Ludington Spring-Along

[XLFD]

A little known fact about 2020 is that the first day of spring occurred the earliest it ever has since the late 1800s.  Astronomically speaking, not since 1896 has the spring equinox occurred as early on March 19th as it did this year, and it only made it with ten minutes to spare.   The first full day of spring saw some interesting things happen with Ludington City Hall.

City Hall Closed, but Close

Ludington City Hall has been closed to the public (except dire emergencies) over the last week since Tuesday due to the Coronavirus crisis  impelling the governor to shut down most things where people might congregate, like dine-in restaurants, libraries, and schools; but early on the Thursday when spring officially came, city hall was active with the weekly 'Talk of the Town' video clip.  The two hostesses of the show typically tell you about all of the weekend events and what's happening in and around downtown during and after hours.  

This week, they were particularly hard-pressed due to the president, governor and local health department shutting anything that involved social gatherings down, including the pervasive bar & tavern network that is a staple of the show.  Self-quarantine and social distancing are the new buzzwords that have been adopted by all public servants.

Yet these two ladies in their forties not only sat inches away from each other for a half hour chatting away about the new normal, they had the city manager drop by for a little bit to add some of his own newfound wisdom regarding COVID-19 guidelines. 

A fine example for the public to be following.  Is there any hope that the citizen's get a tax refund from all levels of government for all of the government services that they have paid for and will have been diminished or denied them over this period due to their official acts in this pseudo-crisis?

Closing Job Openings in a Not-so-Close to Open Process

During this down period, city management has been looking for replacements for a water plant supervisor and police chief to replace one who died on his job site and one who is retiring, respectively.  The first full day of spring they announced they had found suitable replacements.

Jamie Hockemeyer is currently the water plant supervisor at Mt. Pleasant with a couple years experience with the Michigan DEQ (currently the Environment, Great Lakes and Energy Dept. or EGLE) and has F-1 (Treatment) and S-1 (Distribution) certifications from EGLE.  Looks very qualified on paper.

Tim Kozal has been the police chief (public safety director) of Manistee over the last three years, and served in Kalamazoo for 22 years prior with a brief stint in Edwardsburg as their PSD for about three years.  Kozal assumed command to the north just after the Lee Milks shooting and his most notable act has been holding the press conference that exonerated the officer involved of any blame.

                                                        Mitch Foster's Long Lost Brother?!

Kozal was chosen over a dozen other candidates one of who was already on the LPD and one who was retired LPD.  The most recent personnel committee where the supposedly-nonbinding decisions were made gives even less information.  Minimally, the expected compensation and the names of the other candidates should be divulged.  

The water plant superintendent should rightly be decided on each candidate's technical merits, but it's a shame that the person who will be in charge of city law enforcement is chosen over twelve others without involving the public more in the decision or at least allowing their elected officials more of a say rather than 'rubber-stamping' the executive decision at the next city council meeting.  

Close Call:  Open Meetings Act Lawsuit Open for New Judge

On March 19th, I received two letters.  The first was from the 51st Circuit Court.  As noted in my comment from the March 16th meeting, I was disappointed that the City used their in-house attorney (Carlos Alvarado) rather than their risk management attorney, because the money for them comes from the City's general fund and nobody with authority okayed that expense.  

I didn't note then that I was also disappointed by the fact that they chose to oppose the motion for disqualification I included with my lawsuit (see ResponseBriefDQ.pdf).  Alvarado correctly noted that I had not supported my motion with an affidavit effectively swearing that the information behind my motion was true, but then developed a line of reasoning that having Judge Susan Sniegowski rule over the case would not somehow be unfair since her husband is a long-term supervisory employee (officer) for the City of Ludington.  Or for that matter, that her position as FOIA and criminal attorney for the City of Ludington just prior to her attaining the rank of judge might make her appear less than impartial.

Had I been both the boss of the judge's husband and the judge's previous employer, I think Alvarado's perception would be much different.  Yet, if that was the case, I would still have made the same motion, for it just wouldn't have been fair and proper with all those conflicts.  

Fortunately, the letter was the same as what I had seen before; on her own motion, the judge disqualified herself, noticing that her husband was an officer/employee of the defendant.  The City has the right to appeal that ruling to Judge Wadel, but I don't see it any more successful than this objection to disqualification.  Good judges take themselves off cases when there is any appearance of impropriety.  

Review Board Open to Moderation, Close to my Evaluation

On March 9th, I went before the Ludington Board of Review meeting in the council chambers I frequent and explained several reasons why the City's assessed value (AV) of my property on Pine Street was overvalued.  Like many folks, my AV jumped an immodest level this year due to 'market forces' figuring into a move of 8% upward. 

The other letter I received was from this board.  I had argued the prior week that the raise should be by no more than 3% using a variety of tactics and apparently they agreed.  The AV for my modest homestead was adjusted downward by $3000 to my evaluation for a 3% rise.  Another ruling for a modest victory by mail on the first full day of spring.  It makes you want to sing:

City leaders hire new police chief,

And water plant superintendent,

Judge rules against their new lawyer's brief,

And Board rules against large assessment.

This was the very first day in spring,

City hall closed, and we're still winning.

[Freedom Seeker]

Good job, XLFD on all counts prevailing against Carlos Alvarado trying to un-disqualify Judge Sniegowoski. Glad to hear that she had the sense to disqualify herself. Maybe there is hope for this city.

As far as the muppets ramble goes, who can make it past the first two minutes of cackles and unintelligible mumbles and talking over themselves to even watch what they present? It drags on for soooooooo long it is completely annoying. They should watch themselves sometimes to evaluate how many times they pull at their hair, flip and flop around and cackle at themselves and drag this out for almost half an hour with total self-absorbed loud clucking, annoying cackling and laughing at themselves, like everyone else thinks they are so funny.

Total waste of tax payer money to have two people doing for a half hour what used to be done in five minutes by one person on radio. Maybe next week they won't sit so close and Mitch Foster will think twice about hovering over. "Don't sit, don't sit, don't sit so close to me ... " goes an old song.  Meanwhile I'm sure the city employees are enjoying getting paid while cutting the public out of their social distance.  It's taking advantage of the public in the name of social distancing of citizens but not of their own clique inside.

[Freedom Seeker]

The show should be renamed "A Waste of Time" starring two muppets called Cackle and Mumble.

[Du Wright]

A Tale of the City.  Cookie Thief and Carpet Bagger.  Annoying and Revolting.  Self-Absorbed and Egotistical.

[Du Wright]

If the city put in a fraction of the money and effort at communicating with the public as they do with this "Talk of the Town," we might have progress at meeting citizen's needs.

Meanwhile more time is wasted with and by Downtown Development through this long drawn out amateur presentation which could be summed up in a tenth of the time. Beside that, I personally have a hard time listening to someone who has time and again been shown on this website to be questionable in her ethical dealings with no-bid, non-competitive contracts and failing to disclosure personal gain in contract awarding to her significant other.

Then we have misrepresentation of and grant manipulations ethical challenges.  Sanitizing these germs should be the real talk of the town. The other muppet seems to be learning the same in using public credit card spending public money for meals if I remember correctly. Neither one of these presenters inspire me to shop downtown.  If I were Mitch Foster I wouldn't stand so close, it might be contagious.

[Freedom Seeker]

In regard to the new Chief of police, that's not looking good choosing someone who exonerated an officer who shot a man in his own home over a code violation. No wonder he wants to get out of Manistee, but maybe he's just what Ludington wants, more coverup and corruption on the police force. It's a shame there wasn't more public input on the selection. Kozal should have started a new life in a different state after exonerating Milk's killer. Even if it were semi-justified, it's a touchy situation in a small town. Seems like Ludington needs someone who has a better record than that, especially when Manistee pretty well covered up the whole ordeal. Sad choice.

[Du Wright]

That's not exactly factual, FS.  If I recall, Milks wasn't shot over the code violation, but for bringing a gun to the door to greet the Code Enforcement officer.  The officer felt threatened and shot Milks.

[Freedom Seeker]

You're right, Du Wright.  I meant he was shot over what started as a code violation.  Whether he had the right to bring a gun to the door or not is the question in my mind.  And if he had the right to bring a gun to his door, how did things proceed?  These are the details that have not been released to the public.  And that's what I meant that doesn't look good, the whole thing seems handled poorly, then Kozal exonerates the officer who killed him?  I hope we don't have that rogue stuff going on here now.  Chief Barnett and his bathroom videos will be looking good comparatively.

[XLFD]

This Saturday is the three year anniversary of the Milks shooting, and unless I get otherwise delayed, I will be bringing to light a lot of the story hidden to the public by the City of Manistee on that anniversary.  It required a trip to the Michigan Court of Appeals to get the records I will share regarding this incident and this will be shared along with analysis.  I decided to hold an article about the incident until this day.  

Kozal inherited this killing from the previous PSD, David Bachman, and was informed that he had the job on March 21, 2017.  Bachman, like Barnett is expected to do this year, retired at the end of April.  During Kozal's tenure, I had made some requests for police incident reports and received outrageous replies from the City's FOIA Coordinator, Thad Taylor, who doubles as city mismanager.  Unless I find out otherwise, I will presume the incompetency was Taylor-made.

Kozal's part in the press conference over the Milks incident made on Friday afternoon just before an extended Fourth of July weekend was to be expected since the presser was for the prosecutor to announce that it was a justified shooting.  Kozal effectively read Officer/killer Doug Vansickle's account of the incident on his report as if it was the undisputed truth.  That's forgivable since the responding officers never bothered to record on their reports Milks' side of the incident while he was on the ground mortally wounded and talking freely.

[Willy]

thanks for the topic X. With the World paralyzed with the most serious affliction to infect humans it's nice that you survived long enough to write this topic. Good points FS and DW. I might have missed it but are City workers being paid for this sitting out the plague in order to save Ludington for future generations. I'm thinking the Chief's appointment was from a serious case of nepotism. He found his long lost son.

[XLFD]

I'm pumped up with antibiotics, antiseptics and anti-vaccinators, all while living in a bubble, but I'm still able to touch the keyboard.  Maybe all of that is why I laughed out loud more than I should have at your Frankensteinian switch of heads.  

[Freedom Seeker]

Sadly, yes, Willy, city workers are being paid taxpayer dollars with huge benefits to "work from home" during this pandemic while fewer and fewer services are provided for taxpayers.  The city should take this opportunity to reevaluate a few positions that are overstocked and overpaid anyway. Now with "nothing" (a lot less work) to do for months.  But that won't happen, they'll just keep gouging the poor taxpayers who are losing their jobs.  I can just imagine that city hall is doing a lot of take-in lunches at taxpayer expense to prop up their friends downtown.  What's new?

[Freedom Seeker]

Oh so funny, Willy! Good one!  Now we won't know if we are being managed or policed or police managed.  What's worse is that we could be police managed within a social city.