Scottville City Clowncil Meeting, May 17rd, 2021: Signs of Change

[XLFD]

On May 3rd, 2021, I was thrown out of a public meeting for the first time in my life at the Scottville Optimist Hall.  The issue: a 1.5 square foot sign with five lines from a relevant city charter section as pertains to meeting procedure.  Apparently according to Mayor Marcy Spenser and Acting City Manager Matt Murphy, the city charter is offensive to them, like a strongly presented cross to a vampire.  Even placing the sign on the ground was not enough for the ACM/Police Chief Murphy.  On his own initiative as a self-appointed sergeant-of-arms of the meeting, he escorted me out of the meeting.

The May 17th meeting was much different.  Rather than bring a small sign with city charter language, I more than tripled the sign's size and included excerpts from state law, state court precedent, and a reminder of what happened at the last meeting.

One thing that wasn't different was the presence of Mayor Spencer and Chief Murphy, but their actions sure were.  Beyond Mayor Spencer civilly telling me before the meeting that there would be a 'table for signs' set up once new City Manager Jimmy Newkirk arrived (he arrived but didn't do such a silly thing), my bigger, more aggressive sign was left unspoken of and unmolested.

Which indicates that the largest difference between meetings was the arrival of the more responsible adult Newkirk and the presence of City Attorney Carlos Alvarado, who was absent at last meeting and unable to intercede into the flagrantly unlawful actions of removing a person from a public meeting for sitting peacefully with a written reminder to himself and others of how a commissioner meeting is supposed to be lawfully run in Scottville.   

There were notable absences from this meeting, Commissioner Rob Alway, who dropped some F-bombs after the last meeting when he was asked a question about the city charter.  Alway knows enough about the Open Meetings Act to realize that when Murphy took it upon himself to march me out of the meeting, that his own inaction was a violation of his oath of office and a clear violation of state law. 

I had given Alway a potential scoop for his media outlet the night before, the Mason County Press regarding the violent psychotic episode of City Clerk Kelse Lester, he was active on the MCP that day writing on recent police news, the arrest of a Ludington man, and a Kaleva man for violent encounters, but saved his ink regarding the city clerk's violent foray into MDOP and child endangerment.  Clerk Lester also took the day off, one wonders whether she will charge the taxpayers about 8 hours overtime this meeting.

The meeting tonight was structured oddly.  A special meeting for the express purpose to have a public hearing for the 2021-2022 budget was held at 6 PM.  The City was already in violation of section 10.2 of their charter:   "The City Manager shall prepare and submit to the Commission at its first meeting following the regular city election in April [April 6th, 2021] of each year a recommended budget"  Nothing regarding the budget was presented on April 19, 2021 nor anything even on May 3rd, 2021.

Section 10.4 of the charter says such a budget approval by commission needs to take place "not later than the second week in May of each year."  May 17th is in May's third week.  Section 10.4 also necessitates that the budget presented shall have:  "Detailed estimates with supporting explanations of all proposed expenditures for each department... showing the expenditures for corresponding items for the last preceding fiscal year in full, and for the current fiscal year to March first and estimated expenditures for the balance of the current fiscal year." along with other details of expenditures and indebtedness.  This was all that was provided to the city commissioners in their packet for the May 17 meeting:  

I had asked City Manager Newkirk for a detailed budget via email, as required by city law and as advertised at the bottom of the hearing notice, he replied all the way back on May 7th:  "The Budget proposals that are available at this time are the totals listed on the notice. A more detailed proposal will be available as myself, the Budget Committee, and Commission work through the process. As they are finalized and ready for public comment the documents will be made available online and in the office."

They were not available when the packets were sent out, they are still not available online.  In the packet put out on May 14th is a three page budget detailing, much less specific than their 7 page offerings over previous years and insufficient in terms of the charter. 

Here's what you have:  the Scottville City Commission passes a budget with unseen details, did so without allowing anyone to see those details, held a too late hearing and passed that budget too late, all in disregard for the city charter, section 10.  One has to consider this incredibly reckless when one can objectively state that the three people crafting this budget before Newkirk arrived (Murphy, Lester, and Treasurer Kathy Shafer) have all embezzled money throughout the reign of Acting City Manager Matt Murphy (and likely before that).  

It's little wonder that nobody from the public said anything at this public hearing, because Mayor Spencer never expressly invited the public to say anything; she opened the hearing and asked for comments and it was unclear that she was just talking to other officials or the general public in attendance.  I was tempted to get up and ask why the commission was late to action, in arrears to the city charter, and telling them that the resplendent clothes the budget was wearing just weren't there.  But I was fearful of a trap laid out to get me thrown out of the meeting for being out of order.  

So end result, Mayor Spencer received no input and the several pregnant pauses that happened during the meeting was because she was serving as secretary of the meeting too, with the absence of Lester, Shafer, and Alway.  This was never explained at the beginning of this meeting or the regular meeting that followed.  Robert's Rules of Order, which are the rules the commission supposedly follow, mandates that the chair and secretary of the meeting be identified at the start of all meetings, especially if the normal officers are absent.  This wasn't done, it led to this inefficiency; regardless, the hearing only lasted ten minutes allowing me to take a casual photo of the proceedings between meetings.

The regular meeting had the new normal procedures that continue to violate the Scottville City Charter for no apparent reason other than keeping the public quiet, since they know that many are displeased with the way the city has been mismanaged.  What better way to minimize the people's voice than to strip them of talking during the charter-mandated early public comment period and relegate them to speaking only after the clowncil has done their damage.  

In typical clowncil fashion, they added a late item to the agenda without supplying any extra copies to those assembled, or most of the commission.  It was to approve of an interlocal agreement between the City of Scottville and Ludington for providing rental inspection services to Scottville.  Scottville adopted R.I.s about three years ago with some overpriced private firm.  This agreement was unanimously approved later on in the meeting without any details provided to the public or even the clowncil, much like the budget was.  It may increase or reduce rates, who knows; I asked for a copy after the meeting, and by email the next day.  Nothing yet.

The correspondence I had sent the commissioners and other officials summarizing Clerk Kelse Lester's indiscrete and intentional violence was not read or summarized during the correspondence period, which was odd since they read the full correspondence from Carla Hansen of Arch Staffing at the April 19th meeting.  Apparently, correspondence that is propaganda or strikes the fancy of city officials over trivial matters can be read, while criticism of the unlawful actions of city officials and the negative ramifications it has to the city corporate are silenced.  Classic viewpoint discrimination that's normally disallowable at public forums.

The city manager did touch lightly upon the issue later, saying that unspecified disciplinary actions have been taken against a city official for actions done while not in her official capacity.  They also addressed Tarra Perez's Intent to Sue letter. with City Attorney Carlos Alvarado diminishing the letter in saying that for what she is looking at in her letter does not require such a letter.  Duh, such a letter, however, informs the other party that legal action will be taken if a resolution is not reached on the terms.  Perez's intention on sending the letter is to get some resolution of all or most of the reasonable terms, not to meet some minimal requirement of a future lawsuit.  Alvarado effectively told them that this was nothing they had to concern themselves with at this point.  

After a bit of conversation and a failed motion (3-2) raised by Clowncilor Benyo to raise seasonal rates at the Riverside Park campground by 22% (from $2250 to $2750), they decided to moderate it by a little over 13% (to $2550) unanimously.  In other business, they approved of 6 chickens at remote 114 S Elm St., approved of a professional fireworks display at Spartan Community Field for the MCC prom, and ratified a special assessment made on a lot of properties (44) with delinquent utility billing accounts.  There was no discussion about why residents would not be able to afford the COS's exorbitant water & sewer rates when they're going through the upheavals of a pandemic and the COS continually raising both the fixed and use rates.  

A married couple from Ludington spoke on two topics of concern to them, one urging guardrails around school athletic fields (relating a tragedy that happened elsewhere taking the life of their child)  near busy Scottville roads and the other worried that some of the Riverside showers were not all that secure.  Bill Lehrbass from the local Rural Fire Authority spoke about lease agreements at fire halls coming up.  I was able to comment as well and offered the following:

XLFD:  "I welcome new city manager Jimmy Newkirk and wave an emphatic good-bye to what was most likely the most corrupt city manager in the history of Scottville even though he was only in the position for six months.  During that time, the Open Meetings Act and the Freedom of Information Act have been trampled on, culminating in last meeting's assault on a seated, peaceful attendee who reminded the city commission of their city charter through use of a small sign.  

You all swear oaths to defend and support the Constitution and Bill of Rights.  Every single one of you have shown that you do not take that oath seriously when you allow officials at city hall to embezzle the people's money and break laws without any repercussions.  I have sent each of you a copy of a police report wherein City Clerk Kelse Lester intentionally and maliciously hurled a softball-sized rock into the window of a local business out of some psychotic frustration.

On the other side of this window were two young kids who could easily have been cut by the glass or suffered major damage if the rock had hit them (the glass reportedly did).  If you compare this clerk's output with prior Scottville City Clerks, you will find it grossly inferior and incomplete.  But she charges the citizens many hours of overtime when she doesn't qualify for them.  Let's start holding bad city officials accountable. [END]"

During the last sentence, I directed a fixed gaze over at the nearby Police Chief Murphy, whose body language throughout betrayed some conflicting emotions.  What I saw at the end was the fear and anxiety of a man who knows he's guilty of multiple misdeeds and may someday be held accountable for his sins.

[Willy]

Excellent reporting X. It's to bad Scottville politics has turned to mush. Your reporting on this situation is much needed so the Scottville citizenry have some knowledge of how the people in charge are acting outside of the Scottville City Charter's boundaries. The same Charter meant to provide a smooth operation of Government action.

"A municipal charter is the basic document that defines the organization, powers, functions and essential procedures of the city government. The charter is, therefore, the most important legal document of any city."