Scottville City Commission, October 28, 2024: Police Protection

[XLFD]

In the media business, if you don't have the resources to cover two events happening at the same time, you follow the event with the better story.  That's what this Ludington Torch reporter did at 6 PM on October 28th, going to the Scottville City Commission meeting and forgoing the Ludington City Council meeting, because that's where the best story was, even though it wasn't reflected on either of Scottville's or Ludington's agenda packets.

The underlying, organic controversy had a couple of weeks of brewing, and in the Scottville Senior Center this evening, it boiled, it bubbled, and it spilled out from the public and onto the floor in the waning minutes of the commissioner's meeting, when a patient audience went kinetic with their support of the Scottville Police Department.  The commission's reaction to this follows.

At the last meeting, Commissioner Eric Thue submitted his resignation, leaving the musical-chair commission short-suited, and with an election coming, the two commission leaders, Mayor Marcy Spencer and Mayor Pro Tem Aaron Seiter, are not seeking re-election.  As Thue was running for reelection, his seat will be filled after the election by commission appointment.  

But the packet suggested that the mayors would be at their last meeting, and as a reader of the city charter, I knew that wasn't the case.  So after the usual procedures starting the meeting, I stood up at the first comment period and remarked upon the subject:

XLFD:  "In looking through the packet, I viewed the city manager's farewell message to the mayor and mayor pro tem, suggesting that this was their last meeting as they are not seeking reelection.  But as assuredly as the city charter did not allow the commission appointment of Her Honor in the first place back in December of 2022, that same section of the city charter affirmatively says that these officers have one more meeting to go.  

When the commission in 2021 changed the holding of regular meetings to be held on 2nd and 4th Mondays of months rather than the historical 1st and third Mondays, they changed certain dynamics of the city charter.  Section 4.3 of the charter says a term begins and ends on the second Monday of November of an election year at 7:30 PM.  In the past general elections would be held after the first November meeting, now it's held before the first meeting, meaning that those elected in 8 days will not start their term until after November's first regular meeting already scheduled, and those with terms ending will still be serving as commissioners at 6 PM on November 11th.  

Aaron and Marcy, please don't miss your last meeting on the 11th."  [END Comment]

I've noted many times in the past that Mayor Spencer, with Seiter and Commissioner Darcy Copenhaver at her side, refused to follow the charter in their actions in order for their own personal gain or power.  Now, at the twilight of their career, they appear to be violating that charter one last time just to get out of a potentially sinking ship one meeting early.  The tributes and farewells later would indicate that they're jumping before being over the target, with one final FU to the city charter.

In unfinished actions, City Attorney Mark Nettleton indicated Nordlund still hadn't responded to their inquiries for repayment to the city following the rupture of a water pipe earlier this year and silence by the engineering company for months.  It was noted that Ludington was also trying to get some remuneration from the Nordlund-caused incident.  He also would state that the contract for the city manager was still being worked on. 

In new business, they approved two resolutions, one going after delinquent lot mowing payments, one for delinquent utility bills, making a handful of properties pay these off by adding the debt to their property tax bills.  The commission authorized a RFP (request for proposals) to be made for a water/sewer rate study and forecast to happen.

They introduced an ordinance changing the rental inspection ordinance to include additional relatives of the landlord to the exempted parties who need rental inspections.  Spencer and Seiter were recognized by the interim city manager and their other peers as if it was their last official meeting.

And then the second public comment arrived.  Up until then, the 60 people in attendance had listened patiently, but then the pent-up energy came out.  Steve Slimmen and Former Mayor Bruce Krieger would address property issues, the former describing his rehabilitation of his Columbia Street property, the latter his displeasure of seeing city parks and entrances not being maintained.  But nine others bravely spoke up in broad and unapologetic support of the SPD.  

This was a topic that came up at the prior meeting and discussed earnestly in the media over that time.  The Ludington Pitchfork ran a Facebook poll that showed nearly 60% were in favor of eliminating the SPD, and maybe that's made up of outside bean counters or pragmatists, because these comments came from a wide variety of people.  A wide swath of folks including business owners and the elderly spoke out with anecdotes and concerns with what might occur should the city lose its police force, and each were supported by the crowd with applause after their comments.  This was an utterly organic response.

In the midst of these SPD accolades I spoke up, and even though I was aware of what my own poll told me was the popular sentiment (taking out the SPD), I sided with the minority on Facebook, and what was the majority of citizens at this meeting.   

XLFD:  "I congratulate the city for publishing the financial action report and current revenue expenditure report on the city's website in furthering transparency to the public.  I thank city manager Goodlein for openly discussing the city's financial issues in the media and noting the tough decisions that will have to be made in the near future to revive the city's financial health.  

I have seen the city waste a lot of money recently by costly hiring a rental inspection contractor and a city attorney whose bid was nearly twice as high as another attorney that had relevant experience.  These two errors could be corrected and would save the city a considerable amount of cash annually.  I would caution about doing anything with the Scottville Police Department for a couple of reasons.  One, Katrina and Steve are perhaps the best personnel I've seen on the SPD and it would be a shame to lose quality officers and save less than $20,000 per year to get half of the service calls from county deputies without a stake in the community.

Two, do you really think reduced or no police presence will attract and/or retain more businesses and help Scottville's renaissance?  In the future, please consider carefully what you purchase and what you cut.  [END Comment]

One of the citizens asked whether the commissioners could comment on whether they support the SPD or not, and while the people backed him up, the commissioners decided to play it safe and not say anything about the subject-- even the two who were probably at their last meeting as commissioners.  The city commission wouldn't even thank the citizens for their respectful perspectives on the topic or agree with any assessments made of the SPD that night. 

This is likely because they haven't yet been told by the city manager or city attorney how to properly think about the topic.  If Scottville's future pins on the decisions of this public body, this small town is in some serious trouble.

[XLFD]

Marco Iafretti of the COLDNews wrote his own report on the Scottville meeting this morning, adding some extra details, he did a very commendable job in his assessment and adding details:

In the last three years, the City of Scottville's operational funding and cash reserves have fallen from 62% to -5%. With this in mind, as well as the city-owned roads needing rehabilitation in the amount of about $3,000,000, Interim City Manager Clarence E. Goodlein has formulated a report detailing the potential solutions.

"In the current fiscal year, a prorated reported decrease of current expense allocations should occur, if it is possible, and that decrease should be approximate to that which is proposed for Fiscal Year 2025 and 2026," Goodlein wrote. 

Much of the report was formed on the basis of the site visit by the City's auditor, Brickley DeLong, PC, a certified public accountant in Muskegon.

The public disagrees on the method to defund Scottville Police Department, closing it down. They also disagree with the reassigning of law enforcement duties to the Mason County Sheriff's Office. 

"Reallocation of police services to the County, just has to do with creating extra revenue for the purpose of reallocating the money to things like roads and debt elimination," he said.

Goodlein wrote that Scottville utilizes the two officers in the department for 3,920 hours per year. Whereas the Sheriff's Office provides the City 5,840 hours per year. 

The report also indicates that in the current fiscal year, the amount of funding set aside for the operation of the police department is $230,750. Whereas the current expense for services from the Sheriff's Office is zero. 

"One difference between the extent of police service that is provided by each police agency is that the Scottville Police Officers provide directed police patrol and traffic and ordinance enforcement while the MCSO only responds to calls for service typically," Goodlein said. 

Goodlein wrote that in defunding the City's department, some of that funding could go into assigning a deputy sheriff to the city for 1,960 hours per year. Another way of going about this option, he said, would be to accept any availability from deputies to respond to a request from the city, this would only provide incidental and non-directed patrol, and no regularly assigned deputy sheriff. 

The second option written in the plan would be to create a new position, a part-time Ordinance Officer. This officer would be self-directed and complaint-directed.

If either option is chosen, property and evidence of the police department would be transferred to the Sheriff's Office or to the Michigan State Police. This would be done through a written agreement that would identify the cost for inventory and transfer.

Goodlein said that the cost of the endeavor, at this time, is unknown.

"There's no other place you could re-allocate from. What you could do, I suppose, is do a special millage. If the people wanted to vote to tax themselves more, you could do that," he said. The problem that you face is, the money that's derived from property tax revenue is about $479,000 dollars."

"So, if you divide that by the number of mills the city gets which is 16.8442, you come out with about $28,400 or so per mill. You'd have to get an additional ten mills. We haven't talked with equalization yet to make sure our calculations are correct, but if that were to be true then your property taxes would go up 60%," he said. 

Part of the challenge, Goodlein said, is that paving local street and subdivisions, typically requires communities to fund it with their own tax dollars.

He estimated that if the City went forward without a deputy sheriff they could save $196,632 in 2025.

Whereas going forward with assigning a deputy sheriff to Scottville for 1,960 hours per year, would cost $200,320 in 2025, and decrease to $170,000 in 2026. The savings would be $30,320 in 2025, and $69,363 in 2026.

As it stands in the current fiscal year, the amount of funding set aside for the operation of the police department is $230,750.

At the City Commission meeting of Oct. 28, members of the public explained their disagreement with the talks of closing and defunding the police department. 

"I think just because the city mismanaged their funds, we should not be without the services of the police. The drugs are bad enough as it is, if you get rid of them it's going to get worse and I have three kids in school," David Williams said. 

"I'm praying that cost cutting can be done in any other areas before touching anything related to public safety. By eliminating local police to save the cost, the residents of Scottville will pay the price," Sonia Ratliff said. 

"I recently had to call 911, I work at the EZ Mart at the Shell station, it took the deputies 40 minutes to get here," Christina Cornell said.

"Someone exposed himself, a male exposed himself in the back parking lot (west of State Street) and jumped into people's cars. Officer Steve (Wietrzykowski) came within a minute," another citizen said. 

"I believe that without public service officials here, that it would be a real deterrent for other business owners to come to Scottville," one business owner said. "I had already had an incident here with a theft, and Officer (Katrina) Skinner took care of it within 24 hours. Without her knowledge of the people in town, whereas someone from the Sheriff's Department or State Police, they're not gonna know who these kids were, she knew who they were."

"I used to be a security officer at the Ludington Hospital for a year and a half. The drug overdose rate, at an all-time high. I would always have to call local, county PD. I know the response time is held up," Christopher Jolly said.

Goodlein wrote in the report that if the City Commission decides to direct himself and City Administration to further investigate reassignment of law enforcement duties, then further discussion with the Mason County Government and Sheriff's Office would begin immediately.