Ludington City Council /Scottville City Clowncil, November meetings: No, No, November

[XLFD]

Our readers may have noticed the Ludington Torch has not provided any recap of the two meetings held by the Ludington City Council and the Scottville City Commission in November.  Part of this was that both cities had their first meeting on the 14th which presaged that their meetings on the 28th would be very similar in nature and issues, so we decided to wait.  We then waited to see whether Scottville would do something this week, and they didn't. 

We were correct, the two city halls would effectively have a November where nothing substantial was really accomplished.  That's why we have labeled it 'No, no, November' and here's exactly why.

Scottville:  No Quorums, No Meetings

The Scottville elections at the beginning of the month determined there would be no return of Commissioner Thue or Mayor Spencer and the induction of Kelli Pettit, the top vote-getter.  The meeting on the 14th had the real bombshell, however, when newly-elected incumbent Clownncilor Alway offered his resignation in a public and publicized letter claiming that Pettit and Commissioners Graham, Yeomans, and outgoing Thue were about to take Scottville on a wild ride, firing the city manager, and treasurer, then rehiring the disgraced police chief, Matt Murphy.  The rest of the commission (Seiter and Copenhaver) were mysteriously absent without any reason given.  With only three commissioners after Pettit was given the oath of office, the business of the meeting had to be postponed to the next meeting.

Two weeks later, the same three commissioners were present, so once again there was no quorum thus deliberations and decisions were once again pushed back.  The audience was filled, so once the auditor gave his presentation on the findings of his audit (which couldn't be officially accepted by the commission) and a couple of department reports were given, they heard the three commissioners dispute the accuracy of what Alway alleged, Former Commissioner Thue would do the same when the public was allowed to comment.  As Alway's allegations centered mainly on an unproven conspiracy with only rumor rather than evidence, these denunciations sounded very credible.  

Treasurer Kathy Shafer and City Manager Jimmy Newkirk seem to have edited their own comments for the night after hearing the three commissioners deny there was any effort by them to take them from their jobs.  Public comment had Thue and a couple of businessmen address the controversy, with Jeff Barnett saying everything that was happening was bound to scare away investment and make current businesses nervous to stay around.  The officials present acknowledged this criticism and assured those present that they would be working to regain stability.  

I had written two comments, one for the scheduled hearing and one for the regular comment period, but read neither, content in hearing what the assemblage and the citizens of Scottville would say, so I could not be deemed an outside agitator (at least for the night).  I waited until after the meeting to ask a question to Newkirk wondering whether the two missing commissioners had taken their oath of office, as they were required to take before this meeting convened.  I was told that they did, so that they were official, and given the factoid that Rob Alway had also took his oath.  

This signaled that Alway appears to be coming back to the commission since his resignation was never formally accepted, due to the lack of quorums.  His return is almost certain to ignite the powder keg created by his fiery resignation letter and his apparent inability to compromise.  If he forms a likely coalition with Seiter and Copenhaver (who both claimed to have medical issues preventing them from attending the meeting, the body will be split evenly.  

And this even split will go on until the next (special) election since the city has been short one commissioner following the election on November 3rd and won't be filled until at least December 5th.  According to the city charter Section 6.6(b), if a vacancy is not filled within 30 days a special election must be held to pick one, and that can happen no earlier than February.  One reason why we at the Torch procrastinated in recapping this meeting, was that they are now legally bound to hold a special election and until then they have to learn to cooperate to get anything done.  

Will it happen?  Probably no, no.  It was disclosed that the City owed back pay to a handful of full-time employees who missed out on getting an employer match due to Matt Murphy (as interim city manager) only applying this benefit to himself and his police department.  Since Monday, those begrudged employees have joined a union along with Sergeant Katrina Skinner of the SPD  

Ludington:  No change, no marijuana businesses

Whereas Scottville's city commission had no (official) meetings and no (official) business completed, Ludington's council went the other way and had over seven hours of open meetings on the two evenings.  Yet these two meetings would be about 90% owned by the marijuana dispensary debate, where two ordinances were brought before the council for consideration.  In the end, after six hours of public comment and deliberations by the body, it all turned out to be for naught, as the council combined both zoning and police power ordinance in one vote. after going through a series of seven amendments, and failed to pass the measures, 4-3.

The votes on the amendments, most making marijuana zoning more prohibitive, gave insight into what the final vote might be.  Two voting blocs emerged, where Councilors Winczewski, May, Johnson, and Stibitz combined as the majority throughout the changes and in the final vote.  Councilors Terzano, Cain and Bulger just fell short on their end.  

The battle lines were drawn even in the first meeting, where the two factions emerged, and four votes were definitely leaning towards the final no vote.  The amendments were crafted between meetings in order to supplicate the majority and entice one of those votes to switch.  But even when the radius of protection offered to school, church and daycare were doubled to 1000 feet (making well over 90% of the city off limits), it turned out to not be enough.  The majority was entrenched in denying marijuana establishments in the city limits.

  

At that first meeting, 21 people spoke about marijuana dispensaries in Ludington, but 17 of those were against them.  Of the other four, one was neutral and the other three were advocates from the Manistee green businesses.  Three argued against facilities at the end of the meeting, three others wrote letters against the facilities.  One could say the people of Ludington spoke with one voice about not allowing pot shops in town.

With that unanimity, it was surprising that three votes were cast the other way at the second meeting, better attended by the pro-marijuana forces but still falling short as they were a decided minority-- at least at the meeting.  Those folks were commendably behaved when the combined measure was voted down by the slimmest margin, but it would be a mistake to think that they will give up on the idea. 

As the council's faces will not change next year, look for an initiative petition to get the issue on the ballot for next year sponsored by those looking to get local dispensaries.  In a fair election, we believe the issue would fail by a similar 4-3 ratio being that many of the voters in 2018 approved recreational marijuana, but many don't relish seeing pot shops in the city.  Now that ballot harvesting has been legalized in this year's Proposal 2, an organized effort by the pro-pot forces could tip that scale-- so nothing should be taken for granted.

This day belonged to the NIMBY forces, however, and I couldn't help but congratulate Gordon McDougall after the vote and a break in the action was called for.  As I would explain to LASD Superintendent Kyle Corlett who sat by me before the meeting and before I left for the much shorter Scottville non-meeting, my view on the marijuana topic has evolved but has been consistent.  I voted against it in 2018, but when it was passed I saw a window of opportunity for Ludington to capitalize on it as a pioneer in the field. 

After Manistee went into the business whole hog, that window closed for me.  Scottville's late entry locked that window tight.  At this point, marijuana establishments won't do anything for Ludington and only make it harder for Scottville green businesses to be competitive.  Corlett would speak first this evening and give a well-measured comment against the ordinances, which I expected since he has young children in his home and the welfare of his students on his mind.

My input at this meeting would amount to a written comment I left a copy of with the city clerk to enter into the record, and a brief affirmation at the end to the board for outlasting the Scottville 'meeting' by about 4 1/2 hours.  I would leave to go to Scottville 15 minutes in, then return back to it when I noticed after a late dinner that Ludington's council was still going strong in their 4:40:00 long meeting.  It touched on three topics and said:

XLFD:  "Found in the last four annual budgets has been the following statement:  "only 37% of [property] tax is kept by the city.  The remaining 73% is distributed to the various taxing jurisdictions..."   When our budget preparers can't figure out that these two numbers must add up to 100% instead of 110% in four years' time, it doesn't inspire a lot of confidence with the numbers shown in the rest of the budget that we must accept by faith.

In reading the contract with the county prosecutor that the City is planning to renew, I couldn't help but notice that in this agreement, and in prior agreements, that the prosecutor is only hired to prosecute misdemeanor arrests by the LPD in the local courts.  I recently had the occasion to file suit with the LPD over an impropriety that occurred when I was targeted by one of their officers and was surprised to find that the county prosecutor was serving as their defense attorney.  Since the city council never approved this retainment and since the City's agencies are generally defended by either MMRMA attorneys or the city attorney in civil actions, I am curious as to the funding and propriety of this legal representation.

Lastly, as I look at the confirmed deer kills by hunters on the DNR website, I find that our county eclipsed the 4000 mark (as of today, 4064) and note that the City of Ludington has expended zero dollars to reach that impressive mark.  They will spend around $20,000 to add maybe a dozen more deer kills in and beyond the city limits.  Is there any better illustration of why using government to solve most problems is impractical, inefficient and expensive?  4000 deer killed at no cost, all profit for the state and city or twelve killed at a cost of about $2000 a head?  The cull is a high water mark in the City's stupid pool."

Math and contracts are sometimes tough to understand for city officials.  At the first meeting, I politely elbowed my way to the front of the line and spoke on something that was less addictive, the deer cull:

XLFD:  "Firearm deer hunting season starts tomorrow, but the number of deer already confirmed to be killed this year by hunters in Mason County alone is over 1500.  That's an average of over 100 deer killed in each township.  Yet, this council voted to expend nearly $60,000 to contract with the USDA to come into our county and hunt inside and out of the city's jurisdiction over the next three years.  If they perform like they did in Manistee, we would be lucky to see a dozen deer killed each year in Ludington and PM Township.  

Twelve deer is statistically insignificant when compared to the county and township numbers of confirmed kills, even at this point before the real hunting season begins.  The positive economic impact of these hunters and the hunters to come are vast to our area businesses and the state, so with these proven models why does our city council decide to spend money involuntarily taken through taxation and send it to Washington DC for providing a service already efficiently provided?

Exactly three weeks ago, Mitch Foster claimed that USDA cullers were all licensed law enforcement officers and that they were not considered as deer hunters under legal definition even though they carried rifles they used to hunt and shoot deer.  After a FOIA request, he has yet to provide any proof that either is the case, the contract never even implies this.  Ludington Area School District bylaws expressly prohibits hunting of any sort in the school forest, and I will use the legal process to make them obey their own laws.  Is there any greater evil than spilling innocent blood on school grounds?   Four of you agreed to do this."

Because the marijuana ordinances captured most of the oxygen in the room, the two Ludington meetings normal business was mostly mundane.  However, City Manager Foster gave the 2023 Budget report, abbreviated, at the end of the last meeting and they did approve certain contracts, change orders, and other routine tasks, which can be seen in the agenda packet.  

At the first meeting, a presentation was given by Kristi Zimmerman, the economic development director of the local chamber speaking of housing and economic development.  The timing was suspicious since marijuana facilities could be seen as economic development, but she never touched upon the correlation.  The rest of the meeting amounted to approving routine contracts and change orders.  

At the end of the two long-lasting meetings, very little would be accomplished other than showing that Ludington's council is more apt to hearing the citizens and discussing public policy professionally and out in the open than their Scottville counterparts.  No marijuana ordinance would be passed, nor is it likely to be taken up again in the council until personnel in those positions change towards the favor of those who want dispensaries.  The Ludington Torch appreciates the removal of the shiny object in the council chamber.

[Willy]

Excellent article X. You definitely have a talent for reporting the news. I, for one, am glad that Ludington will not be used as a dispenser of marijuana and other related products. It's a very difficult message to convince children that they should not be using mind altering substances when it is perfectly acceptable to allow the selling of these products in stores that they and their parents do business with. At least some sanity still exists on the Shores of Lake Michigan.