second comment came at 22:30 over what I considered a huge ethical problem dealing with appearances of impropriety back in March, but had bloomed into definite impropriety in May. I will develop this in another future thread, tying together and detailing it more than I can in a two minute comment. This primer will help you understand the background: Lot's a Planning in a Riggsed System
XLFD: "At the June 6th Planning Commission meeting, they will consider two special land use constructions taking place at small lots that do not exist. Looking at p. 90 of your packets, you see that on May 5th, Commissioner Spence Riggs sent an inquiry to Assessor Brent Bosley in order to split his property into three parcels . By city law, Section 50-191 to 50-196, such a split needs to be formally reviewed by the Planning Commission, recommended to council, and the city council must formally approve of it and record it. None of that has happened, so 713 and 717 North Lavinia do not exist, nor are the purchase agreements Riggs submitted legal, or the covering up of the purchase price such as you see on p. 97-98.
Thus, Commissioner Riggs cannot sell the non-existent lots at an outrageous profit as I mentioned explicitly and prophetically at the March 6th meeting, I quote from that meeting: "the Planning Commission's self-proclaimed spokesman and brand new member Spence Riggs helped develop and vote for the text of the 'small lots' ordinance in the PC's Text committee, voted for the recommendation to this council at the February PC meeting, and stamped his and the PC's qualified endorsement of the ordinance at the beginning of the February 20th meeting.
All without noting for the record that he purchased a three small lot parcel, two undeveloped, late last year when he was being groomed for the PC position. He stands to make these undeveloped lots go from worthless to worthwhile if you vote yes on this ordinance. If your code of ethical conduct has dulled over your years of public service, that has the appearance of a major conflict of interest as he has never stated for the record how his lot in life would be upgraded, by writing, voting on, and endorsing this proposal without coming clean. In our city code [Mayor Holman informed me two minutes were up, I would have continued], this is malfeasance of office, and it has remedies for such feckless acts." Public officials cannot blatantly profit from their public service without following protocols designed to prevent such corrupted practices. Thank you."
Despite the lack of proper process and the clear conflict of interest, no officials addressed the issue at the end of the meeting, though you may notice City Attorney Wilson doing a bit of research on something for most of the rest of the meeting.
What is clear, is that the torch of corruption firmly held by Councilor Tykoski with most of his business dealings with the city being done contrary to law, has been passed over to brand new city official Spence Riggs, with plenty of other officials' fingerprints engraved thereon. There is no reason to think that any Fifth Ward councilor picked by such a group of tainted officials will not also bear this brand. Torches against corruption need to be taken up by concerned citizens to insist all of their officials are looking out for the people's interests, not their own.
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by John Doe Jr on
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Tykoski gets an award,lol. Thanks for promoting your business at a cost to the taxpayers...
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Permalink Reply by XLFD on
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The council has affirmed many times that they are not interested in communicating with the public. For example, they won't ask or answer questions during the public comment periods, but when other officials give their reports and other city-friendly entities get up during public hearings they freely ask and answer questions, and otherwise interact. It shows a lot of elitism, and does not allow them to completely understand the problems. They are likely as confused (by design, perhaps) as COLDNews reporters who summarize my three minutes down to a couple of dumbed-down sentences as Kevin B. did in the newspaper.
Of course, he couldn't even figure out the implications of Spence Riggs' actions or figure out how to mangle it into meaningless jibber-jabber for the masses.
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You can't win against a corrupted system supported by a complicit media with any kind of transient strategy. Success comes via persistence through adversity, even when the system is rigged against you.
When someone like me can get up in front of the council and tell the emperors of the city that they wear no clothes, that truth will eventually become evident to the citizens over time, despite bards and troubadours telling them that I, and anybody else agreeing with me, are too ignorant to see the finely woven fabrics.
Fortunately, this forum allows us to laugh at their nudity without severe social repercussions.
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As a naïve child, I took the story literally. It was only when reading the story to my kids as an adult, that I noticed the satirical elements of the tale, and only after so many skirmishes with Ludington City Government that it was so appropriate to all of those at city hall and the fawning sycophants that appease their excesses.
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Apparently Mayor Holman's goals are the same as mine, we want the poisoning of our kids by lead in the city pipes to stop. That's my interpretation of her concerns.
I have suggested some ways for the city to address the issue, some that would not cost them a cent, all would increase the awareness of the public to a problem that could cause their own family and friends to get sick or developmentally stunted (note: Councilor Krauch loves the taste of Ludington city water and see what's happened to him).
Our current city officials did not create this problem, they can only get in trouble liability-wise if they know of the seriousness of the problem and decide to do nothing in order to correct it. But that has been their standby tactic over the years, ignore and ridicule. Meanwhile, I keep finding lead goosenecks in the Fourth Ward whenever I visit the excavated streets. It's sad that the only reason why these are being renovated at this time is to satisfy the water needs of the cogeneration plant, and not the safety of the residents-- but at least some lead pipes are being replaced.
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