Thanksgiving Comes Early to Ludington, Christmas Not at All

[XLFD]

You may be surprised to find out that Thanksgiving in Ludington is only one week away, on Thursday, November 21st. You may think I've lost my mind and tell me that Turkey Day can never fall on the 21st since it's always the fourth Thursday in November making it only possible to have the holiday between the 22nd and 28th. But you may be the one who lost your mind, for it's right there as plain as day on the 2019 Ludington calendars all of us Ludingtonians received last winter. Why would city hall take that day off, and the next day off too if it wasn't so?

Neither of us are losing our minds, however, it's just one more glitch that happened to make the City of Ludington 2019 calendar about as reliable as city hall in 2019. You may remember our Happy June 31st article earlier this year when we pointed out the city-produced calendar gave us an extra Monday at the end of June, a Monday which it took from September-- the thirtieth of that month was left off, making the month look like February on a leap year.

To make up for that loss of one autumn day, they had their calendar start the fall season on September 21st rather than the 23rd, as it said everywhere else. Another weird result was also noticed for December. The 2019 calendar notes many holidays, like Thanksgiving and Veteran's Day in November, including many that few people get the day off from during the year, like Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day, Earth Day, National Day of Prayer, National Maritime Day, Sweetest Day and Halloween, but if you look at December 25th (and December 24th) you may be surprised by the lack of a holiday.

Oddly enough, it mentions the name of that holiday on the twelve days preceding it in regards to a DDA sponsored event. At least they got the right days off for city office workers for Christmas, unlike they did for Thanksgiving.

It should come as little surprise that the same people who worked on this calendar were the same people who worked to create the amended Tax Increment Financing (TIF) Plan. First, they went around the city council by creating their own Development Area Citizens Council (DACC) totally unlawfully. Then, after the council finally made the DACC legit in September, the council erred and held an illegitimate public hearing two weeks after on an ambiguous plan lasting 45 or 46 years, capturing 12% or 20% of the downtown district's taxes, and raising either $4.7, $5, or $9.4 million over the life of the plan. It all depended on which part of the plan you read.

It was kind of like looking at a regular calendar and the city calendar at the same time and comparing. Sadly, when the aforementioned TIF Plan came before the council, it was a wholly different set of ambiguous statistics that never was given a public hearing and never looked at or discussed by the DACC. Either 15 or 16 years in duration, the plan spent $5 million on items and projects, yet only raised $1.1 million (or $70,000 less if it was only 15 years).

The two main projects would never get finished over the 15 years with such a plan in place, but still the council passed it without any schedule for completion that's required by law for it to achieve its goals, and nothing in the plan to make up the revenue for the plan's shortfall of nearly $4 million, which was also required by law.

Most of our city councilors likely have their 2019 city calendars hanging up somewhere at their house or business, some have probably noted the glaring mistakes throughout the year thereon. But just like all of the errors and omissions on the amended TIF Plan, six of them would be too craven to mention them for fear of offending their peers-- and potentially getting sanctioned for their observation skills. Instead it's a permutation of praise in the lines of:  "You always do such a great job, Heather, what would we do without you and Jen?" 

This is why many citizens do not trust that their councilor(s) are doing what they need to be doing for policy and for the public.

[Freedom Seeker]

Trust takes years to build, seconds to break, and forever to rebuild.

[Du Wright]

The calendar mistakes are kind of funny in comparison to the DDA TIF issues which are pointed out against the Michigan law.  That's what really breaks down trust in government.  We should have a government that works toward doing things right and citizens or Councilors should not be afraid to point out mistakes or admit mistakes, apologize, and move on to make a better government.  Our new city manager seems to have started out in the right dieection, even saying that he would thank those who point out things done wrong and I think the Mayor even thanked XLFD at least once I heard.  I hope it continues.

[XLFD]

We're all appreciative of the warmth of a fire on a cold day like today, but it's the same fire that can burn your house down tomorrow.

If Mitch truly appreciates my contributions of being a city hall watchdog, as he has averred, that is heartening, because he may realize the difficulty of coping with city hall inertia.  I (and others like yourself) provide him the ability to change directions when his staff fails to do things the proper way, whereas a silent public would not allow him to change a dysfunctional status quo.  

It distinguishes him from the likes of previous managers John Shay and Steve Brock who weren't so adaptive or customer-oriented.  It's a poor state of affairs to think that the new city manager, who works at the behest of the city council, has shown more empathy for the public in his actions than a supermajority of councilors have, who supposedly work at the behest of the public. 

[Freedom Seeker]

Funny mistakes maybe, but is this the caliber of expertise we are to expect from city staff? The "funny" little mistakes are adding up. Maybe there should be some accountability? "Whoever is careless with the truth in small matters cannot be TRUSTED with important matters." Albert Einstein

[AQUAMAN]

Dittos all, this is just dumbness taken to a new high point, and should have been corrected with the printer months ago.

[XLFD]

Amusing thing about that, Aquaman.  In September, the city put a link to this year's calendar and past calendars.  Unlike the thousands of 2019 calendars sent out last year, this one is a corrected calendar-- it has September 30, does not have April 31st, has Thanksgiving on the right day, and moves the November police pension meeting to the 22nd from the 29th.   Christmas is still missing.

Unlike some citizens, I think the city calendar does have some value, but the value decreases if you can't use it as a calendar and decreases even further if a committee meeting changes their schedule, like the DDA did this year by moving their meetings from 3:30 PM to 3 PM in early summer.  Some of the people talking about food trucks at the last DDA meeting were surprised the meeting started a half hour early when their calendar and the newspaper's community calendar still say 3:30 PM.  

[Freedom Seeker]

How interesting that link that the city has a corrected calendar copy and never made a public announcement? Maybe it's a conspiracy to mess with your mind XLFD. Maybe they sent inaccurate calendars to those they want to confuse. Ha ha. No Valentine's day, no Christmas but at least it's an early Thanksgiving.

[XLFD]

The turkey has been in the oven for a couple of hours, the pumpkin pie has finished cooling, just a couple hours away from enjoying Ludington Thanksgiving.  How can one not be thankful of a city so bountiful they allow you to celebrate holidays a week in advance?

[Freedom Seeker]

Happy Thanksgiving today! And thanks for 10 years of enlightening the blind, deaf, and dumb citizens (at the city's maneuvering) of Ludington about what really happens in city government.