Ten Years Ago, Ludington Turned Against Itself

[XLFD]

August 26, 2008, a day that should live in infamy to those who follow Ludington politics.  Ten years ago, a lawsuit against the City of Ludington effectively ended with the settlement's terms agreed to by the city council decided the night before, a cool quarter of a million dollars paid out to a former building inspector.  Ten years ago today, a minor traffic stop started a sequence of events that would lead to a firefighter battling the City's inferno of corrupt behavior over the next ten years.

Jack Byers was hired as the City's new building inspector on May 12, 2006, when the City had a full-time BI (not surprisingly, that position would be eliminated in the budget for 2009).  He previously served as Grand Haven's building inspector, a position he would go back to without further incident, serving until late 2013, and working at that same capacity at Muskegon as late as 2015.

Byers was fired just one year into his Ludington job on May 23, 2007.  A federal lawsuit was filed shortly thereafter, claiming that City Manager John Shay and the City violated the Whistleblowers Protection Act and the Building and Licenses Committee violated the Open Meetings Act.  Specifically, Byers claimed he was fired due to a disagreement regarding building codes at One Ludington Place.

Additionally, Byers noted that he had written a junk ordinance violation for Mayor John Henderson's residence on October 23, 2006 that may have had a part in his disfavor.  After a year on the job, Byers claimed things came to a head after a lunch meeting with John Shay and some E-mails exchanged with the then-city-manager.  According to Byers' lawsuit, Shay claimed contractors made negative (yet conflicting) allegations against Byers and suggested the BI should follow more the spirit of the law rather than the letter of the law.

"I just want you to be able to strike a balance between protecting the public's health, safety, and welfare and not pulling over a driver doing 26 mph in a 25 mph zone." A February 2006 E-mail from Shay said.  "The only times I had problems is when the big money called the city manager or council members to lean on the city manager." Byers said.

On August 12, 2008, the city council went into closed session for a half hour to discuss strategy with their attorney regarding the lawsuit, coming out only with the decision to follow the attorney's advice, a pre-trial settlement conference was held on August 25, which led to the city council meeting that night where a 22 minute closed session was held where followed the council decision to settle the Jack Byers' lawsuit. 

Terms of that August 25th settlement were not disclosed to the public until mid-December, after the tourists had left.  At that time, Shay stated the City would have easily won the case had they decided to go to trial-- the amount of the settlement says the city's insurance agency felt otherwise.

The next day, August 26, 2008, the legal papers were likely drawn up and offered to Byers, and it's likely that LPD Chief Barnett who was present at the closed sessions passed along to his officers that the City had just lost a bundle.  One of those officers, David Krause, was on duty that afternoon, patrolling in the Third Ward.

Krause turned north onto William Street at the west end of Filer Street and saw a bicyclist cross William Street going east on Loomis Street a block away.  Krause attached some significance to this cyclist picking up his cell phone halfway across the street, and to the fact he was going at a moderate clip, indicating he had likely not started from a complete stop.  There was a stop sign on both sides of Loomis.

                                                         Loomis-William Stop Sign in 2008, looking east 

Rather than consider the absence of any traffic besides himself on Loomis, Krause nevertheless, decided to pursue the bicyclist for the perceived infraction, quickly turning on Loomis rumbling behind the rider and blipping his siren.  The bicyclist complied by stopping.  

The rider admitted to not completely stopping at the stop sign, declaring he had done so for his own safety and suggesting that the sign was improperly placed beyond the sidewalk anyway (as seen in the picture, the City would remedy that problem in a few years).  He further aggravated the situation by laughing and slapping his bicycle shorts when Krause asked for his driver's license, and so Krause whipped out a citation which stated that the rider had violated MCL 257.649, a law that applies only to motor vehicles and operators.  What followed was a trip though corruption and intimidation.

I was that rider, a Ludington firefighter finishing a 40 mile bike trek through Mason County, riding across William Street where I had noticed Krause a block away and nobody else to hinder my passing, it was I who picked up a ringing phone, and it was I who was glibly compliant with Officer Krause for the duration of the traffic stop and it was I who noted that I will continue to yield right of way at stop signs without stopping unless necessary, because it's the safest thing for a bicyclist to do.  It was I who illustrated this for the rest of my ride home and ever since.

This simple stop, however, would lead to a series of events that would once again have the city manager and other city officials lining up against one of their own employees who chose to fight for the letter and spirit of the law against a City who decided, post-Byer's lawsuit, to stand for neither.

Like Byers, that employee would fight back.  Unlike Byers, that employee would remain for ten years and counting, catching the City of Ludington regularly going 26 mph (or a whole lot more) in a 25 mph zone.  Rather than saying the City violated right-of-way rules that don't apply, and leveraging the system to find the City guilty in our faulty local courts, I have instead had to fight the system and most every City policy and personnel to make the City do what's right in the realms of transparency and accountability when the irresponsible City repeats infractions over and over again with few signs of ceasing.

Fires were much easier in comparison to the out-of-control conflagrations I have seen coming from city hall in those ten years.

[Freedom Seeker]

Very interesting synopsis, X, of the events that have affected probably a majority of the citizens of Ludington for the last ten years. A couple of thoughts as I read and re-read your thoughtful analysis. First, now it all makes sense ... Could Byers have been fired in retribution to issuing a junk violation to John Henderson? I wonder what the junk was? I never heard that before and tend to think that may have been a start to the firing and your stumbling into the trip through corruption and intimidation.

In conjunction with this, bear with me a little Sunday philosophy. I couldn't help think of your title "... Ludington turned against itself" throws my mind into gear thinking about a term from the Bible called "... Hardening of one's heart" which often leads to their consciences become seared (I Tim. 4:1-2; Romans 1:18-24) which leads to a similar "turning against itself."

Men (and women, councilors) who suppress the truth are often eventually given over to the sinful desires of their hardened hearts. Hardening one's heart can mean a few things but simply put can mean turning from God's way to justify their own (wrong or evil) way. And the more that happens the harder their heart gets, especially when they have high-paid lawyers, educated in obsfuscation of truth, to justify their wrong ways. It's a shameful obvious truth to a simple heart that pride has turned the the hearts of some in Ludington and has created a city often fighting against what is right and just and with a bandwagon of bullies jumping onboard.

[Freedom Seeker]

obfuscate; from Latin meaning to obscure, to darken.  

[Willy]

It's hard to believe that 10 years have gone by. It's also amazing how much havoc 2 johns can cause a town to endure.

[Freedom Seeker]

Yeah .. and Ludington may suffer another 40 years in debt, like the Israelites wandering in the wilderness. Maybe we will get some leadership soon that don't put their egos above the people, and know a little about saving and planning for infrastructure and roads and sidewalks that benefit all residents instead of just propping up the DDA and tourism. Picture says a thousand words, Willy.

[XLFD]

Thanks for your review and it reminds me that I should have perhaps developed a little more of why I titled the piece like I did.  The city council of late 2008 was a bit different than today's council in that five of the seven councilors had been serving since the beginning of 2000 (nine years experience plus), the two new kids on the block were Castonia (2006) and Holman (2004).  Conversely, today's council has five of seven that have less than two years experience.

The supermajority of the council had been working hand in hand with Mayor Henderson and CM Shay since 2003 (over 5 years) on projects, and yet even with all those leaders and five councilors with a lot of experience, not to mention a very experienced city attorney, they totally screwed up the Byer's situation in a big way, giving many in the public the perception that the City was being ran by the developers rather than officials acting under the law and in the interests of the citizens.  A perception they have not really shaken since.

Another point of interest is that the Building & Licenses Committee which is the subcommittee alleged to have went afoul of the OMA, had Castonia and Holman as members, with Councilor Pete Engblade as chair.   None of those talkative councilors ever explained their part in that mess.  

It's not too surprising, because when I was contacting Shay and the council in 2008 and 2009 about my own concerns with Chief Barnett's conduct and other topics relevant to city policy, I heard nothing back.  Except for my FOIAs to Shay, and those first responses were incredible.  The City had decided it was their best policy to go forward by getting rid of or neutralizing those conscientious employees and officials who they perceived stood in the way of their twisted plans, many of which devolved due to the recession that hit Ludington hard towards the end of 2008.  The City turned upon itself in order to turn more completely bad.

[AQUAMAN]

Well X, congrats. on your anniversary today, and looking forward to another 10 insightful years if things don't change. Previous CM Jim Miller also went on the path of Byers, but instead resigned in fear for what would happen with Hendy as Mayor. Byers had the guts and fortitude to ignore the consequences, and did win in the end. Today, about 4pm, I witnessed another peddle biker that did much worse with his wife ahead of him, and right on Lud. Ave. going east at the corner of Rath Ave.. I was waiting for a green light on the south side to turn onto the avenue, and as our light turned green, the man and woman raced thru the avenue red light, and they were at least 50' apart from one another. That was a red light, not stop sign on the back street of Loomis too. They both ignored the rule for yielding or stopping totally. There still isn't any bike path on the shoulder of the main avenue either yet, so, both of them truly deserved tickets, but, no LPD around I guess.

[XLFD]

Aquaman, you've informally been in the background (and sometimes in the foreground) for more than those ten years.  Your consciousness of the local political scene has often been invaluable, and I have appreciated your support and assistance throughout the last decade, especially early on when it wasn't locally trendy or very safe to speak out against the insulated ruling class around here.  

Your episode reminds me that the tourists who come into town are not only bad drivers, but they seem to be bad riders also.  These guys probably only get their bikes out once or twice a year to ride with their family in the small city of Ludington, so many of them are dangerous.  The skinny ones in bicycle shorts and jerseys are usually the most vilified for zipping around, but generally you rarely see any of these experienced riders do anything to create dangerous situations.