Government Heather

[XLFD]

At last night's Ludington City Council meeting I brought up the latest ethical lapse of the Ludington Community Development Director Heather Tykoski in my initial commentary:

"At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I once again must point out an unethical practice of a certain city official. In the latest invoice distribution report, a payment of $260 from the DDA funds is to be authorized for the purchase of arrows signs and mile markers for a Love Ludington race made out to Safety Decals dot com. The owner of safety decals dot com is the husband of the community development director, she submits the minutes from the monthly DDA Board meetings and has very good attendance. She is an ex-officio member of the DDA and serves as their contact person.

Yet in this instance, and roughly a dozen other instances of this type where her husband's company has sold goods and/or services of more than a de minimis amount to the DDA or the City government, she has yet to make a statement of her potential conflict of interest in participating in the decision to use Safety Decals dot com within the minutes she submits each meeting, nor has she submitted a written statement to the DDA and to the city clerk disclosing the potential conflict of interest and explaining why, despite the potential conflict, she was able to participate in making the decision fairly, objectively, and in the public interest.

Not doing so is a violation of state and local laws regulating the conduct of public officials, and makes the transactions appear as if she is furthering her private concerns over the concerns of the general public. How difficult is it to write a statement explaining the apparent conflict of interest and offer proof that the purchase from her husband's business made financial sense? It may be just me, but I think $260 for arrow signs and mile markers seems a bit high, as was over $100 for parking stickers back in August, so I for one would like to see proof that it was a good deal for us, and not just for this unethical couple that have served themselves quite admirably in their private business under their guise of being public officials."

This follows a recent revelation in my second comment at the August 28, 2017 meeting where the city made a similar purchase from Heather's husband's company of parking stickers.  As noted, either this company or former Councilor Nick Tykoski's other companies Tye Signs and Tye's Inc., has benefitted greatly from the City's Downtown Development Authority (DDA), spectacularly highlighted by a vote by them in 2010 to give Tykoski's company the $150,000 wayfaring signs contract, after a sham bidding practice conducted many months after the City had already paid the company over $15,000 without any bids (or notifications at DDA meetings, despite Nick and Heather's long term relationship at the time).  The money from that was taken back to the house they brought together.   

Multiple times between then and now have seen Nick's/Heather's companies benefit from the DDA or the City's other funds, without ever a statement by either of why it was in the public's interest.  Meanwhile, Heather (and others) have unethically and/or illegally allowed many other city officials to benefit their private interests, sometimes by receiving state grants fraudulently, like with the DDA Treasurer Kathy MacLean has twice.   Earlier this year she facilitated the Spence Riggs scandal where her friend was given the path to make his land investment quite profitable.

Heather Tykoski looks out after herself and her friends at the expense of everybody else, including the corporate entity of the City of Ludington.  Unfortunately, the ones at the head of that corporate body currently are included in her friends list, or otherwise think she is doing a great job because of the occasional grant money she brings in to do fanciful projects often of little use to the community.  

I couldn't help but think of her service to the community when I heard a song by Lady Gaga that fairly well describes her.  I did, as usual in my musical adaptations, take a little artistic license in making it into true political satire.  The first change was a minor tweak to the politically incorrect title, the rest followed.  Play the music as you follow along with the modified lyrics.  Note Gaga's Italian "Io ritorne" ('my return') has been changed to "Mio ritorte" which loosely translates to "my twistedness":

Haha, ha oh-ah
Haha, ha oh-oh-oh
Mio ritorte, Mio ritorte
Mio ritorte, Mio ritorte
Goverment Heather-eh

I can tell lies
If you just wanna be true
I can spend tax
If you just wanna be blue
I can get anything
I'll get you everything
Just call me baby
I don't wanna leave clues

As long as I'm your heather
(Queen of our great downtown)
As long as I'm your heather
(Hands on the grant)
As long as I'm your heather
(Safety Decals abound)
As long as I'm your heather
(Downtown!)

Yeah your my heather!
(Government heather)
Yeah your my heather!
(Government heather)

I'm gonna grease my palms today
I'm gonna grease my palms and prey
'Cause I know all love me baby
I know all love me baby

I could get contracts
Unless you're not my husband
I could get grants
Unless you're X's cousin
I could get anything
I could get everything
I could get fees
Unless you're already dead
(Ay, mi papito!)

As long as I'm your heather
(Queen of our little town)
As long as I'm your heather
(See here's my crown)
As long as I'm your heather
(Nick's my circus clown)
As long as I'm your heather
(Downtown!)

Yeah your my heather!
(Government Heather)
Yeah your my heather!
(Government Heather)

Send your grants to me,
Please MEDC,
I'll make you squeal baby
As long as you pay me

I'm gonna grease my palms today
I'm gonna grease my palms and prey
'Cause I know all love me baby
I know all love me baby

Yeah your my heather!
(Government Heather)
Yeah your my heather!
(Government Heather)

I could get contracts
Unless you're not my husband
I could get grants
Unless you're X's cousin
I could get anything
I could get everything
I could tax you
Unless you're already dead

I want some funds, government heather
(Queen of our great downtown)
Stop truthing me, government heather
(See here's my crown)
I want more funds, government heather
(Nick's sign sales are down)
Stop choosing not to fund me, government heather
(Get outta town!)
Yes!

[Angela]

Again, you are not grasping the situation. THE MONEY USED TO PAY FOR THE SIGNS CAME FROM MONEY RAISED FROM PRIOR RACES. This money IS NOT DDA operating funds. How many ways do I need to say this to you. There was no line of credit used, people pat with cash or check to run theses races. Thst money bought the damn signs, not taxpayers money, no public funds, none of that. For some reason you have to find fault EVERYTHING the city does. Well this wasn't done by the city per se......AND I am not talking about other invoices, I AM STRICTLY talking about the $260 signs for the races, which we do 4 a year. The signs are beneficial for the races and since they paid to run the race & they requested additional signs while out running, we did as the majority asked.

[Willy]

Angela, why don't you separate your races from the City, DDA and any other public organizations. Institute a private entity to deal with the races and revenue. Then put all the money in a shoe box and hide it in your trunk under your spare tire. That way there will be no question as to how, where and when the money is raised or spent. It will be nobody's business but the race organizers, participants and volunteers but as long as you ride the coattails of Government, the nuts an bolts of what is involved with your races will be the public's business and open to scrutiny.

[Angela]

I'm a volunteer, I only handle the money when people pay for the race. Anyways, as I stated before, and it's posted on the downtown ludington website & the ludington race series site too that:

The Love Ludington Race Series is a set of 5k races, chases and fun runs that raises money for the Love Ludington Fund. The Love Ludington fund is set up to support the Love Ludington mini-grant initiative and to support special events and projects organized by the Downtown Ludington Board.
There is nothing to scrutines here, xlfd is just fishing for things to pick apart. It states right on the website clearly what the registration money goes to. Nobody is trying to pull a fast one and no one is riding the government's curtains. I agree there are some shady things Shay & the city do, but this isn't one of them.

[Willy]

[XLFD]

First you post pictures of your mom, now your 'roommate' Gaston.  What do you think this is, Willy, Instagram?

[Willy]

This is mom's pool boy and handy man. He's not very bright but he does love Ludington. It's funny how people perceive things. On a man this outfit is gross but on a women it would be more than sexy.

[XLFD]

Angela, I want to thank you for proving the point I've been making by making me look further into the Love Ludington Fund.  You will note this link on the Downtown Ludington site says:  "The Love Ludington fund at the Community Foundation for Mason County is set up to support the Love Ludington mini-grant initiative and to support special events and projects organized by the Downtown Ludington Board."

You know what that means.  All of the money your races bring in for the Love Ludington Fund goes not to the DDA/DLB but to an actual middleman charity, the CFFMC.  I will investigate more to get to the bottom of how the money gets funneled around, because the records and budgets I've seen indicates that it's much more complex than need be. 

Willy has a good idea, keep the City of Ludington out of the process; more middlemen mean less money for charity, particularly when the city officials get paid extremely well and devote a lot of official time on these charity projects.

[Angela]

Ya maybe there is fine print or sub- accounts that aren't shown? Idk