Week in Review
City Council Meeting, May 15
City Budget
The City Council passed the 2023-4 budget 7-0 with no public comment. We will investigate this at greater length in the coming weeks.
Public Camping Ordinance
The City Council, sans Morrisey and Paladino, sent the no camping ordinance back to the Public Safety Committee to be reworked, lessening the public camping violation from a misdemeanor to a “civil infraction” (a ticket). Most on the council indicated that they will vote to pass the revised measure, though it is uncertain whether or how the return of Morrisey and Paladino will alter the council’s ultimate decision. Additional notes below:
The Council received anti-ordinance pleas from not one, not two, but three out-of-county nonprofits who have an apparent interest in the continuation of camping on public lands in Hillsdale.
The Michigan Balance of State Continuum of Care suggested that the city appeal to the “Michigan State Housing Development Authority,” which doubtless “stands as a willing partner in developing solutions.” The MIBOSCOC (!) also asked the City Council to consider gathering funding from the “American Rescue Plan Act,” including “State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds, Emergency Housing Vouchers, and Home Investment Partnerships (HOME-ARPA) grants.” They warned that the passage of such an ordinance might invite “stories of a town locking up disabled and ill people with sad and sympathetic histories.”1
The Michigan Coalition Against Homelessness is a statewide organization that “empowers Michigan communities to increase affordable housing and prevent and end homelessness.” It has been around for 30 years, and continues to grow. Those at the MCAH are “very concerned” about the proposed ordinance, and emphasized that this is the result of a housing shortage, confirmed by their data provided by the National Low Income Housing Coalition.
The Salvation Army, “an international movement,” submitted a less foreboding statement requesting that the ordinance be softened, though their representative at the meeting tried to batter its proponents over the head with warnings of future lawsuits based on irrelevant circuit court decisions.
Mayor Stockford spoke at great length before the vote, noting that he could be pressured by the public into deciding either way. He also said he resented having to make a political choice. Stockford’s greatest stated concern was that the ordinance could not be adequately enforced because he does not believe county prosecutor Neal Brady’s assurances that he will charge those who violate the ordinance. (Brady, we gather, has a reputation for making too many plea deals.)2
During the public comment period, Task Force leader Stephanie Meyers complained that the Force was not given enough time to confront the “multifaceted problem” by “bringing the agencies. . . to the table.” She also appealed to her expertise in the form of long experience in the nonprofit sector doing social work. After running out of time, Meyers said that she would continue to discuss the matter with the mayor later on.
Several accused those in favor of the ordinance of subscribing to impure Christian theology. Charity, it seems, demands that we leave charity in the cold hands of the state bureaucracy and its local agents!
Speaking of our nonprofit entrepreneurs, the distraught lifestyle advocates showed in strong numbers to defend those experiencing homelessness, the housing insecure population, or, alternatively, the un-housed, from the perceived assault on their very being. One who spoke with particular feverishness even possesses (or will possess) a Master’s Degree in Social Work, which taught her that it is the parents’ fault if their child is flashed.
Penny Swan argued quite rightly that “this is an ordinance that isn’t going to correct the problem,” though it did not appear that anyone believed the ordinance alone was meant to do so. She also reassured the room that, contrary to popular opinion, she is in fact a Republican who is “against big government.”
Fr. Steven Allen made a distinction between personal charity and an appropriate public response to camping on public lands: “Personal charity—love for one’s neighbor, one-on-one—can take place in all sorts of situations ranging from good order to complete chaos. . . but effective charity as public policy can only be built upon the foundation of a prudent and stable social order erected with a clear knowledge of the limitations of the resources of our community.”
Councilman Stuchell said that the council’s role in this particular matter is “to support public safety,” not to permanently solve “every problem” in town.
The Jansen Files
Uncle Ted’s once-promising Freedom of Information Act request of Councilman Paladino’s emails regarding the library board ended unceremoniously, voted down by the council, 4-3. Tom Thompson, the city attorney, made the basic distinction between public record and private correspondence, implicitly suggesting that Jansen seemed to expect to gain access to Paladino’s private correspondence via his FOIA request.
Confronted with a vote as to whether or not to “ask Councilman Paladino to revisit his emails,” Sharp, Pratt, and Vear voted yes; Stockford, Socha, Wolfram, and Stuchell opposed. For now, Uncle Ted will have to try a different route.
Upcoming Events
June 5: City Council meeting. Presumably the council will, among other things:
come to a decision on the revised no camping ordinance;
attempt to fill the fifth and final library board seat;
hear out Uncle Ted’s next gripe.
External Links
Professors Brad Birzer and Miles Smith respond to The New Yorker’s critique of Hillsdale’s history curriculum.
A little over four years after his first involvement with the case, special counsel John Durham has released his final report on “matters related to intelligence activities and investigations arising out of the 2016 presidential campaigns,” a 300+ page distillation of 6.58 million documents and nearly 500 interviews which finds that “neither U.S. law enforcement nor the Intelligence Community appears to have possessed any actual evidence of collusion in their holdings at the commencement of the Crossfire Hurricane investigation.” But, relax, it’s not like the deep state “obstructed an official proceeding,” and, besides, the FBI has “already implemented dozens of corrective actions.”
President Biden, speaking to the graduates of Howard University (5/13): “The most dangerous terrorist threat to our homeland is white supremacy.”
Vice President Kamala Harris, speaking to fellow human beings: “My mother used to — she would give us a hard time sometimes, and she would say to us, ‘I don’t know what’s wrong with you young people. You think you just fell out of a coconut tree?’”3
Nathan Pinkoski, writing at First Things: “Fukuyama has changed. His critique of the left has become much more muted . . . the elder Fukuyama has abandoned the classical human-nature framework that informed his earlier work . . . Although Fukuyama invokes human nature by drawing attention to aspects of evolutionary biology, his central claim is that ‘the basis of dignity’ is an ‘inner self.’”
Some guy on Twitter: “Windmills are a form of occultic symbolism designed by the metaphysical enemies of rural America. They interfere with the id and disrupt the continuity between man, time, and land. It’s not about electricity, it's about demoralizing backwoods provincials with evil art.”
Katherine J. Wu, writing in The Atlantic (5/2): “Talwar’s invention is now in early-stage clinical trials. If all goes well, it could become humanity’s first contraceptive vaccine—one that would prevent pregnancies in a way distinct from any birth control ever cleared for human use. . . . It leaves the menstrual cycle unaltered, instead leveraging the powers of the immune system to keep unwanted pregnancies at bay.” | At The American Conservative, Carmel Richardson asks, “But what comes of immunizing a woman against herself?”
President Ulysses S. Grant, in his Second Inaugural: “I do not share in the apprehension held by many as to the danger of governments becoming weakened and destroyed by reason of their extension of territory. Commerce, education, and rapid transit of thought and matter by telegraph and steam have changed all this. Rather do I believe that our Great Maker is preparing the world, in His own good time, to become one nation, speaking one language, and when armies and navies will be no longer required.”
Thomas Jefferson: “I think our governments will remain virtuous for many centuries; as long as they are chiefly agricultural; and this will be as long as there shall be vacant lands in any part of America.”
Swan indicated some agreement with Stockford on this point in her later suggestion that within “the legal system here—we have no repercussions . . . that’s why we have a drug problem. . .” Whether or not any of this is due to Brady, Stockford’s statement only attempts to shift the responsibility away from council, which was supposed to make a decision about this particular ordinance proposal regarding the merit of this particular type of activity, camping on public land. The council did not meet to deliberate as to whether or not county officials will do their jobs. And though the ability to enforce a law is certainly a consideration, the office of mayor is in fact an executive office.
You may want to listen to the Jansen section again, quite the contrary, it was Councilman Paladino's use of his personal e-mail for city business that risked the personal intrusion. Attorney Thompsen recommend use of a city or designated e-mail address for city business. This is a good practice in governance related to electronic communications.