Scottville Board Loses 1) Another Commissioner, 2) Rigor, 3) Public Involvement, 4) All of the Above

[XLFD]

After attending the May 11th, 2026 meeting of the Scottville City Commission, I couldn't help but think of the 18th century French philosopher Montesquieu.  His look at political philosophy in "The Spirit of the Laws" included an analysis of republics, which is the representative democracy that we see practiced in America at all levels of government.  He argues that republics can be difficult to maintain without a strong sense of civic virtue and duty by both citizens and leaders alike.

The 1616th meeting of the commission, a meeting that fell a couple short of lasting 16 minutes, illustrated why the City of Scottville is in danger of unofficially losing its small 'r' republican values to universal apathy shared by city leaders and citizens alike.  The commissioner's packet, released earlier that day, had an agenda that had an outline which took two pages showing three distinct action items, two rounds of public comment, up to 11 department reports, and the normal routines. 

The action items were not insignificant nor immune to controversy, featuring the consideration of 1) the next fiscal year's budget, 2) City Manager Clarence Goodlein's employment contract renewal, and 3) whether to purchase a tax foreclosed property.  Commissioner Randall Wyman would add another item at the head of the meeting, notifying those assembled that Commissioner Bobbiann Wallager had resigned, and that they would need to accept it and direct the city manager to advertise for the open position.

Both she and Commissioner Marcie Spencer failed to attend the meeting; the city clerk's position is still not filled, the treasurer temporarily taking her position's duties at this meeting.  Even though the Census Bureau tells us Scottville is growing in population to about 1400, only one citizen attended the meeting, she was overshadowed by media representatives from the Ludington area, two in attendance.  Goodlein and five commissioners rounded out the attendees in a venue at the Scottville Senior Center which could accommodate much larger crowds.

The meeting was called to order just after 6 PM sharp, by 6:10, the meeting's routines, reports, and business was all taken care of.  Two pages of agenda were rammed through without any meaningful discussion and with officials looking as if they wanted to do it that way.  Are city department leaders, county commissioners, MCRFA members, DDA members, boycotting meetings or were they just told to stay home and not give reports because commissioners just don't care anymore?

They filtered through reports, mostly not given.  They passed an annual budget, they agreed to an employment agreement for $90,000 with Goodlein, they declined to purchase the old "Clown Town Inn" at 306 E. State (pictured above) deeming it was financially irresponsible and agreed to advertise for the latest open spot on the board while accepting the latest resignation of a peer.  It took less than ten minutes.  it seemed mostly scripted to do so.

By the time the second public comment period came up, this reporter almost felt a little guilty about taking about three minutes extra of meeting time that they had worked so hard to get through in record time.  Almost.  They had to hear about how they circumvented the Open Meetings Act a couple months previously in order to hold a secret meeting where the topic to this day is still unknown about (see this March 2026 article).

             Scottville's former school on May 11, 2026 pre-demolition.  A symbol of Scottville's future if the malaise continues?

XLFD:  "Back on March 9th, this commission, with 4 of 7 members present, went into closed session in order to review and consider an attorney's written legal opinion.  The Open Meetings Act allows closed session for that purpose, but only if 2/3 of the commissioners serving at the time vote to do so.  When only 57% of the commission is present, that is impossible to do, and so on March 9th, this commission, attending city manager, and attorney went into closed session when they should have known it was unlawful to do so.  

If one of your constituents were to break a city law that they were ignorant of, they could still be held to account, and this does happen.  I can't believe that the city attorney and city manager didn't know their Open Meetings Act, in and out, it should be reflexive to figure out that they violated it.  They didn't.  In doing so, they did not use section 8(e) of the act to discuss trial and settlement strategy in a pending legal case, they used section 8(h) which allows for review of materials protected by attorney client privilege.  They gave no indication of what the topic of the opinion was about, so we must take the word of the city attorney and the client, presumably the city manager acting in his official capacity, that the items discussed fell under that privilege.  These two people at the same time, appear to have willfully bypassed the Open Meetings Act by allowing it to happen without the quorum needed by the Open Meetings Act.

I will be making a FOIA request for all of the materials reviewed by the commission at that illegal closed session and caution the commission that holding closed sessions under 8(h) raises red flags to concerned people that their elected officials are manufacturing reasons to discuss public policy behind their backs rather than openly and transparently, the way they should be [END comment]."

City Manager Goodlein would appear to accept the allegation as fact by the extent of his body language throughout the comment.  As expected, the rest of the commission only appeared flustered that they had to sit the extra few minutes to hear of their own shortcomings in connecting with the people of Scottville, immediately moving and accepting adjournment to keep the running time under 15 minutes.  

This is how a republic and a city dies.