Tuscarora Township DDA-Dumb, Dumber, and .....

I have questioned some failures of our local governments and their boards, committees, and appointees here in Cheboygan that are part of our local culture. Culture is a confusing word and a New Yorker op-ed piece a few years ago delved into Merriam-Webster’s 2014 Word of the Year “Culture”. As with many words, culture, cult, and cultivated all have their roots, appropriately, in Latin. Raymond Williams was quoted, “Each time we use the word “culture,” we incline toward one or another of its aspects: toward the “culture” that’s imbibed through osmosis or the “culture” that’s learned at museums, toward the “culture” that makes you a better a person or the “culture” that just inducts you into a group.”

What is the culture that causes a group of individuals to exercise the same behavior repeatedly?  Is it behavior absorbed by osmosis, learned, or a part of induction into the group? I ask this rhetorical question of the Tuscarora Downtown Development Authority. This DDA Board, with members chosen by Tuscarora Supervisor Mike Ridley, consists of eight appointees and himself.

If Mike Ridley, the ball player, were choosing a basketball team, some like-minded 6’5” players might serve him well.  Supervisor Mike Ridley should theoretically recommend as DDA appointees a diverse group of individuals representing differing viewpoints and opinions. Instead, the majority of his appointed DDA members mirror the mindset of their master. That is the worst-case definition of political appointees. Mindless zombies that march relentlessly forward while making faces and snarling at members of the public brave or foolish enough to attend a DDA meeting. Most of us would be less critical if that mindless march moved Indian River closer to a measureable goal. Can a group that after several years of discussion failed to find and set a decorative “rock” to display a DNR plaque be able to prioritize the spending of hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars?

 At a Special Meeting on May 29, 2014 with the “official” minutes only identifying a “quorum stands for DDA”, an apparent joint session of like-minded people, the DDA and the Marina Park Committee worked in cooperation to build the infamous back-in parking at the same time the Trailhead parking lot was completed. With nine-member board, a quorum would require at least five attendees. The DDA Board members identified as attendees by name, Cindy Poquette, Dan Nivelt, and Diana Mallory were part of the alleged “quorum” that approved spending $87,750 without the accountability of a roll call vote. Ignoring common knowledge that money spent cannot be used as a match prior a grant application approval; these three identified people foolishly wasted your tax dollars. We still drive by that failure every day.

TDA's Dumb, Dumber, and ... Failed Back-In Parking

On August 21, this past Monday, I asked the current DDA Chair Dawn Bodnar who had actually attended the May 29^th Special Meeting and voted “all in favor” to spend $87,750. Ms Bodnar and Diana Mallory made faces and Ms Bodnar said, “this is public comment; we do not answer questions”.  

Did the present DDA Board learn from that $87,750 mistake? Would the DDA throw out years of Streetscape design work with tens of thousands of dollars spent and start over from scratch? Supervisor Mike Ridley made his decision and the DDA Board followed. The DDA drafted an RFP, a request for bids that asked for “preliminary plans and drawings that will serve as a RFP for complete engineering and design plans”. “Price should include any revisions the DDA deems necessary in order to meet their approval”. 

This vague, open-ended request “any revisions the DDA deems necessary” wording resulted in inquiries from interested firms seeking clarification or declining to bid. Only one firm that employs Mike Ridley’s son responded with a very limited proposal; a conceptual design, public meeting, and schematic drawings at cost of $37,000 to $41,000. It was not what the RFP sought. With Mike Ridley offering only the one bid, he then recused himself and his DDA zombies attempted to approve that single bid on July 24^th without even reading the proposal.

Mike Ridley had kept some of the DDA members ignorant for more than a year of an offer addressed personally to him in June 2016 by the original design firm to revise the engineering plans already completed, eliminate the back-in parking, and meet the standards the Road Commission needs. That proposal to correct the completed design was only $11,650. The Road Commission Board publicly concurred it would be much smarter to tweak the existing design rather than to throw it all out.  

With this information now public, there is the appearance of deliberate acts by Mike Ridley to ignore his fiduciary responsibility and narrow the bidders to one firm that coincidentally employs his son.

S Straits After 18 Years of DDA Improvements

The DDA board, short a few heads, just approved that sole bid by a 4 to 1 vote. Can we allow Mr Ridley to start a complete re-do of the DDA Streetscape design process to employ a firm that he has already declared as a personal conflict of interest? 

S Straits After 18 Years of DDA Improvements

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