A Refutation for City Hall, 8-27-2012

[XLFD]

At tonight's City Council meeting, I was pretty much forced to set some of the record straight after the fallacies and outright fibs perpetrated by my City's officials at the last meeting.  Unfortunately, this cut into all of my five minutes I had and more.  Ray Franz was at the meeting, and so I was treated first to a couple of citizens making their decisions on FOIA from what they read and what they are told, before I got to the podium. 

Amusingly, the first one was one who had shown up in the first meeting in July to protest about fireworks, and hadn't heard anything back from the City about it.  Sorry, hon, they are too busy handling one man's FOIA requests-- as if.

My name is Tom Rotta, my palace is at 137 E Dowland Street.

I will start with some clarifications and wait before I get to some new business to be considered. The police chief mentioned that I was "someone who is hiding under the bleachers lobbing rocks on the parade" at the last meeting, but I respectfully disagree. What I saw at the last meeting was a parade of city officials who are hiding behind their own bleachers lobbing rocks on a concerned citizen who cares deeply about the directions his local government is going in.

The public lynching began with Councilor Kaye Holman. She made some comments about FOIA, and had a big stack of papers she said were public records that I had requested; in her presentation, she said the words "I don't know" "I don't care" or "I have no idea" on eight different occasions about topics of relevance. Among the things she didn't know or fudged were 1) the minimum wage, 2) the amount of time the City Attorneys work for the City, and wasn't even close with her guess, 3) the amount that the City attorneys get paid annually and by the hour, 4) the amount of time per week City workers work on my FOIA requests making copies I never ask for, 5) the total amount of hours they have worked saying 150 at one time and a thousand another time, 6) the amount of FOIA requests I make, 7) the average hourly rate at City hall 8) the amount of money I actually, legitimately owe the City of Ludington for FOIA requests.

I owe the City absolutely nothing for FOIA requests I have made-- I pay my debts; it's not the arbitrary $6500 figure they put out, and I encourage the City of Ludington FOIA Coordinator John Shay to itemize this $6500 he says I owe and put it in the newspaper-- or just quit spreading misinformation around. You can easily get sued for such baseless accusations when your spokeswoman doesn't know, doesn't care, or doesn't have any idea of what she is talking about. And, of course, her ignorance of the 8 easily researchable items I mentioned is easily cured if you look at the public records. Shockingly, Ms. Holman was the chairman of the City's Finance Committee over the prior four years. Chairman of the Finance Committee!

The stoning continued with Police Chief Barnett (who along with the Mayor) tried to make the claim that the beach patrol are a better investment in beach safety than lifeguards. If you believe that 3 certified rescue-trained lifeguards on patrol down at the water's front provide less safety than 1 (or 2 on the weekends) policemen illegally riding an ORV on the beach and throughout the town whose main duty is enforcing beach rules and secondarily as assisting in recovery operations, then you gotta meet my friend Santa Claus. We are paying more for them than we ever paid for the lifeguard program, and this last weekend I saw them both on their ORV driving on the beach and up Rath Avenue. Is this Silver Lake?  Who was watching the turbulent beach when they were away on Rath Avenue?  The Easter Bunny?

The Mayor rationalized the City's actions by saying they dropped the lifeguard program due to a value decision during a budget crisis; I think its important to know that they budgeted over $1.2 million dollars of general fund money at that same time to paint the water towers when they didn't need to be repainted. Guess what, one of those water towers is still unpainted and won't be repainted until at least next year, three years after the contract says they would be painted! And how do I know this? A FOIA request I made and got to inspect 24 pages of non-exempt records that I paid $57 for the right to see. $57 to see 24 pages of a contract!?  This is a fact, and I never ever got the rationale for what legal fees that $57 was for. Ladies and gentleman, that is public extortion, and perhaps it is even more sinister in that it was perpetrated on an indigent person.

 

But I wasn't the only one being pelted with rocks. You City Officials diminish the selfless act that Anthony Goldsmith did when he tried to rescue others and paid the ultimate price, by failing to recognize that fact and that it was a neglectful City policy which doomed him.

Here's where Mayor Henderson said my five minutes were up, I reminded him that Jon Cade in July of 2011 had 7 minutes and 24 seconds to complete his thoughts (which coincidentally was for the City's Cat Feeding Prohibition, promoted by John Henderson).  Even with our State Representative Ray Franz in attendance, he declined to let me finish.  Here's the finish for the Ludington Torch crowd:

 

...You City officials diminish Lingyan Zou by saying her action was a suicide when the much more likely probability is she fell off the unsafe transient docks by accident one cool, dark night. Chief Barnett compounds that slight when he fails to promptly make the investigation records public, as required to do so by law, and Mayor Henderson compounds that slight by saying "I fished them out" when he refers to the act of recovering their bodies from the water. These are not fish, these are people that died due to the value decisions made by you, John,  and your friends who want to paint water towers at least ten years before you need to at a premium price.

I care deeply about this City and its people, served on the Ludington Fire Department for eight years serving the people and my department faithfully until the politics and unethical acts by City officials over issues not involving the fire department made me resign. I joined to fight fires, but could not fight corruption in City Government as a member. As such, I no longer represent what it has become over the last few years.

 

But since I didn't get the opportunity to say the last couple paragraphs courtesy of Mayor Henderson, I got Jerry once again coming up after me and telling the crowd that I am no longer on the LFD and I do not represent their views. 

Mayor Henderson and Councilor Tykoski, both members of the LFD, and frequent bad boys of nepotism, violators of standards of conduct for public officers, and breakers of the rules as regarding public officers and their contracts with public bodies, are the poster boys of today's Ludington Fire Department.  This isn't the same LFD I joined in January 2001.

[XLFD]

Last night I had a hard time getting to sleep.  This wasn't like me; I tried to remember back to the last time I couldn't sleep at night, and I had to go back to 2008, shortly after I was called into a meeting with my fire officer superiors and told I had did three things I hadn't done, with the witness being someone who wasn't even at the scene (Chief Mark Barnett, who should know better about the laws of confidentiality).  I was told they had considered the prospect of termination based solely on Mark Barnett's account.  I watched a trial and prosecution at the firehouse effectively take place in front of me based solely on some fallacies and was told I would get a written reprimand just for asserting my right to deny responsibility for 'disregarding a stop sign' on my bike. 

A clear intersection, a stop sign erected well past where it must be placed, and I later found out, with no traffic control order behind it, and no Michigan law (or set of laws) that makes such stopping (on bicycle) mandatory at a stop sign, unless for yielding to foot and motor traffic.

Since I had heard nothing back from the court at that point, and didn't get anything until a couple weeks after this tribunal saying that my request for a hearing because I denied responsibility for the bicycle traffic ticket I received, I know the 79th District Court also acted against its own canons in divulging the fact I denied responsibility to Barnett before it should have. 

The violations of ethics first by the court, then by Chief Barnett, and lastly by my own Chief and other officers I trusted with protecting my safety at fire scenes, made me stay up long nights following this terrible inquisition I experienced (which was much worse even than the 160 minutes I was with City Attorney Saylor getting needlessly grilled in a deposition for the City's FOIA countersuit-- allowed by one of the City Attorney's father Judge Cooper).

The reason this rose to the forefront of my memory is that I spent about 10 minutes talking with my former Chief Jerry Funk last night, after the City Council went into closed session.  Among other things, I asked him point blank about what I supposedly did at the traffic stop that he objected to, he could not answer except with some general observation about creating problems.  I asked him why he accepted the word of Police Chief Barnett, who wasn't even at the scene and broke the laws of confidentiality in providing Jerry Funk with info (before it should be disclosed) that was false, over mine, which was the truth.  I was there.  Gosh, I wish the rinky-dink LPD had dash-cam footage.

But they don't, so their one officer can embellish his story, the court can unethically disclose my denial to the LPD chief weeks before they get back in touch with me, and Chief Barnett can embellish that while disregarding his own rules of confidentiality. 

And that is what kept me up for several nights, before I resigned from the Ludington Fire Department.  Chief Funk, if you're reading this, it doesn't matter how many times you said "we don't want to lose you as a fireman" on that night I was needlessly put on the spot in front of many whom I considered my peers, it matters that you and all the other fire officers (except one) turned their back on what was ethical and right that night.  You were engaging in conduct unbecoming of a fireman.

[XLFD]

Note, I have embedded the video from the CC meeting in the thread head as it was made available. 

The COLDNews has yet to print out the itemized list of the $6500 that Kaye Holman says I owe the City of Ludington for FOIA requests.  When/If they do, you'll see it here on the Ludington Torch. 

But they won't, because its just propaganda; and they know it, and sadly, the COLDNews knows it.  Every citizen should say:  Put up or shut up.

[Willy]

Very good article X. The first 2 speakers do not care about the truth, they only listen to the lies told by the morons they foolishly helped put into office. And the fire chief continues to show how ignorant he is. As far as Holman, what can you say about a silly old woman who can't see the forest for the trees. Also what kind of explanation was Shay giving for denial? It's amazing that the Council meets every 2 weeks for about 1/2 hour each time and they have very few speakers . Why can't X be given more time to state his cases especially since the Council is openly and publicly attacking him? If these meetings aren't a wake up call to the public I don't know what is. 

[XLFD]

Thanks, Willie, but quite a bit less than 1% of the population goes to these meetings.  A good attendance by the public to these meetings is a dozen people, let's say you average 8 people that are not City officials or media, that is less than 1/10 of 1% of our population.  A considerable amount more read the paper, and they're lined right up with the City council.

It's understandable their attendance is so low given the contempt for the people these guys have.  I remember a few LFD members back in 2008 who go to the meetings chatting before and after LFD meetings about a lady from Evergreen Trail Apartments who was speaking out about locating the new fire station across from her home.   Very disrespectful talk. 

And there was no great love of Councilor Engblade, who retired with his 'rubber stamp to the city' last year.

[Willy]

Just how stupid does the Council, Mayor and Shay think people are? They present a stack of paper which they claim are copies of FOIA information requested by a citizen they represent and claim how the cost of gathering that  information has become a burden to the City and the taxpayers. They spew illogical, inaccurate rhetoric claiming how giving out this public information is somehow a burden on them and taxpayers and how insensitive it is of the requester to be asking for that information. Then when the requester  asks to see the stack of paperwork that was used to publicly attack him so that their story could be verified they again refuse his  FOIA request to review the stack of papers to verify if what they are claiming is in fact the truth. This again is another example of how  the CIty uses the FOIA to cover up their lack of integrity, honesty and possible corrupt behavior that they have been exhibiting. And what is so astounding is the fact that the local media LDN prints these falsehoods and spreads the lies for the City. The citizens only get to hear the lies ad nauseam  from the CIty which is reinforced by LDN but when the person who is being targeted wishes to speak and defend himself at a public forum he is denied an oppurtunity to fully explain his side because they limit his response time. What we have here is a public assassination of a taxpaying citizen who's only  crime is to find the truth buried in the disgusting bowels of Ludingtons City Hall. The Council, Mayor and Shay aren't fooling anyone who is actually looking at all of the information regarding this charade. What is happening in Ludington is a microcosm of what is happening nationally.

[XLFD]

Congratulations, Willy, you are extraordinarily perceptive. 

I just used another chess analogy this morning in another post, so I will keep in theme and say that the City of Ludington is getting closer and closer to a zugzwang position.  Or are they already there?

[Willy]

X, I appreciate the comment and that's what my mother in law said about me or did she say extraordinarily deceptive. I''m not sure but as I was filling the bucket of cement with her feet she uttered something along those lines.