The Twelve Days of Ludington Christmas

[XLFD]

You likely hear the "Twelve Days of Christmas" song at least once every year around this time, what you might not know is the history behind the song.  Christmas Day was just the first day of a dozen of celebrations in Europe since the middle ages that occurred daily between December 25 and January 5.  They were:

• Day 1 (25th December): Christmas Day - celebrating the Birth of Jesus
• Day 2 (26th December also known as Boxing Day): St Stephen’s Day. He was the first Christian martyr (someone who dies for their faith). It's also the day when the Christmas Carol 'Good King Wenceslas' takes place.
• Day 3 (27th December): St John the Apostle (One of Jesus's Disciples and friends)
• Day 4 (28th December): The Feast of the Holy Innocents - when people remember the baby boys which King Herod killed when he was trying to find an....
• Day 5 (29th December): St Thomas Becket. He was Archbishop of Canterbury in the 12th century and was murdered on 29th December 1170 for challenging the King’s authority over Church.
• Day 6 (30th December): St Egwin of Worcester.
• Day 7 (31st December): New Years Eve (known as Hogmanay in Scotland). Pope Sylvester I is traditionally celebrated on this day. He was one of the earliest popes (in the 4th Century). In many central and eastern European countries (including Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Luxembourg, Poland, Slovakia, Switzerland and Slovenia) New Years Eve is still sometimes called 'Silvester'. In the UK, New Years Eve was a traditional day for ‘games’ and sporting competitions. Archery was a very popular sport and during the middle ages it was the law that it had to be practised by all men between ages 17-60 on Sunday after Church! This was so the King had lots of very good archers ready in case he need to go to war!
• Day 8 (1st January): 1st January - Mary, the Mother of Jesus
• Day 9 (2nd January): St. Basil the Great and St. Gregory Nazianzen, two important 4th century Christians.
• Day 10 (3rd January): Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus. This remembers when Jesus was officially 'named' in the Jewish Temple. It's celebrated by different churches on a wide number of different dates!
• Day 11 (4th January): St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, the first American saint, who lived in the 18th and 19th centuries. In the past it also celebrated the feast of Saint Simon Stylites (who lives on a small platform on the top of a pillar for 37 years!).
• Day 12 (5th January also known as Epiphany Eve): St. John Neumann who was the first Bishop in American. He lived in the 19th century.  Twelfth Night was a big time of celebration with people holding large parties. During these parties, often the roles in society were reversed with the servants being served by the rich people.

Thanks to Why Chrismas?

The various gifts mentioned in the song also had significance in an allegorical way.  The partridge in a pear tree symbolizing Christ on the cross, the two turtle doves to peace, all given by a 'true love' who is none other than God Himself (as denoted here).

Most of the festivals, celebrations and saints have long since became a part of history, as has the actual meaning of the twelve days of Christmas, and the meaning of the multitude of gifts given in the song.  Starting tomorrow. we will try to start a new tradition at the Ludington Torch.  A dozen days where we go over what the City of Ludington has wasted your money on over the last year.  This being the first year of this tradition, we will reach into our archives for some of the 'gifts' we have received. 

As always, we encourage our audience to participate either in offering their predictions as to the next day, or suggest a better candidate than what is offered for the anti-gift the taxpayers have been given by their government.  At the same time, we wish to sincerely wish you a Merry Christmas and the ability to celebrate the season through the twelfth night.

"On the first day of Christmas, our city spent wastefully..."

[XLFD]

On the eighth day of Christmas, our city spent wastefully, on:

Eight West End phases,

Seven Needy Counc'lors,

Six Secret A-greements,

Five Golden Signs;

Four Friday Night Lives,

Three years o'erbillings,

Two tower paintings, and

Another change for North James Street."

In March of 2014, John Shay remarked about the mostly secret West End of Ludington Avenue project:  "There are probably actually seven or eight phases, and the phase numbers were not written in stone.  It was depending on what type of funding we get through grants and donations... If this phase goes through, we would take a look and see what's the next phase to do."

What is the West End project entail?  Who knows, we have petitioned the MI DNR for $300,000 over the last three years using fraudulent information in our applications, thanks to Ludington's prevaricator-in-chief John Shay.  The local match would have been nearly $200,000 for phase one of the project, which effectively is to only have a walkway built between the Ludington breakwall and the end of Ludington Avenue, and to extend electrical lights in the area. 

Beyond the three phases outlined in graphical presentations there has been no other indication to the general public, nor have they been readily available through FOIA requests.  These three phases were stated to cost over $2 million ten years ago.  Being that the phases are geared to get $300,000 grants from the MI DNR, and thus cost roughly a half million, we are looking to invest in a $4 million dollar venture, where the State DNR is reluctant to bite, and the people who want it are reluctant to share the details to it. 

From what I've seen and heard, we want to take out a natural sand dune, put lights up on the beach, pave the beach shoreline, and create adverse traffic situations.  What sort of dystopian mind wants to spend millions on that? 

[XLFD]

"On the ninth day of Christmas, our city spent wastefully, on:

Nine Lawsuits Settlin',

Eight West End phases,

Seven Needy Counc'lors,

Six Secret A-greements,

Five Golden Signs;

Four Friday Night Lives,

Three years o'erbillings,

Two tower paintings, and

Another change for North James Street."

McAdam v. Warmuskerken/COL, et. al., Malone v. York/Saylor/COL, Rotta v. Shay/COL, Byers v. COL, Rotta v. COL (OMA 2012-13), Burns v. Sailor/COL, Burke v. Ludington, Swiger/Rotta v. COL, and Swiger/Rotta v. COL Appeal.  The first six claimed wrongful action by Ludington city officials of a grand sort, three were effectively police brutality lawsuits that the COL settled, three claimed inappropriate actions by higher officials including the city council and city manager.  The citizens paid the legal bill and the settling amount, which were as high as $250,000.  The COL was primarily covered by their insurance over the majority of these claims.  Of course, continued bad behavior by our officials will keep our insurance rates high, and may eventually lead to the COL not being able to be insured.

The last three lawsuits were primarily defended by the City Attorneys at a direct cost to the taxpayers.  The attorney fees alone for the FOIA lawsuits (Swiger) have been around $25,000, just because the city manager refused to release the business records of the City with Nick Tykoski and his business.  The unethical, uncontracted business was only released after the city manager perjured himself by claiming, in a false affidavit, that he had already provided plaintiff with the records, and was then caught not providing over two dozen records referred to on other documents.  The Burke lawsuit is kind of a mystery, and the COL has been reluctant to give out any records over the lawsuit.

Ludingtonians aren't a litigious lot; look at the roadblocks they had to face in the local circuit court.  But the City of Ludington need to start following the laws if they want to prevent being sued in the future and there sees little incentive for them to do so when the ultimate payer is their insurance and taxpayers. 

[XLFD]

"On the tenth day of Christmas, our city spent wastefully, on:

Ten Cops Reserving,

Nine Lawsuits Settlin',

Eight West End phases,

Seven Needy Counc'lors,

Six Secret A-greements,

Five Golden Signs;

Four Friday Night Lives,

Three years o'erbillings,

Two tower paintings, and

Another change for North James Street."

At first glance, the police reserves look like a good purchase for the city.  Ten or more police officers serving the city on a voluntary basis being paid nothing other than to maintain their equipment and uniforms, and occasional health care expenses amounting to about $2000 a year total.  But what isn't in the equation is that these reserve officers have no real authority other than what is assigned to them by LPD Chief Mark Barnett, no licensing, and come with a great deal of potential liability costs to the city if the officers get injured or do something injurious to others and their rights while serving the chief. 

Reserve officers apparently can carry guns where common folks cannot, wear the uniform and badge of the LPD, access the Law Enforcement Information Network (LEIN), etc., while not having any clear standards or training recognized by the State's police licensing authority (MCOLES), just apparently as to what is Chief Barnett's whim.  Yet, the authority of any of these officers to do anything can be challenged as being illegitimate, and it has recently been noted that an arrest assisted by LPD R/O Castonia with Ludington's Errant Assailor, Officer Aaron Sailor, was done in direct violation of the arrestee's rights.

Oakley, MI, the town with 100 police reservists for their 300 residents, recently had to disband their police due to the problems being caused by the illegitimate reservists and the liability recognized by insurance companies that refused to offer Oakley any municipal insurance, and the unaccountability of their force.  The members names are still being kept secret from the public, led by 'reserve officer attorneys'.  Our Ludington Mayor Ryan Cox still refuses to quit his reserve officer sergeantship even while mayor, despite the obvious conflicts of duties and command-chains it presents that make the two positions incompatible offices. 

[Willy]

Funny and very creative. Of the course the material for the new version of the song really isn't funny and should not even exist if not for corruption.

[XLFD]

It's a tragicomedy, where the gifts go not to the public at large, but to the officials, cronies and other abusers of the system.  Such graft that works against the public good can only go forth with the consent of the corrupted officials with each other, with contempt for the people that pay them to do so.

[XLFD]

"On the eleventh day of Christmas, our city spent wastefully, on:

Eleven Rental Rehabs,

Ten Cops Reserving,

Nine Lawsuits Settlin',

Eight West End phases,

Seven Needy Counc'lors,

Six Secret A-greements,

Five Golden Signs;

Four Friday Night Lives,

Three years o'erbillings,

Two tower paintings, and

Another change for North James Street."

One of the things I learned from the public meetings regarding our areas' comprehensive master plans with LIAA (which was mostly a waste of $30,000 from Ludington and the three other government units) was that our area has a large percentage of vacant residential units.  The 911 millage backers also pointed out this fact. 

So how should we best spend our public money?  Should we put aside a lot of money to allow downtown business owners to take their upper stories and make more apartments out of them?  That's what the State believes is smart, and our grant writers here in Ludington have been working overtime to get the money involved in the process.  The City gets their cut of 10% in administration fees, while the property owner can get up to $40,000 for each new living unit put into their existing downtown property. 

Luminaries like Brewmeister Budde Reed and Chamberwoman Kathy MacLean have benefitted from the program by applying for it before they had clear title to their properties downtown, thereby defrauding the system.  This was  facilitated by our Community Development Director Heather Venzke Tykoski who was administering the program.  Currently, a ton of money is going to the owners of the Book Mark at 201 S. Rath to put in nine units where there were none before in an expansion upward, creating a second floor where there was none before.  Just considering the rental rehab program and no others, the creation of these nine units will cost Michigan taxpayers $400,000 and put up our vacancy numbers even more even if our people move into these units. 

Rental rehab units have a lot of drawbacks (short list: lack of parking, no back yards, no barbecuing, lack of natural light (windows), street noise, plus the ongoing task of hiking groceries, supplies and furniture up flights of stairs) for residents in an area like this, where people have a lot of choice over where to live for roughly the same price.  And the RR program has never been proven significantly effective for economic development except in some crazy sociologist's petri dish.

[XLFD]

The twelfth night has arrived, the Christmas season will soon officially be over, as well as our new verses:

"On the twelfth day of Christmas, our city spent wastefully, on:

Twelve Transient Docks,

Eleven Rental Rehabs,

Ten Cops Reserving,

Nine Lawsuits Settlin',

Eight West End phases,

Seven Needy Counc'lors,

Six Secret A-greements,

Five Golden Signs;

Four Friday Night Lives,

Three years o'erbillings,

Two tower paintings, and

Another change for North James Street."

One of Mayor Henderson's borrowed brainchildren, the transient docks were envisioned to allow users of the Ludington City Marina a quicker way to get to the downtown and allow the city to sell more seasonal slips.  The one million dollar project funded almost evenly with city and state funds had a seawall replace the natural rock barrier on the marina's north side, a public walkway, multiple lights, and about a dozen slips added over four years ago. 

This large investment of public resources has been largely unused except for the police/fire boat and the conservation officer's boat that moor there throughout the summer.  It is widely speculated that the poorly-lit unsafe walkway of the new transient docks was instrumental in the death of Chinese immigrant Lingyan Zou back in 2012, and it is likely to continue to pose a threat with all the tripping hazards present.  Fortunately, all the expensive cameras in the marina will be turned away from the most hazardous areas. 

The realization of any return from this public investment will happen long after the existing structures will have to be replaced for maintenance at another great cost.  Fortunately for them, unlike our private marina owners, they can once again tap into nearly-limitless public funds to do so. 

In addition, I have heard from more than one source, and I totally agree, that the loss of the natural rock on the north side of the marina, replaced with a rusty seawall between the natural rock on the east and west sides, has detracted a lot from the aesthetics of the marina.  What were they thinking?

[Willy]

Love the 12 days of Christmas song you wrote X. I'm posting a couple of photos I took back in 2009 so folks can see what the wasting of a million dollars looks like.