The Twisted and Gnarled Ascendance of the Mighty Oakes

[XLFD]

The Ludington Torch has failed to provide a recap of the June 10, 2024 Ludington City Council meeting and part of the reason for this (other than it being summer) was that two issues at the meeting came up that require analysis on their own merits, and the one that follows this paragraph was stalled so that we could review the proposed minutes available earlier this week.

The surprise for the public was twofold at this meeting.  During the time for councilor comments, Third Ward Councilor Jeanne Oakes announced her resignation from the council very tersely.  In the video of that meeting here's what was said at that point:

Oakes: (41:40 in) I have a letter that I would like to read, this is addressed to Ludington City Councilors and to Mayor Barnett:  Effective immediately, I hereby resign my position as Third Ward Councilor.  I certainly appreciated serving the community and the confidence you had in me."

Other than a thank you from the mayor, nothing else was said by officials about the surprising resignation that wasn't even hinted at in the agenda or by any problems at recent meetings, as Councilor Winczewski went on to the next topic, but then First Ward Councilor Ted May let the cat out of the bag as far as what had already been decided in secret by the council, outside of an open meeting.  

Ted May:  (44:45 in) "I really want to extend my thanks and admiration for your willingness to give up your summer and become the temporary city manager.  I know it's not going to be easy for you, it's one heck of a gesture, I know that it's more than magnanimous, it's really outstanding and we will be well served.  Thanks"

This was an admission that this was all planned out before by council, and if you look at the body language of the other officials, they were aware that Teddy let the cat out of the bag too soon.  The city clerk would leave that admission of a decision being made outside of the open meeting by the council to appoint Oakes in the proposed minutes:  

At 54:15 into the meeting, Mayor Barneet would announce an additional agenda item that wasn't on the agenda or ever added, but treated as if it was.  Oakes name has not been brought up at any of the committee meetings, so this was a totally sneaky move on the city's part.

Barnett:  "Next part of the agenda is regarding the appointment of full-time interim City Manager Jeanne Oakes.  It's my honor to present the appointment of Ms. Jeanne Oakes as interim Ludington city manager to council tonight (he went through her resume) It is my intention that Jeanne Oakes appointment would be effective immediately, that she would be compensated $6500 per month while acting as interim city manager, the appointment would be effective for a period up to six months and a written contract would be presented to council for its consideration at the June 24th meeting, and I would ask for a motion to support your vote of consent."

As multiple citizens looked on in shock at the proceedings, the council welcomed her back.  There are a lot of issues involved with this spur of the moment action, which was obviously well thought out by councilors beforehand.  They appointed her as an administrative officer immediately, before any contract has been made or approved by council, this goes against multiple parts of the charter and just isn't a good business model.  

The charter does not recognize the employing of an interim city manager, only an acting city manager, so if an interim city manager is hired, they must do so through ordinance under direction of the city manager not the mayor, by section 10-8.  The minutes reflect that the appointment was made, and thus the city still has City Manager Foster through the next meeting, an assistant city manager, and this interim city manager all employed at once, the latter having no job description at all during this period but earning over $3000 between these two meetings.  

Rather than waste a lot of extra cash to do things unethically and illegally, they should have introduced an ordinance that evening that could have had its first reading with their intent to hire Oakes for the position at the June 24th meeting when Foster retires and put in it a description of what her duties would entail and her remuneration.  Oakes could have finished up the June 10th meeting on the dais and announce her intention of resigning from the council, should the rest of the council take up her offer.  

Instead, every city official that was part of this subterfuge and part of the decisions made out of open session should be looked at with distrust, which is surely not what you want with your local leaders.  This sordid affair only emphasized my last comment, which dwelt on some of the city's past iniquities and was interrupted rudely by the mayor in the middle of a sentence:

XLFD: (57:15 in) "I rarely applaud this body's public service, but tonight I will make an exception.  Enjoy a well-deserved lawsuit for failure to perform your basic duties. (applause during service of FOIA fee lawsuit).

Ludington has a long history of greatness over its first 150 years with which to be very proud of and which we should be striving to continue. But now, we are a city in decline. We are a failing city. We are a city where the representatives of the people see families suffering from nearly double digit inflation and tack on a $300,000 tax hike to spite them. We are a city where our council calls a playground commercial property, not once, but twice, in order to maximize the subsidization of a Grand Rapids developer who has developed nothing but distrust since 2021. We are a city where the county has to step in to stop the fraud and ease the burden on the rest of the public who pays for that subsidization.

We are a city where we take vast sums of money out of our general fund and use that money for improvements of so-called public enterprise funds ran by the city, directly in competition with private marina and campground businesses. We are a city where our officials fail to recognize how such unfair practices impact those businesses and their families. We are a city where competitive bidding has been thrown out in favor of the worst types of cronyism, where the people's money is thrown away not based on value, but by friendships, filiality, and influence.

We are a city where our mayor lies unrepentantly and we hire killers to take the lives of wildlife in a city park, where nobody has ever raised a formal complaint about them and where our visitors and their children will be so disappointed when they find out that they may not have the joy of seeing the deer they saw last year because they are being served to Lansing families untested for contamination, [interruption] courtesy of our $20,000 boondoggle...."  [End Comment]

Not surprisingly, the minutes would leave off any mention that the city council's actions were why the city was failing, and County Commissioner Les Johnson, former councilor, would also deflect the blame towards the one paying attention, as per the usual, in his comment.    

[Willy]

I would like to add all the wasted attorney fees spent by the City to legitimize and defend their corrupt behavior. These foolish people need to attend ethics classes as well as take courses regarding the Constitution. How is Ludington so lucky to continually have such obviously corrupt people running the City. Oh, that's right it's the voters who give these shysters the keys to City Hall. Thanks for the report X.