Ludington City Manager John Shay: City to Seek Competitive Bids for a Foregone Conclusion

[XLFD]

The meeting of the Ludington City Council on the third of December had the City Council vote unanimously on the 2013 Budget and the 2013 City Manager contract.  Both were regarded very highly by a couple of the councilors and Mayor Henderson in their commentary at the meeting.  If you missed that meeting, join in the votes for those two blessed events starting at around the 13:10 mark of the video below.

No real discussions on the contents of the budgets or the manager took place.  As noted in this prior thread:  watertankgate-no-bids-no-bargain-nobody-s-business, the City Manager had noted in his budget apprisal:

and later on explained further:

Showing that 1) the City had talked over what needed to be done at the Brye water tank with the Utility Service Company and got an estimate and 2) that the multi-year estimate had already been figured into the budget for an agreement entered into with this specific company.

This company has already had taken three years to paint the City's two water towers, tasks that should have been done in the first year if they followed their contract they signed with the City of Ludington.  Then they painted the Danaher Tower in the middle of autumn during temperatures at the freezing level with paint which specifically requires application and curing at the 50 degree mark.  For this they will receive $1.2 million, without really having to do anything more of significance except come to town once every other year to informally inspect the water tower.

But the large price tag and lack of attention to the details of their contract or the specifications of the paint they apply, are mere details to John Shay and his band of councilors intent on saddling debt onto the backs of Ludington citizens by entering into more contracts with these same painters and once again without any attention to the City's policy of seeking sealed competitive bids  on projects like this.  As this FOIA response I received from the City Manager today illustrates:

The attachment says that no records exist (for any bid requests):  Supplement Response Recd 12-12-12.  So here's what we have at the minimum:  no requests to bid sent out by the City, and yet the Utility Services Company looked at the Brye tank and gave them what they would do it for, and the City accepts that as the baseline. 

Doesn't this sound a lot like what they did with the original "25K Golden Deal", the downtown way-faring signs contract, (actually there was never any contract) the City entered into with City Councilor Nick Tykoski, under the watchful eye of Shay and Mrs. Tykoski when he was a city official on the Sign subcommittee of the Downtown Ludington Board?  Over $15,000 of contracted work was done on the signs, until they decided to send out for bids, after receiving Councilor Nick's bids a week prior, and giving the other companies three days to do so.

But these are more dramatic.  There will be almost $1.5 million of City funds-- there is no county, state, or federal revenue, or oversight here-- put into painting two water towers and one water tank well before they are needed to be painted, well above the price they could have been painted in these economically depressed times.  Money that could have went a great way into improving Ludington's crumbling infrastructure and needs if spent wisely.

But why totally ignore protocol and do no-bid contracts at largely inflated rates with Georgia contractors?  It sure does make it harder to track the money or the accountability of the people that John Shay is dealing with.  However, maybe we should sleep easier knowing that our mayor and city councilors unanimously approve of such procedures and the man who implements them.

Or maybe we should hold them to account for once.  After all, they are our elected officials, aren't they?

[Willy]

X. Tell me if I'm wrong regarding this assumption. I'm assuming that City Councilors do not have to file FOIA's in order to get information regarding City business since their job is dealing with and managing the City's interests. Since there is a Councilor that represents you on the Council why is it not possible for that Councilor to obtain the information you seek without the need for a FOIA. Isn't informing the citizens one of the duties of Council members? Why is it necessary to go thru Shay to obtain information about City business? If your Councilor refuses then they are not doing the job they were elected to do and could be subject to recall in my opinion. I would think that would fall under the heading of "failure to perform the duties of that office". Putting a price tag on every piece of information the City hands out to it's citizens is in my opinion extortion.

[XLFD]

The councilors should be able to get this information free of charge if they have a compelling public interest to do so.  Councilor Johnson is my personal representative, whereas Councilor Holman is an at-large councilor, that could easily facilitate my needs for this info, if they decided to do so. 

But as stated during my campaign against Kaye Holman, she has yet to respond to any of mine or Toni's respectful communications, probably over 40 by now, and 30 back then.  Les Johnson has been equally non-responsive, but probably has about half of the communications for Kaye.  Unfortunately, the City Council loves to keep their information away from public scrutiny, as the rash of closed sessions and the OMA lawsuit, and FOIA lawsuits illustrate all too well, without their very public backing of the most secretive man in the City.

An interesting ability councilors have  is to conduct investigations.  Something I'm sure I would have done, if I had won the election.  But there is not one councilor in power right now who would actually investigate Shay's, Henderson's, or their fellow councilor's actions if one were so warranted.  That's a shame, given that this City Hall has so much to be investigated within its walls that one or two indigent citizens cannot conduct fully from without.

[Progressive Tiger]

XLFD, I don't guess you can count on anyone in city government wanting to be your Secret Santa again this year, huh?

[XLFD]

I don't think I'm getting anything this year, because last year they put some coal in my stocking and I wound up dividing it into fourths and used it thusly:

1)  Sold some to the SS Badger for profit

2)  Wrote some bad stuff about the mayor's heritage on the sidewalks around town in black.

3)  Burnt some in a brazier to keep warm and stave off frostbite.

4)  Sent some to Shay with a booklet on how to barbecue safely (he had to call the LFD for such a miscue a few years back)