Ludington City Council Meeting, March 16, 2020: March Madness Crown

[XLFD]

The hysteria generated by the Coronavirus (COVID-19) precautions and preparations over the last week in this country assuredly will be looked at with some amusement by ourselves in a year's time (much like the widespread Y2K panic twenty years ago), but for now it must be endured by the saner elements of our society. 

March madness infected our own local politics earlier than usual in regards to this meeting, as an unclear alert from city hall on Friday, March 13th, had several in belief that city hall meetings were closed for three weeks, just like the schools were earlier in the week.  

It turned out that the meeting was to be held, with City Manager Mitch Foster clarifying that the meeting was still on, pending whether the local health department and/or the governor would allow it.  The governor would close a lot of businesses and non-essential government agencies early on March 16th, but the show would go on at 6:30 PM.

Foster would indicate that the state and the municipal league are working to get some special rules for open meetings during mass pandemic pandemoniums in the future, but there were some special preparations for the night that made the congregation feel more like a leper convention.

As one entered the lobby, they alerted you to be using the provided hand sanitizer which was on a small table before the council chambers along with a copy of the night's agenda.  I have always wondered about the efficacy of a communal hand sanitizer against a supervirus, after all, you touch the same lever on the bottle that everybody else touched before you, so unless you diligently scrub the pressing finger, you may still have somebody else's bad microbes on you.  I used it nevertheless because I was expected to.

The council chambers, had less chairs than normal, but they were spread out so that there was at least six feet between chairs.  It made one feel special since the city officials on their dais were separated only by about four feet from one another and not as well protected by social distancing as the audience was.  

The invocation was led by Chief Barnett strongly aimed at the coronavirus issue, and after the pledge, I was the only one to get up for public comment, and didn't mention anything about the hidden microscopic menace to society, but the unseen threats on the public's right to know.

March 16th, 2020 Ludington City Council meeting from Mason County District Library on Vimeo.

XLFD:  (2:20 in) "Today, March 16th, is National Freedom of Information Day which also recognizes the birthday of President James Madison. Madison was instrumental in the drafting of the United States Constitution, and the key champion and author of the United States Bill of Rights. Madison held individual rights, government accountability, and freedom of information in high importance.

At the very beginning of Sunshine week, I wish the City of Ludington would stress the importance of these issues. The City invests around a couple hundred thousand dollars in a risk management pool each year, and one of the benefits they get from that expense is legal representation when they and their officers get hit with civil lawsuits. It appears that they have waived using the risk management attorneys (MMRMA) to defend against my Open Meetings Act lawsuit and is instead using Carlos Alvarado's law firm at additional expense to the taxpayer, as signified in that firm's notice of appearance.

The City and Alvarado has decided this in total conflict with the agreement entered into between them earlier this year. The agreement states: "Work falling outside of the scope of "general matters" shall only be initiated in direct consultation with and after explicit authorization from the City". Section 3.1 of the charter says: "The Council... shall have power and authority... to exercise all powers conferred upon or possessed by the City."

As acting as a defense attorney for litigation is outside the scope of 'general matters', as defined, Alvarado needs explicit authorization of the City, which can only be lawfully given by this city council. The city council has not met since being served by this litigation on March 2nd, they did not give explicit authorization to Alvarado at that meeting. The city council can only act during open meetings of that body, so there could not have been any legitimate authorization by the city to retain their services.

I will be amending my complaint to show one more count of the City of Ludington violating the Open Meetings Act by unlawfully authorizing Carlos Alvarado's law firm to represent them and three council members without explicitly making a decision to do so at an open meeting. Thank you. [END]

For some unexplained reason, neither of the two new city attorneys were present at the meeting, so the city manager would address this point later in the meeting and afterwards (at a distance).  It appears that they had heard nothing back until this very day from the MMRMA attorneys after sending them my lawsuit about two weeks ago, and so they had Carlos step in to go against a reasonable motion I had made to disqualify the circuit court judge, the same judge who has removed/disqualified herself on her own motion in three other court actions between me and the City (more on this later).  

I do not know whether Foster was winging the excuse for lacking a good reason to assign the case to Alvarado at least temporarily, but I will hope that I can survive going up against three prestigious law firms this time around, with a whole lot of resources I could only dream about.  It looks as if they are already wanting to get another unfair advantage with a judge who has an existing appearance of impropriety that you could drive a truck through. 

The mayor wanted to change the agenda by moving the three action items in the committee sections into the consent agenda, so that the business could be moved forward expediently out of concerns of COVID-19.  After Councilor Lenius moved to do this, Councilor Serna expressed her intent on discussing one of the items.  After a little more discussion, Lenius withdrew his motion and that was approved.  

The three orders of committee generated business were:

 

1) replacement work on the C-dock at the city marina to Hallack Contracting for $432,000.  Passed unanimously.

2) listing the city-inherited property at 404 E Melendy with Bob Budreau.  The thin lot was discussed a bit, Serna raising the question of whether it was appropriate to not consider other realtors, Foster saying Budreau had been reliable with other city properties and wanted to fairly allow it to be put on the market rather than sell it and have the deal look shady.  Passed 6-1, Serna opposed.

3) reviewing the OPRA certificate of 327 S James.  Since I brought this up, the City Assessor found out that the OPRA terms were not in compliance.  Foster was going to bring this back up in June for official council review and possible rejection of the certificate.  

The council packet had the 2019 annual reports from Utility Maintenance, Fire, Cartier Park, and Wastewater Treatment Departments though none of the heads of those departments were present, and the reports were just acknowledged at the meeting.

Foster's report included displaying an engineering award on behalf of the city's water treatment plant upgrades, the chaotic attorney situation for the OMA lawsuit (which should get interesting), and prospective COVID-19 strategy for future meetings and city business.  All committee meetings were cancelled until further notice, the only two essential groups to meet would be the council and planning commission.  

Before the council approved the August event of "Suds on the Shore" unanimously, as their last official decision, Councilor Kathy Winczweski decided to add her own take on the coronavirus:

(29:20) "If you ever watched bacteria grow in a Petri dish, probably one of the most fascinating things that I did in college was watch that grow. It's the same thing with this virus we're seeing; so right now we're not impacted really big by it. Nobody in Mason County has, as we know, got it, but we don't have any testing to verify that, but those things grow exponentially.

If you've seen the numbers... just last night they put out if one person becomes infected, within 21 days they could then spread to 14 million people, just by that exponential. This is real important, this is serious, and I'm really glad that the City is taking precautions to handle that and the state of Michigan is taking really strong precautions too."

Her last numbers are a lot larger than the growth of cases of the coronavirus, which was first detected in mid-December in heavily populated districts of China.  Forty days later, the number of cases in China was reported to be 547. 

Beyond this exaggeration, she confused her microorganisms, assigning bacteria behavior to virus behavior.  Viruses are not considered living organisms, they are not cellular, they do not replicate unless they are amidst a host organism.  You put a virus in a Petri dish by itself and all it will do is sit there, it can't even technically die because it was never living in the first place.  It might degrade itself to a non-threatening presence, or lurk there ready to latch onto a living host and replicate itself. Sounds almost like a city attorney.  Councilor Winczewski is a former science teacher for Ludington schools with a knack for eviscerating science to push her own agenda.

Winczewski was not corrected on this statement, but near the meeting's end (36:30 in), Mayor Steve Miller gave one of those long ambiguous speeches (that he is well known for ) over what could have been understandably related in a sentence or two on point.  In my understanding, he seemed to be pointing a warning finger towards the Fifth Ward and expressing his desire that she would not contradict the coronavirus hysterics of the City by using her acquired knowledge as a nurse to set the record straight.

Clerk Luskin would announce the availability of petitions for various city elective offices until April 21st, when they need to be turned in with the requisite number of signatures.  The council adjourned shortly thereafter.

[AQUAMAN]

Very well said again Willy, but W's problem is much more: like narcissism, arrogance, and just plain foolishness beyond belief. Thanks again for your pertinent input.

[Willy]

And thanks for your insight Aquaman. Her problem is that she wants to be important. She isn't doing a very good job of representing her voters especially when she uses her position to spread misinformation.

[XLFD]

You two are both right on your three-count assessments of Councilor Moonbeam, but I think there are some positive traits you overlook because the faults get in the way of appreciating them or because they accompany her progressive politics and almost always run counter to common sense or the will of the people. 

She is civic-minded, compassionate, and optimistic.  

[Willy]

I can appreciate your point of view on this X however, there are plenty of people who are civic minded, compassionate and optimistic but they are not in the position of authority. As an elected official, She needs to make sure that information she gives out, especially at a public meeting is factual and correct. Anything less is totally irresponsible.