Ludington City Council, December 22, 2025: City Attorney Gets a Pink Slip for Christmas

[XLFD]

Two evenings before Christmas Eve the Ludington City Council met with an agenda packet that had the usual end of year meeting routines, closing out the year and preparing for the next.  Thrown into the normal routine was a startling potential change of city attorneys, with five law firms vying for the official title and all indications (including an empty chair where City Attorney Ross Hammersley normally sits) pointing towards an "out with the old and in with the new".  Except the new was even older and scarier. 

                                                    Ross Hammersley sent packing by the Ludington City Council

The meeting got underway without an invocation by any area pastors; maybe they have realized, like me, that an exorcism is more practical for this herd of city officials.  Nevertheless, Mayor Mark Barnett gave a perfunctory invocation, before a mixed bag of public comments came up.  

Two citizens shared relatively positive comments for the council.  Rob Nelson, landlord of the Washington Avenue Apartments, thanking the city for removing large fee increases from the rental inspection fee schedule (we would find out later that these may come back at a later date).  Lyla McClellan sharing a story where she was helped out by LPD Officer Marshall Law during inclement weather.  I've saw and heard only good things about Officer Law, let's hope that he can keep that reputation and set an example for the rest of the LPD.  

Annette Quillan would urge the council to set up a collaborative effort with the city's landlords before they make any further decision to raise fees and wondered if city officials still actually had any problem landlords after ten years of rental inspections. 

Jeff Henry and Ray Karboske brought some new revelations regarding an 80 year old paper called Document 446" which was crafted in Washington for wartime purposes and later used in Michigan and Ludington to justify making public marinas even though that document was never enacted into law.  They pointed out that the city's expenses for legal representation increased by $100,000 over the last year, but the city's priorities have not been in solving any issues that would lessen health risks or the illegality of the funding structures of the public marinas.

Equally poignant were a trio of speakers regarding the sewage situation at 409 W Ludington Avenue.  Beth Motyka led off by telling us that honesty and truthfulness should be important when you're the city manager.  She then elaborated on a FOIA response she received which illustrated lies made by CM Kaitlyn Aldrich at meetings and in person.  Dr. Jennifer Branning of West Shore Eye Care, followed, further explaining the problem with the sewer system at her facility and indicating that it was not with their part of the private connection.  

Last up for the issue was Scott Yost who humbly mentioned himself as an engineer but has a much deeper pedigree as per this University of Kentucky bio seen above.  He would indicate that in his professional opinion, based on the facts behind the sewer backup issue experienced by the facility, that the sanitary sewer line of the city was at fault.  Each of these three would also speak at the end, effectively being ignored by city officials even with the threat of another lawsuit being mused.  That was probably the wise idea, being that no attorneys for the city were present.

This reporter's initial comment took on two topics that were on the agenda, the amended fee schedule and the changing of the guard likely to happen for the city attorney position.  While I would ultimately endorse Hammersley's firm over the others, this likely didn't help his chances, being that the City of Ludington doesn't generally take advice from the chap in the cheap seats.

XLFD:  "It's amazing how many times city officials have to lie to us just to introduce a fee schedule.  In last meeting's resolution it read:  "the fees... have been found to be based upon actual costs... of such programs and are reasonable."  Just like it says in today's resolution.  Bullcrap. 

Heather and crew originally determined that rental registration fees needed to be raised 840% to help pay for a program that historically between 2016 and 2023 has brought in $180,000 more in revenues than it has for expenses.  In today's fee schedule, there's an admission that it's not the case-- that fee remains the same.  We were lied to, just like when we were told this program will have a $120,000 deficit in 2028.  That can only happen if this city is totally mismanaged under Prevaricatin' Kaitlyn and that hor- (clear throat) -rible community development director.

 

We also see that hotels, motels, B&Bs are scheduled to pay rental inspection fees when they are specifically excluded from rental inspections by the program.  The LUDO doesn't change that.  If city officials really want to inspect these businesses, go to their front desk and pay your own money for a night in each unit.  I'm sure they will be happy about that rather than paying hefty tribute for unlawful and unnecessary rental inspections.  

A committee recommends changing city attorneys.  While I believe Ross is a criminal who committed public extortion and was not held to account by the law or city leaders, his firm has submitted a proposal that is much lower than Mika Myers, whose retainer is 42% higher.  Why would the city do that, you wonder.  Look at which law firm the city has decided to represent them in two matters that should have never gone to court and which the city will lose:  the AndyS debacle and the administrative grave robbery.  Ross at least had the intelligence and integrity not to get the city involved with these two losing issues.  Mika Myers, recently fired by both Scottville and Ludington as city attorney for good reasons, has no qualm about getting us into such losing legal entanglements and billing us big time for it.  They billed Scottville over $100,000 last year with no ongoing litigation taking place.  They're a legal money pit.  [END comment]

The fee schedule is less ambitious, but that may only be a temporary thing since they would indicate that the poison pill in the last schedule was still being considered.  This item was never taken back to committee, so the only people you have looking at the numbers are money-hungry officials in the building department, so while it was promising it's not over yet.  They would pass these fees even though they suggest that they would still be going into hotels, motels and B&Bs and charging them fees when it definitely is not lawful-- and not justified. 

As for city attorneys, the council would vote 7-0 to drop Hammersley and spend 42% more for the firm that they dropped six years ago, Mika Myers, with Richard Wilson III reprising himself as the returning and primary attorney.  The council packet showed that this was the desired result, and the only one who would question the move was Councilor Mike Shaw, who would vote for Mika Myers after being told that the bigger firm would be closer (Manistee) and give them more legal flexibility-- like with the two legal pursuits I mentioned in my comment.  Look forward to the city having over two hundred thousand in legal bills each year for the foreseeable future and increased legal entanglements.

Another major item at this meeting was the approval of ordinances moving the wages of city clerk up by 4% and treasurer by 6%, and the city manager up by 4%.  While this may sound as if it is reasonable as the COLA adjustment for 2026 is under 3%, it actually is quite unreasonable, since these same officials had their work week reduced.  Consider, they cut city hall contact hours from 45 to 42 in April this year, a 7% decrease in work hours in order to get Fridays off at noon. 

The city manager contract would be held up for further review after Councilor Tim Large questioned that figure.  Apparently 4% was the going rates for raises under the union contract and given also to non-union employees, a rather high figure considering we are constantly being told that the city is going into cash reserves heavily over the next two years and must raise revenues to offset it.  We are never told that they need to cut expenses, as Prevaricatin' Kaitlyn gets used to using the city credit card for more employees and wish list items.

The council would approve 2025 budget amendments, showing a switch in policy from a decades old practice in this year and hopefully the next, in doing such amendments before the year has ended, and not in April of the following year in preparation for an audit.  I must say that I was instrumental in getting them to this point of following budget law, threatening them back in 2022 and 2023 to report their transgression to the state.  In related matters, three fund transfers were approved in one vote:  $30K from major to local street funds, $70K from Harbor View to Municipal marinas, and $80K from a restricted sewer fund to operational sewer funds.

Another action would be to approve a winter season no parking zone for the west side of the 100 block of Delia Street.  On the agenda, I originally saw "No Parking November through April West" and thought it was referring to denying parking in November to an adult film star from the 1980s.  That would just be wrong now that she's in her 60s, but I read it again.

They would adopt the recreation plan, having held the public hearing last meeting, pass a resolution approving a liquor license for Sunset Cellar (212 W Ludington, basement level), and approve the 2026 restroom cleaning contract, this time to the low bidder, TNT Enterprises.  

The routine end of the year closet cleaning:  

-- appointed Prosecutor Beth Hand as the attorney handling criminal violations of the city code

-- appointed official boards (few changes among personnel)

-- appointed standing committees (basically unchanged)

-- set meeting dates for 2026 (2nd and 4th Mondays each month except May and December 1st & 3rd))

Six would speak at the end of the meeting, all had spoken before critical of the city.  Jeff Henry would remind them of conflict-of-interest issues with hiring Mika Myers and with Ray Karboske would show the city was avoiding the issues of contamination.  Beth Motyka, Dr. Branning, and Scott Yost continued hammering the city's avoidance of their issue and the risk of cavalierly doing so.  They were absolutely right, the city avoided both issues during the meeting.  

I would devote my second comment to LPD Sergeant Austin Mendez and the department's cover up and secondary cover up of an incident he was part of.  The incident and its aftermath is less of an indictment on Mendez, it appears to be more of an indictment on the LPD leadership if what I have heard turns out to be the case.

XLFD:  Seeing you guys throw Ross under the bus was surprising and an indication of how vested city hall is in continuing down a twisted path of corruption with attorneys that like to shut down businesses and steal family cemetery plots without even blushing.

In open court, I confirmed a strong rumor when I witnessed a defense attorney indicate that LPD Sergeant Austin Mendez had been the subject of a suspected DUI traffic stop by another officer.  Mendez was never charged, but rumor has it that another officer took the hit.  This allegedly took place before Mendez got his stripes, meaning that our police thief promoted Mendez knowing that he drives drunk.

I made a FOIA request for the incident report and any record that showed any involved officer was terminated or forced to resign.  I received an extension letter the fifth business day after-- last Friday-- telling me that the time response needed to be extended, but gave no reason as required by law.  Why would there be a reason?  One incident report and one letter of termination should be the only responsive records.  Are you that afraid of this news coming out that you need to break the law in doing so?  Asked and answered-- a police agency that would cover up their officer's DUI back then, would surely cover it up as much as it can now, and not worry about breaking the law.  

Maybe Police Thief Christopher Jones or Ross can buck their image of non-transparency by telling us exactly what happened back then after this comment period, and why they have failed to produce the documents timely.  [END comment]

I actually received the amended FOIA response seen in relevant part above, and they would try at the end of the meeting to say the same thing and use the excuse that they were switching attorneys.  One would think that if there was nothing to hide that they would have the incident report and the termination letters handy in a matter of minutes, and that there would be no exemptions to make beyond the standard privacy issues you have with an incident report.  This is not your usual extension letter; the reason just doesn't make sense unless you correctly see it as mere obstruction.

Councilor Kathy Winczewski would wade a little bit into the murky PM Lake waters, with a statement "in the 1960s and 70s, "dilution was the solution... you could put your commercial and industrial waste into the Pere Marquette or any other watershed".  The effort seemed to downplay what the effects of that policy was and how it still affects us to this day with almost all fish caught in this area as suspect for healthy eating and ongoing contamination still an issue that is not being met by adults.  

Fourth Ward Mayor Chuck Sobanski would ask a simple question during the initial comment:  Can the city do better in 2026?  With a fresh set of attorneys and not an ounce of bold scruples in the council or in city hall, the answer is not good.