2026 Torchlight Transparency Awards for Mason County Public Bodies

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On the occasion of Sunshine Week (March 15-21, 2026), the Ludington Torch is proud to announce its first annual round of awards for local public bodies who excel in their procedures and practices working towards bettering accountability and transparency, the 2026 Torchlight Transparency Awards.  We will be recognizing and highlighting our county's best public servant groups as evidenced by their ability to involve the public in their deliberations, disclose information as actively as possible, and observe their duties towards holding themselves and their peers accountable.

Much of the metrics we will consider will be objective and much of our overall knowledge may be limited due to the evaluators' experience with the public bodies under consideration which we restrict to certain important county agencies, governing bodies of the largest cities and townships, and educational districts including:

County of Mason (COM, County Commission)

Mason County Prosecutor Attorney (MCPA Beth Hand)

Mason County Sheriff's Office (MCSO, Kim Cole)

City of Ludington (COL, City Council)

City of Scottville (COS, City Commission)

Pere Marquette Charter Township (PMCT, Township Board)

Hamlin Township (HT, Township Board)

West Shore Community College (WSCC, Board of Trustees)

Ludington Area School District (LASD, Board of Trustees)

Mason County Central School District (MCCSD, Board of Trustees)

Mason County Eastern School District (MCESD, Board of Trustees)

We hope that every one of the above public bodies (and possibly more under consideration in the future) strives to attain the gold standard of transparency and accountability that would set them as the standard for others to achieve.  Unfortunately, some public bodies have actively chosen to work the other way towards corruption and taint, what we affectionately call the "mold standard", and they will receive separate recognition in each of the three main award categories that follow.  Each of these categories include several different topics under consideration where we will try our best to honestly compare the groups that hold sway over your local governance.

Community Dialog:  This catchall category looks at how public bodies actively seek out public opinions and attendance at meetings and outside of meetings, how they disclose information and respond to questions and criticisms through their website and social media, and the overall propensity they have towards best open government practices.  This is equivalent to the Best Picture Oscar.

GOLD:  Pere Marquette Charter Township

Silver:  County of Mason

Bronze:  Hamlin Township

PMCT does almost everything right in this category.  They provide complete agenda packets, hold meetings where the public is very close to the action, generally capable of interjecting some questions and input into township discussions (within reason), and have shown themselves to be quite adaptable in recent years to adversity, while still being transparent. 

MOLD:  Mason County Prosecuting Attorney

Mildew:  City of Ludington

Verdigris (tarnished bronze):  Ludington Area School District 

Despite County of Mason's strong showing in this category, the county prosecutor has gone the other way.  Regularly panned by defense attorneys for poor discovery practices especially in regard to exculpatory materials, the MCPA has made it an imperative goal to abuse their discretion in prosecuting cases against community members that others in the profession would never choose to do so, while refusing to hold bad-acting officials to account for serious crimes.  With help from a certain judge, this office has made a two-tiered justice system in Mason County.

FOIA Compliance:  This category's winners are those who comply best with the letter and spirit of the FOIA and who respond expediently, efficiently, and absent of nuisance fees to those seeking public records that public bodies are merely the stewards thereof.  These are the best actors: 

GOLD:  County of Mason

Silver:  Hamlin Township

Bronze:  Pere Marquette Charter Township

While we haven't made requests to the county over the last couple of years, their responses historically have been prompt, complete and free-- hard to beat.  We see the same players here in different order and note that the current clerks in the two townships have been extraordinarily helpful in providing records when prompted.

MOLD:  City of Ludington 

Mildew:  Mason County Prosecuting Attorney

Verdigris:  Mason County Sheriff's Office

Not surprisingly, the COL's shift towards non-transparency over the course of Mayor Barnett's one term has led to their easily gathering the mold in this category.  The COL erected massive and unlawful paywalls to protect the public from seeing bodycams and the most recent year of public credit card use, and has most recently actively destroyed public records that have been requested through FOIA after the request was made, No contest, but the MCPA like the COL is defending its own non-disclosures in the Court of Appeals too.

Self-Accountability:  This is a measurement of how likely public body is policing itself, according to their best practices, procedures, policies to avoid corruption, and actual actions of personnel when such inevitability happens.  The best actresses are:

GOLD:  Mason County Eastern School District

Silver:  Hamlin Township

Bronze:  Pere Marquette Charter Township

Custer's public school district officials showed amazing adaptability and flexibility in eventually getting a couple of recent controversies behind them in a manner that should be an example for others in the county.  The two townships have also overcome some big issues, getting stronger in the process.

MOLD:  City of Ludington

Mildew:  City of Scottville

Verdigris:  Mason County Prosecuting Attorney

The lack of self-accountability and self-awareness among city officials in the COL has been documented over the years here and is only getting back to its worst.  This lack is costing the taxpayers a lot of money and confidence.  

Most Improved:  This is a category to measure whether we have some positive or negative trending over the last year's assessment of the other three category's virtues.  This category makes little sense during the first year, so this year we will just indicate what way each of the above public bodies is trending. Ones not mentioned are holding steady:

Trending towards more transparency and accountability:  COM, HT, MCCSD

Trending towards less transparency and accountability:  MCPA, COL

The three trending positively did so primarily by improving the completeness of their agenda packets, with HT being the big mover upward by keeping their social media active and open for dialog, for the most part.  The COL has gone the other way, closing comments from social media, embracing secrecy, erecting illegal paywalls for FOIA requests and illegally destroying public records.