Scottville's 2025 New Year's Resolution: F*ck Tha Police

[XLFD]

The January 13, 2025 meeting of the Scottville City Commission was historical in that the five members of the depleted commission unanimously decided, without any regard to the public's opinion, to take the steps needed to dissolve the Scottville Police Department (SPD) and replace it with the same county sheriff coverage as Eden Township receives.

This monumental act of (choose your own relevant abstract noun) came out of the blue, without a mention of the controversial move anywhere in the commissioner's agenda packet for the meeting.  While this would typically indicate that this was coming as a surprise to the commission, the approximately three dozen attendees of the meeting would see seasoned commissioner Marcy Spencer whip out a legal-sounding resolution/motion obviously prepared beforehand by the city attorney to disband the SPD and have general coverage only by the Mason County Sheriff's Office (MCSO).  

The commission seem mesmerized by City Manager Clarence Goodlein weaving a lengthy 15-minute lecture on dictatorships of state emergency financial managers, the implausibility of raising millage rates enough via election to fund the SPD, and the horrors of what would happen if their nearly $500,000 deficit accrued over three years wasn't cured by some necessary surgery.  Yes, the appendix must come out, even when it was the healthiest it may have ever been.

Goodlein has had a distinguished career in multiple fields including not only city management, but also law enforcement and psychology.  Back when he was getting his master's degree in clinical psychology at the University of Detroit-Mercy in the early nineties, he could have easily rubbed shoulders with Scottville's other mercenary official, City Attorney Mark Nettleton, attending that same college's school of law beginning the year Goodlein graduated.  The way they seamlessly interact and play off each other between themselves in every administrative action so far indicates some collegiality existing between them.  

Tonight, Nettleton would remain silent through Goodlein's presentation, but it was clear he was on board with the invasive procedure through his body language and especially through his already prepared motion, giving the commission a scalpel to excise the offensive body part:  the SPD.  It was like 2020 revisited, where the people on the commission were told by the experts that shooting themselves in the foot would cure their headache.  And while they each in their own way told the assemblage how difficult it was for them to amputate, they all came to the same conclusion required by the city manager's psychological operation:  F*ck tha police, even though they had absolutely nothing to do in creating Scottville's mismanagement over the last three years.

They all had great things to say about SPD Chief Katrina Skinner and her experienced captain, Steve Wietrzykowski, but in the end the message was clear by their vote: F*ck tha police, with Nettleton With Attitude as the songwriter and MC 'Rence with assisting vocals.  But though this song gets to the truth of their actions this day, the consequences of the action made me think more of the lyrics of a song Johnny Cash wrote and performed late in his career called "Hurt" and how it applied to the city commission and was perhaps a eulogy for the city itself as it enters a new era.

I hurt myself today, to see if I still feel,
I focus on the pain, the only thing that's real.

Obviously, there will be many people who will look at the action of dissolving the SPD as a good thing, but these people have not been showing up at these meetings to show themselves and present their desire, unlike the ones who want to keep the force, business owners, residents, and even a pundit who is very critical of local police acting badly.  They have voiced their support of the department and its current officers; many realize they're more needed as a service than ever because of the transitioning of the Scottville economy towards one based more on dispensing alcohol and marijuana attracting more people and events that require police observation.

On the agenda one would read deep in the items of new business an odd entry titled:  "transmittal of documents pertaining to city's financial difficulties", with nothing in the commissioner's packets about this item.  This would become the time at which Goodlein would introduce his indecent proposal, asking the commissioners to get in bed with him and they could find themselves $500,000 richer in three years. 

I wear this crown of thorns, upon my liar's chair
Full of broken thoughts, I cannot repair.

As someone who has seen Ludington leaders use discrete psychological tactics to silence the power of popular opinion over the last two decades, this reporter was unimpressed with Goodlein's whipping the city commission's ego by telling them they were not experts in running a city like him (or legal experts like the city attorney) and that their job is to listen to what experts say and act on such advisement, rather than their own conscience and the voice of the people who they are elected to represent. 

Goodlein neglected to tell those at the meeting that listening to the misrepresentations of the former 'expert', former City Manager Jimmy Newkirk, is what got Scottville in the hot seat in the first place, and that Attorney Nettleton was making advisement mistakes throughout the period, many of which the Ludington Torch has called out.  This meeting was no different, as I made known on my first comment:

XLFD:  "Two resignation letters were in the council packet from the last meeting.  Eric Thue's letter was dated on December 8th and offered his immediate resignation, Renee Jensen in a similar letter resigned her position effective on December 9th.  According to the people's authority, the Scottville City Charter, section 6.6(b) those positions have been vacant for 36 and 35 days respectively and can only be filled through special elections.  

Your city attorney may suggest those resignations required acknowledgment by the city commission, but he would be wrong.  State law, MCL 201.3(2) says every political subdivision office shall become vacant following the office holder's resignation.  If that isn't clear enough, Michigan supreme court precedents say:  "A public office is vacant "when it is empty, --when it is unoccupied, --when there is no one who, of right, may exercise its functions."  On December 10, that was true for both seats.  Conversely, "An office is not vacant as long as it is supplied with an incumbent who is legally qualified to exercise the powers and perform the duties pertaining to it."  Neither seat could claim an incumbent on December 10.

The city has an action item to make a full-term vacancy appointment at this meeting.  As I reminded you before, the city charter, your city's constitution, says clearly in section 6.6(a) that all city commission appointments last only until the next regular city election, not for a full term.  If you had actually read and understood the charter when you had four legitimate candidates vying for two positions on December 2nd, you idiots wouldn't have been in this mess you made and two good commissioners wouldn't have resigned.  Lastly, because you won't get any good guidance from your high-paid lawyer, once these two seats are filled by special election, they will be able to serve until 2028, see section 6.6(b) of the charter again. [END comment]

The various legal assertions made are found in the links and are clear in that charter section, which the city's expert in legal matters either has never read, or who just doesn't care what it says.  The latter is likely the case, as he would not justify the unlawful act of appointing a commissioner later on.  As an aside, the public notice for the two open positions once again claims the appointed commissioner's terms will end in 2028 rather than 2026.  If Attorney Nettleton continually breaks the law (both local and state) so obviously here, why should he be trusted in anything else he does in the legal sense?  This guy's carcass should be hanging up across the street in the backrooms of Schoenberger's Market (aka Holden's Home Emporium) rather than the remains of the careers of two SPD officials.

Beneath the stains of time, the feelings disappear
You are someone else, I'm still right here.

Forewarned by the MCP propaganda piece, Sue Evans, Darlene Roedig, Misty Porter, and Tim Lewis would comment during the first period, in defense of the police or a millage to fund them, with Roedig asking for supplements to the agenda provided (which are provided on the internet, but not available to the many people of the city without such access).  Lewis, Michigan police union agent, gave the citizens some idea that there was something bigger going on that night, rising to Chief Skinner's and the SPD's defense vigorously in a manner that made the action look imminent.  He correctly said that the prior city manager didn't know what the Hell he was doing, but that Skinner kept her department within the budget every year.  

Four items of routine nature were dispatched:  updating poverty guidelines for taxation purposes, appointing Goodlein to the Brownfield Rehab Authority, appointing Treasurer Kathy Shafer to be the city's representative on the LMTA, and making a DDA appointment.  Then the Goodlein lecture/psyop, followed by every commissioner's wringing of hands and their own version of "I hate to see the kidnappers (city administrators) do away with Katrina and Steve, but we really can't part with this money right now." 

These clowncilors (a term that the Ludington Torch has now revived) had their own duty to have Goodlein supply them with all of the data and alternatives before making such a decision as they did, just like they should have been taking Newkirk to task for hiring both an expensive attorney and building inspector service when both would break the bank and be completely unnecessary.  The Ludington Torch was surely giving them Hell, if we can borrow the place name from Mr. Lewis, at the time.

What have I become?  My sweetest friend
Everyone I know goes away, in the end.

After unlawfully appointing the only applicant for the two open clowncilor positions, Jamie Daws, they made no indication about what they were going to do in regard to the special election needed to fill the other lawfully.  Goodlein warned us about the costs of a special election to the city at the prior meeting, but the city only posted the openings in a very limited manner, on their official website, but not on their social media or other marketing venues.  If a special election's cost would put a strain on the overstrained budget, why wouldn't the experts do a better job of recruiting citizens for the job?  And if they were interested in following the law, why wouldn't they call a special meeting to do the appointments within 30 days?

Their last action item would have them go into closed session under section 8(h) of the Open Meetings Act to resolve their ongoing issue with Nordlund & Associates.  Last summer, agents of N&A ruptured a water main coming from Ludington and the city incurred some financial damages for mitigating the situation over the course of a weekend when the water source for the citizens was compromised.  For months, the city expert has been sending correspondence to N&A to get repayment from them for damages incurred, but they have not replied.

For the record, the Ludington Torch talked with N&A and their claim seems to be that the City of Ludington (COL) was at fault for mismarking the dig area.  Scottville experts think otherwise, and want to collect damages, even though the COL has tacitly held N&A not at fault by not seeking their own damages for what is effectively the rupturing of their pipeline.  We would question the propriety of the clowncil going into closed session to discuss such a matter, as they came out and immediately passed a motion to sue N&A in small claims court for damages.

XLFD:  "I added up the invoices for the city attorney for the calendar year of 2024, it's over $100,000, and it seems that every time I come here, I'm griping about why the city isn't following either state or local law in their actions.  Is this money well spent? Tracy Thompson's yearly retainer was usually about a tenth of that, and he gave quality advice for decades.  There's 80 to 90 thousand of savings right there if you can get Thompson back.

You just went into a closed session, using the rationale apparently that the attorney had a written legal opinion about the Nordlund incident, and thereby the commission was considering material presumedly exempt from FOIA due to the common law attorney-client privilege and thus section 8(h) of the Open Meetings Act applied as a purpose to go into closed session.  In Herald Co. Inc. v Tax Tribunal at 87, the court ruled that "when faced with FOIA exempt material as applied to the OMA, the [public body] must 1) state on the record those documents it deems exempt under the FOIA together with the associated FOIA exemption justifying the document's nondisclosure, 2) describe those documents unless description would defeat the purpose of the nondisclosure, and 3) complete this process on the record in open session before conducting the closed hearing.  You didn't do that.

You chose completely secrecy and chose to claim the privilege for some unknown reason.  If you had pending litigation with Nordlund for the damages they caused, then a closed session is likely warranted, but claiming privilege on this information just to cover up your deliberations on what course to take is a disservice to the citizens of Scottville who deserve some transparency after many years of unwarranted secrecy at a costly price.  Culminating at this meeting with the dissolution of the police force without anything in your packet indicting that action."  [END comment]

Other voices echoed some of my displeasure with the secret action and some chose the other tack of acceptance, praising and thanking the now-former Police Chief Katrina Skinner, who showed remarkable restraint and dignity in not actively participating at the meeting where she and her department was effectively wiped away, while the clowncil ignored their own charter in trying to expand their ranks.

And you could have it all, my empire of dirt
I will let you down, I will make you hurt.

If I could start again, a million miles away
I would keep myself, I would find a way.

[Willy]

Was it ever explained, why or how, Scottville is $500,000 in the hole? Do you know if any employee of the police dept. had prior knowledge that they were going to be tossed out the door? Ir's hard to understand how a small community like Scottville can get so screwed up. If having the Sheriff in charge is going to save money and will enhance citizens protection then why hasn't this happened before now? Where are the voters who put these people in power? If I lived in Scottville I would move out of that town [asap] because they seem to be heading for a crash and burn. It's sad to see Scottville in such an unnecessary state of chaos. Your correct about the possible increase in the crime rate  because of the open arms extended to the boozers and potheads. Cash had his own crash and burn moments as well. Good analogy.  Excellent coverage of Scottvilles troubles, X. 

[XLFD]

I was disappointed that this major decision was reduced to one-dimensional analysis by a city manager that has served less than a year and commutes from Luther.  I've looked at ideas like this before in localities in Copsolidation in 2011 and back in 2015 when Ed Hahn floated the idea in Scottville to disband the SPD as a money saving venture, also looking at a similar move in Pontiac which reduced crime.  I even had a Facebook poll last year that had about 5 in 9 respondents take the dissolving the SPD force option.  

The point is, I could easily be swayed to accept that the best move for Scottville is to go commando, but Scottville City Hallers avoided looking at the multidimensional effects, side effects, and engaging with the public.  Did they violate the law in doing so?  No, but they once again showed they operate in secrecy and avoid controversial issues by burying them.

The citizens should be hurt from this, the city will be hurt in the long road as you have imagined, and yo0u may see an exodus from the city limits for what do they have to offer now other than ungodly water and sewer rates and a growing economy of vice.