Cabin Fever Reefer Madness in Scottville

[XLFD]

On February 3rd, 2020, Scottville Mayor Bruce Krieger failed to allow a member of the public the right to speak at a meeting during the public comment period when it was telegraphed what it would be a commentary critical of the city's vision.  Civil libertarians throughout the county collectively gasped when they heard this news, but for the rest of the Scottville city officials that night it meant nothing.

The lesson to be learned that night is not that the mayor seems to have made a ruling that violated the speaker's (Linda Holden) rights; that could have easily been a mistake in judgment by Mayor Krieger.   The bigger lesson is that the rest of the city commission, the city attorney, and the city manager all remained quiet and implicitly supportive of their mayor rather than the rule of law and the rights of Mrs. Holden.  In such a situation, the lack of speaking up speaks volumes.

Had I spoke up the night of the next meeting, held yesterday (2-17-2020) at 5:30 PM, I would have definitely laid into the character of every one of those silent officials and their misguided support of a bad action, but I had resolved myself to politely observe as a guest in their city-- and I wasn't about to fill out a registration card to have the privilege to speak.  

For between the two meetings, somebody in the City of Scottville had the bright idea of making future speakers at public comment periods register beforehand.  Back in 1938, this guy named Hitler required Jews to register their wealth with his government, I recall that didn't work out that great for the Jews.  This was first brought to the attention of local greenleaf activist Jake Muzzo in a letter from the Scottville manager 

The city manager apparently wanted Muzzo's grass-root group, Mason County Marijuana Advocates (MCMA) to register as part of a new policy that was not part of the City's past.  It included the form:

Muzzo displayed that the morning before the meeting on the 17th, I looked through the Scottville city code and multiple minutes finding nothing about such a policy, and by the end of the morning I had made a FOIA request to that same city manager for "The minutes of the Scottville Commission meeting where the rules/regulations were adopted to require registration by members of the public beforehand in order to speak at a meeting. Include those codified rules in the response."

I added:  "If the rules/regulation below do not exist, please do not try to enforce them at tonight's meeting."  I can only presume she got the message both figuratively and literally as the first order of business that came up at the late afternoon meeting was to implement a speaker registration policy.  They voted on this issue before public comment, which is quite odd, since the only vote they normally take before the comment period is to approve the meeting's agenda and the minutes of the last meeting.  

The city commission, with all members present (though the city attorney was absent), voted to approve the policy.  During this period, I had expected the mayor and/or others might have apologized for trampling on Linda Holden's rights at the previous meeting.  Instead they went the totally opposite way in order to suppress public comments in the future.  When a city commission feels unanimously that they are above the law, above respecting your rights, above being contrite, and above admitting a real big mistake, they actually show themselves to be the lowest form of sentient life.   

I have noticed my reluctance to speak at Scottville Commission meetings since I do not live in the City, the three speakers from the public that afternoon lived in Hamlin, Pere Marquette, and Victory Townships respectively.  When I'm at Ludington meetings and somebody from out of the city makes comments on city policy, I naturally am suspicious of why they care about the policy in the first place; I presume city commissioners have the same bias to some extent.

Thus, when the aforementioned Jacob Muzzo (the mayor mangled his last name as "Muzz") spoke pro-dispensary and pro-city-growth, was followed up by Deb Del Zoppo reminding the commission about the city's open storefronts, reliance on the Holden family, and the restorative effect that adding dispensaries has done with other communities, the commissioners didn't appear to take a lot of notice.

Roy Holden, Linda's husband and a stakeholder in the downtown, finished the initial comment with an even-handed call for reconsideration of the issue with fair representation of both sides.  He didn't want the issue to be buried.  Holden's message seemed better received as they went to their regular business.  

They introduced new Police Chief Matt Murphy, 4 days into his new job, who graciously thanked the community and commissioners and let them know that the money the department had gotten for selling impounded bikes were being spent on bicycle helmets to be given away later. 

They then approved Scottville Day as February 17, 2020 the anniversary of its incorporation.  City Manager Courtney Magaluk talked of a 'code of civil conduct' she has been working on after reviewing other city's similar acts.  

In the second comment period, Roy Holden once again urged the council to have dispensaries as a future agenda item, and this may have spurred the mayor into saying that he would have it looked at by the ordinance committee in March.  This was followed by a statement by Commissioner Brian Benyo who showed a little flexibility on the issue.  

While stating marijuana businesses in Scottville was uncharted territory, Benyo suggested a structured argument that had a structured business plan behind it may sway commissioners.  While noting that the City has no room to misstep, he admitted that a good plan could benefit the progress of Scottville.  

Across the room, Commissioner Rob Alway expressed his disagreement with Del Zoppo's characterization of Scottville as a dying town and that the commission was the leading cause of that affliction.  He enumerated the various businesses calling Scottville home and encouraged volunteers to help move the city forward.  The meeting adjourned shortly thereafter.

I had had the good fortune of sitting next to Roy Holden and hearing some of what he thinks of the issue.  I also found myself leaving the city hall around the same time Gordon MacDougall did and we carried on a bit of conversation at the crosswalk and beyond on the way back to our respective vehicles which would find their way back to Ludington shortly thereafter.  Gordon's 16 year old son Henry was killed just a few miles north of Scottville back in October 2017 due to an irresponsible adult providing him with marijuana earlier that evening.  

Even though he's another one of those outsiders as far as Scottville is concerned, one would hope that his side of the issue is given proper recognition whatever is eventually decided in Scottville.

EPILOGUE:  In the next two weeks I am working to urge Scottville commissioners to repeal their most recent rule change requiring public comment registration.  The Michigan Open Meetings Act does not prohibit such registration, and yet the country's Supreme Court has made a couple of decisions on the subject that appear to frown on such impositions, recognizing the right of a person to speak anonymously.

“As a matter of principle a requirement of registration in order to make a public speech would seem generally incompatible with an exercise of the rights of free speech and free assembly” -- Thomas v. Collins, 323 U.S. 516, 539 (1945)  

Anonymous speech has recently been upheld in Watchtower Bible & Tract Soc’y of N.Y., Inc. v. Vill. of Stratton, 536 U.S. 150 (2002), where a village ordinance requiring those intending to engage in door-to-door advocacy of a political or religious cause to obtain and, upon demand, display permit, which contained one’s name.  The SCOTUS found this violated First Amendment protections accorded to anonymous pamphleteering or discourse.

[Willy]

Sounds like the marijuana issue is going to cause a rather large rift in the small burg of Scottville. That can easily be settled by another vote of the citizens who can approve or disapprove letting it be sold inside the City limits. The issue of requiring people to register is another beast. There are many communities that require speakers at Council meetings to sign in. Most just request a name and their address. The reason for that is to determine how many speakers there may be and having the speakers talk in the order of sign up. I can understand a sign in sheet with peoples names but no other information should be required. As long as you are a legal citizen you should have the right to address any governmental agency without divulging any personal information. They should not  go through with this registration requirement. Personally I would hate to see Scottville allow the sale of marijuana inside the City.

[XLFD]

For Scottville, if they succeed in consolidating the two wards into one in time for the 2020 election, they could effectively have a popular mandate, one way or the other, in November without even putting marijuana on the ballot, if more than four people run.  Every candidate should have an opinion on the topic, so if six run and the two losers have similar views, then you have a popular mandate.  If it's split, then you might have to look deeper into the will of the electorate by what the other candidates receive.  

Since medical and recreational marijuana is legal and almost anyone can grow their own, I see a value to the community in having responsible dispensaries, I have made that point as regards public safety.  As a civil libertarian, I see the positive result that adults able to now grow pot in their home will not be unjustly imprisoned for mercifully sharing or selling it to other adults who do not have the facilities to grow it themselves and need it medically.  I can't help but think our police chief, sheriff and prosecutor are so against dispensaries because they will lose the power to entrap people for making financial transactions involving marijuana.