Week in Review: Law and Order

America First candidates "will explore the possibility of jail expansion."

Week in Review

County Commissioner Candidates Commit to Law & Order

A group of County Commissioner Candidates—(Kevin Slack, District 1; Doug Corona, District 2; Gina Fosdick, District 3; Lance Lashaway, District 4; Dan Stevick, District 5)—signed off on the following commitments, among others, in an August 29 press release.¹

1. Comprehensive Budget Review: with the aim of eliminating “wasteful spending” without compromising on “essential needs.”

2. Business Model Budgeting: for the purpose of avoiding new millages while still retaining necessary services.

3. Systematic Jail Expansion Evaluation: includes the evaluation of “a range of options . . . from the least expensive to the costliest, with public safety as our primary goal.”

The press release was signed and approved by County Sheriff candidate Jon Rutan.

Primary Election Guide

Our coverage of most local candidates over the past month:

• Incumbent grades for County Commissioners and City Councilmen.

• County Commissioner and Hillsdale City Council primary races.

• Primary ballot millage proposals—a great chance to vote No.

• Our endorsement of Mayor Adam Stockford for State Representative.

• The County Sheriff and County Clerk races.

Upcoming Events

City Council, Monday, August 5

Hillsdale Senior Center Verbal Update

It is particularly important to note that the Senior Center is a separate institution from the “Medical Care Facility,” despite the fact that both the Senior Center and the Medical Care Facility receive funding from your County property tax dollars, and that both use that money to give things to the elderly.²

The Senior Center in particular has two separate millages, each being 0.5 mills. While the Medical Care Facility uses your money for snack bars, therapy, and beauty salons, and LifeWays uses your money for . . . other things . . . the Senior Center provides its aged clientele with Tai Chi training, yoga sessions, and “fitness” camps. The amount of money spent by the County in support of these decadent organizations is astounding. But the Commissioners persist in the hope you’ll believe there is no money for laws.

Proposed Dwelling Unit Ordinance Amendment

“In order to encourage new single family housing in the City, the Planning Dept. acknowledged that the definition and requirements for dwellings were not realistic considering current construction costs.”

So says Alan Beeker, the Planning Department Czar. See the chart for the proposed reduced minimum house sizes below:

Hillsdale City’s “Capital Improvement Plan”

The State of Michigan requires that the City of Hillsdale submit an annual “Capital Improvement Plan,” presumably to demonstrate to the State that we’re trying to do better. The plan has been presented to the Council with the recommendation to adopt. For now we’ll point out just one thing that caught our eye—

See the schedule of wealth transfers from your pocketbooks to Airport Development below:

The matter of funding the Airport’s ambitious projects has come up on several occasions in the past 14 months.

• In June of 2023, Council gave the Airport $45,000 for a new parking lot.

• In July of 2023, Mackie delivered remarks in favor of giving the airport just a bit more money, to get these projects across the finish line. Mackie, the Council, and Airport representatives conspicuously avoided giving details as to the full scope of their projects.

• Last January, Council gave the Airport another $55,000 (nearly the cost of a Special Assessment!) to renovate airplane hangars so that pilots wouldn’t be so chilly in wintertime.

City Staff and the Council majority have established a clear pattern—each project has been undertaken in such a way as to cause the public to believe that Airport Development is almost at an end, when in reality we (not Mackie, who lives elsewhere) are going to be on the hook for $5 million in the next five years. Worse: to our knowledge, the Airport Fund is nearly or already depleted, so all improvements are and will continue to be paid for from the General [Operating] Fund. In other words, there is not even a budgetary pretense to justify this insanity. Expect to see an airport millage proposal on the ballot at this rate of spending.

Dial-a-Ride Fare Increase

Dial-a-Ride currently costs the city $120,000+/year from the General Fund, or, two Specially Assessed neighborhoods’ worth of money. The Public Services Committee recommended a 50 cent increase per ride, but even this would only subtract about $13,000 from that annual expense. City Staff advises that Council not adopt the increased rates.³

External Links

• “The clerks are the unsung heroes of our local governments.” Abe Dane sings himself.⁴

• “I think my chances are better this time than they ever have been.” Jon Rutan.

• “In 2021, Manistee County, Michigan, took the title on Chelsea Koetter’s home in response to a small debt she owed on her 2018 property taxes.” Reason.

• “Text messages, obtained exclusively by The Times, indicate that some law enforcement officers were aware of Thomas Crooks earlier than previously known. And he was aware of them.” New York Times.

• “Facebook acknowledged that it mistakenly censored the iconic image of former President Donald Trump with his fist raised in the immediate aftermath of the July 13 assassination attempt in Pennsylvania.” New York Post.

• “Newsweek confirmed that mentions of the July 13 shooting do not come up on Google even when ‘assassination attempt of Tr ’are typed in.” Newsweek.

• “BIPOC women have tapped us in as white women . . .” Arielle Fodor.

• “They are women in their passports.” Olympic spokesman, Mark Adams.

• “Indiana is actively supressive of the pursuit of excellence. If you want to be anything but mediocre - except in sports - it’s a tough social environment.” Aaron Renn.⁵

• “A Christian should love the private enemy, and if we cannot meet that command of Christ, we should certainly show mercy to the private enemy. On the other hand, the public enemy . . .” Charles Haywood.

• “Make no mistake, that is how they see us: as enemies, and how they see their own role: as righteous avengers destroying the wicked.” Michael Anton.⁶

1. The Hillsdale Daily News’ report is here.

2. Is it any wonder that the County Commission, with its average age of 64, is interested in providing such extravagant services?

3. There is talk of selling advertising space on the sides of the buses, which would make up some substantial ground in covering their annual cost.

4. Cf. Walt Whitman.

5. Fauxglin gets hives whenever he hears the word “excellence,” and therefore may be better suited for Indiana than for our own little hotbed of genius, but he wonders how the several political subcultures in Hillsdale would respond to Renn’s account of the ways in which Midwestern culture “repels people.” Should we, for example, seek to make Hillsdale “a hub for the best of everything”?

6. We haven’t heard from Anton in how long? and this is all we get?