Week in Review: Two Shit Sandwiches

"I feel that this is a win-win"

Week in Review

City Council, Monday, November 18

Mayor Stockford’s Resignation

The Mayor will resign next meeting after 12 years in local government. In his resignation speech, he described the power tactics used by the Decent and Ethical to allow them to maintain their upstanding appearances—

• “Tonight’s my last meeting. . . Thank you, I appreciate my time here as Mayor.”

• “A lot of times you’ve got two bad choices—two shit sandwiches—and you have to decide if you want mayonnaise on it or mustard on it.”¹

• “I see this strain in the community: that some of these young people that want to get involved are bad, and are right-wing extremists, and it’s very disheartening for me to see. . . This effort to keep young people out of participating, and to smear them, is. . . unfortunate. . . I’ve seen a number of influential, powerful men in this community who use the impoverished, highly-impressionable, overemotional women to do their dirty work for them online. . . A man would not do that. That’s something a pimp would do.”²

Mayor Pro Tem Election

Councilmen Morrisey and Paladino both volunteered for the job, which will last until the “next regular state election.” Paladino was elected 5-4 by written ballot. Some consternation has ensued with respect to the procedure, which may or may not have been botched by City Attorney Toby.

Public Comment

• Shannon Gainer: “I’m against the Special Assessments. . . This especially bothers me when I know that we have a $3 million new airport terminal with half a million from our budget.”

Camp Hope & Share the Warmth

• Missy DesJardin, proprietor of the “Camp Hope” homeless tent, defended her project in the face of impending code violations:

  • On the presence of an MS-13 gang member and illegal immigrant at the camp: “There was a [Hillsdale County] police department that dropped him off at our camp. . . I made sure he was well-fed. And, if you all know anything about weed, I made sure there was Indica on the property so that he’d be on the couch. So he more or less slept and ate, slept and ate, until we could figure out what was going to happen.”

  • Socha, skeptical: “The City does have an ordinance against camping in the City, and we have turned a blind eye to that in the last year and a half. . . Recently I had members of Public Safety, both police and fire, tell me that the tent is. . . a fire hazard and a danger.”³

• Penny Myers of Share the Warmth at SoZo Church: “Back in September, I was approached by a community member that appreciates what we are trying to do, and they’re willing to help us move forward with our shelter. We are excited about becoming a full-time shelter, but we are also scared.”

Airport Hangar Lease

A pilot wants new doors on the T-hangar he rents. Said renter offered to pay $50,000 to upgrade the doors in exchange for the City’s waiving of ten years of rent. Current rental prices are $400/month, or $48,000 over ten years.⁴

• Mackie: “[Airport Director] Ginger and I feel that this is a win-win for both of us. . . We generate revenue from these facilities, and if we don’t take care of them in some manner, the Airport will cease to be self-sufficient—well, it has never been self-sufficient.”

• Ginger Moore, Director: “The Airport keeps growing every year. . . And I know people think, ‘I don’t use the Airport, so why do we need it?’. . . It brings in $16 million local output. So just because you don’t use the Airport doesn’t mean you’re not benefitting from the Airport.” While the numbers show that Moore has indeed increased Airport revenue, it does not follow that the City must therefore fund Airport expansion.

• Socha, mouth watering for the New Jackson agenda: “Coldwater has hangars; Jackson has hangars; Adrian has hangars. We have a lot of competition.”

• Dr. Mayor Pro Tem Councilman Paladino: “I don’t like when we cut off revenue streams and project revenue into the future. I think it focuses taxes on the current generation.”

Motion to approve made by Flynn, seconded by Socha; passed 6-3, Flynn, Morrisey, Stockford, Socha, Jogger, Stuchell in favor; Paladino, Bruns, Bentley against.

Airport Tug Purchase

The Council bought the Airport a $25,000 tug.

• Moore, on the tragedies endured by frequent flyers: “They’re always shocked that we’re taking care of this large of aircraft and don’t have a way to move them.”⁵

• Flynn, with incisive questions: “If we don’t have this tug, will that cause pilots and or businesses to say, ‘we’re going to land in Jackson?’”

• Paladino, on the city’s innumerable “small” purchases: “We say our top priorities are public safety and roads, and yet we continue to spend piecemeal on smaller items in the budget over and over, while we’re charging our own citizens $5,000 at the threat of losing their home.”

Flynn motioned to approve the tug purchase at the price of five SADs; seconded by Stuchell. Passed 5-4; Flynn, Morrisey, Socha, Jogger, Stuchell in favor; Paladino, Bruns, Stockford, Bentley against.

During the City Manager’s report later in the meeting, his Decency himself would reprimand those opposed, insisting that the Airport “is a business, and it’s now being operated like a business.” But businesses which lose money on an annual basis for several straight decades tend to fail. No, the Airport’s expansive projects are quite simply propped up indefinitely by the city, and there is no articulated limit to its growth.

But a novel idea—we boldly propose to operate the Airport like a business. You heard it here first. Sans state and federal grants and the associated Development project expenses, the Airport has shown itself under its current management to able to approach or exceed revenue neutrality year-over-year. That is, it only loses money currently due to limitless growth projects. This surplus is the very cause of the existence of the City’s “Airport Improvement Fund,” a method by which money’s fungibility is denied, and which is explicitly used not to cover ordinary costs (which are offloaded to the taxpayers), but to fund expansion.

The question at stake, therefore, is not one of the Airport’s continued existence, as growth partisans make it out to be. (This argument is akin to believing that moving sexualized books out of the children’s section is the equivalent of burning books.) The question is whether or not the Airport should continue to grow by means of leveraging the money of ordinary people while the basic tasks of the City are not being achieved, even by SADs and maximal property taxes.⁶ The unequivocal answer to this question by staff and council majority has been been Yes.

Q&A with Mayor Stockford

HCR: Most people following local politics are aware of the women you referred to in your resignation speech, but who are the “influential men” behind the scenes?

I was talking about multiple men with titles and multiple women, not a single instance, which is what makes it a local phenomenon. I don’t blame the women. They’re naive, impressionable, and emotional ladies who live in subsidized housing. Of course it makes them feel important to be able to “help” influential men. Still, a man who uses a woman in that fashion is not a man, but a pimp. I don’t need to name names. They know who they are. If the shoe fits!

How politically entrenched, in your opinion, is the local establishment?

They’re pretty entrenched for the time being. That’s not always going to be the case and I feel the pendulum swinging.

Truly, the small town atmosphere creates barriers to self-government in certain ways. It’s near impossible to cut funding to anything, no matter how incompetent any certain department or program proves to be year after year, because everyone is either directly affected or related to someone affected by budget cuts, the termination of bureaucratic employees, etc. It’s an environment set up for failure unfortunately, and it’s our kids who will have to pay for it.

Which of your accomplishments as Mayor do you think will be the most enduring?

I think the most enduring part of my legacy will be the beginning of a transition towards a higher level of self-government. This idea that elected officials, in the modern era, in the council-manager form of organization, are the authority. There were many times I had to stand my ground on things like appointment powers and especially during COVID. Cities have the right to decide how to handle “health” emergencies. Our founders were brilliant and left us an incredible body of work that put the power in the hands of the people, with checks and balances of course. People often lament that Hillsdale doesn’t “run smoothly”. Our founders didn’t create a government that is supposed to run smoothly, and that’s for our protection. I hope that over the last 12 years, I’ve pushed us back in the direction of original intention. Hopefully I’ve also inspired other elected officials to remember the appointed officials work for you, and you work for the people.

Do you have any desire to return to local politics in the future?

Well I think Consumers Energy has made it clear they will spend whatever amount of money they need to spend to keep me out of Lansing. That’s too bad for the people of Hillsdale, but I’ve come to be flattered they consider me that much of a threat. It’s not easy to get the attention of a multi-billion dollar monopoly, so I’m proud of that! I think when I’m old and wary and talking to my great grandkids, I’d rather say “I fought the monster and lost” than “I decided the monster wasn’t so bad and capitulated to it.” So if I’m to serve in the future, local would likely be the option.

That being said, I’ve got no “in stone” plans right now of that sort. My boys are at an age where they need lots of time with their father, and my daughter is in her most enjoyable and adorable toddler years, and I don’t want to miss that. Although, at the end of the day, you never know what the future might hold. I’m more optimistic than I think I’ve ever been that my best years are still in the windshield.

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Upcoming Events

County Commissioners, Tuesday, November 26

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External Links

• “In a 5-4 split vote, Ward 4 Councilman Joshua Paladino was elected by the council to serve as Mayor Pro Tem and finish out Stockford’s term.” Hillsdale Daily News.

• “End special assessments. This is number one.” Mayor Pro Tem Joshua Paladino.

• “The city manager form is dangerous to representative government.” Paladino.

• “The role of city council is first and foremost to serve the citizens — to ensure the city is safe and the citizens are protected from violence and hard drug usage.” Jacob Bruns.

• “The young guys want lower taxes, less interference in their personal lives, smaller government. The older ones are retired and well off, want to force taxes on the residents for ‘the greater good’ projects, cool with federal and state subsidies.” Adam Stockford.

• “A local police agency recently dropped off a verified member of the MS-13 gang who was in the country illegally to her property.” Hillsdale Daily News.⁷

• “Recently bought by Luke Robson, owner of Hillsdale Renaissance LLC, the 55 Broad St. location will now become a wine, fine liquor, and craft beer shop, cigar bar, and wine pub.” Hillsdale Daily News.

• “A reason or basis for a request for reconsideration [public library materials] cannot be made . . . because the subject matter, content, or viewpoint of the material involves religion, race, color, national origin, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, height, weight, familial status, or marital status.” Michigan House Bill 6034.⁸

• “Michigan’s seasonally adjusted jobless rate increased by two-tenths of a percentage point over the month to 4.7 percent during October.” DTMB.

• “An education based on a ‘Canon’ of ‘Great Books’ turns out to have been designed by, and for, losers.” Alex Petkas.⁹

• “The Venezuelan gang, Tren de Aragua, has been spotted in all four of our major cities, according to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.” Fox 17 Nashville.

• “A new report from The Heartland Institute demonstrates the significant financial incentives from government and financiers for utilities to turn away from affordable energy sources like natural gas and coal, and even nuclear, and instead aggressively pursue wind and solar in particular.” RealClearPolitics.

• “When some of the most advanced societies on earth face demographic collapse . . . there is going to be a strong demand for alternative visions and strong selection pressure favoring communities that figure out some kind of hack or adaptation or escape from the individualist cul-de-sac.” Ross Douthat.

• “One vital function of bureaucracy is as a substitute for social trust, especially at scale . . . A kind of dry rot of bureaucracy is visible everywhere. With it comes the implicit assumption that individual moral judgement and authority are suspect by definition, and the only surefire guarantee of ‘safety’ is their removal from or replacement by systems.” Mary Harrington.

• “It is time . . . for a New Christian Right to emerge and stake its rightful claim on twenty-first century American politics.” Marcus Carlson.

• “One day in the early 2000s, a goth teenager by the name of Sohrab Ahmari was perusing the shelves of a Salt Lake City bookstore when his gaze landed upon Friedrich Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra.” Sheluyang Peng.

• “I’m determined to deliver growth, create wealth and put more money in people’s pockets. This can only be achieved by working in partnership with leading businesses, like BlackRock.” Keir Starmer.

1. We will miss these concrete turns of phrase, a pleasing contrast to the latinate jargon used to sanctify petty projects.

2. Though he did not name names, it appears that the Mayor was referring to the cat lady-“power elite” coalition that seems to be forming in order to save the New Jackson agenda from those who more or less like Hillsdale.

3. But are there Trip Hazards in the tent? That would be truly unacceptable.

4. The deal (1) ignores the depreciation of equipment, (2) pretends there will be no hangar rental fee increases, and (3) locks up of a minimum of $48,000 in revenue.

5. We’re always shocked when the city has many streets and no way to pave them.

6. See pages 52 and 98 of the budget for more details.

7. “I have until the end of the year to pay them off — or at least be very close — meaning there better be a solid plan in motion,” DesJardin told the Collegian.

8. See Michigan Capitol Confidential for more.

9. See also Matthew Freeman’s pair of articles in The American Conservative: “Classical Education’s Woke Co-Morbidity” (April 2023) and “Toward a Classical Counter-Elite” (May 2023).