One of the joys of life is to understand the happenings of the world around us. In a democracy we have the responsibility to be informed about our governance and the choices that are being made on our behalf. Escanaba live streams and records their city council meetings and that is great for local citizens (More should probably watch.) What would be interesting is if some the local stations radio, newspaper, tv put a blurb up for a few times prior the meeting and where customers can watch the video to see if the participation (i.e. viewership) rose. Sometimes more fun things are given precedent but having an informed population is very helpful for better community choices (Most of the majority of the population doesn't engage in high level politics and you can hear sort of the mixed nature of some lay discussions. People add and delete information and are highly persuaded by the subjectivity of political opinion.).
Ok ok sorry...it was just a blurb on the fundamentals of informed citizenry. 😬)
This was sort of an interesting meeting. Nothing too spectacular but some captivating points on the meaning of title and how that impacts committee appointments. Approval of a tasting room for a new distillery downtown, bottled air compressor for the Escanaba Public Safety, new proposals for the Jail site, and something about a tax lawsuit that could impact city revenue. The positive side is that Escanaba appears to be fiscally well managed and has cash on hand (Take note investors that a well run city leads to better chances to return wealth from investments. EPA talks a little about case studies in EPA Small Town Economy Practices) They are also slowly realizing more revenue from business operations and hopefully will think about maximizing net positives in terms of attracting investors, entrepreneurs, and tourism dollars.
You can read the Escanaba Feb. 17, 2020 Agenda of the meeting (Way easier than me writing things out. I'm also busy today so don't have time. I have to go snow blow my drive. 😐)
The Things that Seem of Interest:
-Adoption of Ordinance No. 1256: Administration stuff. There was a snafu in terms of definition and how they impact some functions. Lots of discussion but some of it seems important as it relates to the required amount of seats. Probably not of interest to most people.
-The Financial Audit: Unmodified financial recommendations indicating the city's finances seem in order. I like how they are educating the council and the public in general (Nice PPT.). It appears the city is fiscally in solid shape so that would be of interest to investors whether or not the local government is well run. Positive Public Safety retirement fund. That is good news. Our officers work hard and what we do on the financial side impacts the ability to retire with comfort after years of service. There are $8 million dollars available for use and I would suggest council don't waste it. Think about what is going to increase revenue in the future and often it is related to developing the appeal of the city, increase local investment-development, and ensure the infrastructure is functioning well. The downtown may also be a great place to spend any extra money (not ignoring paying down balances on other debt.). Marina is producing more revenue! Yaaa!
A couple of findings of the audit 1.) Weakness in internal reporting. and 2.) significant weakness in the Capitalization Fund in written policies & procedure . Something to continue to work on to encourage Federal monies.
-Approval – Purchase of a Breathing Air Compressor – Public Safety: Firefighters use these machines to ensure that they have compressed air. As a volunteer Fighter Fighter and diver I find having this equipment is money well spent. If you dive and need compressed bottles you have to go north to Marquette or south to Menominee. I can't remember who but someone also has an older working one in their garage🤔. Of course a few fire departments have them in the area. I'm wondering if I can buy the old air compressor and put it in my garage for diving? If its not being donated to another department and your going to throw it out or sell it cheap I think the local divers would appreciate a place to fill their tanks (...and a back up compressor for our vol. fire departments. ). 🧯 🤿🤔
-Approval On Site Tasting room for Lake Effect Distillery, LLC. What many business leaders downtown should realize that by having different types of wineries, breweries, distilleries, bars, food shopping, etc... in the same place raises the net draw for all of them. People will go to one bar, then another, then another (They want options and bar hop! It would also be interesting if we had hotel, bar, and public transit coordination on weekends and events.). A downtown draw occurs when there are different shopping entertainment, food, event, and party options. Building a draw will require a level of coordination on advertisement to create net positive influx of revenue and capital. Drawing in customers and entrepreneurs can work in tandem to create a "hot" market that pulls in wealth to the area.
-Menards v. Escanaba. Apparently there is a court case that made its way through the Court of Appeals. There is a legal analysis Q&A by Mika Meyers. It appears that an application to have the Court of Appeals decision bumped to the Michigan Supreme Court was denied. Mccleland & Anderson You can read the initiating case on Justia U.S. Law on State of Michigan Court of Appeals Menards vs. Escanaba (By the way, Justia is a great site and I have used it often over the years to look at case law when looking at different things of interest. Its a great site. ) Much of this is about evaluation for taxes. I used to have an appraisers license so I could go on and on but basically the argument is that the comparable were not the best available and the adjustments did not appear accurate. A different appraiser came out with one that was much higher. A dispute occurred thereafter about the correct/most accurate evaluation.
Jail Project: Planning commission met on interesting jail project. Developers were sent a list of questions, they were filled out and returned. There will be a vote on the proposals. I still want to look into the prior exchanges and activities of the project where some discrepancies came to light to see if they have merit. Will likely get back on it in the future. Nice the council is vetting a committed developer with greater oversight. One thing about development we should keep in mind is that stale properties lose value and interest. If you can get most of of what you want in a proposal and get the project into the hands of a developer you can start searching out other anchor businesses to further enhance downtown in a way that leads to increased total value.
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