Another Crock from Brock

[shinblind]

At the end of the last city council meeting interim city manager Steve Brock tried to take X to task for the data he used on the salaries of city managers between Hudsonville and Ludington. While X doesn't need me to offer a rebuttal, once again I cannot tolerate Brock's misinformation.

I would suggest to interim city manager Brock that if he wishes to compare the salaries of city managers from various cities that rather than piss away what was it $28,000 on a biased and incomplete report, that instead he should have used one that focuses on the demographics between the municipalities.

Using his examples between Ludington and Hudsonville:

Median Family Income          $36,333          $55,372

% below Poverty line             16.3%             04.6%

Unfunded City Pensions         $7,026,811    $636,495

Debt per capita                     $1,567          $718

Long Term Debt                    $12,633,281   $5,260,000

So Steve Brock can you honestly tell me which city can afford a more expensive city manager?

From the demographics we cannot afford a city manager at $110,000, realistically we can not afford one above $60,000.

Oh and Hudsonville makes due with a population about 700 less than Ludington.

And one more thing Stevie, the long term debt doesn't reflect the full cost of the Water Treatment Plant not any costs of the Waste Water Treatment Plant upgrades. Nor does it project the $100,000,000 +++ upgrades to the city school system.

[Freedom Seeker]

Very interesting shinblind.  It just seemed like the city has been over bloating the salaries, but your figures make it clear why.  What can you estimate Ludington's real total debt at?  Then true debt per capita?  It seems like the city of Ludington has become more of a corporation/union to pay its employees the best salaries and benefits possible more than taking care of its citizens and infrastructure and I think the Michigan municipal league MML is a major force behind that, and that John Shay relied on the MML to do that.  And isn't John Shay some sort of an officer of the MML?  And was the job position of city manager ever advertised locally?  I never saw it even on the city website?

[XLFD]

John is/was a Michigan Municipal League Executive Board Member of the Worker's Compensation Fund and a Michigan Municipal Executive Ethics Committee Member.  Ironic.  This is a good reason why you should be a might distrustful of MML activities.  

Now that he's at the county level, he may not be serving in those capacities.  It is my understanding that the MML took full control over the city manager search, meaning that anybody not serving as a dues-paying member/associate likely never saw this advertised.  Back in 2002, a city manager search netted at least 39 applicants for Ludington, a vast majority did not request confidentiality, and the MML was as involved.  The search has been far from transparent, and has likely been performed illegally.

[Willy]

is there a link to the statistics. I would like to see a complete comparison between the two cities. From what has been posted, Mr. Brock doesn't seem to understand the difference between the 2 municipalities. Ludington is an independent small town where Hudsonville is a bedroom community of Grand Rapids. I imagine most of the money in Hudsonville is earned by residents who work in and around Grand Rapids, while Ludington must survive on it's own. Good post shinblind.

[AQUAMAN]

Well said both FS and Willy, and thanks for that analysis shinblind, great post.

[shinblind]

Willy, from Open Data Network.

https://www.opendatanetwork.com/entity/1600000US2639800-1600000US26...

The poverty rates are from WIKI, from when I was first comparing the demographics.

I wonder how much other data in the salary report was cherry picked.

[Willy]

Thanks for the link shinblind. Ludington can't compete with towns like Hudsonville. It's a dog chasing it's tail scenario or keeping up with the jones's competition. The money just isn't here in Ludington for it to act like a wealthier town.  Trying to  pay City employees comparable wages of richer towns is a fools game. Instead of spending years fighting people like X, Ludington should have been working with them and maybe most of the problems could have been avoided. To much influence and power in the hands of a small narcissistic group has made Ludington a debt ridden anti resident town.

[Freedom Seeker]

Thanks for that link shinblind. That data on unfunded pension liability was from 2015. I've heard that number has grown to around $10 million. Is the police pension included in that? One of the city's goals is "to fund the pensions" seemingly more important than fixing the infrastructure ... From recent goals of City manager search. That data is under the recent committee of the Whole agenda and goal setting by our new mayor. We must keep funding these over bloated salaries, benefits and pensions of city administration. At least three of the current councilors serve on the DDA and two others own businesses. That's a majority of 5 of 7. Who cares how high the debt goes, until we dry up our rainy day fund and can't pay our bills? Have more beer parties. Get more tourists tooo drunk to drive so they can ride free shuttles. The businesses downtown benefit and get their taxes abated in some cases.

[Freedom Seeker]

Good point Willy, about Hudsonville being a bedroom community of the greater Grand Rapids and that Ludington, not only stands on its own, but Mason county is the parent community for the rural Mason and Oceana counties, many deriving their jobs from here. I wonder if the great MML wizard and Steve Brock consider that in the pay raises for city of Ludington administration.

[XLFD]

In the recap of the Dec. 10 meeting I included a link to the Hudsonville Budget

and a snippet from that budget I also put here:

I invite anybody to look over that budget and see anyplace where the city manager's pay was higher than the $68K figure for the first half of 2018.  I've looked over every inch and found zilch beyond the one page.  Additionally, the Hudsonville CM gets a bit less than 50% of his pay in fringe benefits, whereas John Shay was getting more than 70%.  The two comparable cities are incomparable as far as their city management payouts:  Hudsonville, with a part time assistant CM spends $131K total for "City Manager" expenses in 2018/2019, Ludington with a full-time assistant CM and a variety of perks, is scheduled to pay out $337K total in 2019.  BIG difference.  We should be cutting salaries dramatically, not inflating them, but that expensive compensation study was not chose to come to those types of conclusions.

I thank you, shinblind, for stating the additional factors which just don't make the numbers add up to what Mark Nottley and Brock want them to, and for providing additional support, since Lyin' Steve made his unsubstantiated remark at the tail end of the Holman love-fest meeting four weeks ago.  "... last meeting there was reference made to a salary for a city manager in Hudsonville was errant, it was $67,000 [False:  it was $68K] that was reported at the meeting, I verified it is the actual amount that's in the compensation study, $110,000. He probably looked at one source, the city manager there is paid out of several sources in the budget. Thank you."

If there is another source in that budget for the CM's salary, why doesn't he point it out, rather than suggest Hudsonville's budget team is hiding actual salaries from the public in a way that no public accountant should?

[shinblind]

What else I take issue with, is somewhere when discussing CM compensation ICM Brock said that Ludington needs to pay a manager at the top 20% of the salary range. The top quintal.

WHY???

What will be the duties of the new city manager that we need such high priced talent?

Is there oversight needed for the Water Treatment Plant?  No that project is completed.

Well what about the Waste Water Treatment Plant?  No that is also in the bag.

Well how about the West End Scheme?  No, that depends on the availability of grants from the SOM.

The new schools?  No that will be mostly outside of the duties of the city manager.

Streets? Infrastructure?  Except for the occasional grant coming in there is no money for upkeep.

Arranging the deck chairs while Ludington sinks in debt?  Well yes, spruce things up for the 8 week fudgie season.

Raising taxes and keeping the peons from revolting?  Yes again, that should be the main focus of the job.

Watching over the exodus of wage earners who's median average is well below the State's average in a Nation where the State of Michigan is well below the National average? Yes that goes without saying.

Why exactly do we need a high priced city manager? We could easily get by with someone in the bottom 10% salary range.

Truth be told a John Shay or Steve Brock bobble head would probably suffice.

[Freedom Seeker]

That's what I was thinking also, shinblind.  What exactly did John Shay do to bide his time?  He had a proficient assistant to take care of most things.  You did mean a toy bobble head that sits on a desk would suffice didn't you?  Because we've already had a living bobble head, laughing all the way to the bank.  We don't need no more of them. 

[shinblind]

Yes FS, a toy bobble head for public appearances.

For decision making I would still be in favor of the Magic 8 Ball.

https://eightball.tridelphia.net/