Week in Review: Staunch Conservatism

"People were not really putting their heart and soul into it."

Week in Review

City Council, Monday, April 21

Public Comment

• Greg Bailey: “I agree that the mayor and City Councilpersons should get a raise. . . however, I do not agree with the determination that has been put forth by the current Officer’s Compensation Commission.”

• Shannon Gainer: “On the compensation: I don’t have enough information. . . I don’t know what I’m going to get for my money. . . I’d like to see more of you guys take control, and you control our City Manager, and not the City Manager control you.”

• Penny Swan, very positive: “I think every single one of you guys do your best.” Cultivating a negative environment: “This disinformation. . . they can spin it all they want, but the Facts are the Facts.”

• Scott Sessions, muttering strangely to himself: “I did not serve the residents of the City of Hillsdale for the money.”

• CJ Toncray, dropping bombs on a disheveled Mackie: “Last meeting I was extremely disappointed to hear that the Manager blamed some people on Council for the retirement of some of the people. . . I remember having a conversation with [Bauer] when I went to talk to her and she had mentioned at that time—and it was at least four months ago—that she was already in the process of retiring.”¹ On Mackie’s management style: “To just try to shut people up when they try to question things—I don’t understand it.”

• Russell Richardson, the same: “Last week it was suggested that the negative culture on this Council resulted in the exit of two staff people. Both of these people have been talking about retiring for months. . . so to use that as political leverage is shameful. This negative culture was directed primarily at one individual who was accused of rallying people to oppose the raise, bonus, and severance package last fall. Based on my experience with this committee, I’m beginning to have a different theory as to why those people showed up. They’re tired of the same old same old. They’re tired of stories of City Staff who have been silenced for holding dissenting opinions; they’re tired of lawsuits for fences barely over city property lines; they’re tired of increased property taxes for thee, but not for me; they’re tired of attempts to secure severance packages weeks before an election. And watching the planned retirement of these two individuals being used as political ammo is really shameful.”

• Jeff Fazekas, on the budget: “Until serious considerations are made about readjusting everything that we do here in the City, we’re going to have these people complaining, ‘fix our damn roads.’”

• Cathy Kelemen, announcing her mayoral candidacy: “I will be running for Mayor. . . I have no political agenda.”²

• Mark Nichols, on Pope Francis’ passing: “I expect probably tomorrow in the City and at the Fire Department are the places flags will be lowered half mast, if they’re aware that the Pope died. President Trump issued an order to lower the flags. . . I’m not Catholic; I’m not particularly fond of the Pope that we had there.”

• Joseph Hendee, lamenting Paladino’s announcement that he would not run for Mayor: “Pro Tem Mayor: it’s very disheartening to hear that you are not running for Mayor. Just wanted to say thank you, and this resident will truly miss you. I think you’ve been one of the most transparent Mayors we’ve ever had.”

• Chad “Chad” Hammond: “I’m here to tell you I am going to be here more often. I’m very young considering most of you gentlemen here on this Council. . . There’s not a whole lot of money and maybe we need to make some cuts. . . It’s not about us; it’s about our kids and their kids. . . and what we’re doing right now is not benefitting my kids. . . We have a City Manager that calls all the shots, and the Council can’t do anything about it. And to me, that’s wrong.” On Mackie’s inability to do his job for $200,000/year while not living in the City: “If I were to do that to my boss, I would be fired on the spot, if I couldn’t give you guys what you’re asking for. . . The way I look at it, Mr. Mackie: these guys right here that the City voted it—these guys are your employer.”

Airport

• New Airport Director Travis Stebelton: “I’d like to dig into the budget and get a feel for what the City’s goal is with the Airport. I assume that is to reduce taxpayer money supporting the operation of the Airport. With that in mind, it would be a reduction in staffing to reduce wages at the Airport. . . If we have one operation a day, we don’t need someone to sit there for eight hours for one hour worth of work.”

Barry Street SAD

The Council unanimously rejected the Barry Street SAD with little discussion.

Officer’s Compensation Commission

The Council unanimously rejected the pay raises with no discussion.

City Manager’s Report

• Mackie: “I do not have a report this evening.”

Council Comment

• Socha, Hillsdale’s Michael Scott: “Today I submitted my signatures and I am running for Mayor in the interim slot.” On his several bosses: “After long deliberation and thought, talking with my wife to ensure it was a sustainable thing, talking with the owner of the business I work for, and talking with Mr. Mackie to ensure that I could do things before, after, or during my lunch hour, I feel like it is an appropriate and doable service I can do for the community.”³

• Bitchin’ Bob, bitchin’: “I have been called old, retired, and well-off ever since I was elected. . . Yeah, it stinks that you have to spend some of your free time on a Monday night listening to people bitch and complain, but that’s what we signed up for.”

• Tax-Maxing Gerg Stuchell, on his LinkedIn profile: “I am 70 years old and I still work 50-plus hours a week. . . However, I get a sense that there’s a feel or an impression that our City Manager system is broken or wrong. It is anything but broken or wrong: it is well run. And the reason it is well run is that we have good professionals.”⁴

County Commissioners, Tuesday, April 22

Due to the event of City Council and County Commissioners meeting in the same week, we only had the time to cover the most contentious and consequential portion of this meeting. Full coverage to come next week.

LifeWays Bond

The Public

The public unanimously opposed LifeWays’ attempt to fully consolidate its conquest of Hillsdale County and its children.

• Former County Commissioner Steve Lanius: “You are a governing body and not a banking institution.”

• Russell Richardson: “If you’re voting on hiring a lawyer to go through the process of figuring this out, you’re committing to go down that road. So don’t mislead the public. . . We’re not a bank.”

• Joseph Hendee: “The same thing that’s being proposed here today was done on the 800 megahertz system. You brought it back. . . Now, it’s failed two or three times. . . I just don’t think that that’s appropriate.”

• Mary Meints: “Commissioner Wiley’s position as the Vice Chair on the Board of Directors for LifeWays is a conflict of interest in this matter, and will require a three-quarters vote of the Board in order to pass.”⁵

• Doug Corona: “Will this set a precedent? Will other companies be able to come, will other organizations be able to come and try to force the taxpayers of Hillsdale County to do another millage?”

• Christina Bruns: “I sent an email to you all three days prior urging the Commissioners, yet again, to vote No regarding the LifeWays bond that has been requested, yet again. . . Mr. Wiley: you emailed me back stating that you ‘do not understand.’ That was apparent given the fact that the rest of your email did not address my concern about the County backing a building bond, but instead schooled me on how much interest the bond would save LifeWays, and about how the County would not be held liable of LifeWays were to harm a person. I suppose I’m the one that does not understand what the content of your email has to do with addressing my concerns. . . I would have hoped that you had addressed my concerns in your reply rather than filling your email content with an unsolicited LifeWays ad.”

• George Allen: “I object in principle to the use of the County’s funds, resources, faith and credit in the support of so-called public mental health services: an extension of the therapeutic welfare state that lavishes an obscene amount of the public’s dollars on endless drugs and therapies of questionable benefit and extraordinary profit for pharmaceutical companies and the psychotherapeutic quack industry. If that industry is to support itself, let it do so in a private capacity. . . At some point you always run out of other peoples’ money.” On the bond: “If there is no question of liability, if there is no risk, what need is there to lay our full faith and credit on the table? What are we guaranteeing? Something is being wagered, and I do not like the odds.”

• Andrea Clark, on the hysterical establishment’s typical response to questioning: “This is being proposed as a false dichotomy: either we fund this bond, or we don’t have mental health, which is not the case.”

• Calvin Stockdale, wanting some distance: “This is an important issue to the community. . . Pursuing this further down the road of looking at getting a bond is pushing toward a greater stronghold of LifeWays in the community. I think that this community does not want that.”

• Megan Campbell, mental health practitioner: “I have concerns about the fiscal aspects of it.”

• Dominick Sansone, knowing things: “Before coming to Hillsdale I served as the Assistant director of strategic initiatives for the Tennessee Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services. . . The incentive structure of these institutions is to fundamentally increase services: that is their marker of success. . . These institutions have an incentive to continue expanding services over and over. So, I would not like a tour of this institution, because I understand what they do.” On alternatives: “What helped people was being connected with faith-based initiatives. . . You want to address the homelessness problem? You need to enforce the laws that are on the books.”

• Jacob Bruns, on the bond: “If the County pledges its ‘full faith and credit,’ language that has been used pertaining to this issue, it effectively guarantees the bond, meaning that the County is liable for payments if the mental health agency defaults. . . Even the investigation of this bond issue is unacceptable, and it’s truly amazing that the public would be required to come to a board made up of five Republicans—five people that ran as Republicans—to discuss this.”

• Matthew Bentley, on Wiley’s disdain for the people: “This is an unacceptable gamble; this is a governing body, not a bank, much less a casino. . . This is a room full of constituents, and Mr. Wiley, you barely look up from what you’re busy with to hear the constituents. . . So far it’s been unanimous: everybody’s been against it. So I don’t see how it could be a close call. . . This will further solidify their monopoly power over this County.”

• CJ Toncray: “Why are we here? . . . The community doesn’t want this to happen.”

• Brigette Paladino, on Wiley’s email copy-and-paste mass email: “It seemed to indicate that either Mr. Wiley is not sure of what a bond is, or that he’s being deceitful in some way.” See Wiley’s exchange with Ingles below for more details.

• Curtis Campbell, straightforward: “It seems pretty clear that this needs to be voted down.”

• James Thomas, displeased: “Quite frankly, I don’t really care about your feelings. You’re working for me, and you’re using my money. What I hear is, you don’t respect my investment in the community, and you don’t respect my time.”

• LifeWays’ Jon Johnston, a sacrificial caricature of a “staunch conservative” sent by LifeWays’ CEO Maribeth Leonard to try to placate the people: “My background is staunchly conservative. . . I am staunchly conservative. . . As a staunch conservative, stay the hell out of our way and let us live. ”

  • On how you, dear reader, might make a good LifeWays patient: “Mental health is a serious issue and probably does affect some people in this room. . . We are actually a governmental authority. . . We have to do oversight, as a governmental authority.”

  • On how LifeWays censors staunch conservatives, specifically related to LifeWays’ LGBT content: “I’ll say this, I’ll probably get fired later; I don’t agree as a staunch conservative in southern Jackson County. . . I don’t necessarily agree with all those things either.”

  • Johnston bizarrely delivered his entire statement with his back to the commissioners, facing the people.

    • [The chorus, interrupting: “Why are you talking at us?” “Is this a sales pitch?] [Wiley gaveling down the crowd: “Let the gentleman talk!”]

    • Johnston, continuing: “The bond that we are requesting will save taxpayers millions of dollars.”

• Jean Heise: “To confuse [teenagers] with this whole transgender issue that’s becoming very popular is wrong.”

• Father Steven Allen: “We don’t have to give them the monopoly. LifeWays promotes the LGBT ideology to our children. This is not science. This is not good mental health practice. . . What they’re doing is against their supposed mission of promoting mental health.”

• Lance Lashaway: “You all ran as Republicans. You’re wasting our time right now. Do your job.”

The Commissioners

• Brent Leininger, Chair of the Hillsdale County Republican Party, has backed this resolution since he visibly consulted with then commissioner-elect Kevin Collins during a live meeting several months ago to see how Collins would vote, presumably receiving an affirmative answer: “The resolution stands clear: this is not authorizing any bond for LifeWays. I will say that there are some legal questions that I would like to ask, but we don’t need to expend our money. . . It’s our job to do our due diligence when we make these decisions. . . If we decide to pursue issuing a bond, we must publish a notice and the citizens will have a chance to have 45 days to collect signatures to put that issue on the ballot. . . This resolution provides the opportunity to discuss with legal counsel and bill LifeWays for those expenses.”⁶

• Kevin Collins, put up to the task by Wiley: “I would like to consent to legal counsel just so we know if the County’s liable for this if they do fold or close down. . . It’s not going to cost the County anything to go through this procedure.”

• Wiley, after having previously announced to all that Hillsdale County would certainly bear no risk: “To have legal counsel would be helpful.” Did Wiley spread—misinformation? How very Decent.

• Benzing, opposed: “We need a legal opinion that we pay for. . . We can have lots of discussions about the hows and whys, but I think that before we move any further. . . we really need to get those questions answered.”

• Ingles, taking a stand against Clean Needles Wiley: “The intent of engaging the bond counsel quite frankly is to pursue issuing a bond for Hillsdale County on behalf of LifeWays. I received over 75 emails between our last meeting and this meeting, all 100% oppose moving towards issuing a bond for LifeWays. Not one of those 75 emails was in support. Even though this resolution is to engage bond counsel, No is still No. . . If federal funding is lost, and LifeWays defaults on a bond payment, Hillsdale County’s on the hook because Hillsdale County issues the bond. . . We just heard for over an hour comments that said No.”

  • Wiley, on emails received: “Several of them were copy-and-paste. Several of them. So people were not really putting their heart and soul into it as much as they were just copy-and-paste.” On how LifeWays’ gay race communism—which the Chair of the Hillsdale County Republican Party apparently supports—is just an accident: “A couple of them that were sent to me included screenshots of a webpage information that is not on today’s webpage. It’s programs that were two, three years or more ago. . . If there was something on there about LGBTQ or whatever, it may have been on their webpage at one time as a requirement of that grant funding. . . Mental health needs to be understood: it’s a condition no different than diabetes. . . I think there’s a lot of misunderstanding.”⁷ On LifeWays’ pending efforts to fact-check citizens into submission: “I know from a text I got, staff is working on addressing a lot of the comments, and there will be a Fact Sheet coming out of that to help educate.”

  • Ingles, obliterating Wiley, who’s very existence is copied-and-pasted out of the State of Michigan’s functionary handbook: “To your point on the emails, I was the recipient as well of some of your replies that were cut-and-paste. Does that make your reply any less genuine?”

  • Wiley, after an awkward pause: “You can take that however you decide it.”

The motion passed, 3-2, with Leininger, Collins, and Wiley in favor, and Benzing and Ingles opposed. Over the clear and numerous objections of a multitude, the intrepid Board of Commissioners weighed the words of County “elites” and LifeWays employees at twenty times more than your own. They not only don’t care what you think; they believe you’re a problem that can be educated away with a Fact Sheet, the promise of which betrays their plans to explain away and pass this over your objections.⁸

Public Comment II

• Bentley, four hours later: “I would first like to thank my commissioner, Commissioner Ingles, for hearing and voicing and defending the constituents that took the time to come out today to oppose the LifeWays bond. . . It seemed cowardly to vote and delay, masquerading as due diligence; if you’re going to vote No, you’re going to vote No. And some slick finance LifeWays guy isn’t going to do anything but blow smoke and tell you it’s fine. But the people know it’s the full faith and credit of Hillsdale County. So I don’t know what questions can be answered beyond that.”

  • On Wiley’s open disdain for the people, and the bait-and-switch tactics of seasoned boardsmen: “As far as Commissioner Wiley, with his dismissal and diminishing the peoples’ concerns and efforts and communications—that seemed disrespectful. And, by the way, the people don’t need a Fact Sheet. The people know what they think and they’re against it. I don’t know how that can be any clearer. And yet this board voted to march ahead, to plow ahead, towards LifeWays’ bond. . . Now it’s just going to drag on until you exhaust the people and sneak one by them.”

---

External Links

• “The Michigan House of Representatives has the right to know how Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson is instructing local election officials to conduct the elections within the state.” Rep. Jay DeBoyer.

• “In Michigan alone, five Chesterton Academies have opened their doors in the last six years.” Ray Hilbrich.

• “No one is obligated to send their kids to public school, but if the court rules that religious parents can micromanage the education of their children in public school even where the effect is to undermine the school’s ability to do the job it needs to do for all of its students, that will seriously undermine the ability of public schools to do the work they need to do.” David Cole.

• “At my direction, forces under United States Central Command have commenced large-scale strikes in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen to eliminate the capabilities the Houthis use for attacks on United States forces and commercial ships in the Red Sea and surrounding waters.” President Trump.

• “Then, finally, as local embodied experience becomes less important than virtual alternatives, the power of substitution and distraction feeds a sense that real-world life is fundamentally obsolete.” Ross Douthat.

• “And while family units disintegrate, the traditional structure of organised crime also erodes. Children can find accounts on Snapchat that teach them how to cook crack, take over and ‘cuckoo’ the house of a vulnerable person, establishing their own county line. Youths need only to find a dealer and they can set themselves up as an ultra-violent entrepreneur. They fan out from Bristol into Wales and the southwest of England.” Felix Pope.

• “In the midst of this aesthetic desert, these young men have re-discovered the struggle for distinction and the joy of dressing. The best word to describe them is one that has mostly flown from our lexicons: dandies.” Joe Amato.

• “Experiments to dim sunlight to fight global warming will be given the green light by the Government within weeks.” Telegraph.

1. Did Mackie ghostwrite Bauer’s resignation letter? Did Mackie and/or Moore lie about the reasons behind her resignation? Were there other factors at play in Moore’s decision? Why are our Decent leaders so Deceptive? Do Gerg and Morrisey feel any remorse for their moral grandstanding at the previous meeting, wherein they made a quite nasty judgment that turned out to be wrong? Or are they, like Socha, too smug for self-reflection?

2. Yes, yes—nobody ever has any agenda or anything they want to do or not do. Unity, everybody be nice, nobody get mad, nobody quit, everybody vote unanimously for our shared value of togetherness in all things as we move into our Bright and Beautiful Future. Team building.

3. “God made him, and therefore let him pass for a man. / In truth, I know it is a sin to be a mocker: but, / he! why, he. . . is every man in no man.” (Shakespeare—very inDecent indeed.) If Socha wins this downtime position, be ready to “open up your pocketbook and serve your City,” as he is fond of saying.

4. With all that time spent workin’ hard, it is no wonder Gerg takes pride in his ignorance.

On this topic, please consider participating in this very important poll.

5. Benzing was interested in pursuing this question further.

6. Leininger is the brother of your State Rep. Jen Wortz. Is she, standard bearer of family values, going to opine about this rather important question?

7. We relish the opportunity to watch the institutions of our esteemed grant chasers—who sold out the people of Hillsdale for federal cash—meet financial struggle. We also wonder whether Lifeways is altogether pleased that a member of its esteemed Board of Directors is publicly speculating that our beloved “governmental authority” put up Potemkin websites to deceive the feds?

8. If the Fact Sheet fails to cure you, there will be a LifeWays cell with your name on it.