Scottville City Clowncil Meeting, November 1st, 2021: Transparency Audit

[XLFD]

It has been painful to myself, as a longtime Scottville resident for the first three decades of my life, to see those running the city corporate turn to a path of unaccountable corruption.  This has been a recent trend following the retirement of Bruce Krieger as mayor and the ascension of a mayor that has no problem with overriding the charter and the Open Meetings Act.  

If this was just a matter of streamlining processes in order to work better for their constituents, it might be reconcilable.  Yet the trend in city policy over the last year has incontrovertibly worked against the folks of Scottville and for the coffers of city hall.  This meeting would affirm that.

One might suspect that Clowncilors Alway, Claveau, and Yeomans ate a little too much of their Halloween treats the prior night and missed the meeting, this left only four at this meeting, just making a quorum.  

The city manager reported that they will be filling Mr. Alway's Planning Commission spot that he retired from and introduced the topic of altering the city's truck routes which have remained static since 1980 while the city's dynamic has changed.  The diagram below shows the proposed changes:

Police Chief Matt Murphy also addressed his thoughts on the truck route situation, gave an update on this year's Shop with a Cop program, and reminded the commission and citizens that the street-side parking ordinance went into effect, seasonally disallowing parking on the streets.  The only other report was from the ordinance committee who were reviewing a cannabis ordinance which will travel to the planning committee, another standing committee and then finally the commission.  Look for this to come before the clowncil in early 2022.

The annual audit by Eric Van Dop of Brickley Delong was presented to the council with some technical difficulties with the audiovisual equipment.  They were significantly up in general fund and water revenue, and down in sewer revenue.  It was revealed that pension liability was up $82,000 to $870,000.   The auditor reminded officials in one of his two letters that they needed to make sure they have at least two sets of eyes on the ledger, inferring that officials may not be following that process.  

In the other two items of new business, they discussed why many city truck routes were eliminated and appointed former Mayor Bruce Krieger to be on the Board of Review, the only applicant.  Even though there were several in attendance at the meeting, I was the only one to speak, commenting on some of the usual topics, and how they affected most Scottville citizens.

XLFD:  "I apologize for missing the last meeting, I was hung up at a local school board meeting and couldn't be in two places at once.

I'm curious as to why city officials are actively discouraging public participation at meetings rather than encouraging them to become engaged in their community's future.  The city clowncil has shown that they would rather violate the city charter than have their citizens address them before the meeting conducts its business.  When your city officials totally ignore their own city charter on this minor point, it makes your citizens believe that you would violate other charter provisions on a whim without any remorse.  It certainly makes other outsiders like myself believe that.

Then there's these agenda packets.  After I made a FOIA request early this year for a subscription to receive all of the written materials the city commission receives for these meetings on the topics covered, the City decided to share these agenda packets on their website, which was an alternative I offered.  This was a positive response; there is no reason why the citizens of Scottville should be deprived of these public records so they can figure out why the commission is doing what they're doing.  

Yet, it has become evident over the last few meetings that the public isn't getting all of the written materials the clowncil is receiving.  In this meeting, for example, the packet has an agenda, the last meeting's minutes and invoices.  But there were three items of new business reviewed by the clowncil, including an annual audit report-- and the commission has looked over their own packets during the discussion of each of these.  Citizens suspicious of the actions of their government, like myself, look at such omissions with well deserved distrust.  

So continue patting yourselves on the back for getting away with fraud, embezzlement, destroying public records and the like, while passing resolutions and ordinances that look after your bottom line without a hint of concern for the electors in this town. (END comment)."

And though they would shortly adjourn the meeting without any offer of rebuttal, City Manager Newkirk did send me an e-mail with what amounted to the extra packet.pdf showing the truck route diagram above and the mayor's committee assignments.  He also related that the audit will be put up on the city website, it was only received that night fresh off the presses.  Maybe there is some hope for redemption.

[AQUAMAN]

While I was never a Scottville resident, I certainly have been a long-time admirer, and fan of this town. So many great things and great people there, and fond memories of many many proud Clown Band patriotic songs. Fishing and camping were great too, tractor pulls, fairs and oxburgers, nearby Custer/Walhalla, all in all, fantastic area, and close by. Very sad to hear about these recent changes too. The good citizenry of Scottville surely deserves and needs better for a future that stands proud and resilient for future generations to come.

[Willy]

Thanks for the report X. They must cringe every time they see you at the meetings.

Aquaman, i agree with every thng you mentioned. I've always had a soft spot for Scottville. Love those riding lawn mower pulls. 

[XLFD]

Scottville was great, I can verify that since I grew up in the town when it was.  A lot of challenges entered the picture to sap its viability:  the overpass, the emergence of the big box stores and chain restaurants in the corridor, a drop in community cohesion, etc.

Scottville has lost most of what remained of its soul over the last two years because they have let a bunch of outsiders come in and ruin the place.  As I've noted in the past, they brought in mercenaries to take over their city hall, every single one of the grifters in leadership positions (Magaluk, Murphy, Lester, Shafer, Alvarado) swindled the citizens out of money through unlawful means and ignored their city charter shamelessly.

What do the elected leaders do when they find out that happens?  Completely ignore it, and go after the outsider who lets them know of their malfeasance, and any other citizen who might want to talk at the beginning of a commission meeting.  I will not let up on these clowns until they formally recognize what the charter says and quit disrespecting the people that pay them and put them into office.  If their leadership fails to listen to the people before they act and set policy, going totally disconnected as they have this year, Scottville is doomed.