George De-pose-y, Muddying and Lie, Grill the Plaintiffs and Make Them Cry

[XLFD]

The above title is a bastardization of the popular nursery rhyme, "Georgie Porgie pudding and pie, kissed the girls and made them cry".  On Thursday, I was treated to a bastardization of legal discovery process courtesy of the City of Ludington's legal defense team which also happens to serve as the Ludington City Attorney, the entire Manistee law firm known as Gockerman, Wilson, Saylor and Hesslin. 

 

George Saylor was chosen to be the Head Inquisitor on that day, having sent Two Depositions.pdf  to me and my fellow plaintiff, and longterm partner-in-arms Toni Swiger, in what started out as our civil action against the City of Ludington to produce documents pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), which they had denied us the ability to inspect. 

 

These records just happened to concern all the business dealings of then candidate, now City Councilor, Nick Tykoski, with the City of Ludington since the beginning of 2008, when he became a city official on the Ludington Downtown Ludington Board.  As has been noted his familiar long term relationship with DLB Chairperson Heather Venzke has been a source of questionable contracts with rigged and no-bid contract decisions made in favor of Tykoski's business Tye's Inc. (aka Tye's Signs).  Furthermore, his involvement with other contracts with the City of Ludington seemed to be devoid of any terms of propriety or competitive bidding.

 

But we involved those who look into the Torch for information by devoting three links to that topic with an introduction to the original requests and responses in pt 1, the administrative appeal that wasn't in pt 2, and the beginning of our Circuit Court filing to get that information revealed and the beginning of the City's counter-offensive in Hiding Behind Signs pt 3.  That link includes the first two parts, leaving off the topic in mid November.

 

I think it is readily apparent to look at the FOIA Coordinator's (John Shay) two responses to determine that he hadn't granted the request but said he did; didn't mention a fee, but asks to be paid one and just a review of those two E-mails should be a quick determination that he failed to fulfill his duties under Section 5 of the FOIA, subsection 2,  and then by applying subsection 3, you have a ruling against the obstructing public body.  But the City of Ludington will never admit defeat, no matter how much of your money it costs them and how many rights given to you by the FOIA they deny.

 

The City Attorneys working on this case are being paid $185 per hour for this 'special project' to continue to impede the flow of information that every individual, unless incarcerated, is entitled to by rights guaranteed under the FOIA.  The City Attorneys have drafted (pages)

1)  Answers to Complaint (4)

2)  Affirmative Defenses (1)

3)  First Amended Affirmative Defenses (1)

4)  Counterclaim (5)

5)  First Amended Answers to Complaint (4)

6)  Timeline of FOIA Requests- Exhibit (6)

7)  Pre-liminary Witness List (3)

8)  Subpoena to Toni (4)

9)  Subpoena to Tom (4)

10)  Request to Admit Toni (2)

11)  Request to Admit Tom (2)

12)  Interrogatories and Request to Produce Toni (4)

13)  Interrogatories and Request to Produce Tom (4)

14)  Proof of Service, Cover letters to court and clerk (12)

 

These documents are mostly reproduced in the "City Hall is 2 Dam Corrupt Movement" group.  Let's be generous to their skills, and say that it only takes 15 minutes of research and development to produce each page of documents by the defendant's attorneys.  The production of the 56 pages would take 19 hours to make at $185 an hour, or $3515 charged to the Ludington taxpayer, to avoid producing City Councilor Tykoski's business records with the City.

 

But our sides tenacity in seeking this information has replied to all the various discovery, counterclaims, admissions, and affirmative defenses, we hadn't actually went through the depositions until yesterday.  The City Attorneys had asked for Toni to produce some documents not readily available and some without clear purpose-- and they asked her to produce it within twelve days while it is plainly written in Michigan Court Rules that any request for documents in a subpoena must give those deposed at least 14 days to compile them.  They were also asking a decidedly indigent person to produce documents she would have to spend money to get.  We objected to these impositions by serving a Motion to Quash (Deny) Subpoena for her.  Because this motion had not been acted upon in the week that the Circuit Court had it, she was not obliged to go.

 

But I went at 1:00 PM on Thursday.  For the next one hundred and sixty one minutes, (2 hr., 41 min.)with no breaks proffered or given by City Attorney George Saylor, I got grilled mercilessly by George about a variety of topics, mostly irrelevant and high on verbiage-low on content topics.  Dictatorially asking 60 word questions sometimes vague and with conditionals and requiring me to give a 'yes' or 'no' response, really wears on you after a while.  

That full deposition which I recorded from start to finish, with him beginning with inquiries on Toni's avoidance of the previous deposition, and ending with a threat to exact civil contempt charges on this poor woman (this was after the recorder was turned off) is available to anyone who sends me a message requesting it. 

 

CA George was apparently expecting Toni to appear at 10:00 AM, and was visibly upset at the end of our ordeal with her not showing up and wasting his time and the attending court reporter's time at this scheduled deposition which was under contention in Circuit Court.  The average salary for a court reporter in our area is roughly $25 per hour ($50,000/year) so let's say she was paid for my three hours and one for Toni's no-show, and presume George charged the City's taxpayers for only four hours and his 1.5 hours for travel from Manistee and back.  Let's presume he took about 6 hours to prepare his 20 deposition exhibits (some from this site) and his line of attack.  When I taught in college, I usually took about 1.5 to 2 times the length of the class in the need to prepare for that class.

 

The bargain was the court reporter at $100, the 11.5 hours that Torquemada-wanna-be George Saylor wasted on this deposition was $2127.50, totalling $2227.50 more going from Ludington taxpayers in the City Attorney's efforts to intimidate two information-seekers.  We are up to about $6000 in attorney fees for this lesson the City of Ludington wants to teach us, all going from us to Manistee.

 

But am I using the word 'intimidation' here too loosely.  No, because almost at the same time I was getting out of a City-induced Hell-in-Ludington experience, I was getting served an E-mail misdirected to me by City Attorney Richard Wilson, and I presume was targeted to John Shay (I have issued discovery earlier today to find that out) telling the recipient the following:

 

 An admission by one of our City Attorneys (Richard Wilson) to someone with an interest in these precedings, apparently saying that the purpose of that day's depositions, handled by another City Attorney George Saylor, was for that deposer to grill the plaintiffs in this civil action so that to make someone cry before the day was over.  Think about it:  Manistee's Dick Wilson is saying that Manistee's George Saylor wants to grill an indigent Ludington citizen, Toni Swiger, so hard that they want to make her cry before the day is over.  And receive over $2000 for the day from the Ludington citizens to do so. 

Shameless, disgraceful, reprehensible, and a whole lot of other adjectives not suitable for a family newsblog.  Fellow citizens of Ludington, and those who care about our area, I plead for you to get involved and get rid of this joke of a law firm who do not swear any allegiance to our area, and only swear allegiance, apparently, to the corrupt parts of our City Hall.  Make your voice heard, here and elsewhere.  We will continue the fight as well.

[AQUAMAN]

Sad day in Ludington's history to be involved in such unscrupulous actions, and well worth the attention of the AG of Michigan, as well as the MC Courthouse to see in their very own eyes, in black and white, what is transpiring below the surface, with these blatantly corrupt officials right now. I just wonder, what say ye CC Wanda Marrison? Or will ye yet be silent during this obviously offensive and illegal/unethical way of doing business downtown against ALL the Citizenry? No comment will mean you tend to agree and want no part of replying, as per the usual recently.............not lol on this one either! Either you want to be serious and against corruption, or you are part of the problem imho.

[XLFD]

Toni and I are composing a letter to the City Council asking them to condemn the actions of their highly-prized lawyers from Manistee, and to allow the release of the information we had asked for on 9-7-2011 without any further delay or any further expense to the City by lawyers whose only interests are pecuniary (financial) and the humiliation of Ludington citizens asserting their right for public information. 

The City's spending of $6000 and much more to come to cover-up the already shady-looking business dealings between the City and a City Councilor's business, doesn't look very kosher.  Particularly when that money looks as if it is only engaged in thuggery.

[Willy]

It's incredible to see how far the City is willing to carry this vendetta against you. I've asked this many times. Where are the City Council members during this deluge of a waste of taxpayers money. They have to know that all this money is being spent. Do they just sit back and receive a report from Shay and nod their collective heads in agreement that it's OK to spend tax dollars in this manner. Something is terribly wrong with the City Council and Mayor. Are they a bunch of fools being duped by Shay or are they deeply involve with this shameless display of oppressive governing. What the hell is going on with these people. And again what is going on with LDN. Don't they cover court proceedings especially when taxpayer money is being flushed down the toilet on frivolous court proceedings against ludingtons own citizens, not to mention that the City is spending money to defend the  cover up of potential corruption? Jeese! The reaction of the City and Lack of reaction of LDN regarding this entire situation borders on insanity. Maybe that's it X. Your dealing with insane people who can't determine right from wrong, up from down or in from out.

[AQUAMAN]

All of the ABOVE WILLY! ALL! Remember the saying about power corrupting? Truly a POWER TRIP imho!

[XLFD]

If the LDN wanted to shed some light on what's going on, I'm sure they would put me in the shadows and publish what City Hall transcribes to them.  I count my blessings every day that the LDN decides to keep away.  WOOD TV, The Muskegon Chronicle, and WMOM radio are more than welcome to join, but not just yet please.

[Marty Redman]

What a bunch of CHICKENSCHITZ.  This isn't America when this is allowed to happen without repercussions. 

161 minutes of straight grilling against the one asking the City to give up documents open to the public.  This is the sickest thing I've seen in a long while done by any public org.

[Angela]

so has anyone called up the AG's office?  you need to go higher than the MC courthouse - this needs to go to the top of the food chain..............BTW how is a county commissioner able to be on a board that is voting if they (county commissioner) get pay in lieu of health insurance?  this whole area is effed up

[XLFD]

I have been trickling things into the MI AG at times, mostly foundational stuff, since they are reluctant to get involved unless the problems appear to be major and/or widespread.  Compiling and court-craft have been taking alot of my spare time, and it looks like I may be about to open up another front or two in the very near future. 

The County Commissioner health insurance financing will be pushed over $100,000 a year with the payments-in-lieu-of likely to get passed by the out of touch Commissioners who believe they are entitled to it for a couple of hours of meetings a month.  It's disgraceful. 

[XLFD]

On Friday afternoon, I filed these two briefs with the court in regard to this development.  The first was an amended Motion to Quash and an Amended Interrogatory to Richard Merlin Wilson.  I hope the Honorable Judge Richard I. Cooper of the 51st Circuit Court finally recognizes the City Attorneys' actions for what they are.  Intimidation, harassment, and impediment.

[Heaven Therzke]

this is all just a game for the city hall crowd and you are just the past pwned pawn x-lfd and so is toni.  i wish you luck and i hope you both get to the last rank and get a checkmate but just a freindly warning about the peeps you are dealing with; they might not reset the table at the end of this game but put the peices in a box. 

[XLFD]

I just hope they don't put this piece in the box until I get to the endgame, and say "checkmate". 

We must also remember that even if you block the forward progress of a pawn, he can still capture other pieces at an angle, and that a passed pawn on the seventh rank is a dangerous character indeed!

[XLFD]

Got this today in the mail from the court reporter that sat in with George at the inquisition deposition. 

 

Gee, sign me up for a half dozen transcripts at this bargain price, LOL.  Nods to Aquaman, for figuring that the court reporter was from Manistee, so that even more of our local tax $$$ go up the coast to our legal buddies there.  The court reporter is just down the road and across the street from Gockerman, Wilson, Saylor and Hesslin, in the historic Hart Building with her husband's law firm. 

"Curious George" Saylor still hasn't got back to us on his threats to hold Toni to account for missing his intimidation festival.  I hope he's not crying too hard about anything he receives from the Attorney Grievance Commission of Michigan.