Ludington City Council December 20, 2021: Bittersweet

[XLFD]

On entering city hall, I noticed about half of the fire department had gathered in the lobby in their uniforms talking among themselves in preparation for a ceremony celebrating 50 years of service by Assistant Chief Ron Jabrocki (pictured top, from 2002) and Lieutenant Fred Hackert set to take place at the regular council meeting in the council chambers the evening of December 20th.  Ron and Fred had been in those same positions during my eight years on the department, helping with my overall development in the firefighting field. 

Seeing them left me with a reminder of the sour way I left the department, resigning after the police chief at that time took it upon himself to have his sister agency try to pressure me not to fight a bicycle traffic ticket which never should have been issued.   Amongst this firefighter group was the current fire chief, who served as the mayor during that time, who reminded me of the extent of the corruption during that period in Ludington history, which I would chronicle over the next five years in the Ludington Torch.  

The two men-of-the-hour would be rewarded for their combined 100 years of part-paid volunteer services by receiving honorary plaques and clocks at the beginning of the meeting, albeit after the first public comment period.  Admittedly, I would be the first to stand and clap this night for these modern-day heroes as they received their tokens.  I mostly understand the sacrifices and the dangers of their jobs by my own experiences, but I'm more impressed that they withstood the rigors of local politics for half a century, the same politics that wound up driving me out.  Ron was wise enough to keep away from it; Fred went the other way and immersed himself into local politics, serving on the council for a time and on city boards at other times.  Their stories are both inspirational, and all residents should be proud of their caliber.  

Before their awards were given, Annette Quillan would use her public comment to ask about why the City does not bury more utility (especially electrical) lines underground, a question the city manager would field later on by acknowledging the higher costs associated.  I followed her by offering four critiques of public policies, serving this bitter news with a sweet intro:

XLFD:  "In the seasonal spirit of giving, I will offer you all some totally free critiques. 

First, when you handle a FOIA appeal, especially when the appellant tells you that several items have been redacted unlawfully, you should expect your FOIA Coordinator to provide you with a comprehensive rationale for the specific redactions in question, not prepare a law argument for such redactions in general.  Those are useless; had you been provided the records in question in the last appeal, the smart ones among you would have wondered why so many fields never associated with the FOIA's privacy exemption were redacted in the first response. 

It wasn't just that some information had already been publicly released, it was the legal inapplicability of the claimed exemption.  The next time you fail to do your duty to actually look at the records before making a decision, I will take it to court and have them do your job for you.

Second, the city's contracted engineers appear to be conducting non-transparent bidding processes which have led to a single bid to do the work at the Loomis breakwater.  Minimally, they need to tell the City and thereby the public fully of the process they used to get bids and the period those bids were open.  It appears from the documents available that they had a closed process, one that may lead to a diluted selection of potential bidders, and larger costs to the city due to the cronyism and lack of free market competition.  

Third, I have been attending Ludington school board meetings religiously since August and not once has the district voted to dispose of their playground equipment by selling it to the City for $1.  Yet, Interim Superintendent Peg Mathis has already signed the agreement in your packets signifying that she has gotten such approval by the board, when she hasn't officially in accordance with their policies.  Not surprisingly, the district sold Foster School for less than 10% of its value without following those policies either.  Rulers need to follow rules in a republic.

Fourth, once again Safety Decals has profited from being used by the community development director to make signs purchased by the City.  The CDD had ample opportunity at public meetings to alert the DDA and the public as to why this selection of her husband to be a contractor was to the city's advantage, but as she has dozens of times in the past she has failed to do so and so nepotism is tacitly approved by the council every time these charges come through the finance committee [END, see agenda]. 

It was a very busy night as far as items go, as many end of the year meetings tend to have, these included the usual ordinances to set the clerk's and treasurer's salaries, appointing official boards and standing committees for 2022, setting next year's meeting dates, and appointing the city attorneys.  The latter two would be addressed in my last comment, otherwise the committees and salaries remained mostly static.

With the loss of Lakeview School property to development, the City lost their First Ward polling place, and had no adequate alternative in that ward.  They solved that issue by moving the polling place to the community room (basement) of city hall by resolution.  The Third Ward will continue to vote on the first floor of that building.  

The most interesting bit of the night was that the council voted down the brownfield plan proposed for a major development at 106 Laura Street.  The City was potentially liable for certain expenses in order to 'supplement' the county's portion of paying for environmental cleanup.  The legality of approving such a deal was questioned, and councilors universally balked, choosing to send it back to the county unapproved, yet supportive of the overall plan.  The hope was that an amended plan would not depend on a lot of municipal resources being used.  Councilor May accidentally voted to approve the plan, before he realized he should have voted against it.

The council approved the use of applications to use the city's right-of-ways that would cost $25 to the applicant.  The need for this was due ostensibly to keep track of utility companies doing projects in the right-of-ways, but it remains to be seen whether this will solve it without any good enforcement mechanism.

The council approved a change in the police union contract to allow officers the ability to qualify for sergeant status with less time served, two years instead of four years.  They approved Hardman Contracting to fix the Loomis Breakwater pier for $286,000 (more on this in a future article).  After lengthy discussion, they chose to eliminate the yard waste bag service after June 1st.  There could be potentially a buy-back from the City for those people who still have yard bags remaining after that point, but nothing was proposed for now in that regard.  

They adopted a zoning ordinance that allows retail as a principal use in waterfront maritime districts, and presented an ordinance reorganizing the DPW for its first reading.  They set up 2022's Coffee with a Councilor schedule, meeting during the middle of the day on the first Thursday of each month.

I was the only one to speak in the second comment period, pointing out the consequences of having their meetings schedules the way I warned them about at the last meeting, and also of an act of omission.

XLFD:  "With the council's vote tonight to have their meeting times for 2022 match those of the Scottville City Commission, you have done me a great favor.  My focus over the last year on Ludington issues have been diluted quite a bit by my chronicling of the corruption that's a big part of Scottville politics, surface and embedded rot I noted after attending a few of their commission meetings.  Since I will choose to attend Ludington meetings over Scottville's, I need only observe and report the way this city hall makes sausage, rather than favorably compare their processing over the unhealthy way Scottville does theirs. 

Tonight the council passed a simple resolution to retain and appoint Olsen, Bzdoc, and Howard PC as city civil counsel for 2022, along with hiring the county prosecuting office as city criminal attorney.  One lawyer they didn't rehire through resolution for 2022 is Carlos Alvarado.  Alvarado has provided execrable service as the City's primary FOIA Coordinator in 2021, denying the dissemination of public records properly redacted.  Furthermore, as the Scottville City Attorney he has led them to a host of liability issues due in major part to the inept legal counseling he has provided for them.  I appreciate this council letting his endorsement lapse at the end of this year and look forward to a competent FOIA Coordinator taking his place [END]."

The truth is, when the City chose two law firms to serve them on civil issues, they had one contract that divided the labors; when they choose by resolution to name only one, they have not effectively ratified the other to serve.  I do, however, respect the Ludington City Council to fall on the proverbial sword of accountability in order to save their fellow city hallers in Scottville from local audit.  If somebody is able to help out with cleaning up the oozing mess that is the Scottville City Clowncil by attending meetings and speaking out, I will provide support.

Only one of my six issues was addressed this evening, with City Manager Foster explaining/summarizing the bidding process used by the engineering firm, but not suggesting that the engineering firm will ever be transparent about the process in the future.  Nevertheless, to soften the acidity of my comments, I did supply the council and all other officials present a personalized Christmas card at the end of the meeting.  They need to be reminded at times that we might often disagree on method, policy, and process, but in the end our goal is for the common good of those living in Ludington.  I can hope that's their goal in this holiday season.

[Willy]

Thanks for the information X. To bad about how your fire fighter career had to end because of local political tyrants.

You've probably seen these before as well as the one below.

[XLFD]

If you look closely to the officers at the right of the picture, you will notice that the pic of AC Jabrocki and Lt. Hackert I used at the beginning of the article is captured from this photo.  The fire-rescue truck in the background was brand-spanking new at that time and the handsome third person from the left standing was in his sophomore year.

[Willy]

I never noticed that the photo you posted was cropped off of this photo. Yes, very handsome fellow. Where's the firehouse dog?