Ludington City Council Meeting, August 28, 2017: Unanswered Questions

[XLFD]

The meeting and the voluminous council packet of August 28, 2017 of the Ludington City Council never explained why the public hearing for repairing about 80 square foot of a resident's sidewalk was cancelled.  The City leaders documented it thoroughly in the last meeting's packet, set the hearing at the last meeting, brought the necessary ad for the hearing in the COLDNews for a price close to what it would cost to replace the damaged part of the sidewalk (even at the contractor's inflated prices).  So what happened to cancel the hearing?  Who knows, but this question and others popped up and remained at the end of the meeting.

The night's pomp and ceremony was a celebration of the career of Cathy Van Sickle, the long-term director of the city's recreation department.  There was a reception following the meeting for her with cake and refreshments.  I didn't linger, primarily because it was likely they once again did what I complained about in my initial public comment, nor did it rise to the fine outlay of what the Timbers' offered at this May's Doppel Dock party, shown below

That reference will be explained shortly.  Several actions to take place that night did not seem controversial and didn't develop that way.  They had a public hearing on the proposed building of an apartment building at 424 S. James, with only a misunderstanding of the building's height being discussed.  The City sold it's lot at 404 E Melendy Street to a neighbor for $8000, which worked out for everyone (the city got rid of 'inherited' property they had to maintain, the neighbor got an extra lot, the citizens get extra help on the tax rolls).  The COLDnews got approval for signs for their September boat show.

The City was poised to give an update on the proposed road diet, but before that the first public comment took place, with a carferry representative posing some questions to the city regarding how it would affect their business, primarily how would it change for transporting bulk items through town.  John Terzano went next with the first of his presentations that night dealing with the road diet (and in defense of the triathlon).  And then I went, talking about some payments the City was making.  I include some visual graphics from the city council packet:

August 28th, 2017 Ludington City Council meeting from Mason County District Library on Vimeo.

XLFD:  (6:15 into the video) "In reviewing the payment of the bills invoice distribution report for this meeting, there were a few things that stood out among the entries that I would like to address on the point of the fiscal and ethical responsibility this council has in seeing that public monies are spent properly. 

The first thing I noticed was a payment to Cops and Doughnuts of $120 for what appears to be the reception of former Councilor Gary Castonia after the July 24th meeting.  While I see no problem with honoring the service of Mr. Castonia with a local catering service, I think it is rather unethical to pay for it with taxpayer money that the public pays in believing it will be used for public projects and services, and paying public servants, not for expensive soirees for resigning councilors.

Here you have effectively robbed from the boss to pay for this, something that would likely get you disciplined or fired in the private sector. Next time, make such an affair more meaningful and fair to the public by passing the hat around city hall, and make do with what you collect from people who are not under the threat of force to pay their hard-earned money to you and see it used for this.

In the same department there is an unspecified charge made for $38 for the special council meeting on July 24.  As noticing that meeting was done well before that meeting and charged previous, exactly what was that $38 used for, and who received it?  I have noticed in reviewing statements of the city's credit cards (received via FOIA requests) that they have routinely purchased large quantities of food from expensive restaurants for events and marked it down in these distribution reports disingenuously as a cost of the event.  Again, this is an unethical waste of the taxpayer's money which every citizen should be up in arms about, and every city councilor should be on record as saying it is unacceptable.  But neither is likely to happen, because the culture of corruption is so ingrained around here.

Which leads us to the next outrageous charge:  a $248 bill for a Doppel Dock meeting charged to the downtown development authority's credit card.  Didn't the DDA just get through spending hundreds of dollars from the general fund in order to get less than $50 in a tax increase?  Here they spend over $200 more than the extra taxes they will receive next year to chat over fund raising for Legacy Park.  Haven't several representatives of the city told us that Legacy Park will not cost us any taxpayer dollars?  And then these same people in a possible violation of the Open Meetings Act have the audacity to hold this non-public shindig at a brewery, and charge a quarter of a thousand dollars to the public.  Liars, robbers, and sneak thiefs do not make good public servants, nor do their facilitators and apologists, councilors."

The concerns I brought to the table were largely ignored, as you might expect.  There really wasn't a good-sounding defense for using public money from the council funds to throw after-meeting parties and special meeting munchies.  They did address the Doppel Dock meeting, however, and did so rather poorly:

Councilor Johnson (35:50):  "I would like to make a comment to make a correction from something Mr. Rotta said earlier about the doppel dock meeting and the spending of DDA, that's, John could you explain to him what that invoice was for, for the $288.0, DDA."

Shay:  Oh, that was a vendor providing the liquid refreshments for that special event, so that was what it was for, that wasn't for a party at the brew pub.

Johnson:  I just wanted to clarify that and get that out there correctly.

Shay:  It's similar to New Year's Eve Ball Drop when there's a beer tent and then the DDA would pay, in some cases Ludington Beverage to provide the beer for that event, which is then sold.

Johnson: Thank you.  [Every official nods, some look snidely at me]

Now Les Johnson has made big money from the DDA back when he owned AJ's Party Port by annually supplying the New Year's Eve Ball Drop tent with wine, champagne and spirits.  Johnson, who was annually a member of the DDA as their secretary never divulged in any of the minutes his private profiteering off of these transactions when they were addressing this event.  I found it fitting he would try to frame this issue, so that it would not seem corrupt or wrong. 

But this was a failed attempt, even though the other gathered officials and media brought the Kool-Aid or whatever they dispense at the brewery.  Consider the special event, the Doppel Dock PARTY. happened on May 20, 2017, over three months ago.  If Shay's assertion was true, the liquid refreshments would have been purchased on or before that date for that PARTY.  The purchase was made on a credit card which has a monthly billing cycle, and that's why Castonia's party purchases on July 24 just came up for approval now. 

But the DDA's credit card would have received a statement with the purchase at the beginning of June, and show up on the first or possibly second June meeting.  The only thing coming across on May 22nd was over $400 for Legacy brochures (zoicks, even more public money for establishing Legacy Park): 

Looking at June's first meeting on the twelfth we see close to $5000 more on Doppel Dock entertainment, petty cash and beverages, but nothing paid out to Jamesport Brewing:

Then looking at the June 26th statement, we see the last of the amazing Doppel Dock expenses until August 28, more than two billing statements later, about $3500 more for that PARTY:

So this late charge for a meeting, not a PARTY, has nothing to do with the mid-May event, and becomes yet one more unanswered question.  The records concerning this entry are currently being sought through the FOIA.  Frankly, it looks as if you would have had more than 200 paying customers at the party to recover the amount of public money put towards it, not including all the many hours of high paid officials thinking this through.  From photos I've seen of the event, they didn't make it.

But Shay and Johnson are so out of touch, so corrupted themselves, that even if somehow we buy their story that this was a payment made out nearly four month's later to a vendor, they honestly believe spending public money on adult beverages to be later resold and supposedly added to a fund where fellow official corruptees Jen Tooman and Heather Tykoski have told us that NO public monies would be used to fund it is fraudulent and unethical.  How can any moral official hear that and not cry foul? 

But yet, the payment of the bills approving these purchases passed without comment before Johnson brought this 'Rotta refutation' up.

At the end of the meeting, I hit on a regular theme, Heather and Nick Tykoski benefitting once again from their public service at 46:10, just after C. Dale Bannon gave what I thought was an imperfect endorsement of the road diet, by mentioning how it would be like James Street.  I'm not sure whether he was being facetious, but my comment went:

XLFD:  "In the March 6th meeting minutes of the downtown development authority, it states:  "A parking sticker program was discussed and prices for the creation of a parking sticker were handed out. A motion was made by Cunic and seconded by seconded by Brown to go with the estimate from safetydecals.com for the Downtown Parking stickers. Motion carried."  

Safetydecals.com is ran by Nick Tykoski, former councilor and husband of Community Development Director Heather Tykoski, who was present and serves as a non-voting member of the DDA.  Nowhere in the minutes does she or anybody else during the discussion make any comment about the financial benefit she and her husband would receive during the discussion leading to the vote. 

In the invoice distribution report for this meeting, it shows that the city is paying $100 to safetydecals.com for parking stickers.  According to our city code, $100 is more than a de minimis amount of money, and section 2-72 states quite succinctly under prohibited conduct:

"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 or employee's immediate family or a business with which the officer or employee is associated, a financial benefit of more than a de minimis nature.  An officer who participates in making a decision under this subsection which places or may place him or her in a potential violation of this subsection, shall deliver a written statement to the governmental body of which such officer is a member and to the city clerk disclosing the potential conflict of interest and explaining why, despite the potential conflict, he or she was able to make or participate in making the decision fairly, objectively, and in the public interest." 

Now this isn't anything new for the Tykoski's, they've been getting City of Ludington money through the years without contracts or written statements disclosing their conflicts of interest.  [My two minutes were up, I end here] But councilors and honorable mayor, doesn't your continued silence concerning these omissions through those years speak loud and clear that you condone this corruption?"

Of course, their silence yells out volumes.  City Manager Shay also updated the public on the flooding issues at the Maritime Museum.  The city owns the building and the utilities, so don't be surprised in seeing engineering costs and replacement costs assigned back to the city, which allegedly occur because the main 6" discharge pipe has been overwhelmed by a few 8" pipes flowing into it.  The overflow, goes into the museum's basement.  You wonder why this problem wasn't happening before and/or noticed and  fixed when they spent many millions refurbishing the building.

Just before the meeting was adjourned, Shay made another admission:

Shay:  "On a much much different note, because I am sure it will come out, but I was notified today that our DPW was out on the north breakwall, replacing the life rings and so forth, they were out on a golf cart, and to make a long story short, the golf cart ended up in the lake with one of our employees, who fortunately was not hurt, and the golf cart has been removed from the lake by Abrahamson Marine. 

I'm not exactly sure of all the circumstances that led up to that, but just to let you know: There were two employees out there, one that was on the cart at the time, one that was not.  The person that went in the water was not hurt, fortunately, the golf cart has been removed, and we'll be checking it out from a mechanical point of view."

Had they not been city employees, I'm sure the councilors would indignantly ask why they were out there in the first place and how it was against the law to take golf carts out there, but beyond some amused expressions and laughter/relief that nobody was injured, they just listened, and shortly thereafter went home, unconcerned about the liability issues that may still arise from the incident now, or other occurrences in the future, and about whether this was city policy to break the law to make their jobs easier. 

So many questions, so few answers that each citizen should note when they witness such meetings.

[AQUAMAN]

According to the facts of the ledger sheet, it appears that Dopple Dock episode cost about $8,000 in total, not just a couple hundred dollars. Wth was all that about, tent, adult beverages, food, and whom got invited for free?

[XLFD]

It's closer to $9000 just from the DDA funds, and do not be surprised if the city utilized a lot more money to bring in less than they spent on this to-do.  You can also expect the Lake Michigan Carferry didn't rent out the boat for free, there is some quid pro quo down the road, I'll wager. 

This is typical DDA mentality that we saw when the council raised their tax rate when all other taxes went down, and spent all that extra tax money and hundreds more from the general fund in doing so.  Spend $10,000 or more from the DDA and general fund, thousands of dollars more of city employee/official time and resources, to get $7000 raised for the Legacy Park, which may never develop anyway.  The morons are definitely in charge.

[Willy]

Thanks for another in depth report on the Council meeting X.

[Willy]

Thanks Verdad but that was a sunset of days gone by. Like 2908 days to be exact.

[XLFD]

Willy's artistic qualities have been the yin to my yang for years at the Ludington Torch. 

I was surprised at the many officials who thought I was finally doing the city a service by helping with the traffic study.  From their view, and undoubtedly many others who don't know me, what I bring to light here is hateful, harmful, or hurtful to them and their vision for Ludington and others' perceptions of Ludington. 

But I let what I write here and speak of at meetings speak for themselves.  I am for competent, accountable, ethical and open government.  I am for engaged, knowledgeable, enterprising, and free citizens.  This puts me squarely against city hall on many issues, but squarely on the side of good, in my humble opinion.

[Willy]

X, I don't know about your yang but my yin is sore as hell. I guess I've just been yinny dipping to much lately.

[dowland]

This was at the bottom of the Manistee tea party e-letter.

"The penalty good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men." - Plato

  Thank you X for standing in the gap. 

[AQUAMAN]

Thank you dowland and X for reminding us of our Patriotic duty as American citizens.

[XLFD]

"There's always room in this gap for other good people to stand." -XLFD