Road Patrol Millage Proposal Propaganda Corrected

[XLFD]

The primary election is coming up, so be prepared for the onslaught of why this or that proposal or millage is needed.  On Mason County ballots you will see renewals of three millage rates concerning senior citizen programs/centers, Oakview Medical Care facility, and jail operation.  Millage renewals are usually pretty safe if there hasn't been any controversy in the intervening years, but I would suggest, much like I strongly did in 2012, that the Oakview MCF millage is one where you can find plenty of reason to justify a 'no' vote.  

There is a new millage up for vote, one that would give nearly $600,000 a year for 8 years to the county's sheriff department in order to increase their presence on the roads and allow for better response times.  There have been plenty of propaganda pieces released through the local media and the latest was in this recent Mason County Press article.

Prepare for letters to the editor in both that venue and the City of Ludington Daily News (COLDNews) from citizens promoting this new tax, be plenty surprised if either of those media run a sensible letter from somebody against it.  Most sensible letter writers do not want a target on their back.  You're welcome to present a sensible argument either for or against it in The Ludington Torch, but be prepared to defend it whichever way you go,  

The effort has sometimes been subliminal, like when Sergeant Adam Lamb 'rescued' a fawn this spring (see Lambi), but more often it's not like this June's puff propaganda piece from TV 9&10.  Around the same time Undersheriff Derek Wilson also made the case on interlochen public radio.

They even released a video around that time with the COLDNews showing why you would be a fool not to vote for the millage:

All of these seem to be nothing but positive spin for the new tax they wish to impose on the citizens of Mason County.  But, especially in the latest propaganda piece by the MCP, there happens to be a lot of inaccurate bits of information heaped on the electorate.  If there's something a voter should object to, it should be because they are reading exaggerations or outright lies.  But let's look at the actual wording on the ballot:    

The 28,000+ residents of Mason County will spend on average $20 extra per year.  Now that won't likely break your family's budget but you will ultimately have to consider whether the $564,000 could be better spent by you and your neighbors on things you need rather than getting an extra county deputy out on the county roads.  

The Mason County Sheriff's Office definitely wants this extra cash at your expense, but let's review this lengthy MCP article noted earlier.  Then let's debunk some of the statements and statistics with a truer narrative.  

MCP relates:  "a year-round population of 28,705 people — which often triples in the summer"

TLT relates:  Populations of an area do not consider transient occupants.  The 2010 Census said 28,705 people lived in Mason County, which includes our seasonal occupants (aka snowbirds) in that figure even if they were out-of-town on Census day.    The County's own recreational plan notices that the population can increase by thousands (not tens of thousands) when seasonal residents come back. 

Most of that population is already counted in the 28,705 figure, as the county's population decreases by several thousand during the winter as they head south.  We may get several thousand people from outside the county occupying our campgrounds and transient housing facilities, but these could not house (even temporarily) nearly 60,000 more people.  Similar to this:

The MCP relates:  “Compare our coverage to cities around metro Detroit,” Balowski says. “Many of those communities have populations of 100,000 people — similar to the summertime population in Mason County — and they have police forces with 10 times the personnel of the combined departments in Mason County, and cover a fraction of the geographical area that we cover here.”

TLT relates:  Now our population grows by 70,000, but that has already been debunked, but let's consider his other statement.  The combined uniform personnel in the county's departments are roughly 12 from the MCSO, 15 from the LPD, and 3 from the SPD.  Thirty altogether. 

Before we compare cities around metro Detroit, let's consider how our sheriff's department compares with another Western Michigan sheriff's department.  From this recent respectable source:  

The population of Muskegon County is roughly 6 times Mason County (and they have an extra 200 square miles to patrol), but the Muskegon sheriff's office does not have six times the amount of officers in the Mason County Sheriff's Office, they don't even have four times as much.  If our county was similarly proportioned there would only be 8 officers, not 12.  

But let's see if we can find any metro Detroit city with around 100,000 population that has 300 officers (ten times the combined Mason Co. police departments).  Using the same resource used for Muskegon, we find the following:

Warren:  POP:  135K, COP:  196 (over 6 times)

Sterling Hts:  POP:  133K, COP 145 (nearly 5 times)

Dearborn:  POP:  95K, COP:  189 (over 6 times)

Livonia:  POP:  94K, COP:  147 (nearly 5 times)

Troy:  POP:  84K, COP:  102  (over 3 times)

Westland:  POP: 82K, COP:  81 (nearly 3 times)

Farmington Hills:  POP:  82K, COP:  100 (over 3 times)

Warren and Dearborn come closest, but there is no department that approaches ten times.  The last three departments are three times the size of Mason County and have around three times the police officers.  These cities undoubtedly have a large number of out-of-towners going through their community commuting between areas.  Sergeant Balowski ba-lows up the numbers, let's stick with him:

The MCP relates:  “It’s a statistical fact that drug-related traffic incidences have increased significantly over the past decade,” Balowski says. “If we had more cars dedicated to traffic patrols, we would certainly deter the drug issues in this county."

TLT relates:  Drug-related traffic incidences have been increasing, particularly with the advent of ways to easier detect drugs, but at the same time drunk driving has been decreasing to more than offset the increase.  According to official MSP traffic statistics of the years 2008-2016, when you add up drunk driving incidents, drugged-driving incidents, and double count incidents involving both, one finds that the trend is downward:

2008:  12,659     

2009:  12,372

2010:  13,039

2011:  11,875

2012:  12,472

2013:  11,943

2014:  11,436

2015:  11,764

2016:  12,436

It should also be noted that the numbers for 2006 and 2007 in Michigan were around 14,000 each year.  The number of traffic stops for impaired driving is on a decreasing trend.  With Balowski's disinformation repackaged let's look at his boss' statements:

The MCP relates:  Sheriff Cole:  “The reality is we can no longer function at the current staffing levels. I have been on this department for over 30 years and it has had the same level of staffing for most of that time. Though the types of calls we handle have not necessarily changed much, and crime levels are about the same, the amount of time we are required investigating and processing calls has significantly increased over the last three decades.”

TLT relates:  Crime levels are not about the same in Michigan over that period.  Here's a graph of trends in the state over the last 20 years, look at the significant decrease in property and violent crime over the last 20 years:  

During that time, advancements in computers, the internet, and software should have made report-writing easier, made investigating much easier, and made sharing that information with others a whole lot easier.  Who in their right mind would believe that these time-saving advances makes doing the basics of their job take longer than it used to?   What has offset all that time-saving progress?  Who knows, Kim Cole keeps that part of it secret.  

All I know is that when I started on the Ludington Fire Department, it took quite a while to write up a fire incident report and get it accepted by the State.  Advances in the software and quicker running computers allowed me to do reports in a fraction of the time later on.  This leaves us with Sheriff Kim Cole's math:

The MCP relates:  "the shifts consist of three personnel, the reality is that 70 percent of the time there are only two officers on patrol at any given time, due to vacations, training, and court duty, according to Sheriff Kim Cole."  

TLT relates:  Each officer works seven days of twelve hours every two weeks, which means they work 42 hours each week (7 days*12 hours/2 weeks)Let's say each officer gets two weeks vacation and  two weeks sick time per year, thus they work 48 weeks, at 42 hours each week they work 2016 hr. each year, the 12 cumulatively work 24,192 hrs.  There are (365*24 hrs) 8760 hours in a year.  

If you divide 24,192 by 8760 you get 2.76 which relates to the amount of people on average you will have available per shift factoring in sick and vacation days.  Cole adds courtroom duty and training which will not affect the 'night shift', so during that shift, there are three people on road patrol duty over 3/4 of the time.   That's significantly higher than 3/10 of the time.

Without the stats on how often Sheriff Cole schedules training during work hours or how often court duty is needed and how it would fluctuate, one could consider the day shift would have less, but to get to the levels Cole wants they would have to commit the road patrol to about 29 hours each week on average to training and court duties.  

If Sheriff Cole could schedule necessary training to an officer's off hours (like our local fire departments do) and utilized correction officers for court duty not requiring the road patrol's presence, we would have three county deputies on road duty three out of every four days.  The same goes for the twelve uniformed officers of the LPD.  Most of the time, 6 uniformed officers total are on call from both agencies, that seems quite enough for the majority of the year.  Possibly excessive during the winter.

Is a seventh needed?  You decide in August, but consider how they're trying to play you loosely with the facts and make an informed decision on whether you and your community can spare over half a million per year for this addition.  

[John Doe Jr]

I strongly support LE when they are accountable and transparent. I strongly support LE when they are held accountable to the same LAWS as the Public. I strongly support LE when they can hold a Fund Raiser and give to Our Community without stealing Funds and lying about the disposition. I strongly support LE when they follow the US Constitution and they don't make up laws as they go to condemn others while violating other's RIGHTS. I strongly support LE when they Police their Own. I strongly support LE when they use the tools the Public pays for to do their job safely and the items don't go missing, are not abused, or at their personal homes when other officers could be using the equipment, ie patrol cars. I strongly support LE when they do not abuse their authority, use excessive force, or treat people inhumanely. I strongly support LE when they save lives without violating People's Rights to medical while incarcerated. I strongly support LE when they are considered Heroes,which does not entail interfering with wildlife for PR. I strongly support LE every day to help them in every way humanly possible if their intentions are justified, ethical, moral, and LEGAL. I would strongly support LE and this millage if I had more faith in the Honesty and Integrity of their office. Like I said many times in previous years, I would go door to door for them to make sure they had every current updated tool available at their disposal to aid them in keeping," Officer's and Our Public safer." But, from what we have all witnessed in the past previous years to current wrongdoings which have yet to be resolved, and some major wrongdoings which has yet to hit the news, my Vote would be an absolute "NO".

[XLFD]

If everybody strongly supported law enforcement like us, John, we would have law enforcement to be proud of and worthy of additional money when they needed it.  Unfortunately, we have too many people out there who expect nothing out of these agencies and support them unconditionally.

I have heard plenty of bad things about the MCSO along the way, most of which I can't divulge out of respect for those who told me their issue, so here's what this law-abiding citizen has endured that has left me troubled.  I can't get any part of a vehicle accident report until over a year after I made a FOIA request and spent months in court trying to get it, they still withhold all parts of the Hansen Road incident from 2015 for a specious, unexplained reason.  I get bashed by the sheriff in multiple outlets for revealing the name of a person found dead in a local school forest before he wanted it put out (and well after his widow was notified and released that info herself).   Sheriff Cole can't even explain why we wasted so much money cleaning air ducts in his building.  

These are problems that I can't recall would have happened back when Sheriff Fiers was sending jail money back to the county commission, because he knew what fiscal conservatism was.  But that doesn't make you popular among your deputies and COs.  

[John Doe Jr]

Oddly, this is my view of how the Heroes we the Public desperately try to strongly support, act behind the Blue Walls...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sr1W_bR61y8

[XLFD]

Police agencies, prosecutors, court officers, all seem to act like they're all part of a family, and of course, members of a family protect each other, whether they're a normal family, a crime family or a 'law family'.  I offer one of the newest Ludington officials Laura Larson switching from her job at the 79th District Court admitting something we all pretty much know on Facebook:

You will notice that she does not list all those poor folks that go to her window and pay their traffic citations in her work family, or those who otherwise seek justice by suing her 'work family' in order to get them to follow the OMA, the FOIA, or other state law.  Her old family at the 79th District wasn't known for following Michigan Court Rules. 

I checked up on her recently as I noted the COL recently sent her to Manistee to be trained on the FOIA and paid good money for it.  I thought that was hilarious since the City of Manistee has a worse record than the COL in providing records to the public.  

[John Doe Jr]

I feel the urge to vomit.

[shinblind]

McGruff the Crime Dog is the crime fighting mascot who's motto is ''taking a bite out of crime''.

Sheriff Kim Cole is a crime fighting wanna be whose motto is ''putting the bite on taxpayers''.

Be like McGruff not Cole.

[Willy]

Excellent presentation of the facts X. My vote:

No on all millage proposals

[XLFD]

I cannot argue with that position.  But be prepared to see yards inundated with "Vote Yes on … millage" and officials stumping for these proposals over the next two weeks (many are already out there).  As usual, you won't see any telling you to vote 'no' because you can be sure you would be singled out as somebody who doesn't care for senior citizens, jailers, deputies, etc. 

For every one of these superfluous millages we have, each one jacking up the county's tax rate to a higher level, we may have many individuals, businesses and entrepreneurs interested in the area yet seeing that rate and saying:  "No thanks, there are plenty of other counties that I could locate in where I'm not coerced into paying over 20 years later for jail improvements, programs for senior citizens, additional road patrols, and one of the many Medical Care Facilities.  

Want an economic stimulus for the area, vote down these proposals.  Bonus:  you get to keep more of the money you earn. 

[Willy]

Good points X. I'm just tired of paying ever increasing taxes, also, the timing of these proposals is not conducive to being welcomed. In my case as in everyone else, summer taxes are due and I have to dig into my pockets and dish out $$$$ by September and asking for more money at this time makes very little sense. The only proposal I would consider half way supporting is the medical care center but that's still a no vote for me.