Primary Responsibility of Ludington City Hall

[XLFD]

On February 28, 2011, Exactly one year ago, the City Council of Ludington passed an ordinance that allowed the City Manager to issue a letter of trespass to deny access to public facilities to anybody that the City Manager gauged as a threat to City security.  The next day, a letter of trespass was issued to me. 

I run for City Councilor last year, being permitted to enter City Hall early in the year after getting written permission.  Later on in the year, I get ignored by the City Manager three consecutive times to gain access to the City Hall in complete accordance with the Letter of Trespass for election activities, including a "Candidate's Forum".  My attorney contacts the City Attorney to negotiate the withdrawal of the Letter, but is rebuffed and rebutted.  I never get permission to vote at my polling place that happens to be the Ludington City Hall. 

I petition the County Prosecutor Paul Spaniola for an investigation as concern criminal violations of Michigan election law.  For some reason, his investigation focuses a lot more on baseless suppositions against the complainant than the actual complaint.  Not a big surprise; but the MSP officers investigating the complaint never bothered contacting me to let me know the investigation was over, or get any supplemental information beyond my original sketch of a complaint.

Anyhow, my talk with them said the City's neglect to allow me to vote could lend itself to a civil suit more than a criminal suit, as intent to disallow me the vote would be hard to prove.  I would grant them that, but they also assured me the City was unaware of them having effectively blocked me from being able to vote, and would have extended me that right if I would have asked John Shay for it.  City Manager John Shay does not have the power to decide whether I can or cannot vote!

 

So with the Michigan Primaries coming up, I looked forward to the City notifying me that I had the ability to enter my polling place to vote.  On Monday there was nothing in my E-mails, nothing in my mailbox that allowed me that right.  I sent out the following letter to my federal representatives (Stabenow, Levin, and Huizenga) and Governor Rick Snyder (with some modifications for each) that explained my disenfranchisement because of an unconstitutional local policy.

 

I am writing to you on the eve of the Michigan primaries that are to be held tomorrow, voting occurring in cities and townships across the great state of Michigan. I wish to take part in the vote, but I have been disallowed to do so by a group of people that are in positions of power in my little city of Ludington, midway up the coast of Western Michigan.

I run a local political watchblog that throughout its tenure since 2009 has been exposing some of the questionable practices of our City, County, and regional governments. I had posted a series of articles on our local Downtown Development Authority's ethical lapses, including a mid-February 2011 post which rankled the Chairman of that organization, leading them to petition the City Manager, John Shay, to devise a means to "punish" me for my use of the City's informational webpages and the regular FOIA requests that I made to investigate possible wrongdoing.

 

I was given a "Letter of Trespass" for the Ludington City Hall and Police Station, which said I could not enter those places without first getting written permission from the City Manager. If I didn't I would be guilty of the misdemeanor of trespassing and would be arrested on the spot (a copy is included). Later on via an FOIA that cost me nearly $20, I found that the City had filed a police complaint without my knowledge on me over "linking to a city webpage" that was publicly available to anyone, and a memo to all officers to arrest me if I violated the Letter.

 

I was never alleged to have done anything wrong, although it was said someone on the staff had felt threatened and intimidated by me. Not that I had done anything at City Hall or the Police Station other than get and pay for FOIA requests since 2008, all without incident. The action was to intimidate me from investigating more.

 

My place that I am registered to vote happens to be the Ludington City Hall. I had petitioned the City Manager to visit the City Hall three times in order to run for City Councilor. I was frequently hampered by my inability to enter the City Hall without threat of arrest. A candidate forum was held in October 2011, and the City Manager ignored three pleas from me and three from my attorney in Sept. and Oct. to enter the City Hall to participate in it.

 

Election day came and even though the City Manager, Clerk, and Council knew that I resided in the ward that needs to vote at City Hall, I never received any written permission to. Despite the six pleas of the previous months, there was no way I could vote. I fail to qualify for an absentee ballot, and if I stepped foot on the City Hall premises I was told that I would be arrested.

 

I asked the local prosecutor to investigate the aspects of this disenfranchisement as it pertains to MCL 169.932 (1)(a). The prosecutor used the local MSP from Hart to investigate, and seriously botched the issue. Documents I have received from his office seem to indicate that, and I am in process of getting the investigation report from the MSP. After relating my initial complaint to the prosecutor, I was never contacted except to say he had started an investigation. The investigation had closed, by the time I contacted them in early December. However, I was told by the MSP Fellowes that the City had claimed it an oversight and that they hadn't known about my dilemma. Leading one to believe that it would be corrected, or at least to not happen again.

 

Which brings us to this primary. I am registered to vote, I am willing to vote, but I can't go to my polling place without being under the threat of arrest for stepping onto the property, as I have not yet received written permission to vote. Have I pleaded with City Manager Shay to vote in this primary as I and my attorney pleaded with him before the November election? Why should I, no one else has to, and his lack of responses to my previous requests make me not bother with wasting my time doing so.

Besides the Federal Voting Rights Act of 1965, section 11 says:
(a) No person acting under color of law shall fail or refuse to permit any person to vote who is entitled to vote under any provision of this Act or is otherwise qualified to vote, or willfully fail or refuse to tabulate, count, and report such person's vote.
(b) No person, whether acting under color of law or otherwise, shall intimidate, threaten, or coerce, or attempt to intimidate, threaten, or coerce any person for urging or aiding any person to vote or attempt to vote.

 

The City Manager's policy, passed by the City Council of Ludington, uses the color of law to impose the ban on my right to enter a public place which just also happens to be my polling place. They use the intimidation of arrest, the threat of enjailment to enforce this disenfranchisement of my rights, whether to vote or to attend any public Open Meeting that takes place at City Hall.

 

In section 12, it has a penalty for those who would deprive those who act under color of the law to deprive suffrage: (a) Whoever shall deprive or attempt to deprive any person of any right secured by section 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, or 10 or shall violate section 11(a) or (b), shall be fined not more than $5,000, or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.

 

I realize you are a Federal legislator, not a Federal jurist who may rule on this in the future. But I hope for and pray that you can help me regain some of my rights that have been taken from me by City of Ludington officials by helping me in whatever way you can. Whether it is to do some serious fact-finding in this case, to reveal the truth amidst the complexities, or whether it be to help me with getting some of these issues resolved (though a court solution looks necessary).

 

[Sweater Cows!]

UGH! that man irritates me just to look at!

He told me once he would not go over to the dark side then did(so did Kasley use the same terminology) can't trust either of them.

[AQUAMAN]

Simplistically speaking, birds of a feather......they feed from the same trough of public funds, thus, even independent and separate county and city agencies work together so no one gets their feathers ruffled. Suggestion: next time an election is held, send a certified letter of request to the Shyster, thus he has to answer, or become examined in due fashion for this error.

[XLFD]

Larry asked:   "will you Please post a copy of the written document you submitted to Shay where you specifically requested permission to enter the city hall for the purpose of casting your vote?" 

Will you please make a FOIA request Shay to inspect such documents that any of the hundreds of other Ludington residents who voted yesterday submitted to him in order to vote without the threat of imprisonment?  You won't find any from me, and you won't find any from anyone else. 

Such powers contained in the Workplace Safety Policy is beyond John Shay's capacity as a City Manager, if he had ever taken the Constitutional Oath of Office to be one.  Furthermore, in reading the Workplace Safety Policy and the Letter of Trespass, it never gives the banished any rights, beyond the ability to petition a City Attorney for relief.  Thus giving the power of a hearing officer, totally against the powers of the City Attorney office, to someone who is contracted by the City, not employed or serving as a city official. 

You may not be familiar with the term "under color of law", but the WSP and the revised-for-public-facility LOT are providing powers to officials that are not within the scope of any law, and are in fact, contrary to both State and Federal law.  Such acts are precisely what the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was meant to curb.

[XLFD]

Larry, please show me any document that I have posted that said I live in the Sixth Ward.  For someone who said in another thread that: 

"If my child were a minor and did something in school that is determined to be legal then you have no right to dig your little claws into our lives"
"if it were one of my children, I would be very concerned if XLFD or his assistant were using FOIA's to dig into my family's personal concerns."
"If that were my child I might become personally concerned about you and your assistant trying to dig into my child's behavior."
"I would become personally concerned about you or your assistant trying to dig into one of my child's behavior. I think you would too if it were your child."
"I would be very concerned as a parent of that student if XLFD or his assistant were trying to dig too deep in my child's behavior or our family's private affairs"

 

And asked inquisitively in that same thread about whether I had been a teacher or was still teaching, you are beginning to seriously creep me out, and not just with your inconsistency. 

[XLFD]

That address is not my residence; more of a past (and sometimes present) mailing address that the county must have had on file.  I had sent PA Spaniola an E-mail, and the PA doesn't like that form of communication, and sent me a letter to where I used to be registered.  I had to re-register at the place I have physically lived at this whole millenium, 137 E Dowland Street, to be a candidate in the Third Ward. 

Kudos to you, Dale, for finding the document Larry spoke of in the archives.  It does make him a little less creepy.  But also just remember that a mailing address can differ from a street address.  I had my mail delivered to and originally registered at the Pine address, when there had been some problems with lost and misdirected mail at Dowland.

[RobbyK]

XLFD

Had you ever registered to vote on Dowland prior to "re-registering"? Also, have you voted since you moved to Dowland? If so, what polling station did you go to?

[XLFD]

RobbyK, Dale, and your brother Larry,

I appreciate your due diligence in coming on here and being concerned about my registration, but not about the disenfranchisement performed by the City leaders.  Great priorities you have. 

The fact is that I have lived physically at my current Dowland address since 1994, initially registered at my mailing address in Ludington town in 1998 and changed that at the beginning of 2011 to make sure I qualified for the office of Third Ward Councilor.  The City of Ludington and most members of the LFD can vouch for me that the Dowland Street address has been my physical and primary mailing address since 2001. 

I must submit that three members of the City Council, the City Manager, City Clerk, and Mayor all interviewed me for the Third Ward Councilor seat in April 2011.  Councilor Castonia was the first, and none too politely, to point out my registration address was in error, a fact I corrected after the meeting, but amazingly I still didn't get the job, LOL.

[Marty Redman]

Wise up Dale.  XLFD has explained what happened on page 1 and you have now took the creepy tag from Robby k who took it from Larry.  All three of you guys are so thin skinned you surely must be publicly employed.  Can you understand the diff between a mailing address and a residence you live at? 

 What about the point in this thread?  Are you giving the COL a pass on not granting XLFD the right to vote a second time, after they were investigated if you can call it that a first time?

[XLFD]

Dale,

How many times do I have to tell you.  That was not and never has been my residence, it has been a mailing address.  The letter of trespass and the WSP never says I have the right to petition John Shay for entrance.  I have done it in the past, but it has been ignored the last three or four times.  I take that as him denying that right. 

And why would anyone need permission to get John Shay's permission to enter the City Hall to vote?  Bring up a valid point, please.

[Willy]

Dale

This is typical assumption by folks who don't think or don't check or don't bother to look at information. They just regurgitate opinions base on nonsense. Did you bother to see who put the address on the letter. The letter was not written by X. From what we have already been discussing on the forum about Spanolias negligent dispensing of false information I would think that you would have asked X before assuming that any information from Spanolia was correct. This is the second time tonight you have commented before reading or checking into available information. If you want to have any credibility here, your going to have to improve your reading skills.

[AQUAMAN]

Excellent observation Willy, and so typical of someone that "pulls the trigger before they look", or another would be "diving into shallow water before you look first". This is consistent and typical liberals in progress, not progressive in thought and mind, just splathering more comments before carefully reading and digesting information. Now let's see, I believe we now have three stooges entering the stage as such: Sir Lar, Dale, and Robby K. as newbies. Or are they all three the same person, with differing emails? Time will tell, but the MO, motive of operation, seems to be jelling that way so far. I need some other type of comic relief, SNL seems appropriate right now for instance, later. 

[AQUAMAN]

Dale and Larry, it is common practice, not all the time, but many times, for any person's domicile to be differing from mailing addresses, get real guys, you're obviously drinking the same tainted Kool Aid.