petition? not good

[Angela]

So this is going around facebook - seems the Reed family wants the corruption to stay in officer longer!!! not good

"On behalf of the Committee for a Stronger Ludington, my dad and I are circulating petitions, which would allow for an addition to the August 7th ballot. The committee’s goal is to extend the City of Ludington term limits from 3 to 5 terms. We have great momentum and positive energy in our leadership and it is important to keep the movement progressing forward! Help us get the issue on the ballot and stop by our Ludington gallery by Friday at 5pm to sign the petition in support of a Stronger Ludington! We are open from 10am-6pm. Again, deadline to sign the petitions is 5pm this Friday. Thanks, Brad Reed"

[Sweater Cows!]

Wow, that is stupid at this time. I don't like term limits, so if they want to do this i would say a person must have 1 term off from any public office before they can come back for another set of 3 terms.

[Willy]

That's all Ludington needs is to give these people more time to sit on their hands, trash the Constitution and stick it to the citizens who elected them.  That being said, I agree with When. If there is someone who is serving the public in a Constitutionally responsible way and who has done a good job for the citizens then a 1 term layoff might be a good idea.

[XLFD]

I heard such rumors.  The group should be relabeled the "Committee for a Stronger City of Ludington".  Let me hazard a guess before looking that this committee has the "SOS Badger" team members (the Hendersons, the Reeds, Venzke-Tykoski, et. al.) as its founders. 

Term limits encourage public servants to try new outlets for their talents and get fresh energy involved in politics.  I didn't used to think so, but in a mostly apathetic society, term limits for elected officials are a good idea.  Someone should circulate a counter-petition to reduce the term limits to two.

[AQUAMAN]

Right on cue X, the term limits as they exist are too long already. They used to be 3-4 years and limited to 2 terms I believe. As it stands, they have changed that to 6 year terms for 2 term limits. Too much time for corruption and deceit I say. No one needs anyone in the same council or office for 12 straight years, changing it to less means less time to have special deals and so forth. Should have fresh blood and ideas revolving all the time to simplify and for accountability.

[XLFD]

The best case against allowing Mayor Henderson a fourth term, as this petition's objective appears to want to do, is to view what he said and promised in his first election and how almost all of it hasn't come to fruition.  This article from 2001 in the LDN has his reasons for running where he said: 

a) “Debate is good,” he said, and he would encourage it. “The best decisions come from it.”

He does want to change the city council’s agenda to add public comment on each item as it comes up, rather than having public comment only at the beginning of the meeting.  [Never happened.]

b)  "I can work with Jim Miller,”  [Miller was out in a year, replaced by John Shay.]

c)  “Government is about sharing ideas, just coming and talking to the board,” he said. However, he worries that too often people are intimidated by government, even locally.  [The WSP and the Letter of Trespass for public facilities for no reason was put out on his watch.  Pretty intimidating.]

d)   It’s important for the city to offer a youth center, he said. The idea has come up in the past, but no one has brought it to fruition.  Henderson’s goal is to create a center that is staffed primarily by volunteers, with one paid director. He wants something near the school that would fit in with the current school-city recreation program. [Never worked on this.]

He has allowed the City Council to mend any rifts that existed at that time, and worked to increase the 'partnerships' between the City and businesses, but this has been to the detriment of the regular citizens.  The Reeds obviously like their partnershi.

[In Dulci Jubilo]

Want longer term limits?    Google Orville L. Hubbard......15-term mayor of Dearborn, my hometown.

http://apps.detnews.com/apps/history/index.php?id=139

[XLFD]

Thanks for the article.   He sounds like an interesting gent... and an argument against unlimited terms.

[Sweater Cows!]

 had to look the work Dago up in the urban dictionary, for others who know not what it means DAGO_DEFINED

[snide]

according to to the LDN , the "commitee" is headed by Bob Neal's (who has had the City council in his pocket for the last 3 decades)son , Barry........

[In Dulci Jubilo]

The plot thickens......

 

[AQUAMAN]

Same cronies we've witnessed running Ludington for decades already, the Reeds, Neals, and Hendersons. Let's see now, do we really even need to keep voting? Let's just start a monarchy, where everyone serves intact till they die, and replacements are appointees only. No sense in changing horses when you could get new ideas, new blood, new faces to achieve all that which has not been achieved, nor ever will be as time goes on. Just the sameo tired $Million trendy tourist projects that ignore locals' projects of infrastructure, lower taxes and fees, less ordinances, and reasonable governing. If Ludington voters are stupid enough to vote for this in August, we'll all know ALL is LOST in this town forever more. Dictatorship in any form is no friend of a free republic, these people should be ashamed of themselves for tampering with term limits that have already been tampered with in the negative sense. I say return to 6 year term limits, with elections held every 2 years, that is quite enough to have to endure.

[In Dulci Jubilo]

These are some questions I'd like answers to that might justify Brad Reed's logic that "forward momentum" needs to be maintained:

1)  What percentage of homes in Ludington proper are being occupied by those that own them?  What percentage are by renters?   What percentage of homes are owned by absentee landlords?  How has this data changed over the past eight years?

2)  How many new jobs have been created in the city within the past eight years?  How many of these jobs pay more than $10.00 an hour?   How many are full-time?  How many of them include health insurance benefits?

3)  Has crime a) Increased b) Decreased c) Remained stable during the past eight years?    How many of them are violent crimes?

4)  How many cases of suspected child abuse are reported each month.   Has there been an increase in reported cases during the past eight years.    (Although child abuse is present at all socioeconomic levels, a high level is indicative of a higher level of poverty).    Also, during the past eight years, has the percentage of students receiving free lunch increased, decreased, or stayed the same?

5)  What city services have been added over the past eight years?  Which have been removed?   

6)  How are building code and maintenance violations addressed?   How are they enforced, monitored and/or investigated?

I am sure I can think of a few more.....