Scottville's Old Guard Juggernaut Rolls Another One Out

[XLFD]

The election in Scottville in 2022 had looked like a mandate for change in their leadership.  The sitting mayor would finish dead last among four names on the ballot vying for three spots,  A young untested, political newcomer finished first, beating the two other seasoned incumbents in the race; the people of Scottville appeared to be telling their city commission that they wanted change from what they were seeing as a dysfunctional group of officials.

Commissioner Rob Alway originally picked up on the mandate as he would resign the day after the results were finalized and shown he had won reelection.  One could tell from that letter that he felt part of a new minority with little political power, in frustration he recklessly slandered many of his former peers with information that he could only label as rumor.  It looked promising that the new commission would be led by the election winner Kelly Pettit, and other intelligent young voices on the commission with more municipal experience, Nathan Yeomans, Ryan Graham.  Not surprisingly, these were the people attacked by the retiring Alway as being the biggest threat to Scottville rather than the promising future.

      New Commissioners Nathan Yeomans and Ryan Graham starting their challenging journey with an oath after the 2020 election

But then the old guard struck back.  Mysteriously, the other two sitting commissioners closely aligned with Spencer and Alway, Aaron Seiter and Darcy Copenhaver, would miss the two November meetings and the remaining three would be told by the new city attorney they did not constitute a quorum to conduct city business.  The first December meeting would have Rob Alway back as if he had never resigned and a plan to appoint a commissioner to fill a vacancy for a partial term that wasn't filled by the election.  The last 2022 meeting feature would have Marcy Spencer back on the commission, the first meeting of 2023 would see her assume her old spot as mayor.

This return of the same old power structure that the electors tried to vote out was further assisted by a sense of futility by the trio whose future looked so promising after Alway fled.  This led to Commissioner Yeomans resigning in front of the first 2023 meeting in a classy letter that only hints at his frustration with the turn of events:

Commissioner Graham's absence at that meeting signaled that he was also having a hard time seeing the commission head back into a failed direction, he would confirm that suspicion by resigning the week before this Monday's meeting, being a little more specific in claiming there was a 'toxic environment created by existing leadership' that could wind up badly on him and his family:

The people that are leaving now are not the ones who decided to ignore the charter and take away the rights of the people to address the commission before the business of the meeting is conducted, those are the ones whose power is waxing and that were not viewed favorably by the people in November.  The people remaining include the one who resigned casting unproven assertions against his peers before changing his mind about the resignation two days after the vacancy was created, and the one who finished last on the ballot resurrected well after the 30 day window of opportunity for fixing a vacancy by appointment as a sorry retread chairing meetings as mayor.

The sorry state of affairs has energized the usually sedate citizens of Scottville who have seen their votes against the status quo turn into an affirmation of the failed policies of the last clowncil.  Former Commissioner Eric Thue, who missed the deadline for filing a petition to be on the ballot, and ran surprisingly well as a write-in candidate in November offered his thoughts on a social media post this weekend after seeing Rob Alway's latest bright idea on selling the historic one-and-only city hall and moving city offices into one of the open storefronts in the downtown.  

"This is unfortunately just the tip of the iceberg regarding nonsense within Scottville City Hall, a handful of city commissioners have manipulated their way through an election to have Marcy Spencer as mayor when she was just voted out it’s time to take notice and take action!

This post is intended to create awareness these are the actions of individuals that do not! have the best interest of the city as a whole.

Please feel free to SHARE

This has gone way too far!

An email sent to Marcy via city

Hello Marcy,

Myself, along with many other citizens could see through the ongoings post-election night, that major injustices have occurred within recent weeks! All the way up to your appointment last night to mayor on Jan. 9th. I’m sure the citizens would be very eager to hear how you, from the background, along with Alway, Deering and other sitting commissioners and officials coordinated. Purposely not only blocking the quorum once, but twice. (First time in cities history). The fact that you Rob and Al felt so threatened that I may be appointed to my left vacant seat You, just couldn’t sit by and have that possibly happen!

Which truth be told I never intended to put my name in the hat again until a much more appropriate time. To me and many others feel your appointment would have been much more respectable if you took the position of mayor without lying, manipulating the charter, manipulating other commissioners to weasel your way back in. As I stated a large majority of the town knows, along with surrounding area officials what has transpired more than even you could ever imagine. You are so desperate to leave your “legacy” that you would stoop so LOW! Well you got it. Though you should have covered your tracks much better than you did from the time of the election to the night of Jan. 9. It's All rather nauseating, immoral, unethical and obviously against the law. I lost the election with valiant effort! But at least I respect the will of the citizens enough to respectfully step down completely to not make a complete spectacle of myself. This will indeed ALL come out in a short amount of time!"  --Eric Thue

As Scottville prepares for its January 23rd meeting, ready to install another specially picked candidate for Yeomans' seat and hoping to replace Graham with another at the first February meeting, the future looks bleak for the crossroads of Mason County unless some kind of wrench can be thrown in the gears of its current regression.  Stay tuned.