Primary Responsibility of Ludington City Hall

[XLFD]

On February 28, 2011, Exactly one year ago, the City Council of Ludington passed an ordinance that allowed the City Manager to issue a letter of trespass to deny access to public facilities to anybody that the City Manager gauged as a threat to City security.  The next day, a letter of trespass was issued to me. 

I run for City Councilor last year, being permitted to enter City Hall early in the year after getting written permission.  Later on in the year, I get ignored by the City Manager three consecutive times to gain access to the City Hall in complete accordance with the Letter of Trespass for election activities, including a "Candidate's Forum".  My attorney contacts the City Attorney to negotiate the withdrawal of the Letter, but is rebuffed and rebutted.  I never get permission to vote at my polling place that happens to be the Ludington City Hall. 

I petition the County Prosecutor Paul Spaniola for an investigation as concern criminal violations of Michigan election law.  For some reason, his investigation focuses a lot more on baseless suppositions against the complainant than the actual complaint.  Not a big surprise; but the MSP officers investigating the complaint never bothered contacting me to let me know the investigation was over, or get any supplemental information beyond my original sketch of a complaint.

Anyhow, my talk with them said the City's neglect to allow me to vote could lend itself to a civil suit more than a criminal suit, as intent to disallow me the vote would be hard to prove.  I would grant them that, but they also assured me the City was unaware of them having effectively blocked me from being able to vote, and would have extended me that right if I would have asked John Shay for it.  City Manager John Shay does not have the power to decide whether I can or cannot vote!

 

So with the Michigan Primaries coming up, I looked forward to the City notifying me that I had the ability to enter my polling place to vote.  On Monday there was nothing in my E-mails, nothing in my mailbox that allowed me that right.  I sent out the following letter to my federal representatives (Stabenow, Levin, and Huizenga) and Governor Rick Snyder (with some modifications for each) that explained my disenfranchisement because of an unconstitutional local policy.

 

I am writing to you on the eve of the Michigan primaries that are to be held tomorrow, voting occurring in cities and townships across the great state of Michigan. I wish to take part in the vote, but I have been disallowed to do so by a group of people that are in positions of power in my little city of Ludington, midway up the coast of Western Michigan.

I run a local political watchblog that throughout its tenure since 2009 has been exposing some of the questionable practices of our City, County, and regional governments. I had posted a series of articles on our local Downtown Development Authority's ethical lapses, including a mid-February 2011 post which rankled the Chairman of that organization, leading them to petition the City Manager, John Shay, to devise a means to "punish" me for my use of the City's informational webpages and the regular FOIA requests that I made to investigate possible wrongdoing.

 

I was given a "Letter of Trespass" for the Ludington City Hall and Police Station, which said I could not enter those places without first getting written permission from the City Manager. If I didn't I would be guilty of the misdemeanor of trespassing and would be arrested on the spot (a copy is included). Later on via an FOIA that cost me nearly $20, I found that the City had filed a police complaint without my knowledge on me over "linking to a city webpage" that was publicly available to anyone, and a memo to all officers to arrest me if I violated the Letter.

 

I was never alleged to have done anything wrong, although it was said someone on the staff had felt threatened and intimidated by me. Not that I had done anything at City Hall or the Police Station other than get and pay for FOIA requests since 2008, all without incident. The action was to intimidate me from investigating more.

 

My place that I am registered to vote happens to be the Ludington City Hall. I had petitioned the City Manager to visit the City Hall three times in order to run for City Councilor. I was frequently hampered by my inability to enter the City Hall without threat of arrest. A candidate forum was held in October 2011, and the City Manager ignored three pleas from me and three from my attorney in Sept. and Oct. to enter the City Hall to participate in it.

 

Election day came and even though the City Manager, Clerk, and Council knew that I resided in the ward that needs to vote at City Hall, I never received any written permission to. Despite the six pleas of the previous months, there was no way I could vote. I fail to qualify for an absentee ballot, and if I stepped foot on the City Hall premises I was told that I would be arrested.

 

I asked the local prosecutor to investigate the aspects of this disenfranchisement as it pertains to MCL 169.932 (1)(a). The prosecutor used the local MSP from Hart to investigate, and seriously botched the issue. Documents I have received from his office seem to indicate that, and I am in process of getting the investigation report from the MSP. After relating my initial complaint to the prosecutor, I was never contacted except to say he had started an investigation. The investigation had closed, by the time I contacted them in early December. However, I was told by the MSP Fellowes that the City had claimed it an oversight and that they hadn't known about my dilemma. Leading one to believe that it would be corrected, or at least to not happen again.

 

Which brings us to this primary. I am registered to vote, I am willing to vote, but I can't go to my polling place without being under the threat of arrest for stepping onto the property, as I have not yet received written permission to vote. Have I pleaded with City Manager Shay to vote in this primary as I and my attorney pleaded with him before the November election? Why should I, no one else has to, and his lack of responses to my previous requests make me not bother with wasting my time doing so.

Besides the Federal Voting Rights Act of 1965, section 11 says:
(a) No person acting under color of law shall fail or refuse to permit any person to vote who is entitled to vote under any provision of this Act or is otherwise qualified to vote, or willfully fail or refuse to tabulate, count, and report such person's vote.
(b) No person, whether acting under color of law or otherwise, shall intimidate, threaten, or coerce, or attempt to intimidate, threaten, or coerce any person for urging or aiding any person to vote or attempt to vote.

 

The City Manager's policy, passed by the City Council of Ludington, uses the color of law to impose the ban on my right to enter a public place which just also happens to be my polling place. They use the intimidation of arrest, the threat of enjailment to enforce this disenfranchisement of my rights, whether to vote or to attend any public Open Meeting that takes place at City Hall.

 

In section 12, it has a penalty for those who would deprive those who act under color of the law to deprive suffrage: (a) Whoever shall deprive or attempt to deprive any person of any right secured by section 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, or 10 or shall violate section 11(a) or (b), shall be fined not more than $5,000, or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.

 

I realize you are a Federal legislator, not a Federal jurist who may rule on this in the future. But I hope for and pray that you can help me regain some of my rights that have been taken from me by City of Ludington officials by helping me in whatever way you can. Whether it is to do some serious fact-finding in this case, to reveal the truth amidst the complexities, or whether it be to help me with getting some of these issues resolved (though a court solution looks necessary).

 

[Sweater Cows!]

"  just that he is following the rules." yes, but Lisa, they are pretend rules, not real.

Say you play blackjack at the Casino and there is a little notice on the table that says what wins and payouts are and we all know that in that game it says  21 is the winning number, so what if just *one* dealer see's a player with 21 and decides at his table that the winning number is 22, should the players go to the management and complain or should they say well this is the table I am sitting at so I guess this guys pretend/made-up rule is what I have to play by?

Management and rules = fed/state law. CAsino= LUdville, Dealer =Shay/council.

We are not talking about a game at someones house or business where they can make the rules(house rules) up as they go along, Should the players have to "beg" the dealer to follow the rules, or should the dealer be expected to know enough about the game to know the rules?

I am tired and can't come up with a better example but that I believe makes the point of not following pretend(illegitimate/rules that aren't rules at all) rules.

[XLFD]

Once again showing that even a tired non-partisan like Shrugs can make more valid analysis and analogies on the issue at hand than the Manic Manistee Mouthpieces.  Of whom I received an interesting reply to this very topic today. 

[Willy]

Lisa

X doesn't have to follow the illegal rules to prove that a law is unconstitutional. Just the fact that he is denied access to his place of voting is, in my opinion, a criminal act. The City has chosen to apply a blanket punishment for a fictitious violation of an illegal law. Why does the banishment not stipulate that X is allowed in City hall and the police dept. if the person who he has made fearful is not there? I would in no way ask Adolf Shay to "please let me in to city  hall, pretty please, I'll be good, I promise". It's demeaning and Shay and the city council are using it to put a citizen in their place and to send a message to anyone else who tries to exercise their Constitutional rights. A perfect example is our own Larry here on the forum. X suggested that he look at the court records himself and Larry said "no way" I don't want any record of me getting involved with X's situation. Larry' is already Leery, as he should be, of the City's power to strip him of his rights and cause him much grief.

[XLFD]

Lisa,

There really is nothing in the WSP or the Letter of Trespass that allows me to directly petition any authority for admittance to the LCH/ LPD.  When I made my interest in the Third Ward seat, I was given such permission (after numerous pleas) to interview, then they gave such permission to attend the one meeting where it would be decided.  Later, I was granted written permission to file my petition to get on the ballot. 

Three times after that I requested permission to get into City Hall via E-mail, and was ignored completely, and after saying that I was through with such abasements (and I am a man of my word), my lawyer made even stronger requests to the City Attorney's office to drop the Letter entirely, dismissed haughtily by City Attorney Wilson each time.  After that, a so-called investigation conducted concluded that there was no way to show that the City's oversight of not allowing me to vote was intentional or not. 

This time, the lack of intent was more specious, and according to Federal law, the crime is done strictly by having the onerous law in the first place, intent can be assumed through that law's unlawful passage.  

[Lisa O'Brien]

XLFD,

When is your lawyer going to take this to court - so that a Judge can rule this constitutional or unconstitutional. In my opinion it is unconstitutional, but what everyone thinks or feels about the situation is irrelevant until a court of law weighs in. 

[Willy]

Lisa

Valid point. We're all sucking wind and exhaling opinions that don't mean much of anything legally. Except X of course who appears to be gaining legal knowledge everyday because of his situation.

[AQUAMAN]

So TRUE Willy, or should I say Wiley Coyote, smart as a whip-------so where's the Sir Lar Fitz now? Don't see him replying..............lol. Don't expect ANY MC Court to go against the grain either..........whatever that means...........right?  Maybe that's why Coooooooper has a demotion in pay these days, or is it? The Past Decisions are playing a part too right now, or are they?

[XLFD]

The more I learn about legal procedures would indicate that in America there is often a separation of not only church and state, but of justice and law.

Thanks for the support of the Constitution, Larry, I try to bring it up as often as I can that the Workplace Safety Policy may have been made in order to control FOIA-wielding me at the time, but its total lack of regard to at least three Constitutional amendments and the illegitimate additional powers it grants to the Ludington City Manager and its City Attorneys is what should make anyone in this town wonder what was in the minds of the Ludington City Council when they unanimously passed this stinker, and why they allowed it to not be repealed for over a year now.  Here it is since I haven't shown it for awhile.

[Willy]

X

Thanks for posting the ordinance again. I noticed shay initialed  JB after his name. Could his real name be John Boy or Bozo?  One thing I would be curious about if I were you is how many banishment letters have been issued to other citizens? If your the only one, then that would mean you have the honor of being the most notorious violator of the Workplace safety ordinance and every other person who has visited City Hall since you, has been pleasant and courteous. Imagine a town where the most notorious person is someone who makes 1 person feel uncomfortable. That would make Ludington a sister city of Nirvana. I'm surprised your picture isn't at the post office on the most wanted board. The post office flyer would read "Mr. Rotta, wanted for making somone feel uncomfortable and  desiring that  his and all citizens  rights be upheld and Federal and State laws followed. Approach with caution if you are a City official. He may require you to be decent and honest."

[XLFD]

Public (Record-exposing) Enemy Numero Uno, Willy.  Guilty as charged.

The WSP and the LOT can be totally misused for the purposes you mention, Larry, and yet I think John Shay considers this a personal issue he has with me, but I consider, and have since 2008, consider it an ethics in government issue.  He just happens to be the Grand Conductor of the corruption orchestra, and Heather Venzke-Tykoski serves as its diva.  BTW, I got the salient parts of her PPO from the County Clerk and will publish a thread on that before tomorrow, so that City Hallers can have a bad taste in their mouth going into the weekend as the banality of the complaint is published. 

Unfortunately, most of my weekend will be spent poring over legal websites and withheld documents, fine-tuning my final brief for the hearing on March 7 about the FOIA.  Everything's coming together almost perfectly in that regard, particularly the last minute dissembling from Manistee and the Imperial Room at the City Hall.

[Willy]

Rev. BIll Freeman's situation is different from X's. Freeman is protesting the lack of inclusion of gays, lesbions and transgenders into the anti discrimination ordinance of Holland Mi. He was not banned from City Hall. He was asked to leave when City Hall was closing and he refused so he was arrested. He said he wanted to use the "occupy wall street strategy". There is a big difference here between Rev. Freeman and X because Freeman wants to break the law to get his way, while X is trying to restore his Constitutional rights to just enter City Hall. I have no respect for Freeman's methods to make his point.

http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2011/10/holland_mi...

[Marty Redman]

Land sakes, Ralf, I'm sure the LDN has probably heard that XLFD has gotten a look at some embarassing documents of theres and has went into full blown defense mode.  I'm sure we'll see some positive articles on this positive young couple from Ludington's positively ridiculous newspaper as his story develops. 

If I remember right theres a former newspaperman on the LCC and some sort of editor of the LDN on the Downtown Ludington Board.