Week in Review: the New Jackson
"Because of David’s leadership, the city has ongoing growth."
Week in Review
The Developmental Mind
The Developmental Mind—which dominates City Staff and our appointed officials—prefers the old and moneyed. It asserts without discussion that all city growth is good, and that the purpose of government is purely technical: leveraging the people’s money for maximally-efficient business ventures. This is a claim to justice charading as a purely objective approach, and it denies the city’s elected and appointed officials all agency. With a few exceptions, those involved in the city believe that just local government is obliged simply and only to “stimulate” the local economy. This manifests in several policies:
deferring to the City Manager in all or nearly all respects;
undertaking government-private sector partnership housing projects while increasing barriers for individuals and families to build or improve their own homes;1
begging corporations to “stimulate” Hillsdale by giving them tax abatements;
transforming residents over time to prepare them for increased fees, taxes, corporate incentives, and more government involvement in their daily affairs.
The results of this method have been fine for corporate interests and those who want to rent Chicago suburb-style workforce dwelling units for $2,000/month. But the consequences of these ambitious projects for ordinary people—maximized property taxes and SADs—require some explanation.
Property Taxes
The City raises much of its funding through property taxes, which it is currently leveraging to the maximal legal degree. See the annual property tax revenue breakdown below:2
Operating: $1,730,377 or 62%
Streets: $490,918 or 18%
Streets again: $346,068 or 12.5%
Public Safety: $139,154 or 5%
Leaf Collection: $70,112 or 2.5%
Operating funds (1) can be spent with discretion. Much of it goes to public safety, the Airport, staff pay, etc. The other taxes (2-5) are levied—ostensibly with the consent of the people via ballot initiative—and earmarked only for designated purposes. The method that Staff and Council use to raise taxes is as follows:
Initiate public ballot initiatives to get new, specifically-allocated property taxes (2-5 above) passed. Those new taxes tend to consist of things considered to be essential city services (leaves/brush, streets, public safety). They will pass, because few wish to vote against them.
Hide away the many non-essential projects that the City undertakes in the operating budget, such as:
bloating the City Staff and their salaries;
purchasing the latest public services and public safety equipment, but never decreasing staffing or paid hours (as is the promised result of the efficient new equipment);
redistributing six figures annually to the Airport;
running the Dial-a-Ride bus service at an annual net loss of six figures.
Initiate SADs, justifying them based upon an artificial budgetary constraint that Council itself created.
SADs
Because Staff and Council have maximized taxes for non-essential services, they must use Special Assessment Districts to drive further revenue. The SAD is a street or neighborhood targeted financially by City Council to leverage their money for road repair. Upon being assessed, the owner(s) of each lot will pay $5,000 to get their road fixed. In failing to do so, the resident will have a $5,000 lien put on the property, and will pay that loan off, with interest. In an average year, SADs take in around $150,000, though 2025 is slated to bring in more than $250,000 as the city devours its own. The biggest supporters of SADs, and of property tax maximalism, are Stuchell (ward 1), Vear (1), Morrisey (2), Wolfram (3), Sharp (3), and Socha (4).
The Future
The Developmental Mind is afflicted by a partisan bias, yet it pretends to be beyond partisanship. It undertakes the thoroughly political task of projecting and planning for the future of the city, with Jackson and Coldwater as its models. So long as the city’s momentum is not checked, this is the future of the Hillsdale—sprawling nonprofits and service sector chains on Carleton, flimsy suburbia on the fringes, and authentic curry restaurants downtown.
Upcoming Events
City Council, Monday, October 21
Sandy Beach Entry Free
The Council will revisit its fee raises for Sandy Beach entry after having previously kicked this discussion to the Public Services Committee.
Team Roles and Expectations Workshop (151)
The Operations & Governance Committee would like to bring in Dr. Lewis Bender, PhD and Teamwork Specialist, to help train Council and Staff in the Art of Team Building.
[Bender is] a specialist in training and organizational development for business and government, he conducts seminars and workshops for management, supervisors, support staff, and customer service employees – anyone who needs to communicate effectively. Dr. Bender is well known for his candid approach and casual style.
The lengthy training sessions would focus on “communication” and making sure that people have the right “understanding and expectations.” It would cost the City (which just doesn’t have enough money to address SADs—Sorry!) $6,000, plus travel expenses for the eminent Bender. Doubtless enticed by Bender’s famed “candid approach and casual style,” City Staff is pushing it, and Councilmen Stuchell, Morrisey, and Sharp—the members of the O&G Committee—unanimously recommend it.3
City Manager New Contract (163)
The BPU Board, which is composed mostly of people who do not live in Hillsdale, has unanimously proposed giving City Manager Dave Mackie, who does not live in Hillsdale, a raise and a lucrative contract extension with money from the residents of the City of Hillsdale. The details of the contract:
An extension through July of 2032;
A 2% raise;
A severance package of 12 to 18 months of pay, effective immediately;
A provision to extend this severance package to 24 months of pay, beginning in July of 2025. The severance package would apply whether he was to be fired with or without cause.
Currently, Mackie makes, according to public records, $193,583/year. His salary is 457% higher than the average and 626% higher than the median salary in Hillsdale. The severance package would cost the residents around $400,000. We accept that competence requires pay, but the people of Hillsdale have been asked (ordered) by the City to open up their pocketbooks; perhaps our public officials could consider exercising a fraction of that austerity, and perhaps our representatives could attempt to negotiate. According to the O&G meeting minutes, several members of the public spoke in favor of Mackie’s achievements, including a trio of fast friends—
JJ Hodshire, Hillsdale Hospital CEO;
Penny Swan, establishment mouthpiece;
Barry Hill, former BPU Board Chair.
Hodshire in particular made a telling comment about Mackie, praising him for:
[his] ability to reach across party lines providing the City with outside financial resources with funds and grants. Mr. Mackie continues to display his ability to seek out and bring in outside financial resources into the City of Hillsdale. Because of David’s leadership, the city has ongoing growth.
This is the Developmental Mind on display. The Manager’s superpartisan “growth” achievements include:
Raising the number of City employees from 68 to 78;
Maximizing property taxes to the statutory limit;
Initiating and enforcing SADs;
Increasing fees universally;
Giving millions of dollars in tax breaks to corporations.
The City O&G Committee (Stuchell, Sharp, Morrisey) also unanimously voted in favor of this questionable extension, and each member reportedly flattered the Manager in turn. Yet their lucrative offer may be legally questionable. According to the Municipal Code, Chapter 4, Section 4.6,
The Council shall, within 90 days after any vacancy exists in the position of City Manager, appoint a City Manager for a period of not less than one year nor more than five years and shall fix his compensation.
Granting this eight-year deal with such an absurd severance package would have the effect of the current Council enshrining its agenda in the City’s bureaucracy by binding future Councils to the same City Manager and therefore to undertaking the same projects and the same vision for the future of Hillsdale. It would render the next four elections largely ineffectual and meaningless, and would mean that Hillsdale has no choice but to give itself over to Chipotle and LifeWays.
Set Public Hearing for Three Meadows Condo Development
Allen Edwin Homes wishes to construct 60-some new “upscale” condos in its “Three Meadows” neighborhood with the aid of a $7 million, 25-year tax abatement. Council will be thrilled by the chance to pave over the meadow that was presumptuous enough to remain undeveloped. The city will also reap the benefits of maintaining more city streets while not acquiring a single tax dollar until half of us are dead. This agenda item is to set a public hearing for the November 4 meeting.
County Commissioners, Tuesday, October 22
External Links
“America would be so lucky to end up like us.” Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
“He’s the promoter of evil.” The EU elite’s take on Elon Musk.
“The progressive party-state’s coalition is held together by two binding forces—the distribution of federal largesse, including entitlements and contracts, and the constant manufacturing of crises, victims, and enemy groups—that require extraordinary effort to maintain.” Jacob Siegel.
“Fashions run through psychopathology . . . The suddenness with which an infrequent diagnosis [of gender dysphoria] became first common, and then the object of an entire ideology and social cause, is astonishing and surely requires an explanation.” Theodore Dalrymple.
You might ask yourself if this approach has caused any problems recently in other dilapidated Midwestern towns.
This does not include library, public school, or county property taxes.
You read this right—real, living people voted in favor of the corporate “team building” session which they themselves will have to attend.