Back in mid-February, it came as a big surprise that Ludington's City Manager John Shay was a finalist for the Holland Township supervisor position, a story that was broke by the Holland Sentinel and picked up by the Ludington Torch and other local sources for news.  The process Holland Township used for selecting their next executive appears to have violated the Open Meetings Act, according to a February 6 article in the Holland newspaper, in keeping the public completely out of the process.  They noted "that search committee has been given the authority to select finalists; this requires that committee to comply with the Open Meetings Act"

After this allegation was aired, the township revealed those finalists, one of who was Shay.  The position had become open in November 2017 when the previous supervisor noted he would resign in May 2018.  This opening was likely known to John Shay when his one-year contract with Ludington was approved with glowing praise from the city council at their meeting held on December 18, 2017.  Before their testimonials I had one of my own during the public comment:

"Thirty three months ago I proffered this council ten strong reasons why they should fire John Shay, I could amend that with at least ten more strong reasons at this point, all based on performance of his job, all that can be rationally supported by facts and public records.
I cannot fathom why such an abysmal record would be supported by this council, except through fear of the repercussions for not towing the line and breaking up part of the gang. Sad, that fear is our city's primary motivator, that secrecy is our city's primary protocol, and that conformity to corruption is our city's primary objective.
So you may forgive John Shay for costing the taxpayers millions of dollars for not abiding by the competitive bidding process, or for allowing the city attorney to overbill for three years until they were caught, or for conducting business and initiatives illegally outside of the public view, or for ignoring the infrastructure at the public's peril until the DEQ came a-knockin', and still be able to sleep well at night. I couldn't do that."

Throughout the years, I have been critical of the city manager for either unethical conduct or bad policy that he initiated, so there may have been a cumulative effect leading him to seek greener pastures.  Shortly after this, Shay entered into the secretive process used in Holland when they officially posted the position around Christmas.  

In February, both pro- and anti- Shay people gave me some credit for giving Shay a good reason to vacate Ludington, at the time I figured it was more his doing, since he had put Ludington in massive debt paying for infrastructure maintenance and ballooning out-of-control city pensions and other fringes he had a massive part in creating.  Another bowling alley block development was in the process of going south, regardless he had the City go $2 million more into debt to build a new fire station on the edge of town.  He had this and a lot more of his creation to run away from.

When he was passed over by Holland Township (and I have been thanked for that by a couple people from that area who apprised their officials that Shay was not the guy, using multiple articles from the LT to stress that point-- much to my horror) Shay's fellow officials seemed willing to bend over backwards to try and keep John Shay leading to more city-manager-friendly charter proposals being made.  For about a month, everybody ignored the issue officially, but at the March 19, 2018 LCC meeting I made a reference to the wanderlust of Shay at the end of my first comment:

"... the city manager fails to tell you that a properly noticed public hearing must also take place prior to April 1st for committing to the application for the specific improvements to satisfy the public input requirements. Perhaps had he not been using all of his energy and time preparing for and travelling to clandestine interviews with Holland Township officials for a job he is ill-suited for, he could have had the time and energy to do this right."

Shay's dependable go-to on the council took this as a 'directed personal attack', and said so at the end of the meeting.  She made a brief comment and handed me her copy of it at the end of the meeting.  

This was the same councilor who sat through last meeting happily listening to former Mayor Henderson make real personal attacks against me from the podium.  I commented on an official's public acts and omissions in making a true statement.  Shay almost certainly went to the interviews in Holland for his own personal business during the business day, when he was supposedly being paid nearly $70 an hour in wages and benefits by the Ludington taxpayer.  Just like he did in West Olive, interviewing for the job he got.   

But it appears that my observation may have served as an impetus for Shay to try and get away again.  In records from a recent Ottawa County FOIA response, he sends out his resume and application on March 20th, the day after my comments and the councilor's grand defense of civility.  His cover letter's conclusion:  "My entire almost 20 year career in local government has been dedicated to providing efficient and effective services to our citizens in a fiscally conservative and ethical manner."

The impression I get is that Shay wanted to keep this totally covert, as the three references he gives are all totally outside the Ludington area, with people he must rarely contact due to their distance from him (250, 160, and 90 miles away).  

Jeff Mueller:  a recruiter for the Michigan Municipal League from Detroit

Mark Uyl:  a Michigan High School Athletic Assn. Executive Director from DeWitt (near Lansing)

Keith Van Beek:  City Manager from Holland

Perhaps this is why he always directed councilors to contract with Grand Rapids contractors that would charge multiple times more than local ones; Shay's closest buddies couldn't live in the same area code as him.  Or maybe he just didn't have any pride in our local businesses, similar to a scorn he often shown for the views of our people when they clashed with his.

John Shay will likely never admit that I was the person that allowed him to realize a positive career move was better than the future disaster he was creating in Ludington.  Likewise, I will never boast that I was his muse, because all I did was report that he had NOT been dedicated to providing efficient and effective services to our citizens in a fiscally conservative and ethical manner.  Did he finally realize that reality didn't match his own perceptions?  

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All Shay and the Council needed to do is to not act like children when X informed them that their behavior was bordering on corruption. A minor adjustment in attitude by them and a major adjustment in carrying out their duties as required by law and ending their vindictive behavior toward X would surely have gone a long way to help them serve the citizens of Ludington in a more positive fashion. Instead they doubled down on deception and bad governance while holding grudges they themselves created. How can a City Council be so stupid for so long? My advice to them is work with all the people, not just their pals. 

I'm hopeful that Steve Brock will come into the interim city manager position having the personal detachment to move the council away from their past grudges and prejudices.  That will be a tall order, however, if he does achieve it, I hope he may consider more of a commitment to the city.  

With many unfinished projects of dubious merit from the Shay era, I sense there will still be some friction between concerned citizens and the city council for the rest of the year.  Some of the worst city hall actors may try to fill the current power vacuum with their own egos and odd ideas, so this could get interesting.

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