Ludington City Councilor at-large Kaye Holman had a couple stacks of papers at her side and made a speech at the Monday 8-13-2012 Ludington City Council meeting.  It was directed at yours truly and the Freedom of Information Act, well mostly at me.  Since I couldn't say anything at the meeting, I include my commentary in red here.  Her diatribe begins after the 26:00 mark.

"Everyone is asking me what the papers are for  [I knew it was going to be part of a visual aid.]  Tom, thanks for coming [you're welcome is what I would say if I had the opportunity to speak, but as per the rules of order, I would have to sit mute for the rest]  These two stacks of papers constitute about 90% of all the FOIAs that we have had to copy, to send to Tom, because of his Freedom of Information [Note: I have had about 30-40 copies sent to me in total, all paid for without any indigency bonus.  I ask to 'inspect' the records, which generally requires no copies to be made, they generally have opted to send it scanned to me via E-mail.  About half of the two stacks were from my one FOIA described in "Innerview with a Vamper"]

Now I believe in Freedom of Information, what that means is, yes, you can ask for it and yes we will give it to you, unless it is an open thing such as we have had lately with the Fetters and a couple of other things we just simply can't [I haven't asked the City for anything regarding the Fetters' shooting, the two investigation records I have asked for, they surely can and must if they follow the law When open governments...]  However, these are the originals of the copies that Tom has gotten [correction: over 98% that Tom has either inspected or received electronic images of.]  We have approximately $6500 in fees, $6500 in fees, but you get a credit if you're indigent (point, smirk), you get a $20 credit (point, smirk) if you're indigent [the $6500 is an arbitrary figure they get when they add in illegal costs such as attorney fees.   I have paid for all the material that I have inspected or received.  I really appreciate you dissing indigent people interested in why their government is doing corrupt acts, Ms. Holman.  Maybe next meeting I'll point to you, smirk and say wealthy, and repeat myself.]

You have approximately 150 hours included in this which includes time for the people who work here, that have to take time from their day [... to do their official duty of providing records via FOIA].  Now consider if you're a minimum wage employee, which is..., I don't even know what minimum wage is now [$7.40 an hour, do your homework, Kaye] , say you make $10 an hour, and you spend 3 hours a day, 5 days a week, that's 15 hours, that's $150 that the City is paying someone to make these copies [again, if copies are being made, they are not following my request to either inspect or receive scanned images].

And I'm sorry, but I consider this a fishing expedition [your speech?]; I think it is done to harass the City [your speech?!]; and I truly believe that or I wouldn't be standing up here [giving your speech?].  We copy actual records [when they don't need to], we have time, we have 100 of staff hours, close to a thousand of staff hours [quick math fact:  1000 hr. X $10/hour minimum wage = $10,000 minimum for these, a bit more than her arbitrary $6500 figure earlier-- is the City paying under minimum wage?  Hardly.] since this whole mess was started.

We have... this is approximately two feet, three feet, something (pointing to stack).  Normally, we get 4-6 FOIA requests per year (hand wave, repeated).  Here we are.  Attorney fees are included in this; now we do pay our City Attorney, our City Attorney is on a retainer but if he's working, and we're having to go to him with many of these if not all [let's ask ourselves why the City uses the $185/hour CA to gauge how best to dodge giving out information for most of their responses.]  Most of them-- OK so if we're paying him X amount of dollars per year [$40,000 plus $185/hr. for special projects] and I don't have those figures [I do.] and I'm not going to give you one [I can.]   If we're paying him X amount of dollars and he's having to take part of that time, and he's taking that time over a course of a year, 40 hours a week, I don't know [I do, its about 7 hrs a week, 28 hrs per month.], which is what most of us work, but because he's got to play with this mess (flourish at the papers), he's now working 50 hours a week [hmm, my less than one FOIA request per week causes the City Attorney to work 10 extra hours that week.  Wow, I had no idea...]

Don't you think, don't you think, that he's gonna say "You aren't paying me enough." [$185 an hour is plenty for these special projects.]  There we are again with the money.  It's costing the City a lot for Tom to go fishing [and I don't even have a marina slip under surveillance by the City!]  I have no idea what he uses them for [read the Ludington Torch and find out, Kaye, or curse the darkness.], I don't care [I do], I don't know [I do know], I'm sure he's not going to tell me [tell you what Kaye, I will go through my whole list of City FOIA requests next meeting and tell you exactly what I was fishing for, the reason I was fishing, and show you the fish I caught, and even the ones that got away.  I'll need more than five minutes however...] 

But I'm having a real hard time with this and that's why, because of this (points to papers), and this isn't all of it; John Shay has them all laid out on his counter and I didn't want to mess up his counter any more [... than I did at the last office party.]  The dollar rate will go up, hourly we're paying these people, and again I don't know what the average hourly rate is here [I do, once again thanks to FOIA], we'll pick the $10 figure [for City Hall workers, guess again, the lowest clerk goes for over $15, the City manager around $70 per hour].

Right back to paying and paying and paying and I frankly don't have any idea what Tom is doing with these [could it be exposing the corrupt City in action, Kaye?] , other than one of my favorite phrases (mumble) the tail is trying to wag the dog [this idiom means:  An item of minor importance dominating a situation-- I don't get it either].  And I resent that deeply, I resent that DEEPLY [I still don't get it either, even with her repeating it.]

I'm going to be here for two more years [knock on wood] and I'm probably not going to shut up (fit of cackling).  Those of you that know me, know that I take it very seriously, very, very seriously [why?], and I don't intend to stop talking about it [but I'm restricted to five minutes, is that fair?] and if I bring more of these out (points to papers) I will [no, puh-leeze not again, have mercy], because I believe it is only fair that (mumble) other than costing the City and its... it's not me, I'm a taxpayer, you're all taxpayers also, right?  Everybody in this room and the people watching are all taxpayers, we're paying for this, we're paying and paying and paying [there goes her paying ramble again], and I have to say again, I resent that deeply.  Thank you

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X.Thanks for revisiting this topic. I somehow forgot just how foolish Holman is and I remember the members of the fire dept. chastising you because you wore a LFD shirt even tho you served many years in the department. Nothing seems to have changed much with the City Council since then. I don't know how you survived these moronic onslaughts these past many years. It's truly amazing how those people could not see that their actions were working against the Citizens of Ludington.

Willy, I think it's easy to see after all these years what is the core of the problems with cc. It's the City Mgr. Shay. He truly believes he never ever can make any mistakes, in anything he does, and defends that mentality to the end. Given that and the high platform they all sit at, looking down on citizens that attend, the city council has also adopted that same mentality and position. Any true christian, or common sensed person, will tell you we all are sinners, and all make mistakes, intentional, or accidental. I dare anyone to confront the Shyster Shay and get a differing answer, you just won't, he's a perfect human being in every way, or so he brags to everyone.

That's the problem. Shay is a b.s.er. He has convinced the Council to spend thousands of dollars in needless expenses such as hiring an attorney to handle FOIA requests. Work that was once part of his job description. Also the cost of the lawsuits that X had to file in order to get information because Shay refused to it hand over. The over billing by the City Attorney which costs the tax payers thousands until X discovered the corruption and put an end to it. Not to mention the water tower painting fiasco. There are many examples of Shay's divisiveness and many of his actions / decisions have cost the taxpayers plenty. But the Council goes along with it as if it's no big deal. The LDN never mentions any of this either.

Unless the listening session results in actual change it is nothing more than a public relations gimmick. A dog and pony show to placate the voters.

Did it result in keeping the 5 lanes intact?

Did it result abandoning the alley abandonment scheme?

Did it result in changing the splash pad endeavor ?

Will PM bayou now be dredged?

Are lifeguards returning to Stearns Park?

Of course not. Nothing will change.  Apathy will reign.  Come election time the council will show that they "listen". And voters will feel good about voting for the "winners".

I have talked with five people who attended the session, and while a couple were happy to have got their chance to be heard at the listening session, and gave it good reviews, I can't help but say that it sounds like the dog and pony shows that I have seen before.  When LIAA was drawing up our master plan, they invited the public to a few get-togethers, and I attended several.  Looking through the developed master plan, I cannot readily see anything that wasn't outside what the city wanted to do all along, other than the Progressivism and climate change hooey that LIAA worked in all over.  It was the same for the West End Project.  It was developed, the public was invited in to look at it a long time ago, and they're still looking at the original drawings by the out-of-town architect.

The meeting, sorry to say, was meant for one thing, as those other were.  It was so city officials can say they held a public meeting to get ideas from the public before they advance forward with their own agenda that is far removed from what the public in attendance would want.  If you object to what they're doing, they point at the meeting and said we listened to those who showed up.  But if they did, it didn't sink in unless it was what was in their plans already.

I would be interested to know what a forester could gleam from your pictures of the trees that were cut down. I bet a forester could tell if there was in fact any disease the trees were inflicted with and whether they needed to be removed. From what I've seen the logs looked to be from healthy trees and showed no evidence of stress or disease. National forests or most logging companies employ foresters. There may even be a County Forester.

Well said Willy, I agree also. As for digging up this old thread, again, thanks to Dianne for scrutinizing the past effort of the Torch, esp. our XLFD. Yes, I remember this mtg. all too well, with Holman and Barnett being belligerent to X, and still insisting their lies rule over the truth, worthless people. Now Kaye must be about 78 years young, and still mouthy to the end, good luck finishing your Mayorship, lol. Your fishing time is running out Holman. And then I also have those faint, and pathetic memories of then Mayor Henderson, trying to seek Mayorship for another 12 years, totaling 24 years, another "Dictator type" that voters said, Hell NO to on the ballot!!! He insisted his vitriol means more that anything else than truth and real leadership. Lastly, don't forget to excuse Shyster Shay for vacationing with his relatives in Boston, where he comes from originally, and still goes back to, BIG CITY SHYSTER tactics still in effect today, some 5 years later too, sad, and unethical, and being tolerated yet today.

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