The Place Where Ludington Talks
Manistee Officials Prosper During Lockdown While Private Sector Struggles
The City of Manistee is led by a team of cockroaches. How else could you explain their proclivity to do their business in darkness and robbing the poor folks of Manistee of their last bread crumbs before sneaking back to hide in their nooks and crevices? They have proven they shun the sunlight, working in earnest to keep a police report away from the public for over two years, one which showed their police withheld a lot of relevant information from the public when one of their officers shot a septuagenarian seven times with high caliber bullets.
Despite being in an area with an advanced phase of reopening, Manistee city hall would not open until July 7, Ludington would open on June 7, one month earlier. They effectively did their jobs remotely for nearly 1/3 of a year's time and are still prone to conduct their 'open' meetings on-line when a significant portion of Manistee residents cannot access them and operate with limited hours.
In April, the Manistee city council proposed and passed a 'conservative budget', because of uncertainties due to Covid-19. One might think they would even go more conservative given the extended nature of the state of emergency, which actually resulted in their region going back one phase yesterday. But this does not seem to be the case. While Manistee's private employers are on their last gasp, while Manistee's private employees wonder whether there will be any jobs available for them in the future, the City of Manistee has decided to give those officials they gave over 100 days off a golden parachute.
One can easily believe that the officials given this new benefit qualified for unemployment benefits under the federal acts giving money away to those who lost their jobs or suffered reduced hours of work; after all, the city manager needed only approve a shorter work week for them operating at home in order to maximize their income through the federal program. City Manager Thad Taylor and his cronies at city hall would figure that out pretty quickly, even from their comfy chair at home.
It has been said that every crisis offers scoundrels the opportunity to take advantage of the situation for their own selfish benefit. So Thad Taylor and his staff of fellow cockroaches took full advantage of the situation and amended employment contracts they presented to a city council who saw them for the first time at their July 21st council meeting before passing them.
The Manistee News Advocate reported: in an article titled: "Three Manistee leaders have new severance pay agreement":
Several city leadership positions have an added measure of reassurance that did not exist in the roles before this week's Manistee City Council meeting. The Manistee city clerk, department of public works director and chief financial officer positions will now have specific agreements in place for severance pay among other details.
The measure passed 4-3 on Tuesday after several council members asked for more details on why the item was on the agenda, why it had not been given dedicated time to discuss during a council work session and the purpose for adding employment agreements for the three positions.
Thad Taylor, Manistee city manager, said when the council approved the role of police chief and fire chief at a previous meeting in lieu of the public safety director position — it also approved employment agreements for both positions in the same action.
Taylor said those agreements offer severance pay as well as assurance of stability for both chiefs. He said it would be fair to offer the same types of agreements to the remaining city department leaders.
“The reason that we forwarded employment agreements for those two positions is because they were coming out of the unions, they have a different retirement, they don’t get social security — so both were very concerned about retaining their current retirement systems,” Taylor said.
He said both chiefs were also concerned about maintaining stability in their positions as chiefs.
“So, once those were approved, because those two (chiefs) are department directors, I thought it not only appropriate but fair to offer an employment agreement to the remaining three department directors,” Taylor said.
He explained that the agreements basically show their current compensation, retirement program and provides for severance pay if they are terminated without a cause.
“Basically, the only thing different or new in any of these employment agreements is just the termination and severance pay,” Taylor explained. “And I’m of the opinion that the city manager and department directors are probably more susceptible to change in attitudes in the community and at the council level and require a little extra level of protection for those positions.”
George Saylor, attorney for the city, clarified that all other city staff are considered at-will employees and that they can be terminated with or without a reason.
However, those staff usually have the right to apply for unemployment except in certain circumstances such as something like theft where their unemployment application could be denied.
Saylor added that in the case of the directors, the severance package typically is replacing unemployment.
The agreement went into place for city clerk Heather Pefley, Manistee Department of Public Works director Jeff Mikula and city Chief Financial Officer/Treasurer Ed Bradford.
The agreements in the council packet from Tuesday, show an annual salary of $69,326 for Pefley, $91,137 for Mikula and $95,693 for Bradford, among other details...
Mayor Pro-Tem James Grabowski, council members Dale Cooper and Lynda Beaton voted against the measure. Both Grabowski and Beaton commented on the measure as feeling rushed and that a work session to discuss the agreements was necessary.
City Manager Taylor (above) has thus increased the potential costs to the Manistee taxpayer up to over $120,000 just to add this severance benefits to these positions that have likely been receiving unemployment benefits higher than the wages of many having to work overtime during the shutdown.
The people's elected representatives, the mayor and council, did not hear of this move until the meeting's agenda came out. A majority of councilors decided to let it slide nevertheless, and despite the need for conservative fiscal policies being warranted and even claimed by the city manager advocating these primo severance packages.
It's past time for the citizens of Manistee to reclaim their City government back to being responsive and responsible to the people. You need to either vote for those candidates that offer an alternative to the status quo, or else you must step forward and be that change.
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