Ludington City Council Meeting November 24, 2025: Greedy Grifters and Gruesome Graverobbers

[XLFD]

The November 24, 2025 meeting lasted over two hours and featured bookends telling us about being thankful for what we have.  Pastor Greg East led off the meeting with a timely invocation expressing thanks for officials and invested citizens, wisdom, and discernment.  Councilors Mike Shaw and Kathy Winczewski would combine their message at the very end hoisting up the concepts of thankfulness, sacrifice, and sharing.

What happened in the middle illustrated that the City of Ludington (COL) is not willing to live within these boundaries.  Within the two hours between the pastor and the councilor's altruistic words, we saw a city government whose greed and selfishness were almost impossible to ignore except by those intimately involved with it enough to make kitschy comments at the end and hold a straight face.  

Consider the agenda packet.  Before public comment or any item of business came up, they would go into closed session to discuss trial and settlement strategy with two attorneys from the Rosati law firm, which were apparently retained by the city's risk management firm to represent the city in the case where ASR Real Estate LLC sued the city for their actions regarding the almost-finished AndyS Restaurant.  Nothing was disclosed or shared by the COL indicating why they abandoned their Mika Meyers attorneys who were the city's counsel at just the last meeting.  One wonders why the COL wouldn't use this 'free' resource from the start, rather than wasting a lot of money on a law firm they dismissed only a few years back due to poor performance.

The process took one hour and led to no action, other than the loss of a few people in the audience who braved the wintry conditions.  Jeff Henry would cap the first comments telling the council about contamination around the PM Lake of Ammonium Chloride and PFAS and was concerned why the 5-year Recreation Plan ignored this.  Chuck Sobanski went before him, capping off some complaints about blight in his neighborhood with the grabbing of some deer poop in a plastic baggie, indicating he was still upset with the Cervidae encroaching on his 4th Ward property.  It's always interesting when Chuck speaks, for he is incredibly complimentary towards the COL half the time, and ready to dump deer poop on their dais the other half.

Before those presentations, I spoke regarding a couple of agenda items.  One of those items was one that I have spoken of many times before unfavorably-- but finally was able to congratulate the COL for getting it right; the other item would be taken off of the agenda before they would adopt it.  Once again, it was unclear as to why they would do that action, but maybe they came to the same conclusion I did.

XLFD:  Over 30 months ago this council established an OPRA for the Foster School property, or at least they thought they did.  Tonight, they have decided to withdraw that designation because, surprise, the grifting developers couldn't get the project subsidized by government sources and seem prepared to be giving up.  At the time, I spoke right here saying:

"Nathan Gillette and his parade of LLCs is not unfamiliar with fraud, he bought the Foster School property for less than a tenth of its value by swindling a hapless school board into thinking he would do something special and never did.  Our city is no stranger with fraud either, so it's not surprising that these two would get together and commit even bigger fraud.  This hearing is predicated on the premise that these parties working in concert established an OPRA district encompassing the addresses 504 and 507 E Foster on January 23rd.  That district is illegitimate...". 

And I went on to explain that the school was never commercial property until a contracted assessor of the city declared it to be after the fraud-filled sale.  This body never accepted this simple fact, state officials didn't want to correct it, but fortunately, the county would put a check on another unwarranted subsidy late in 2023 based on the same principle.  

Principles are important and that's why the proposed noise ordinance amended needs to be reconsidered.  People residing throughout the city have been treated evenly by the existing noise ordinance since the founding of Ludington.  With this proposal, those who live in downtown districts will lose the right to quiet enjoyment in their home between the hours of 10 and midnight, rights that other home occupants will enjoy across town.  These people bought their property with the understanding that the government would not discriminate against them and take away rights owned by other citizens at their homes.  

Councilor Terzano claimed this ordinance was to provide clarity and find a balance two meetings ago, the changes made indicate that it has failed to do so. [END Comment]

Councilor John Kreinbrink would tell us that the developer just hasn't done anything with the Foster School property, before the council would unanimously vote to revoke the OPRA certificate.  The noise ordinance second presentation and vote would be postponed to a later date, perhaps with some more rewriting.

After agenda approval, a public hearing on the 2026 Budget was held and I just had to comment on some of the issues I noticed, following last meeting's budget message.  

XLFD:   PrevariKaitlyn [City Manager Kaitlyn Aldrich] gave her 2026 Budget Address at the last meeting, and she gave us a sad story about how the general fund balance is projected to decline sharply over the next three years as the City of Ludington tries to live beyond their means.  I say this because in that address she told us that the city needed to hire both a Financial Manager and a Utility Maintenance Supervisor.  These additional administrative positions would likely cost the city about $200,000 each year in a conservative estimate when you factor in the city's luxury benefits packages.   

I recall back in the economic hardships of 2008, then City Manager Shay made some tough cuts with personnel and benefits, for example he cut the building inspector as a permanent position, hiring a contractor to do those duties, that is until the next city manager resurrected the position without any authority to do so.  I'm not Shay's fanboy by any means, but his measure saved money, and if you plan on having a deficit of one million dollars over the next three budgets, you may want to check your out-of-control spending on new personnel whose necessity have never been established.

This reminds me of county supervisor Kaitlyn Sixpack, who came to town to replace Fabian Knizacky and in the first year figured out that she couldn't handle the workload without hiring Knizacky as a part-time contractor and two additional clerks.  Citizens see this and wonder why the city council and the county board are hiring such unproductive people as C.O.O.s when better qualified candidates were available.  

Additionally, the city manager intends to spend $50,000 during the next three years to work contractually with others on a Headlee Override vote, presumably in 2027, as there is no expense in 2028.  Will this greedy city try to use large amounts of tax dollars in order to indoctrinate the public to accept a massive tax hike while claiming false indigence?  That won't surprise anyone.  {END Comment]

Is there anything greedier than using $50,000 of the taxpayer's money in order to secure a Headlee override by confusing taxpayers into thinking giving themselves and their neighbors an enormous property tax hike.  Every single councilor who approved this budget without comment needs to justify this expense and describe what this cost among the capital improvement plan actually is.  Councilor Tim Large would at least question the downward trend, but nobody would question the moves, which the city manager would say was necessary for future success.

The council would adopt two ordinances for multi-year contracts with Core Technologies (software for LPD) and with the Federal Railroad Administration for coordinating the Leveraging Ludington grant.  Another 5-year contract with Pitney Bowes for lease of a postage machine was introduced.

Four 'runs' sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce were approved, as was the public hearing for the aforementioned Recreation Plan to occur at the December 8th meeting.  A variety of sundry actions were passed after being introduced by the city manager, these were sandwiched around a FOIA appeal made by Terry Grams.  Like Riemer, Grams has a lawsuit with the COL, but his is of a more personal nature.  The COL is alleged to have taken some of the cemetery plots belonging to Grams' family, this recent article lays down his position.  The COL has not publicly explained why they have failed to restore the original deeds established by contract with Grams' grandma.

They would ultimately deny the FOIA request, indicating that Grams could get the records requested through the discovery process, allowing the use of exemption found in section 13(1)(v).  While this is a proper application of this exemption, it leaves the question open as to why Grams, an experienced litigant, felt the need to resort to a FOIA request presuming he had discovery available.  The likely reason is that the attorneys at Mika Meyers are playing games with discovery.  I used discovery back in my very first lawsuit with the COL back in 2011 when they were represented by Richard Wilson III, currently of Mika Meyers and working for the city in this case and couldn't get a thing through all of their objections.

While Jeff Henry would look for COL cooperation as citizens learned more about the PM Lake contamination, I would stand up for the undignified way the COL was treating the family of Terry Grams. 

XLFD:  "Let me defer to Terry Grams' own words to describe the ordeal this public body is placing on this 84 year old man with a solid Ludington pedigree, he summarizes the issue on p. 337 of your packets:  "I respectfully maintain that the City acted improperly in transferring cemetery plots originally held in Eva Grams' name without adhering to the requirements of both Michigan law and the City’s own ordinance (Sec. 14-81 of the Ludington Code of Ordinances). The transfers occurred without a quitclaim deed, without the surrender of original deeds in accordance with legal standards, and without any notarized or properly executed authorization. Instead, the City relied on an unwitnessed, unnotarized, handwritten note signed by individuals who held no legal title to the plots, including one family member who was suffering from dementia at the time."

I've seen much of the evidence, some of that is in your packets, and I can't understand why the city is refusing to honor not only the contract they made but also indisputably, the city and state laws he mentions.  A public body possesses only the honor that is possessed by the majority of this council, and then only if that majority ensures that its other agents honor contracts they've agreed to and the laws they swore an oath to uphold.  I would like to see this council retreat into one of their closed sessions and discuss how you can honor your obligations under the law and under contracts to this man and his clan, then come out and do the honorable thing rather than spend tens of thousands defending your unlawful, dishonorable deed.  [END comment]

It is telling that the two city councilors telling us what Thanksgiving should mean at the end of this meeting would not touch upon why the COL would not honor their contracts or the laws which are fairly clear.  Perhaps they have been prompted by their legal counsel that they should not be making any comments on pending litigation.  If so, they should recognize that they should have a little less fealty for the city corporate, and a little more loyalty to the law and the plight of their constituents.  Otherwise, they should be known as just a bunch of graverobbers without shovels.

The meeting itself showed exactly how little city officials thought of the citizens and how they lacked the wisdom and discernment the pastor tried to invoke, the thankfulness, gratitude, and sharing they virtue signaled at the end.  Namely:

1.  The budget shows the city's economic solvency is dependent on finding a lot more revenue sources, the capital improvement plan shows where they hope to get it by raising taxes.

2.  The city charter mandates they set the 2026 tax rates after approving the budget, they did it instead back in July, before they even worked on the 2026 budget.  

3.  They refused to share information on the two lawsuits that were discussed at this meeting, even relevant public information that would not hinder their defense.

4.  They would not allow for any of the FOIA materials to be released to Terry Grams, despite their relevance to the alleged claims without any indication of them wondering why these weren't supplied through discovery.

5.  They would only discern that the Foster School project was not feasible only after years of property tax abatements given out through fraud.

Beyond this, they continue to ignore the contamination and public marina issues brought forth by Mr. Henry and others while trying to expand their spending on new administrators.  They keep a new business who spent millions to upgrade their property shut down and the COL are on record for crafting an extortion scheme that became the foundation for the Reimer lawsuit.  They ghoulishly rob a family of their graves, and then try to defend their actions using tens of thousands to do so.

The COL lacks wisdom and discernment, but beyond that they lack any kind of capacity to actually care for the plight of Ludington citizens and businesses.  We cannot be thankful for this manner of representation by elected and appointed officials, who need you to give more and more each year, above the rate of inflation, so that they can expand their bureaucracy and widen their overall maintenance costs with pet projects like the $1.4 million outhouses for Cartier Park, paid for out of the general fund rather than the enterprise fund. 

The giving appears to be one-sided, by the people.  The taking away of property by inordinately raising taxes and the taking away of rights by passing poorly vetted ordinances has become commonplace as they become even more deaf to their constituency.  And what about the other side of the coin as represented by the people that have been speaking up for over a year?

Jeff Henry and the PM Lake Watershed Council is looking to bring awareness to and mitigate local contamination which threatens the environment and our community's health, hoping to forge a partnership with a reluctant city that should know better.  They, Andrew Riemer, and Terry Grams primary desire is to get the city to obey the laws that apply to them rather than break those laws and profit therefrom.  This is a major portion of my concerns as well, found in each of my three comments, with additional concerns that they should govern with honor, fairness, and within modest means.  

If the city could work within the rules and do their jobs honorably and justly, we would definitely have something at city hall to be thankful for.  Until that standard is reached, we need be thankful that these tin gods are being held in check by citizens who do care.

[Rick]

Of the People, By the People, F#%k the People seems to be the mantra of the COL! I only lived there a few years and miss it everyday since moving back to Indiana a couple of months ago. I don’t miss all of the antics of the COL government. Pretty soon, Ludington is going to be like Traverse City…the people that were born and raised there will no longer be able to afford to live there. What a shame!

[XLFD]

I hear the pain-- living in Ludington is fantastic (especially when the snow is absent) but when you need to deal with the COL directly, paradise is lost.  Leaders have been doing the steps to gentrify Ludington, perhaps inadvertently, but if they somehow manage to use the corporate media of the area to get voters to agree to millage maximums, that process will be greatly accelerated and local government will expand in spending and power, at a time when it should be shrinking in order to be sustainable.

[Brooke McCabe]

Genuuine concern, for sure. Council is IMO wrong to deny Dr. Reimer opening Andy's and the FOIA regarding grave sites. Shameful.