The Place Where Ludington Talks
Ludington Police Chief Barnett: Wastes Taxpayer Money, Does Not Feel the Need to Explain Why
Gee, at the last Ludington City Council meeting on Monday, even a couple of citizens berated me for "wasting taxpayer money on FOIA requests", dutifully reported at the head of the City of Ludington Daily News (COLDNews) story, which strangely left out my own true story about being charged $57 via a FOIA request to inspect 24 pages of a $1.2 million contract with the water tower painting company, which hasn't covered its part of the contract for the third year running. Whereas, I hope those two citizens look at what was said at that meeting and what was reported by the COLDNews and put two and two together, I won't hold my breath. After all, some arbitrary figure of $6500 which that citizen called the City of Ludington to defend, is a lot easier to comprehend than $1.2 million totally wasted.
In this thread, ludington-punk-d-department, I eyewitnessed an event that took place right in front of my house. I wrote about it here immediately, and made a written complaint about it and handed it to the LPD this Monday. And today I got a response from Chief Barnett:
I've always believed that a public servant covering-up relevant information is perhaps the worst form of public corruption. Chief, I didn't notice this service you offer as being anything recognized by your office's duties. Why can't the rest of the local kids use the LPD officers to ask others out to homecoming, out to the prom, or just out for sodas at the House of Flavors? What made this one boy and/or girl special-- some link to other City Officials or well-connected citizen?
How much did you receive for allowing this, if not from the boy, but from his parents, if not money, then what favor? Why are you withholding this information from the public? For when you withhold it from one person because of your unfounded prejudices, you withhold it from all. Can you have one of your officers stop a person I know who rides a bicycle and give him one of LPD's famous 'Disregarding a stop sign' tickets? He would get such a kick out of it.
For the people who pay taxes and fees that only go up, up, and up, what do you have to say, Chief Barnett? Forcing your officers to engage in horseplay on the public's dime for whatever reason you think is appropriate is wrong and a violation of your duties. Then covering up the information unethically and illegally, just like you have for the Baby Kate and Lingyan Zou investigations, compounds your extreme contempt for the public you supposedly serve. Look for work elsewhere, sir; I hear that Wayland is looking for a police chief.
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by charlemagnetism on
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hasnt barnett been fired yet? that is one lucky idjet.
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Permalink Reply by Lisa O'Brien on
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Wow - I can't believe he put that in writing. What would have happened if the officer had got a call to go to, would he of dropped the passenger off on the curb or taken him for a ride along? What would have happened if God forbid while doing this gentlemen a favor had they gotten into an accident - doesn't that open the city up to a lawsuit? Since the stage has been set can all the citizens of Ludington have the police drive them when they want to ask someone for a date - or if they tell the citizens NO doesn't this set them up for a discrimination suit. On the surface it was a nice thing to do - but in my opinion should never have been done.
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Permalink Reply by XLFD on
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Great brainstorming session, Lisa, liability, discrimination-- the car she was driving was top of the line-- and I never heard anything about homecoming discussed, although I heard little beyond the officer's words. Homecoming is not until October 14.
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That's kind of what I thought, but this was okayed from the top, so it's actually a worse scandal than even that.
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Lisa your right if not employed by city they not covered under the city Insurance. I'm a retired fire chief so I know you very right!
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Chief Mark Barnett as Chuck Woolery, making love connections. The Chief of Police becomes the Chief of Passion. Law enforcement trumped by love enforcement. Let's replace those LPD Chevy Tahoes with LPD stretch limos and do it right; what a great city.
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(Kaye Holman impression) I have no idea, $6500? I deeply resent it. I DEEPLY resent it!
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lol
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This went out to City Manager John Shay this afternoon; Mayor John Henderson and Mark Barnett were CC'ed
Re: Chief Barnett: Horseplay, Abusing Police Power, Wasting Taxpayer Money, Withholding Relevant Information
John,
The Ludington Chief of Police sent me the above letter. It was in response to a complaint I filed regarding a LPD traffic stop I witnessed happening in front of my house last week http://ludingtoncitizen.ning.com/forum/topics/ludington-police-chie...
Apparently, the Chief thinks that he runs a dating service for the well-off in our community. As you may know by now, I don't like our public Officials wasting resources, abusing their power, and withholding information they are required to disclose by law. They can also save their horseplay for when they are off-duty.
Chief Barnett obviously thinks this incident was pretty harmless. My nine year old, and many other neighborhood kids, cross the street in this area, play near the street. What if the young woman in the sporty black car in this incident decided to elude the police and ran over one of them? Pretty harmless then, huh? Several other scenarios come to mind that also could have happened, and made the City taxpayers legally liable.
Chief Barnett owes the City of Ludington a public apology for allowing this to happen under his supervision, the LPD officer needs to be reprimanded for allowing himself to be part of such folly, and termination of Chief Barnett for repeated conduct that unbecomes a police officer should be highly considered.
Also could you respond to the use of ORVs on our city streets and our beach under the Chief's direction, when state law says that's forbidden (Vehicle Code and Natural Resources Act), and his inability to move a marina camera so that it is not engaged in felonious violation of surveillance laws by being pointed only at marina slips, and not any recognizable security concern? I will pass this along to other agencies if these things are not addressed appropriately before this weekend.
Tom Rotta
The Ludington Torch
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Permalink Reply by Willy on
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My understanding is that civilians are not covered by insurance while in police cars unless the civilians are in custody. There are occasions when they had been permitted such as in ride alongs but I think those have also been banned from approved activities by insurance carriers. I could be wrong. If something would have gone wrong I'm sure another lawsuit would have been the result. I also agree that it is quite surprising that the Chief put this incident in writing.
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