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Democracy is an interesting thing and the lines are not always straight to the path of development. That carries with it an advantage in terms of allowing new ideas and thoughts to come forward (A source of innovative development and public support). If you notice in the video below that there are new ideas coming forward on how to solve some problems and people are saying they have concerns they want addressed. That doesn't mean that the concerns do or do not have teeth in them but it does potentially open them up to review. This is where supportive institutions (institutional integrity is a must) can come in and take a look to see if these complaints have merit. Its a partnership between the people and the institutions. Something we should never forget in the management of our duties, roles and responsibilities.
As long as people have the best interest of the community in mind, are polite, thoughtful, but most all truthful then we will see the entire system get stronger and better. That will require people to think about the big picture and if there are accidents being made it is a chance to correct so as to ensure best use of the people's resources. If there are other things, it is a chance to reflect and improve. At the end of the day, we own this and its outcomes so always keep your eye out for the best win-win outcomes. (Getting people to listen to each other. Even more difficult in politics. Active Listening. There is listening and there is "listening".).
At the end of the day, even if there isn't anything to the concerns (Which I'm not making a judgement, although I have sat back in my chair a few times to ponder), it was a good exercise to let their leadership know people's feelings and concerns. Decisions are not in a vacuum and have consequences beyond the people who make them. Transparency is the winning word of the day. Tomorrow it might be a different winning word. Who knows, this exercise might very well be a positive growth experience for the leadership and the community. Let us grow together!
An interesting article. Delta County Hears from the Public
Notes: (I try to be accurate but if I miss something please let me know by posting a comment.)
-Something about courthouse security. I agree that an auto lock would make sense. $230K
-WDBC Radio. Statement on firing of county administrator.
-A board member said they went in another direction.
-Concern of the type of attorney being hired and some connection between some members and procurement policy violations. Comments on padding pockets.
-Orchestrated soap opera. Concerns on lack of transparency. Argument brought forward that the prior administrator was removed for nonperformance. I'm not sure if I understand the money comment but something about 100K being wasted.
-Wants meeting to be moved to different locations sometimes.
-Fire trainings, active shooter, and other training. This is all good stuff. I agree that more grants are needed but also the need to generate new resources through creative sources. (I'm hoping to encourage coordinated trainings of firefighters because of the increased commercial activities. Staying ahead of the curve. The more people train, the better they can respond.).
-Park manager should be hired by mid April. Officer for the jail.
-Advertising in various places for administrator.
-Cadet programs for vol. fire agencies. Public Act 291 1966, 16-18 years of age. 16-17 can take Firefighting 1, 2 and HazMat. Cadets cannot participate in firefighting. Escanaba Township Fire Department and Ensign Twp. Fire Departments. (Here are a few suggestions on an idea. Have one or two departments in the area with strong cadet programs and support the transition of juniors and seniors into adult life. Setting them up right and get involved in public service so they can find mentors and purpose. This time let us think a little broadly of the type of skills our public servants need for the next fire and police service generation. A positive trajectory taking into account the needs of a more enlightened youth. This is where good things can sometimes start to happen that have a long lasting impact on the community. Done well, it can be a helpful model for other places. Whether people see it or not we are still a community of interconnected people's and families. We stick together to support our community and help it grow with open arms to others. Here is a little Firefighter Cadet program that is funded from multiple sources. Cadet Scholarship Fund-Funding the Future )
-Retiree from Gladstone FD. Congrats! (Bob S.) 48 years? Wow.
-911 Authority brought under DC Umbrella.
-Investments are important and when we put in place the right investment vehicles we can maximize not only investment returns on short order but also build the local economic base that creates avenues of drawing in new wealth. (Read Local Govt. Investment Pools, Michigan Municipal League Excess Funds Policy. If you want more clarity on how something like that might work talk to our Michigan State Treasurer Office or they might point you in the right direction of qualified counsel that understand FDI. I mean, if you get my point. 😏).
Also check out Target Market DC 2016 for more information. You could also consider some commercial housing and other Delta County MI. Commercial Property Stats and DC Population Stats see if you can find any market value in what the data is telling you (There people great at this stuff. They can find the investment line in like an instant and even tell you nearly what the percentage of return is. Sometimes they pack invest to build their own markets. Other Light Reading: DC Hedge Fund, Invest Downtown, UP State Bank, DC MultiCluster, Marina-Hotel-Ships, Ship Building, Esky Sails, Start Up Esky, Hedge Startups, Thinking Infra Shipping DC, EV-MI Infrastructure, Esky Downtown Incubator, Incubator Econ Growth Adventure Venture, Smart City, Made in America, DC Masterplan.).
-Job description. I have worked with job descriptions and analyzed them for basic industry knowledge and competencies required by companies. Even wrote a few in my lifetime. My suggestion is that you look at where the county would want to go in terms of strategy, break that down into specific skills, knowledge, abilities and then put that within the outlets where your most likely to obtain a return. If there are magazines or associations related to public administration I would suggest posting there. Ad hoc committee would need 30 days.
-Lots of stuff about pay and the contract. (1.31 approximately). $600+ a day for the two roles. A commissioner who looked into the average compensation felt it was high and stated $40 was used in past. $151K pay + benefits is double $300K. There was a vote. (I will say that you can sense the division on the board and you can start seeing the camps. One camp at present appears as though they shared similarities of perspective. I do not know the length of relationships but I can say that history can sort of create shared perspectives, interests, and strategies.)
-Attorney discussion. Different discussions on the type of attorney needed and how to recruit such an attorney. Municipal, Prosecutor and/or Federal (Federal contracts or other federal something? 🤔) Want the ability to end contracts if necessary.
-Discussion on parks. An argument for 2 full times. I would just make sure that you are maximizing the parks to ensure that they bring back way more value than the costs. While they are non-profit and serve a purpose we should make them as sustainable as possible by building metrics that best develop that valuable. I suppose one could design surveys, visitor stats, money spent in area, how much time in parks, etc. to determine economic value. They are likely to be positive. Contract termination has been approved.
-Taxes rise on parks. Hoping to be under that county's general liability.
-Rules and procedures on ethics committee. One of the commissioners states that if there is an ethics issue it would be forwarded to the prosecutor. Delta County Ethics Policy pg. 27-32
-Concerns over pay of interim county administrator.
-Great Lakes Land Company and Great Lakes Timberland permission approved. Easement approved.
-Court house 700K plus and $70K+ controls
-Freedom of Information requests are up (Just take notice of that for now.)
-E.D.:
P. Didn't like terminating publicly.
V. Small issue with E. on slowness. Positive Relationship.
MEL. Unsure of direction. Heard it a few times but still don't know direction. Too quick of a judgement by new board.
MOY. Made an error in comment. I didn't plan on firing her. No expectation of terminating. Thought discussion on contract. Didn't want to add more. (🙊)
B: Moving in different direction.
(I do notice some distancing themselves just a little from what happened. It appears that there is a slight change of heart and some backing up from initial positions. Don't prejudge. It may or may not mean anything. In communications and negotiations one can sort of watch how different positions adjust based on various influences. There is a whole science to it I guess. Harvard has an article on Program Negotiation* . There is also a factor in time and decision making in negotiation. Its a dated study but you can read that HERE.)
-Concerns of attorneys. Wants to know why the board needs a different type of attorney?
-Rules of procedure violations. Frivolous lawsuits and new attorney. No member while addressing board should be interrupted. Time issues. Nominations. Violations of orders, contract acceptance without being written. A number of alleged violations! 🤯 You have to watch it yourself Time 2.55
-Put on record that someone made a sexual comment. You have to look at where she is pointing and its significance.
-Public comment on past admin 3.00. Names person and says he gets a free pass because of "Good Old Boy". Indicates that the past administrator doesn't have protection like the Good Old Boy Club (You may need to look at prior sessions to see if there is any significance between this perception and other behaviors.). Mentions lost confidence of the people.
-One lady says she started to attend meetings regularly. At least this is getting people involved in the process. Please don't change meeting. Asked about industry standard?
-Said he filed a complaint with the State Police with open meetings act. Says the board should consider Emily' application and that the decisions are not valid if you violate that act (Never looked up it up. See below.)
Open's Meeting Act: 267 1976 "AN ACT to require certain meetings of certain public bodies to be open to the public; to require notice and the keeping of minutes of meetings; to provide for enforcement; to provide for invalidation of governmental decisions under certain circumstances; to provide penalties; and to repeal certain acts and parts of acts." Read Open Meeting Act
(You got to keep this in mind as a general discussion on how these things work. In the last post there is a difference between mistakes and intentionality. In order for it to be a misdemeanor it has to be intentional. However, even if something that doesn't reach that level it could require an investigation and/or changes in the way things are done. )
-A gentleman feels that certain members are "off the rails". (I'm assuming this meant as a general term and has something to do with decision making. We can look at how the term is defined in Grammarist.)
-Comment on why Emily wasn't allowed to discuss her performance even though she asked about it. (There could potentially be a number of HR issues. I'm just trying to be constructive about some of my thoughts before I discharge them from my finger tips to paper. We will just have to wait and see what it all means because this is unfolding live for the most part. That is why we should watch with some good faith effort to understand before judging a situation fully. If they keep these exciting gladiator events up and we are going to need a concession stand! Please don't retaliate against me for voicing my opinion about wanting skittles and M&Ms on the menu. It happens. Some people are Skittles People and Some are M&M People. Sometimes we get them confused 🤷)
(*BTW keep in mind there were potential other HR issues in other institutions in the area. Not exactly the same thing, but it appears employment opportunity is dependent on more then skill alone in some cases.)
-One man said he is proud of his community to look at stuff and try and improve the situation. He mentioned that we have to work with ethics in mind and one of the plots of land sits next to a parcel of land in question. Purchasing property and buying land next to it. Something about Timber. (There was an explanation. Timeline counts in these situations. ). He said he looked up one of the members and saw pornography.
-One lady said she sent multiple emails. She says 100 others have sent emails with no response. Something on voting. Personal reasons for firing.
-One said why did you fire her and felt that they didn't get a good enough answer.
-Someone keeps touching their crotch I guess.
-Classification of working temp and out of class. Deserves extra money. There is some right to go back to union. A policy issue for Michigan (Kind of interesting)
-Land is open to be purchased by anyone.
-Someone said we live in a republic and not a democracy.
-Caller said she appreciates their service and thanks them. Wants a county administrator that works for the board. There are reasons why people would not list why they would fire people.
-Its interesting I kept hearing a voice from time to time. At first I thought it was the voice of reason but it didn't quit come through. She was trying hard and then finally got her chance at the end.🎉🥳 Something like, "Can you Hear Me?"
Navigating Complex Information
There is a concept called Triangulation in which we need to see problems from multiple angles and data points. For example, You might have Data Point Measurement/Incident (DPI) #1 from one person, DPI #2, DPI #3 you have the inner workings of triangulation. Multiple measurements typically means more validity. If we then move onto other areas measurements from outside a particular category/group of measurements to include other DPI's we that validity becomes increased. For example, if you have 5 substantive DPIs in one arena and then you have 2 DPI from a different area and a couple more DPI from a third or forth arena (meaning different measurement categories) then you have multiple layers of validity going on. For example, one might have a category for contracts, category nepotism in employment, public statements, etc.. Triangulation within a categories and among categories (This is just an example of how feedback improves understanding for general governance. Its not specific to this situation. Its just a way to more objectively create categories and understand how information relates. I'm just bringing it up as a point for discussion. See if it works for you. If your a data person that might make sense.)
Thinking through this a little some things I want to know would be the following (Some of this info can be obtained through information requests.)
1. Obtain the contracts that are in most question.
2. Notice signatures and amounts (Do not prejudge anything.)
3. Then look at who is on those contracts and will benefit. (There is nothing wrong with people making reasonable money for reasonable work.)
4. Then look at if there are other contracts with similar people and in what places.
5. Then look at personal relationships and determine if there is many contracts going to the same group of people, how much, and what their personal relationships might be (Be mindful this could end up being a waste of time and also be mindful that if a person/company is offering great multiple services there are no issues with that. In general, I would avoid allowing too few of people to have too many contracts because that is how good government gets derailed when the process of governing is less important then self-interest and/or group interest. That does not necessarily apply to this situation but all governance as a standard generic approach. Diversity in governance and contracts improves the system, with a few initial headaches that work their way out, versus having the same people interbred their ideas and lose market position through poor strategies. Again, that doesn't necessarily apply here. One would have to look to know that. Then we could move down the line to compare the tightness or diversity of contractual relationships and/or positions is related to the areas growth or decline over the past few decades. Its sort of interesting to see the potential bigger ramifications of this. No? 🤷 )
-Billerud and conservation district stated they are bringing about 2000 people for 2-5 years. No place for them to go so there will be no rooms available. I suggest turn the downtown into an active hub with the apartments upstairs. It would likely funnel people to places where people will build up the area and would be easier to sort of monitor and manage. The same can be said for Gladstone. It will also concentrate much of the activities downtown as a boost for future tourism based industries, the businesses already there, and the ones that will come. (Usually these ideas are quickly discarded so let us see what happens.). Not as many jobs after but some will stay on. (There is some mixed information between the company, media, and people. I heard from someone say that there are no jobs coming. Another said only 1,000 jobs. You know how it is. People just sort of talk. Kind of normal.)
-Commissioner states he understands how a single person can make a differences. If its wrong make it right. Make it fair. Hasn't seen anyone get an advantage on land purchase. Health insurance costs. Escanaba Twp. east of the river no parks. Camping. Does answer emails and phone calls. I agree with listening and understanding. Stipend for IT guy.
-Coal fire plant conversion Manistique BioFuels. Need 15K tons a day and 550 tons per year. Consumer power. Billerud needs 400 tones a day. Using some over mature forests for that biofuel can help improve the forests. Biomass is a 200 per billion year industry growing 8+% a year (an investment opportunity). Biofuels Market Size to Surpass US$ 201.21 Billion by 2030. In an economic theory of transactional clusters you want industries to spark new industries. Energy is part of the infrastructure. Clean energy is great and when sustainable powers industries without damaging the environment. Escanaba can look at biomass as another sustainable industry. Like logging, you have to replace what you take and continue to grow the forest coverage year after year. Demand for bioenergy production will increase, but must be achieved sustainably. You can learn something about tit in BioMass Explained. See how this might work in DC MultiCluster, Sustainable ReInvest, The Sustainable Econ
-M. Discussed mistakes and other issues. Thanks prosecutors and others. Says some make mistakes. Land property was not an issue. 14,000 acres. No twitter account. Said he talked to the State Police.
(There are other untapped industries in the area.)
It does look like there is a crisis of confidence and perhaps a little violation of moral conscious. What I see is that there are things that raise my eyebrows and I believe they should be looked into to ensure that We The People are having good governance. That doesn't mean that there is anything wrong but my nose tells me its worth a "look see". It looks like we may need a few "look sees" just to make sure everyone is acting with integrity and for the right American reasons. There are some who are confused of what a democracy its line of development. ✋ Think about the big picture. Keep it civil and keep it honest.
My suggestions are (Not that you should listen to me):
1. If you have concerns then be an informed citizen and look up information and come to an objective conclusion that what you see is a concern.
2. Report concerns to your local prosecutor and state attorney's office. Let them know you have a concern and your moral conscious led you to report it as an act of good citizenship and the best interest of society.
3. Unless someone with legitimate authority says otherwise don't be afraid to reflect back your concern in a polite way during these meetings like this so they are public. Sometimes officials need to see what is happening and it helps remind them of their duties (As we have seen, sometimes they forget and politics gets involved in basic decision making. That is not necessarily the case here but we have responsibility to provide them with accurate information to make decisions.).
4. If there are threats, intimidation, and/or other activities (based on the comments of a prior meeting) keep a buddy with you, record what you see, and report it to the most appropriate agency.
On a personal note. When we reflect back on our lives leaders go through different stages of development. Some of them know they have struggles and haven't dealt with those struggles so it filters throughout their organization. It is written into some of the behaviors and approaches to conflict. Its the honest communication that can improve or damage relationships. Generally, those who are rational and see win-win situations are better then those who project conflict. Getting into politics isn't for everyone (I actually come to dislike politics in the past few years). We need strong leadership that is willing to focus on the needs of the people first (Its 50 good and 50 self-interested out there right now. That is not party specific.). Always be open to the possibility we may not always understand what we see so do what you can that is helpful with good karma in mind. Be polite and be honest. Leadership over a Lifetime.
P.S. What I see out there is a community that is resilient, lovers of their democratic republic, and who want the best government they can get. It is a hard sell in some circles but I do believe positive change will start to occur. If I was an investor, or young entrepreneur, I would consider a place like this to invest, vacation, and anchor one's footprint in meaningful and beneficial way. 💁 We should all be on the same team. Join this town's Renaissance into the next chapter of our shared story. Everything in life is a Choice........
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