Inner-View with a Vamper

[XLFD]

An Encounter at Ludington City Hall

 

As usual, it started off with a FOIA request to the City of Ludington.  Technically, a bit of research on some topics showing a pattern led to the request, but the request involved a downtown property and the associated City records.  Problem was, the property received a wide variety of grants and tax abatements and on April 25, I was told by the FOIA Coordinator John Shay that: 

"I have attached the City of Ludington’s response to your FOIA request. The records add up to an approximately 7-inch high stack of paperwork not including about two years’ worth of e-mails, as this property participated in the façade grant program, rental rehabilitation grant program and the OPRA program. It is estimated that there are about 2,000 pages of documents at $0.25 per page = $500. In addition, it is estimated it would take approximately 4 hours to separate exempt from non-exempt materials, compile and copy the materials at a cost of $23.07 per hour (including benefits) or $92.28. Thus, the total estimated cost would be $572.28, which includes your $20 credit. The City would require a 50% deposit of $286.14 before the City compiles this information.

There are two other options. First, you may come to City Hall to inspect the records in the presence of a City employee, as there are some records that contain personal financial information and Social Security numbers that would have to be redacted before you could examine them. Second, if you are looking for a specific record or document, then please let us know, as this may greatly reduce the scope and cost of the search.

Please let me know which option you would like to pursue."

 

Before the Summary Disposition hearing in March for our FOIA dispute, the other options would not have likely been offered due to the FOIAC having some issues with either me or my methods.  He has since gotten easier to work with, which has led to some goodwill between us.  That same day I replied:

"Thank you for your flexibility on this request, I half expected there to be a bundle of paperwork because of all the grant programs this property has applied for. I would like to choose the first of the two alternative options you presented, as the second might require a follow-up request, depending on the findings.

In respect of the Letter of Trespass, I would like to affirm an appointment to see these documents in a manner that would be acceptable to us both. I propose that Toni and I visit the City Hall next Monday or Tuesday afternoon by your leave to inspect these documents. This will give the City an opportunity to exempt SS#s and other data deemed private as per the FOIA, and for you to provide me with written permission. This you can send via an attachment to an E-mail including your signature, or personally mailed to me. I fear arrest under the WSP if I enter the grounds of the City Hall without such a directed, signed letter from you.

I will also be bringing a scanner, and will more than likely scan several documents. You can provide someone to overlook my activities if you wish, but note that I have no objection, in fact I would prefer, to have a camera trained on and recording my activities while inspecting the documents, so as to have a record to refute any later allegations of impropriety on my part. If you feel further security is warranted, you may use City personnel to do so, but personally I think it would be a waste of their time and your resources, unless their usual duty is just to sit around and do nothing. That was levity. Again, thanks for the options."

 

Late the next day, after he decided whether to be upset or amused by that try at levity, he replied:

"I have attached a letter permitting you to come to City Hall on the afternoon of Tuesday, May 1, 2012. What time do you plan to arrive?

Also, we will have a City employee sit with you only because if any of the documents in the façade, rental rehab or OPRA folders are even accidently re-filed in the wrong folder or re-filed out of order, it may impact the City’s ability to obtain such funding in the future. The Michigan State Housing Development Authority is very strict on its recordkeeping requirements when it audits our files.

Finally, as I mentioned in my earlier e-mail, the 7-inch stack of paperwork does not include hundreds of e-mails that go back a couple of years. Some of these e-mails contain personal information that would have to be redacted. This would require the City to review each of these e-mails and print the e-mails in order to redact the personal information. This would cost you a significant amount. Do you want to review the existing paperwork on Tuesday before deciding on whether you want to incur the cost of having the City print all of these e-mails in order to redact the personal information?"

 

In my reply and his reply to that we settled on 1 PM and I informed him that he should "withhold any E-mails unless they are already part of the existing written records to reduce time and costs. They likely won't be necessary, and if so, I should be able to narrow the scope significantly by perusal of the other material."  The next day, I received the letter described in this thread The Monster Unchained giving me regular access to the City Hall.

 

Our day came and we made it early to the Ludington City Hall so that I could take pictures of me in front of the buildings I was shut out of for so long.  I entered the lobby and talked with the clerical staff and City Manager John Shay emerged to lead me to a back conference room ceremonially.  The big surprise occurred then as the identity of my babysitter became clear.

 

I found out that the person who was going to sit with me while I went through these documents was to be the Community Development Director and Downtown Ludington Board (DDA) Director Heather (Venzke) Tykoski.  Yes, that's the same person who was so intimidated by what my FOIA requests were uncovering and the "Mob Mentality" it created when it was related on the Ludington Torch, that she applied for a PPO in February 2011.  My proven judicial nemesis, Judge Raven, denied her this privilege due mainly to the fact we never met, I had not made any aspersions to her character, and I hadn't ever contacted her to her knowledge. 

After the judge's laughter died down, she had a more sympathetic ear with her colleagues at City Hall, when they created their own ordinance to handle it, and enacted it under cover as a Workplace Safety Policy.  Under some provably false premises, she denied me entrance to two public facilities and had this broadcast via the DDA-friendly Ludington Daily News in a very negative light to me.  Such activities made me radioactive for quite some time, poisoned my reputation, and led to a variety of events that will be explained in more detail once the legal ramifications are set down properly.

 

vamper (n): coquette: a seductive woman who uses her sex appeal to exploit men.

 

Fortunately, there was a long conference table in the room and we set up the scanner on the opposite side, as the outlets were more accessible there.  As we were getting set up, John formally introduced us, asking if we had ever met, which we both admitted we had not.  From behind her two piles of papers (which was probably closer to 9 inches deep), she asked what we wanted to see first, and I figured the main address file would be best, and the rest of it chronologically. 

I couldn't help but think back to the lighthearted remark I had made in my E-mail about the person overseeing our activity, as I began to look through the first inch of documents containing general property data and the application for an OPRA tax abatement.  This stack had a lot of pertinent information, and I couldn't help but scan many of the documents as I methodically made my way through it.  The gist of its relevance will be detailed shortly, but Heather (I will use her first name from now due to our familiarity with one another) looked on and offered to help me with any questions or to help narrow my search.  She had also explained the need for some of the grant documents to be certain to be in proper order, because the MSHDA and MEDC sometimes mandated that proper order be kept in the records.  I did my best to see that was maintained.

 

The second and third stack, had some duplicative and less cogent material, and Heather repositioned herself farther down the table, on the side opposite Toni, to explain and help with things, as the contractor pages and more mundane State-required reports were being looked through, Heather asked about whether I/we had any other questions for her while we were there.  This kind of caught me by surprise, and after considering the proposition I asked about what facilitated the rescission of the Letter of Trespass.

According to her, it was her doing.  She had came to the conclusion that I had posed no threat to her, and that she was more concerned with some of the characters I had stirred up on my site, and named one repeatedly, commenting that he was a pretty scary character with a record.  No word as to why she did not create a letter of trespass for that person, but on further inquiry, she would not say what it was or where I could find that information as to this person's history.  Perhaps this is because she has already spent the last year trying to indemnify another person through false, hearsay information with no basis in fact (that would be me) and may stand to pay heavily for doing so eventually through a civil action. 

Mentally noting that she had clarified one of the record's existence  earlier, by saying she did so "so that their good name isn't damaged by wrong information (on my blog)", I inquired about any corrections to the records she would like to point out.  She pointed out that Carol Ann Foote was not an Assessor, which she isn't but the assessing records show that she has put her name behind the assessments, and acted as a Building Inspector when she okayed Heather's privacy fence that was put up in blatant disregard of the zoning laws. 

She said assessments run in two year cycles for houses, which doesn't ring true in the 60+ houses in her neighborhood  I looked at recently for Dale's sake.  She also explained in great detail the terrible condition her house was on the inside before she and fellow DLB/DDA member/current husband-city councilor Nick Tykoski purchased it over a year ago.  She volunteered that she had found out there was four other bidders on the property in a public bid, but when asked for some evidence that that was the case, she admitted she didn't have any.  Likewise when asked about the DDA signage contract with Nick, she said that he had done signage for the City before she was in the picture.  Didn't go any further in the ethical implications of what he did after joining the DDA.

But she wanted to tell me this and more, and I suggested she send me a message on the Torch, or send me E-mails with evidence to prove her assertions, because the truth would clarify the murky picture, but her willingness to do that was not there.  She refused any opportunity to do so.  She only allowed me the opportunity to give her a call when I had some question, but as any reader of the Torch should know, I don't make phone calls to anyone in City Hall.  No records are created except the fact that I called for 'x' minutes, and the receiver can make up any story they wish to peddle about what they or I said.  I prefer facts and solid records, she apparently prefers hearsay without solid records.

At least a couple of times she asked about why I would bother coming into the City Hall and look at records.  I told her the first time it was a hobby.  As we got more familiar, talked a little about our time in college, we both went to CMU and MSU, and her admitting she never liked math, my degree, she put it forth again.  After thinking about it, I brought up John Nash from the movie, A Beautiful Mind, and his ability to see patterns.  Of course, the guy turned a bit crazy as the film progressed, a fact that Heather caught on to, but I was just referring to the first part of that movie.  I have no secret mailbox... yet. 

As I finished up the two women chatted amicably about Toni continuing her education, and Heather's heartfelt urgings showed, to me, that Heather does have a knack in the niche of life she has attained.  The epithet of vamper used for the title of this piece is not totally applicable as she has her own ability to influence her own gender as well, and she has other tools to use to achieve her aims. 

 

Her ability to sell ideas and get grants can not seriously be questioned.  And her charm was not entirely lost on me-- but the patterns I noticed before making this request, continued in the massive amounts of records I looked over.  The part she and other officials have played, while playing loosely with public money, and which has been noted or hinted at in the currently 11 part Development of Authority series, will become more clearer in the near future.  Check your secret mailbox.

[Lisa O'Brien]

Well I can only guess who that scary character was. But I don't blame her for not wanting to go on record here, I think the reception she would receive would be less than hospitable. I don't believe she has gone as far as she has by using her sex appeal, I believe she worked very hard to get to her current position and she probably has a very engaging personality, most people in higher positions do have a strong work ethic and are very personable.

[XLFD]

I think she may have a bad reception here as well, that's why I offered to correct any of her concerns here if she felt I was not getting out the whole story in a private message to me or by an E-mail, which she could do in complete anonymity if she so wanted, but it would need to be verified by records, not just hearsay.  She has a master's degree in her trade and I have no doubt she is a clever person and personable, and knows that her appearance and demeanor can sell the products she offers in her various roles.  

And there is no problem with that, if she is doing it for the right reasons, and in the proper manner.