Week in Review: Incumbentocracy
Local government is a retirement hobby.
Week in Review
City Council, Monday, August 5
Senior Services Center Update
Hillsdale County Senior Center Representative, on the need to reshape the political order to maximally furnish the forthcoming geriatric majority with accomodations:1 “By 2034, older adults will outnumber youth for the first time in U.S. history. With that, it is imperative that the Hillsdale County Senior Services Center. . . continue to seek service expansion opportunities.” On some new programs recently added: “[We added] evidence-based exercise games that can be modified to anyone’s ability . . . We added socialization day trips.”
Municipal Code Amendment
Planning Czar Alan Beeker, on the city’s attempt to make new builds more affordable in Hillsdale by allowing for a smaller house footprint: “[The Planning Commission] realized that the minimum requirement for dwelling in the city is not in keeping with the need for moderate to lower income housing. . . So we reduced the minimum amount of square footage required for a regular dwelling.”
All in favor, Morrisey and Sharp absent.
Capital Improvement Plan
Paladino, on one method by which City Staff creates bias in favor of its favorite Development projects: “It would be good to know before we commit ourselves to any spending what we project to come out of the General Fund, grants, [etc.]. . . My concern is, that if we approve this, any objections we express will be met with, ‘Well, we approved this with the Capital Improvement Plan!’”2
In the view of your editors, City Staff failed to provide an adequate response to this objection.
Dial-a-Ride Rate Increase
Council discussed the proposal to increase the Dial-a-Ride bus fees. By way of some background, many children who attend Will Carleton Academy, which is outside the city limits, ride the Dial-a-Ride bus to school.
Stockford, on the possibility a Will Carleton Dial-a-Ride group rate: “Some parents are going to use Dial-a-Ride no matter what to get their kids to school. . . Other parents, if it becomes to cost-prohibitive, they’ll drive to school, they’ll find another way. We’re making that trip anyway to Will Carleton. But if we’re only doing it with half the students because half of them won’t ride the bus out there, we’ve doubled the price, we’ve got half the kids, we’ve got the same money in our pocket, and we’ve just upset a bunch of residents and made life harder for a bunch of families. . . I would be interested in exploring group rates with Will Carleton.”
Paladino, on the troubles caused by decadent Councils in the past: “It has gotten way out of hand without being raised progressively over the years, but now we have a situation where we have to raise it several dollars, which feels like an offense to the citizens. . . But Dial-a-Ride needs to be a revenue-neutral service.”
Because of the purported need to adhere to the bus service’s “on-demand structure,” which would be prohibitive of set-schedule group rates, Council entertained the idea of simply keeping the cost for children to ride the busses the same. Council sent the issue to the Public Services Committee for further consideration.
Public Comment
Shannon Gainer, longtime Hillsdale resident, on last meeting’s Sandy Beach fee raise: “We have 8,000 people in our City who are [potential] users of parks, especially our beaches, and you’re raising our prices.” On the Council majority’s practice of leveraging the property of ordinary citizens for the Airport and other such things: “Out of the 8,000 people in our City, [the Airport] is used by maybe one-hundred [people]. . . On top of [the $120,000 annually given to the Airport], we have a complementary car for the pilot of the plane. . . plus we’re paying for their free snacks. . . So they have a snack bar, they have a free car, they get to park for free. But you’re going to charge the community extra to get into a park.”3
Former Mayor (!) Scott Sessions, yapping up the wrong tree: “Luke Robson provided Adam Stockford with a $500 donation in December of 2023. . . on May 6, 2024, Stockford did not abstain and voted affirmative on Mr. Robson’s request. . . It doesn’t smell right, and it undermines the process that all of you as City Councilors do.”4
Matthew Kniffin, Ward III City Council candidate, on the travesty of the City putting a curb over one exit from a resident’s driveway: “I was up on Azalea [a road in the process of being rebuilt] knocking on a gentleman’s door, and I noticed that he had two driveways warned him that he should ask the City what’s going to happen to his second driveway.”
Council Comment
Socha, responding to Sessions’ rather pathetic word association: “I take great offense that our Mayor would be accused of selling his integrity for $500.”
Primary Election Results
Tuesday’s primary election results are bleak, no doubt about it. With Jen Wortz spending $400,000 to win a measly State Representative seat, it appears that local politics is dead or nearly dead, and that our collective opinions are closely monitored and adjusted as needed by out of town corporate interests, in conjunction with organs of opinion closer to home. (Abe Dane, a lock to win, also appears to have spent a good chunk of cash, provided by the Grand Rapids-based “Resolute Republic.”) In this vein, the establishment—led by its numerous incumbents—had a successful night, and America First appears to be on its heels.5 Central to both of these observations, but perhaps not immediately obvious, is something that was clarified more than ever at Monday’s City Council meeting: that is, Hillsdale County and City governments are governments of the old, by the old, and for the old.6
For our fact-loving fans out there, here are some Facts. The elderly are uniquely furnished by the City and County with the following: free walkers; subsidized condos; subsidized transportation; subsidized dining and snacks; subsidized entertainment; subsidized lodging; subsidized gyms, yoga, and martial arts; subsidized beauty salons; subsidized socialization; subsidized ambulance rides; and subsidized healthcare. There are probably more such programs. Many of these things are already paid for by your state and federal taxes, but are further financed by way of various millages, two of which passed by wide margins on Tuesday. As the Senior Center representative predicted above, property taxes redistributing money from working citizens to the retired will only continue to increase because our County and its leaders understand their jobs to be perpetually seeking “service expansion opportunities.”
“Service expansion” is made possible through our “seasoned” statesmen, who dominate the political scene. Their dominance was reaffirmed Tuesday. Benzing beat Lashaway. Wiley steamrolled Fosdick. Ingles scraped past Slack. Kevin Collins, 63, will bring relative youth to the County Commission. Bob Flynn, who predictably received many votes, would bring 61 years of lived experience to the City Council if he defeats the far more spry Matthew Kniffin in the November general election. And, unfortunately, there is no reason to believe that these seniors will do anything but perpetuate the tax-for-program status quo that they created and have benefited from. Little will change in Hillsdale County government until local offices are no longer seen as “socialization” retirement hobbies, but worthwhile tasks for the competent.7
Upcoming Events
County Commissioners, Tuesday, August 13
External Links
According to Consumer Affairs, Michigan ranks 47 out of 50 states in “quality of life.”8
“While the thoughts expressed in the Declaration of Independence, or even in the Declaration of the Rights of Man, may be beautiful, they are not sufficient for inspiring the type of devotion that motivates men to make the ultimate sacrifice.” Christian Warner.
“Kamala’s campaign is the ultimate ritual humiliation for the American electorate.” Josiah Lippincott.
“This is about honoring the life and service of Deputy Butler.” State Sen. Joseph Bellino.
“We hold that a person claiming self-defense has a duty to retreat when reasonably possible before committing the felony offense of second-degree assault-fear with a dangerous weapon, specifically, a device designed as a weapon and capable of producing death or great bodily harm.” Minnesota Supreme Court.
“The benefits cliff and marriage penalty associated with Medicaid means that a mother with a lower income gets free care, while married women like Kaitlyn—whose moderate income may put them just above the eligibility threshold—might pay thousands of dollars to give birth.” Amber Lapp.
“All of those jobs report headlines that we’ve read for the past year, suggesting the economy is booming, were mistaken.” Salena Zito.
Fauxglin disagrees with our formidable spin on this point, as he is one slip of the foot away from spending the rest of his days scrapping with grandma for the last piece of licorice at the Medical Care Facility’s complementary snack bar.
Paladino was reassured that the Capital Improvement Plan is nonbinding. But one suspects that the CIP alters the posture that Council takes with respect to any future projects. Institutions run by the City assume, upon the passage of the CIP, that their projects are proceeding, and the Council is put into a position to have to take previously granted things away, so to speak.
Gainer forgot to mention the five-year, $5 million Airport Development plan. Mackie said that the City can expect to cover around five percent after grants, or $250,000, in addition to $120,000/year to the Airport, indirectly funding Development projects. This means that the City will transfer $850,000 to the airport in the next five years, *if* the grant-getting scenario plays out as well as possible, and no additional construction costs are accrued beyond early projections.
Speaking of not smelling right, how about the rank work of Sessions’ son in Morenci?
In early May, Robson’s Hillsdale Renaissance requested the splitting up of a downtown parcel along a natural division, which Council unanimously approved without much discussion and no public comment whatsoever. Now, three months later, Sessions—in the midst of a race wherein Stockford’s opponent spent $400,000 to his $45,000—is deeply concerned about a lack of transparency.
To be America First is to live on one’s heels.
Despite the fact that the average age in the City of Hillsdale is 29, not including college students.
Let’s start with the fact that City Manager Dave Mackie makes ten times more money than the entire City Council combined.