The Tail Wayland the Dog

[XLFD]

The latest news from way down south in Wayland, where we discussed their recent plights in   WWW  .  But now the hijinks continue as they try to find a City Manager without an interim in front of their name, as reported in Mlive:

Cameron Van Wyngarden

For the past few weeks, the Michigan Municipal League and Wayland city staff have been negotiating contract details with city manager candidate Cameron Van Wyngarden.

Now, they have the official blessing of the city council.

During their regular meeting tonight, Feb. 20, Mayor Tim Bala asked for a closed session to discuss negotiations with Van Wyngarden.

Then, councilor Jeff Hudson reminded him that the council had never actually voted to pursue Van Wyngarden as a candidate.

Bala looked at notes from a previous meeting and quickly agreed.

"We had no (such) motion or support," Bala said.

Van Wyngarden, who is currently the assistant city manager for the city of Greenville,  is one of four candidates interviewed by the council during a special meeting Jan. 28.

Two of those candidates were eliminated from consideration after that meeting. Then the third, Merrillville, Ind. town administrator Howard Fink, withdrew his name, leaving only Van Wyngarden.

"He just happened to be the last one standing," said councilor Ron Kobish.

Councilor Jennifer Antel said that after the Jan. 28 interviews, the council discussed whether to seek additional candidates.

"We all said 'No,'" Antel recalled.

Hudson said he was concerned because another councilor had recently expressed a desire to consider other candidates besides Van Wyngarden.

But when Bruce Patrick made a motion to officially enter into negotiations with Van Wyngarden, it was seconded by Jim Roger, and passed unanimously by a voice vote.

Interim City Manager Terry Hofmeyer said another special meeting might be called, perhaps later this week, so that a vote could be taken on approving Van Wyngarden for the position.

If hired, he would replace former manager Chris Yonker, who was fired on Oct. 5. The reasons were kept confidential.

 

 

http://www.mlive.com/wayland/index.ssf/2012/02/wayland_council_give...

 

One thing that isn't being kept confidential is how screwed up the public officials are in Wayland, a great town despite it's so-called leaders.  A chief executive who will effectively  run the town is almost put in place without officially being even considered a candidate for the position.  Why not just nix the fundamentally flawed City Manager system and go back to having elected leaders. 

Wayland citizens, expect more by stepping up to the plate and getting some reasonable people into office.  That goes double for Ludington.

[Sweater Cows!]

I sent this "Would you like to state your side of the story? Tell us about the City of Wayland? There is a website www.ludingtoncitizen.ning.com That is a watchblog on the City of Ludington to keep them honest, or try to anyway. If you had trouble with your city jobs because you had a high standard of ethics and morals, check out the 'torch', anonymous  posting permitted. " to Chris Yonker on Facebook.

[XLFD]

Thanks, Shrugs, if there's one thing we love as much as the good old honest truth here, we also love them whistleblowers.  And we won't cover our ears, though we will cover our eyes if anonymity is desired by those fearful of the very real repercussions for doing so.  And I think it goes without saying that we won't cover our mouth.

[XLFD]

Shawn, thanks for your updates.  I provide a link to what you referred to as WAYLAND.TOWNBROAST.COM, a probably unintentional run-together of "townbroadcast", but perhaps a good old fashioned broast of the various parties is called for.  I sometimes accidentally call the local paper something other than the Ludington Daily News (such as 'Dairy' , 'Daisy' or 'Drily' for Daily and 'Newbs' for News).  http://wayland.townbroadcast.com/

It's good to see they have an experienced and tested investigator looking into this.  If he gets a clean report, then probably there is nothing wrong that has occurred (which can't be plausibly denied).

[XLFD]

Another update on the Wayland situation.  The Wayland City Council rejected the Ludington Torch's proposal to trade them our City Manager John Shay and a crony-to-be-named-later for the entire Miller family.  But they are getting closer to finding themselves a City Manager, a choice between a Fink and a cracker.  Fink will probably be seen to ask too many questions, and lose out.  Courtesy of http://www.wayland.townbroadcast.com/content/wayland-council-may-of...

[XLFD]

I can see why an investigation may have been warranted though.  The use of confiscated GPS devices, tools, and golf clubs and who knows what else by the WPD can be seen by many reasonable people as an abuse of office, and something that someone entrusted with the title of chief of police should not be condoning.  And this is apparently what happened. 

It could have betokened more impropriety, and Dan Miller's actions looks to have brought about the investigation by WPD's use of these items.  I think he should get some minor sanctions like were mentioned, but this is definitely not a career ender. 

[XLFD]

A town's reputation is not based, or at least should not be based, on any apparent corrupt acts of their public officials, but rather should be based on the townsfolk's reaction and the way they correct the problem of those corrupt acts when it becomes widely known. 

If the items were confiscated appropriately by the WPD, isn't there some protocol for a police auction, as Lisa and Larry talk of, in Wayland, Shawn?

[Lisa O'Brien]

I thought all confiscated items went to auction, if not you would think somewhere in either local or state laws there would be a procedure for the handling of these items.  

[Sweater Cows!]

What does a city manager actually do?

[XLFD]

Shrugs,

About 5-10 years, depending on the severity of the felony, LOL.

[XLFD]

The latest from Wayland:  http://www.wayland.townbroadcast.com/content/wayland-city-governmen...  Our smaller neighbor to the South is still keeping it interesting in their local scene.

[Willy]

X

It's nice to see that your not alone in your quest for ethical standards by local officials. I wonder how many of these local / regional internet news forums are informing their citizens about happenings in their towns? I would say that Ludington has one of the best thanks to XLFD. To bad there isn't some kind of organized effort to link these sites to each other so folks could get a broader perspective of what is really going on in this State and to let people know they are not alone in their fight against Governmental misdeeds.

[XLFD]

Actually, such banding together of community forums has been proposed by one of my contacts elsewhere.  I am not a coordinator myself but I think it would be a good idea.  At least four other community forums in Michigan are operating much like our watchblog, focusing primarily on local activities. 

Wayland's site is like a cross between the Ludington Torch and the newly-formed Mason County Press, featuring some of the better parts of the two of us, in my opinion.  And I like Wayland's eventual chances for weathering their current storm, as they at least have a diversity of interests among their public officials, which seem to be getting things out in the open and acting as a buffer to any corruption that may be attempted or considered.  Checks and balances.  In Ludington, the rubber stamp rules.