Scottville City Clowncil Meeting, June 7, 2021: Yeomans Quirk

[XLFD]

The agenda packet for the June 7th meeting of the Scottville City Commission indicated that there would be only one item of business come up, and that would be the first reading of a proposed 'chicken ordinance' .  A citizen inquired about the new ordinance during the public comment period and Commissioner Alway explained that it was primarily a mechanism to change the current system to get approvals for chickens out of the commission's hands (except as an appellant body) and into the city manager's purview.  

That explanation was very incomplete, and of course the city commission didn't introduce even a summary of what is on the chicken ordinance at their first reading.  The commission failed to tell the eight or so attendees that the City would require $35 for a permit which is currently free, and require a yearly payment on the permit of $35. 

If you buy a permit for one hen and she produces on average 3 eggs every four days, she will make about 274 eggs per year, you can buy quality eggs online for $1.19 per dozen or for ten cents each egg.  Your chicken will provide you with $27.40 of value each year, which is chicken feed compared to the permit fee.  An initial permit fee of $25 seems fairer, while citizens being forced to pay each year seems to be more of a chicken tax rather than a legit fee.

The meeting itself had only one absent official (Commissioner Bruce Claveau), and abbreviated reports from officials during that section, nothing much out of the mundane.  A disturbing trend of substantive late agenda additions continued in the introducing and approving the 2021-2022 tax rates in the city.  It was learned from City Manager Jimmy Newkirk that they could have held a truth in taxation hearing to protect some of the tax rates but the amount saved (around $58) would not be enough to recoup the hearing costs which required advertising in the local paper. 

The best part of the meeting centered around the public comments.  Katrina Skinner, who serves on the Scottville Police Department, pointed out an err of omission by the DDA for not putting out American flags during the Memorial Day weekend.  The only place with a flag was the senior center.  She emphasized that this was seen by many as a slap in the face of those who served and those who died throughout the community.  Commissioner Alway and Yeomans would both comment in agreement with her outrage in commissioner statements after the comment period.

Commissioner Nathan Yeomans went a little further in encouraging his peers not to lose heart in the 'fiction' that quite often comes up in front of the commission during these meetings.  Since he had supported the only other critical view made by Officer Skinner, it was clear that his reference was to what I had to say that night. 

Fiction?  My Merriam-Webster's Dictionary defines that term as 'something invented by the imagination or feigned; specifically : an invented story.'  Pretty sure that everything I have said in front of the Scottville City Commission over the last seven months was not feigned, invented, or false.  The dozen or so city officials that attend these meetings (other than Clowncilor Yeomans perhaps) have accepted my stories as fact at these meetings by either lack of refutation, muting me from talking at virtual meetings, or throwing me unlawfully out of a meeting.  

I am offering Clowncilor Yeomans the opportunity to directly refute any of what I have said at this meeting or any others that he hasn't knowingly shut me out of by his tacit approval.  I will be showing exactly why they are factual, all he has to do is show where I have crafted a story out of the sad corruption he allows to run rampant.  Here was my comment:

XLFD:  "I was contrasting recent meeting minutes with minutes of last year's meetings, there's quite a difference.  The 2020 minutes followed the city charter's meeting procedures in order, they offered two periods of public comment, the clerk summarized what citizens said, and the minutes reflected what happened at these meetings. [Compiled minutes so the reader can compare]

Let's compare this with the May 3rd meeting.  The meeting procedures do not follow the city charter, there is one period of public comment at the end of the meeting, the clerk summarizes nothing that is said.  Nothing in the record indicates a member of the public was thrown out of the meeting because the police chief made a critical mistake that the commissioners at their own meeting did not correct.  The city clerk signs those May 3rd minutes as if she was the clerk taking the minutes, but she was absent [that's fraud itself, Mr. Yeomans].  This clowncil nevertheless approved those minutes.  Is this disenfranchisement of the public the reason why you became a public servant?

Rather than record what citizens say or record the City of Scottville's long list of law and charter violations that I update at each meeting, the commissioners all intentionally allow themselves to act contrary to charter and the Open Meetings Act, violating both with impunity as you allow city employees and officials to raid the city treasury.  

The Scottville city charter contains the laws that city officials are supposed to follow religiously.  On May 17th, you introduced and passed a budget, but section 10.2 of the city charter mandates that a recommended budget should have been in front of the commission in the second meeting in April and section 10.4 says not later than the second week in May of each year, the Commission shall by resolution adopt a budget for the next fiscal year.  

A former city manager is thrown to the winds for nearly missing a deadline, the replacement embezzles money, allows others to embezzle money with his blessing, fails to meet these deadlines and fails to allow the citizens to review a budget before it's adopted, and does a host of criminal acts currently being investigated by the state police, and he is ultimately thanked by this commission for his ineptitude and criminality.  

The new city manager isn't proving to be much better.  After last meeting, I asked for a copy of the rental inspection agreement with Ludington that was approved three weeks ago. 

I repeated that request the following day in an e-mail since he hadn't an extra copy that night.  He felt it was proper to allow Ludington time  [I was told my three minutes were up at this point, had I been able to continue]... to at least receive the document before it is disseminated on public forums in denying that request. 

The agreement you approved at an open meeting is a "public record" and no allowable exemption was offered, nor does any apply.  But don't worry, Jimmy, Carlos was denying FOIA requests unlawfully and the police chief was destroying public records before you got here.[END comment]"

I have sent Clowncilor Yeomans and his peers a link to this article offering them to find any type of artifice that they can refute with facts and contrary evidence in this comment.  I encouraged them to also look at my prior comments for any other piece of fiction that may exist.  I have a feeling that they will not respond, because they know where the fiction is coming from-- places like Carlos Alvarado's unfounded FOIA denials, Matt Murphy's comp time accumulations, Kathy Shafer's and Kelse Lester's payroll records, etc.  

[XLFD]

It's been a little over half of a day since I've sent an e-mail to all clowncilors (copied to other Scottville officials) sharing my recent speech while offering them to critique any of my comments as fictional, and I've yet to receive any attempt at refutation or any kind of claim that counters the contents of my comments.