5-31-2008-01

5-30-2008-03

5-30-2008-02

 
Reading over the identical responses to the recall language by Caudell, Burke and Tchokreff was laughable.
 
They did not respond to a single one of the charges brought against them.  They couldn't because all of them were true. Instead, they make vague references to small minority with a negative attitude.
 
Excuse me, but the voters went the polls in the General Election last November, over 2,000 citizens.
They sent three former members down the tubes.  Were all 2,000 of them a small minority?
 
The three council members being recalled are using the same tired, boring and overused themes that did not work for their now departed cohorts.  They are the only straws they have to grasp. The voters are far wiser. 
 
The pulse of the community was taken last November.  It will be taken again in August.

5-30-2008-01

Why have the residents of Iron Mountain, over 8,000 of them, been totally ignored for the last four years?  It's because special interests have taken over city government and drive all available money  to their own interests. 
 
City Manager John Marquart has been a willing and suspiciously eager promoter of their interests -and his own.  One can't help but wonder what's in it for him.  These special interests spent thousands of dollar to hire a high-priced Detroit law firm to challenge the recall language for three council members who would never spend this kind of money on their own. 
 
Nobody spends this kind of money unless there is a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.  They will probably spend even more in a high-priced ad campaign.  They have much to gain if they can continue to control the city council, no matter that the vote will be 4-3, 4-3, 4-3 over and over again.
 
Millions of dollar could flow to their benefit, taxpayers dollars to be sure.  They aren't worried about the conditions of our streets.  They don't care about the precarious financial condition of the city.
All they care about is ripping off the city for millions of dollars.  Investing thousands of dollars in legal fees and campaign advertising is a small investment.  They have four stooges in their hip pockets who would be forever be beholden to them.
 
Fortunately, the voters of Iron Mountain are on to their schemes.  Marquart is almost universally despised in Iron Mountain, but he doesn't care about that.  There may be a pot of gold waiting for him if the schemers succeed. 
 
All of this scheming is unprecedented in Iron Mountain on such a grand scale.  If they succeed, the residents of the city will be stuck for decades to come with horrendous costs.
 
We are rapidly approaching a defining moment.

5-29-2008-02

5-29-2008-01

Eden Caudell opposed taking a chunk of TIFA money and spending $400,000 of it for repaving roads would be setting a dangerous precedent.
 
Burke and Tchokreff agreed, along with our genius mayor.  So as long as they are in office, I guess we can look forward to more, bigger and better potholes, inadvertent speed bumps and other such interesting driving hazards.
 
Paving roads in Iron Mountain is now officially a dangerous precedent.  Next thing we'll hear is getting chlorine out the water would be a bad precedent, so we won't spend money on that problem, either.
 
But proposing an $800,000 free, city owned, parking lot for the Mariucci-Varda convention center is fine - as is $400,000 for downtown parking lots. 
 
You think maybe these people have to go?

5-27-2008-02

5-27-2008-01

Watch the city council, by a 4-3 vote, accept the proposed budget.  The gang of 4 will agree to subsidize the Mariucci-Varda to the tune of millions while practically nothing is budgeted for the horrible streets that we have been living with during the entire period of Marquart's term as city manager.
 
This is about as obscene a move imaginable.  Millions for the millionaires.  Potholes for the rest of us.

5-26-2008-01

There is a photo in the Daily News of the seven young men who have been hired by the city to work this summer under the public works crew. The photo shows them cutting grass at the cemetery.  I realize that our youth needs summer employment, but why aren't we utilizing the work crews at the jail when it comes to things such as cutting grass?  Is it possible that many of the youth who have been found guilty of underage drinking, driving without insurance, selling liquor to minors, etc. could be utilized by our city?  I do not know what the students' hourly wage is, but if it is about $8 an hour, that means that the seven workers get a total of $56 an hour.  If they work 6 hour days  for 5 days a week, that comes to $1680 a week.  If they work for 10 weeks, the city just spent $16,800!  I am guessing that they probably work more than 10 weeks and they may be getting more than $8 hours a week.

5-25-2008-02

I have attended several graduation parties this past weekend and noticed a disturbing topic of conversation.  The Iron Mountain Events Center was the topic.  I found it very disturbing that there are some citizens of Iron Mountain that think we should foot the bill for this project.  Don't get me wrong I think its a great project.  I just don't think the tax payers should have to pay for it.

If I go to a bank and ask for a loan, the first thing the bank is going to ask me is how much of my own money, or a down payment am I making.  How much of Mr. Mariucci and Mr. Varda's money are they investing?

See if they can use tax payer money and not use their own money they win if the business succeeds and they win if the business fails.  The part I hate as a taxpayer in the City of Iron Mountain is if the business fails.  Then we as taxpayers will have gotten screwed.

I would also hear that this business is going to be very successful.  The operators of the Premier Center did great.  Not so, the Cahee's worked very hard for 15 years and walked away with nothing.  Mr. Varda collected rent for 15 years and sold it and skipped down the road.

The financials of this project just don't add up and make sense unless you give the project a huge advantage.  It would be like giving one team a 21 point lead before the kick off and then say good luck and play hard to the other team.  Well, I'm on the other team and I like to compete, if the rules are fair.

I just hope the City Council will invest half as much much money into my business as they want to into this events project.  I am going to stand in line and hold my breath.  So if you see a blue faced guy around town you'll know its me.

5-25-2008-01

REMEMBER:  There is a Special Meeting of the City Council on Tuesday, May 27 for the purpose of voting on the budget for the coming year.
 
This meeting is at 6:00 PM, rather than the regular time of 6:30 PM.  I noticed on the city website that there is only one Public Comment period, and it is AFTER the council has voted on the budget.
 
What good does it do to attend a meeting and not have a chance to speak up before a vote is taken.
 
Just another sneaky Marquart/VanLaanen maneuver to keep the public in the dark. Have the meeting a half hour earlier than usual to throw people off, and then try to muzzle the citizens besides.
 
I hope some council members INSISTS on a public comment period BEFORE the vote.

5-22-2008-01

5-21-2008-06

5-21-2004-05

In response to 5-21-2008-04. I would have to say the writer hits the nail squarely on the head. Having been on both sides of the issue, as an employee and then a employer, I have to agree that the areas wages do benefit the local employers considerably. Having a thriving local economy benefits the majority of the areas citizens. Unless you count used car lots or motel rooms ours has been stagnant for a long long time. Luring new business to the area needs to be a full time proposition, something our local Representatives, both city and county, have been very lax in doing.

5-21-2008-04

In response to Tina Peterson's post # 5-20-2008-01, I think what needs to be added is why there was, and still is, so much opposition to bringing in outside manufacturing companies or any other meaningful enterprise to Iron Mountain/Dickinson County.  Why is it "impossible" to do as one of her fellow council members termed it?  Why is it a bad idea? 

The underlying answer is wages.  New companies, like the ones Tina Peterson mentioned she would like to see come here, would drive up the cost of labor for all the existing companies in the area because of the ensuing competition for good workers.  The entrenched power base of the county wants to keep a lid on wages and they are linked arm-in-arm with elected government.  They don't want to have to pay more for the cost of labor in their own businesses than what they already do.  That would be bad for them and eat into their bottom line. 

If you look at the past and present composition of government boards and councils in the county, the majority of the members either are or have been business people.  If not, they have been favorable representatives for the business community.  I'm not
painting all with the same brush, but in the instances when the rights and needs of the majority of the common citizens are/were displaced by those government members seeking personal gain, it becomes very wrong.

You can see how wrong it can become just from reading some of the posts on this website.

This attitude and acquiescence in favor of special interests is certainly apparent at the city council level in Iron Mountain.  It also extends to Breitung Township and right up to the County Board. 

Why does local government oppose what most would term economic progress in the direction Tina Peterson is looking?  Or at least investigate it further?

The reason for opposition is because it would alter the status quo.  A casino, with its majority of minimum wage jobs on the other hand, would serve to maintain the status quo right where the business elite of the county want it.  They would personally make money from the gamblers who would come to town - but none of those profits would trickle down to the common citizen.

You need to realize that nothing happens in a vacuum.
What is going on in the national economy will eventually affect in Dickinson County if it hasn't already.  We've seen what is happening to the paper/pulp industry and how energy is so integral to those industries.  We've seen what happens when ownership of industry extends outside the borders of this country.  It's time to wake up and smell the coffee.

So Mr. & Mrs. Common Citizen, if you want a better future for yourselves and for your children, you'd better drag your butt off the sofa or away from hunting and fishing at least long enough to start the process of insuring your future.  You need to finish cleaning house in Iron Mountain, and then shift your focus to Breitung Township and then the County Board.  You need
to elect those who will act for the common good, and not just in their own self-interest.  And after you do all that, you'd better watch who you put in office to make sure they are doing what they promised to do.

5-20-2008-03

(Even worse, he plans to spend TIFA from over $3,000,000 to under $8,000.  Bacco would get a free $500,000 water and sewer project to to their property in Breitung township.)

5-20-2008-02

5-20-2008-01

5-19-2008-03

To 5-19-2008-01
 
TIFA funds can only be spent within the TIFA district, and no part of Breitung Township is in the TIFA district.  Why do you ask? Has any money been spent outside of the TIFA district?

5-19-2008-02

A response to 5-16-2008-03

I don’t mean to talk down to you. Honestly. But, I don't know how many times things must be patiently explained to you. If you don’t see that your question has been answered several times already, it means you really don’t understand what a legitimate planning process is all about at this level. A strategic plan leads you to what your logical long-term and short-term goals should be. We are not talking about pet ideas. The planning process doesn’t start out with, "I have a bright parking lot idea!" That’s not planning at all. We are talking about the survival of the City as the highest priority.  It's unforgivable that the past council has played with pet ideas while they ignored any real planning for the heart and soul of the City, as well as the finances they raided for their pipe dreams like it was candy.  Finances that were needed, direly, for the real meat and potatoes of the City.

If you would take the time to research and acknowledge just how badly this past council and manager have destroyed the City’s funds, you would understand that we need to clean house on the old council and manager if we are ever going to get anywhere. And, you would see just how badly a real, honest strategic planning process is needed, in part because of their wasteful spending, along with stupid ideas implemented with no research whatsoever, which never accounted for a bankrupt future that is fast becoming the present, and in more ways than just financially.  No offense, because you are probably not a council member, but you appear to know as little about legitimate strategic planning as Burke, Caudell, Tchokreff, and Vanlaanen.

5-19-2008-01

5-17-2008-01

If you want to see a disaster right before your eyes, go get a copy of the proposed budget at city hall.
 
Marquart is planning to spend the general fund budget down to a miniscule $44,529.  You can't run Iron Mountain with a general fund budget that low.
 
Even worse, he plans to spend TIFA from over $3,000,000 to under $8,000.  Bacco would get a free $500,000 water and sewer project to to their property in Breitung township.
 
All the rest would go to benefit the Mariucci-Varda scam that has been thrust on the taxpayers.  Do Mariucci and Bacco need corporate welfare, or do we need roads and alleys in the city.
 
Last time I look, neither Mariucci or any of the principals of Bacco were applying or welfare.  Marquart is in the hip pocket of these people.  If the TIFA Board goes along with this corporate welfare, it should be shut down immediately.
 
The long suffering taxpayers of Iron Mountain deserve more than the NOTHING they've received from the rip-off artists who got kicked out in the last election and the gang of four idiots that controls things yet, with Marquart leading the charge.
 
I can't wait for the recall election.  I don't care what Rigoni, Mariucci and the rest spend on legal fees and stalling tactics or how much they spend to support the puppets up for recall, we KNOW BETTER that to keep any of them in there and continuing to rape the city.

5-16-2008-07

In response to the 5-15-2008-03 comment.....downtown may not be worth it, but my family and neighbors certainly are.  I am certain you feel the same way.  Be careful what you suggest. Time is the first factor in fighting a fire.  Ask any trained fire fighter for the facts. Don't be misinformed by council members or the city manager.

5-16-2008-06

5-16-2008-05

A few comments in response to 5-15-2008-04. In general, and mostly in principle I agree with most of your comments.

Regarding your number two comment about influencing the flow of money, it may be infrequent, but not infrequent enough in Iron Mountain. It is happening, and has been happening more so in the last four years than before. That creates a problem when it gets as blatant as it appears right now.

Your number three is just plain irrelevant. Retirement packages are settled and agreed on before retirement. No future council person, retiree of the city or not, is supposed to break legal, binding agreements. No offense, that’s just the way it is. Finalized at retirement - end of story.

You may be surprised that I wholeheartedly agree (in principle) with your point four, about the hypothetical lumber loader who can lay down the law to people who make three times as much money as he or she does. Ditto for holding that high-paid government official accountable. I assume we are talking about the same person here. What is wrong here in Iron Mountain is that the laying down the law and the holding accountable is not happening. It is actually going the other way - allowing irresponsibility, law-breaking, lying, intimidation, frivolous spending, yada, yada, yada, to go unchecked, even when it is pointed out to him, referenced with documentation.

When elected officials act this way, we have the ability to recall them. It is the only way we really have to hold them accountable if they won’t do the job right.

On that short comment about the fire department and the downtown, I disagree on both points.  We do have a valuable downtown.  Even if it was not, I still consider my family to be worth saving.  I think you may have been kidding with your comment, but I think the fire department is more valuable than you may think.  Most people with a preconceived outlook refuse to be convinced until they actually, truly, direly need police or fire.  Then they all become converts, where reason couldn't do it for them.

5-16-2008-04

5-16-2008-03

5-16-2008-02

Post 5-15-2008-04, the former Iron resident who has been involved in local government where he/she now resides, gave a clear, cogent analysis of how local governments tend to operate generally in most localities.  That description was also true in Iron Mountain until four years ago. 
 
Four years ago, four new members were seated then.  Three of them had never served on any city board or commission and the fourth had served on the Planning Board for a number of years.  As events would have it, they found themselves, along with three other members who were continuing their term, with the job of finding a new city manager.  The city was operating under an interim manager at the time.
 
They hired John Marquart, who had been fired from two of his last three positions, but is a man who could present himself quite well in a job interview setting.  They failed to perform due diligence by checking with the communities that fired him to get a better handle on the man.
 
As it turns out, the personal motives of three of the four newly elected members were narrowly agenda driven (I would exclude Sally Jacobs initially, but she soon fell into line).  They, and the city manager showed little interest in the concerns or the cost load they were putting on the average citizen.
 
When their terms were up, three out of the four were voted out.  Now comes the interesting part.  Although the voters sent a strong message for change, the remaining three and the one re-elected member continued the same narrow agenda as if nothing had happened. In frustration, citizens began the recall process on three of them and easily gathered far more than the required signatures to meet legal recall provisions.
 
Nobody can remember when a single member sitting on the Iron Mountain council had ever had a recall effort launched against them, much less three all at once.  Rather than face the voters and let the chips fall where they may, an appeal had been filed to argue about the petition language that had been approved by the Election Committee.  Perhaps unbeknownst to the poster of 5-15-2008-04, the funding for the legal costs of hiring an expensive Detroit law firm are not being provided by the challenged members, but rather by wealthy local and out-of-town interests who have a large financial interest in keeping the 4-3 majority they currently enjoy. 
 
Collusion is hard to prove, but documentation that has been and is continuing to be accumulated is leading toward the adage - If it walks like a duck, swims like a duck, flies like a duck and squawks like a duck, it's probably a duck.
 
So, to the poster of 5-15-2008-04, I congratulate you again on your clear post on how local government typically works.  If you have been involved, as you say, in local government where you live, you must certainly have run into situations where the more you dig, the more you find, and it is not always good.  That is the situation we find ourselves in, on a massive scale, here in Iron Mountain right now.  We would welcome your eventual return to your former home town.  You sound like a citizen any city would love to have.

5-16-2008-01

To 5-15-2008-03:  In 1887, the City of Iron Mountain had a volunteer fire department.  The City Council treated them poorly:  bad-mouthing them to the press and in public, refusing to buy even the most basic equipment.  In other words, treating them like Marquart and the fab four have treated the current employees.  The result?  In 1888 they had no volunteers left, and had to start a paid department in order to get a response to fires.  120 years later, we still have a paid department, and the City still treats its employees poorly.  Do some research - watch the news.  Watch the stories of fires in places with volunteer and "public safety" departments.  You will notice that nearly every fire story includes the words "fully involved upon arrival".   There's a reason for that.  Every community gets what it pays for (with the exception of communities with public safety, who get less than they pay for).

5-15-2008-04

5-13-2008-03

5-15-2008-03

The city of Iron Mountain should go to a volunteer / paid on call fire department....... there is nothing downtown worth saving anyway.

5-15-2008-02

Excuse me, post 5-13-2008-06, but you are asking what the plan is from the new council members? It’s mighty convenient of you to disregard the fact that Jeff Vanlaanen was elected four years ago and we are still waiting to hear what his plan is. He even had the gall to say that he has a plan, but it’s too controversial for us common folk to hear. It’s been over a decade since Tchokreff was first elected and we have yet to hear what his plan is. It’s been two years since Caudell and Burke were elected and we still have not heard what their plan is.

So, why are you ignoring that and dissing on the new members, even after you have heard that their plan has steps that are already being followed, or at least they are attempting to do that despite strong opposition from those who never told us what their plan involves? The "alleged" plans over the past four years have nearly ruined this City in more ways than one, including financially and safety-wise. Why are you ignoring that? Why are you ignoring the facts and documentation?

Without knowing what the secret plan has been in the past four years, and going strictly by what has occurred in that time, the only reasonable assumption is (deep breath) the last four year’s plan has been to actively and aggressively seek to destroy our City in as many ways as possible, while lining the pockets of a select few with corporate welfare, and keeping the citizens in the dark through lying, misdirection, misinformation, intimidation, and retaliation if someone stumbled onto it on their own and had the nerve to ask about it in an open forum, e.g., a council meeting. I don’t like that plan.

5-15-2008-01

5-14-2008-02

Are you being dense or disingenuous or not paying attention or what?

Go to item 5-12-2008-06 which includes item 11-19-2007-04.  Three items of the type for which you ask: the hiring of a new, effective, and accomplished city manager; the review and consolidation of the duties, jobs, and responsibilities of the city's administrative staff members, including the elimination of the unnecessary positions; and the organization and establishment of an effective and aggressive economic development department, to serve the hands-on practical purposes delineated in 11-19-2007-04, including the hiring of an experienced and accomplished economic development director.  Those three specific and entirely realistic, pragmatic steps would be a wonderful, tangible, demonstrable start.

Where is the sidestepping and avoidance there?

We will submit more items soon, here and elsewhere, and elaborate on them as time, space, and resources allow.  Former Mayor Tousignant always used to wax philosophic about his bright, flowery vision -- but never showed it to us.  Only schmalty bits and pieces.  And four years of material and economic deterioration.  The same sketchy nonsense is occurring now.  Our vision is simple: high standard of living, high quality of life.  For the greatest number of citizens of Iron Mountain.  As soon as possible.  Positive, practical progress as inexpensively as possible.  And by actively going after, instead of propagandizing and futilely dreaming about, the economic development necessary to bring that vision to fruition and insure the survival and growth of our city and our area.

What eludes you about that, friend?  What about that doesn't include specific ideas and thoughts that you request?  Are you just being contentious for the sake of being contentious or do you really not see?

5-14-2008-01

5-13-2008-08

To the writer of post 5-13-2008-04, you do a grave injustice to the three new council members and their supporters. This is not, nor has it ever been about the tiny voice that shouts loudest, and I believe you already know that. This is about real, serious, and documented issues that the three facing recall either ignored, botched, or passed off as unimportant. Rigoni, Tousignant, and Jacobs all made those mistakes, albeit with even more arrogance, and look what happened to them. I believe a reminder is in order.

The city reassessment - badly botched, $200,000.00 spent with nothing to show for it, the hiring of a convicted identity theft felon, the resignation/firing of the city assessor, etc. 200 grand is a hard one to forgive and forget. This one cost us a lot of money.

The fire department - jobs cut, serious understaffing, unfair labor practices costing tens of thousands of dollars, illegal suspensions in the dire department, failure of the city manager to assure proper training of the police, patrolmen losing their union affiliation, $23,000.00 in safety fines due to ignoring the original abatement orders, hiding those fines from the public for two months. This one cost us a lot of money.

ISO - tied directly to the totally inept plan for fire protection, property insurance likely to rise because we still have no guarantee of enough firemen showing up to legally fight fires. This one may cost us a lot of money.

Police officer early retirement - the city failed to comply with mandated procedures, acted without a required and voted on legal opinion, results of this action damages the legally mandated pension system. $87,000.00 pissed away and ignored. This one cost us a lot of future money.

Rental ordinance - Unconstitutional as written, as found by the court system, cost the citizens thousands of dollars to fight for something that could have been worked out amicably if the manager and then-Mayor Tousignant had any negotiating skills. This one cost us a lot of money.

Police certification - without approval, and without going through proper procedure, and outside of State Act 78, a potential police officer candidate was sent to police school, paid for by the city of Iron Mountain. This one cost us a lot of money, and the potential for much, much more if this type of practice is allowed to continue.

Sewer backup and water main break - Do I really have to lay it out again?

Khoury property - illegally spending over $800,000.00 of TIFA money on a project that is not in the plan. This is illegal. Not amending the plan, the potential for much, much more money being spent on this project that has never been properly approved, or legally amended in the plan. This one cost us a lot of money.

Centers for regional excellence grant - applied for grant, then manager improperly attempted to use the money for something else. End result, we lost the grant due to incompetence, but not before a council members mother was illegally hired and paid by the city for work on the non-existent "regional excellence" project.

Marquart bonuses - Two years running, amid huge public outcry over his lying and demonstrated incompetence, these people voted to give Marquart bonuses instead of firing him.  That is totally unacceptable.

These are just a few of the many badly botched and huge issues we are dealing with. So, no, this was NEVER about bringing a few groupies to the meeting and seeing who can make the most noise. The noise had to be made if this madness was ever going to stop. How dare you ignore what really happened, and what caused it to happen, poster #5-13-2008-04?  You are well-versed at misinformation and misdirection, I'll give you that. This city is headed for ruin thanks to Marquart and the four who are still under his spell. The voters did not decide based on who was making the most noise at the meetings. THEY VOTED BASED ON WHAT THE NOISE WAS ALL ABOUT. That is a world of difference to what Burke, Caudell, and Tchokreff’s friends are doing at council meetings now. You see, if you are going to complain, back it up with documentation that what you are complaining about hurt the City.  Not misinformation. Not ignoring the real issues. That’s what worked, not groupies.  And, surprise, the votes were not as dumb as you thought they were, and evidently still think they are.

Stop the Lies.

Stop the law-breaking.

End the madness.

Vote YES in August in your respective wards.

5-13-2008-07

To 5-09/08/04 My name's not Sweetheart but go ahead and use that term. It fits in with the antiquated approach. Cronies, big shots, dupes - it's all "them" against you. Nothing's been done to you. You're all moaning about people who provide jobs and take chances to be in business for themselves. That's what the "big shots" are. That's why they have what you imagine must be "big money." It's not a secret. It's called entrepreneurship. Where would all these people work in an area like ours if not for small businesses. It's hard work and a lot of grief. Give it a try.

5-13-2008-06

Step 1:  Identify the Problem.  The City Manager is wasting tax payer money. Most citizens of Iron Mountain realize this.

Step 2:  Solve the Problem.  Get rid of the City Manager.  We are in the process of doing this.

Step 3:  Create a City government that operates within the law and the financial reality of this city.  Create a realistic plan.

Step 4:  Implement Plan.

Step 5:  Receive feedback from the general public on if the plan is working.

Step 6:  Start over on step 1.

As you can see, in any simple problem solving model, there are steps to solve a problem.  We are currently on Step 2.  The writer of post 5-13-2008-04 has obviously never solved a problem.  He or she wants to know what step 3 is.  Its hard to move on to step 3 when you haven't finished with step 2.  The opposition to the recall wants to bog down step 2, that way we will never get to step 3.  Its that simple!!!

5-13-2008-05

Inasmuch as faith in purported federal and/or state investigations of Marquart et al persists on this site (cf 5-13-2008-01), it apparently is necessary to clarify the goals and urgency of the recall movement.

Although I was not in attendance, I have been given to understand that the TIFA Board on May 12 adopted a budget that does not provide for a pass-through to the City's rapidly dwindling General Fund, but does include Marquart's recommendations for both "land acquisition" (i.e. the Mariucci-Varda-Indian-casino project) and the Hydraulic Falls Road water/sewer project.

It does not matter whether there are federal and/or state investigations of Marquart and/or his cronies, unless they come to fruition before this money is spent. The ultimate goal of the recall movement is not to remove the three targeted Council members or even to remove Marquart. Those are means to a greater end: salvaging what little is left of the City Treasury (including the city's portion of TIFA funds) and applying it to its rightful and proper purposes. If appropriations are made in accordance with the budget adopted yesterday, the city's bankruptcy three or four years hence becomes almost arithmetically inevitable. Once that money is gone, it doesn't matter whether Marquart or anyone else subsequently goes to jail. Our taxes will skyrocket (because Headlee limits can be set aside for municipalities in receivership or in default on binding legal obligations); our streets and alleys will not be maintained or repaired; our water and cable bills will not be reduced; and promises made to people who have spent their adult lives in fires, in sewers, in garbage, and amidst criminals on our behalf will be broken. The vicarious thrill of seeing Marquart dressed in orange doesn't compensate for all of that.

Do not imagine that a belatedly unveiled investigation will recover the money. You can't sell pipes in the ground for the cash invested in them, and land will be reconveyed to innocent or untouchable third parties long before the government catches up with what is happening.

The fate of this community is, for now, in the hands of Judge Barglind and probably after that in the hands of the Michigan Court of Appeals. If they do the right thing, quickly, our fate will be in our own hands. That's where it belongs, not with out-of-town cops and prosecutors who, if they're watching at all, won't have to live with the consequences of their tardiness if their help comes too late.

5-13-2008-04

5-13-2008-03

5-13-2008-02

5-13-2008-01

The four incumbent members, the City Manager and their financial backers have a very simple model. 
 
It goes like this:
 
Stack the council meeting with newly found "groupies."  Joan Game, Virginia Felippa. Chris Leonard, Jane Santini, Terese Fortier, etc.  Repeat the same theme over and over again.  The theme: Let's all cooperate, let's keep up the "continued progress", the newly elected members are negative.  Pound the theme endlessly. Never mind that it is mindless, boring, and repetitive.
 
Before you can continue progress, you must have some progress to begin with.  No four year period in Iron Mountain history has had less progress than the one we have just endured.
 
Everything good that happened occurred in spite of, not because of, city government.  All of the new construction of the last four years including Holiday Express, Simone Agency, Begres Chiropractic, Walgreen's, McDonalds, Subway stores, and many other projects in the area of remodeling faced endless hassles and frustrations in dealing with city government.  Miraculously, the incumbents use them as examples of continued progress, despite all the obstacles them placed in front of them.
 
Meanwhile, city government became ever more bureaucratic, costly, and saw the financial condition of the city deteriorated at an alarming rate.
 
There is a cancer running rampant in our city.  John Marquart is that cancer.  Unfortunately, he had company in Doug Rigoni and Ken Tousignant, but worse, the remnants of that regime, four of them, still sit on the council.  They are totally under the spell of Marquart, like the groupies mentioned above, and do not care to listen to new suggestions. 
 
All new ideas have come from the new members.  They snuffed out a $1,200,000 water and sewer project that was solved for $35,000. They have also renewed discussions in totally neglected areas of concern to the citizens including needed road and alley work, and are working on correcting the chlorinated water situation that has been simmering for years now. They have opened serious dialogue to solve the fire department scheduling problems that the city manager has failed to address.
 
The new members have been the only ones to address the critical financial issues that will send the city to the edge of bankruptcy in a couple of years.
 
Let me ask a simple question -  What suggestions can any readers of this post remember that Eden Caudill, Dan Burke, Robin Tchokreff, Jeff Van Leanne or John Marquart have developed and implemented that you can look back on and honestly state moved the city forward. 
 
Spare me from mention of the Main Street or Cool Cities, please.  So far, except for a few events in the downtown parking lots, they have been meaningless.
 
Spare mention of the Mariucci-Vardar Convention Center project, too.  Nothing has happened except it has been discovered that it would be a monumental robbery of taxpayer money if it moves along as projected. A multi-million dollar giveaway.
 
Let the groupies talk. Let the big money hire Byrum & Fisk.  Let the big money hire a high powered law firm to save three non-descript council members so their votes and Marquart can stay on and do endless further damage and continue the endless stream of lies.  It will all play out, and the law will gather in the guilty ones.  Mark my word.   

5-12-2008-08

"Love for Sale"

Remember that old Cole Porter song?  Remember what it was about?  I see the post down the page here about this sadness regarding the few haves hiring a lobbyist to hammer the many have-nots in town and asking if this is what Iron Mountain has come to.  It makes we wonder about something else along moral lines that also bothers me.  What's become of the sex/adult/porn shop in Councilman Tchokreff's basement?  At his downtown business.  Isn't this an issue?  Especially when Councilman Burke is constantly yelping and whining, again on TV the other night, about the public examples he wants set in this town for his kids?  A councilman with a porn shop?  What do you think, Mr. Burke?  That pass the example test?  And when I see almost as many people upset that the shop has been exposed as are upset that Mr. Tchokreff even has the darn place, then I have to wonder if this is what Iron Mountain has come to.  Is it?  Overall, kind of a tawdry picture, isn't it

5-12-2008-07

Post 5-12-2008-03 wrote: Please provide us, the citizens, YOUR ideas for future growth and development in Iron Mountain.

Very well, here are ten of my ideas on change and moving forward in a positive way.

1. All lying, fibbing, stretching the truth, misinformation, misleading, or whatever else you want to call lying by city officials, elected or appointed, shall cease immediately.  Documentation of the facts shall rule the day, and the present practice of attacking the messenger shall no longer be tolerated.

2. In the course of City business, the City Charter, and all existing city ordinances shall, from this point forward, be followed by everyone, including the city manager. Favors for "friends" shall no longer be justification to bend or break the rules. Violations shall be prosecuted or reversed, whichever has the greater benefit to the people of the City.

3. Likewise with number two, State and Federal laws shall henceforth be obeyed, even when they get in the way of what the City wants to do.

4. City business, especially in dealing with issues which might be controversial, shall be conducted in an open and honest fashion. All information on given issues shall be available for the public to consider, not just the select bits and pieces John Marquart wants known.

5. Citizens who have the courage to attend public meetings and voice their opinions shall be treated with dignity and respect.

6. Any and all retaliatory measures taken against citizens, council members, or city employees who disagree with John Marquart shall cease and desist as a method of controlling and intimidating said citizens, council members, and employees.

7. City financial coffers shall no longer be raided for the personal gain of council members or family or friends of council members.  This includes TIFA

8. City employees shall no longer be treated as second-class citizens.

9. Henceforth, incompetence, lying, bullying, lawbreaking, disrespectful attitude, and retaliatory practices shall no longer be rewarded with bonuses, but, rather, with termination.

10. From this point forward, the citizens of this City shall have a right to have their concerns addressed fully, honestly, openly, and without character assassination for asking. Likewise, citizens who point out lawbreaking, bullying, harassment, incompetence, and the like shall not be persecuted for bringing the truth to light.

This would be a good start.

5-12-2008-06

11-19-2007-04

Come on.  Let's go.

Dear Iron Mountain:

For months, even years, we've been talking about "taking back our city" and causing positive change in Iron Mountain.  With the recent election, we've only just begun.  I hope we can rise above the petty bickering and vindictiveness afflicting so many around town since November 6.  We should roll up our sleeves now and get down to business, directly addressing substantive issues that face the city and promptly acting upon them.  I encourage all of you to encourage your new City Council in January to start the new year and new government with important and necessary administrative changes, specifically in the city's management.

One:

The Council must replace John Marquart.  Forget, if you can, that's he's consistently proven to be a liar, bully, and creep.  The Council must replace him because he is incompetent and harmful to the city.  Not only has his behavior and advice cost Iron Mountain millions in fines, court fees, lost business, salaries, benefits, travel expenses, personal professional fees, and other countless unnecessary expenditures, and not only has he torn this city to shreds by pitting citizen against citizen to serve only his and his supporters' ends, but he does not have a single positive accomplishment to his name for this city since he has come here -- nor had he one elsewhere before he came.  All he can do is talk a good game, and that only until he is uncovered.  Once hired, he worked solely for the special interests of himself and those on the Council who hired him.  He is the type of civil servant that gives bureaucrats, including the good ones, a bad name.  He's interested only in getting his job, protecting his job, and not doing his job.  Like far too many public-service managers, superintendents, and professional administrators, the name of the game for Marquart is control, and that ultimately to serve his own best interests.

Getting rid of him is not enough, however.  The Council must then hire an effective, accomplished city manager to replace Marquart.  It must search carefully, vet the candidates closely, and hire someone with a background of success at managing a city like Iron Mountain.  If an experienced and successful someone like this costs a few more bucks than we're used to paying, we should pay it happily.  We need a winner, folks.  In the long run we're much further ahead financially to pay for such a person rather than a little less for someone like Marquart who causes the city to hemorrhage money heavily and continuously while accomplishing nothing.  And when hiring we should focus on someone who, rather than manipulating the city divisively, can actually manage it, avoiding, limiting, handling, and/or solving the water, fire, police, financial, and other major problems, thus making the city as a whole work effectively and attractively for its current residents and businesses and, importantly, for prospective residents and businesses.

Two:

The Council must review and then consolidate the duties, jobs, and responsibilities of the remaining administrative staff members, assigning them to perhaps only as many as two of them in addition to the city manager.  The remaining positions should be eliminated.

Three:

The City of Iron Mountain cannot compete if it's not in the game.  Businesses will not come to Iron Mountain if they do not know Iron Mountain exists.  Our recent city governments, particularly the current one, despite its claims, have been very small-minded, small-town, and parochial about this.  Yes, it should pursue grants, absolutely, and even more than it does.  But it should pursue much, much more than grants, and it has entirely lacked the imagination, innovation, and effort to do so.  Remember all the idioms you've ever heard about being penny-wise and pound-foolish?  Bent over, this most recent city government focuses on picking pennies from the pavement while hundred-dollar bills blow unnoticed over its head in the breeze.  The new government has to stand upright, grab a net, and pay attention!  The Council and management continue to think and talk and pursue hundreds of thousands of dollars when they must think and talk and pursue hundreds of millions of dollars if Iron Mountain is to thrive today and in the future.  That's realism.  It's a different world, a different economy, and though the current Council talks progressiveness, its behavior actually follows the same old paradigm of 50 to 60 years ago.  It's time to change.  And not because we want to, but because we must.

The city must hire an accomplished, effective Economic Development Director.  This person's primary responsibility, in collaboration with the other administrative staff and the Council, would be to work the business clearinghouses, exchanges, and businesses themselves throughout the world, asking desirable businesses, 21st-century businesses that we want in town, "How can we get you to settle in Iron Mountain?"  There are great fits out there between Iron Mountain and businesses looking for a place to set up shop.  But those businesses don't know what a good fit Iron Mountain can be if they don't know that there is an Iron Mountain.  Let's introduce them to us.  Let's get a jump on the other places of the world.  Let's get them here instead of Bald Knob, Arkansas; Galway, Ireland; or Nelson, New Zealand.

This is where we should start, Iron Mountain.  Something tangible, practical, positive, doable, and profitable.  These three steps, right now, today.  Start encouraging your new Iron Mountain city government right now to start moving toward the achievement of these three items early in 2008.  We can all blow hot air like the Mayor, Council, and management of the last four years or, as I propose and request with this letter, we can get down to business and actually, positively start turning Iron Mountain into a major 21st-century winner.

MMA et al.

5-12-2008-05

This is what it's come to in Iron Mountain today?  Justifying improper behavior to get your way rather than just behaving properly to begin with?  And to pay a lobbyist big bucks to buy that justification?  To sell the lie?

5-12-2008-04

To 5-12-2008-02:

You're right about the various logistical items you tick off.  I apologize for the confusion that lead to the chicken-or-the-egg problem.  Let me clarify.  The hiring of an experienced and effective professional itself doesn't have to be the prerequisite for support.  Only the pledge by an agreeable, able, trustworthy individual or party to do so.  I don't know if it's doable or not, but thought I'd suggest it.  Nothing doable is going to be easy about any effort made.  What of the Iron Mountain Issues Association itself?  Can't it meet and form some committee with a strong and capable chair?  Or is there some other organization already out there to host such an effort?

5-11-2008-02

5-12-2008-03

5-12-2008-02

Re: 5-11-2008-02

You have created a chicken-and-egg problem. Hiring professional help may indeed be a good idea as you suggest. But as 5-9-2008-06 pointed out, the leaders of the recall movement can't and won't "front" the $20-$50K to match what the anti-recall forces have dropped on Byrum & Fisk, according to 5-11-2008-01. By making such a hiring a prerequisite for large and widespread contributions, you would ensure that neither the hiring nor the contributions would happen. In this respect, I fear that you have created another excuse for inaction. Your "Obama"-model suggestion is excellent (although it would create a lot of administrative work from a campaign-finance reporting standpoint). Keep in mind, though, that even setting up the secure Web site with credit and debit card processing isn't free.

5-12-2008-01

Who ever heard of hiring a high-powered, down-state lobbying firm to fight a piddly city council recall effort in the Upper Peninsula? Not to mention expensive down-state lawyers. It doesn’t make any sense unless there really is something big and secret going on behind the scenes. Like this secret casino deal, for instance. Who is going to reap the benefits of this deal? Who is paying for the lobbying firm? The same people, I’d imagine. Is public disclosure required on who is paying for the lobbyists? It is election campaign related. I wonder if there would be an Indian tribe listed? This whole thing stinks, and is all the more reason to throw these bums - Burke, Caudell, Tchokreff - out. One thing I can not tolerate anymore is the people with inside information making money off City decisions that are kept hidden from the public. Oh, and making money off the people who do not have the inside info, too.

And what about the other local government entities? Are they hiding this, too? When you take the quotes from that Feb. 22, 2008 newspaper article and put that US Dept. Of Interior letter next to it, it looks obvious that there has been a united effort by local government entities to keep this whole thing quiet. Is that what we elected ANY of them for? Secret deals? Making money from inside information? Taking advantage of the people without the info?  Making huge, long-lasting decisions without our input?  Behind our backs? Some local officials - Iron Mountain, Breitung Township, Dickinson County, Dickinson Area Partnership, etc. - better start coming clean on this soon. It is quite a stretch to believe that the tribe applied for this two years ago, and that they have not talked to ANY local officials about it, as the quotes in the newspaper most definitely imply.

5-11-2008-04

5-11-2008-03

Loved the C. S. Lewis quote on progress posted at 5-8-2008-05. Nails the incumbents perfectly. 
 
Stubborn, conniving snakes ran this city illegally for four years.  Dupes and followers who didn't know what the hell was happening right before their eyes also had a vote on the city council. 
 
Then there is the idiot who wrote post 5-8-2008-04 who tries to make the ridiculous claim that the election for the recall will cost more than keeping the incumbents in until their tertm expires on December 31,2009.  Sorry, fella, the August election was already scheduled and would have gone on with or without a recall on it.
 
Besides, did you read Marquart's proposed budget?  He had the General Fund down to a piddling $44,000 by June 30, 2010 and TIFA down to $8,000. That's a whopping $,3500,000 less than it will have as of June 30, 2008.  Are you suggesting the election will cost more than that?

5-11-2008-02

5-9-2008-06 restrikes a chord that's been humming in my chest and growing in volume for two and a half years.  I believe that in 5-5-2008-02's provocative post she too remarked that instead of higher authorities stepping in she would rather see us take care of our own business, wash our own dirty laundry.  In fact, I believe a couple of others mentioned it too.  It seemed this was a major reason for their involvement.

I have been supporting and occasionally working for Barack Obama's campaign for well over a year.  I, like many others, contribute a small to moderate amount every few weeks.  If you follow the political news, you know that Obama is by far the largest fundraiser, setting records and dwarfing the other candidates and their old-fashioned methods of fundraising via the traditional rich and the traditional corporate.  A little bit of money regularly once in a while from a lot of supporters really adds up.  If we're going to need enough money to hire effective professional help, couldn't we establish and cultivate a similar system -- ask people to give as much as they can, as little as that might be, every few days, week, or two weeks?

You may recall my faint and infrequent calls to this same effect during last year's local campaigns.  I am a strong believer in proven professional expertise.  Because it's proven.  Not incidentally, if council members Caudell, Tchokreff, and Burke and their supporters hire professional help, I would also suggest that no one contribute as much as a dime to battle that effort and promote the recall unless an authoritative figure or party in favor of the recall hires an experienced and effective professional lobbyist to counter the anti-recall professionals.  Actually, if the recall effort did not have solid professional help, I would not contribute financially and I would recommend to others not to contribute.

In closing, I would like to thank the flurry of adults for submitting such clear-eyed, thoughtful, and helpful content lately.  It's good to read something that, though deeply felt, is realistic, reasoned, and practical.

5-11-2008-01

FYI: According to Therese Fortier, anti-recall lawyer Mary Ellen Gurewitz will argue on May 20th that there are six examples of unclear language in the original petitions to recall Dan Burke, Eden Caudell, and Robin Tchokreff.

Also, a reliable source in Lansing claims that the anti-recall committee has contracted Byrum & Fisk, a lobbying firm in East Lansing, from between $20,000 to $50,000, to insure at least that Burke, Caudell, and Tchokreff are not recalled in August, that the current 4-3 majority is preserved, and that John Marquart is therefore retained, and that current, unpublicized projects such as the establishment of the Lac Vieux Desert Iron Mountain Resort & Casino and casino-related real estate and contracting projects continue.  When I sought confirmation, a reliable source in Iron Mountain reported that this is his understanding also.  Although neither can provide immediate documentation, they are confident of this information and assure me that it will be evident soon, and with particular immediacy if the anti-recall committee loses its May 20th appeal.

5-10-2008-01

5-9-2008-07

I have fixed the link to the January 2008 Archive Forum Posts.  I have also created a Casino Information page and will try and gather and keep all information regarding a casino on this page.

Casino Information Page

Webmaster

5-9-2008-06

Although I don't know whether the investigations referenced by 5-5-2008-02 are real, exaggerated, or wishful thinking, I do wish that she hadn't mentioned them, because the mere prospect of intervention by higher authorities reinforces the central failing of this town's citizenry: hoping and expecting that other people will discharge their civic duties for them.

Far too many people who disagree with Marquart and who read and even write to this Web site have been treating the two-year struggle to restore honest, lawful, and accountable government to our city as though it were an episode of American Idol: something to be watched, talked about, and voted on, but not something in which to participate personally otherwise. There are heroic exceptions, of course, but for reasons explained below, they are entirely too few in number to confront what now faces us. First, let me explain what I mean.

It isn't Robin Tchokreff's fault that, in nearly a decade on the Council, he's never faced an opponent. That's the fault of every resident of the Second Ward.

In the two years that this Website has existed, the Webmaster has received occasional and well-deserved messages of thanks, but I have yet to see a post offering to chip in for the fees charged by the Internet Service Provider that hosts this site.

If you examine the recently filed and certified recall petitions, you will see that almost all of the signatures were gathered by about a half-dozen people. That's because no one else could be bothered.

If you look at the public filings of the Committee for Continued Progress and the Good Government Committee, you will see that, not only did Continued Progress raise more money, which was to be expected, but they also had many more donors.

In short, it appears that Eden Caudell was only half-wrong when she said that 75 citizens attending a Council meeting don't represent the community. The election results and recall petitions demonstrated that more people disagree with her than she imagined. On the other hand, the number of people who thus far have been willing to give or work on account of that disagreement has been far smaller than the crowd at that meeting.

If the vast majority of people who support the recall continue to treat it like a spectator sport, 5-8-2008-03 will be proven correct. As has been explained by 4-20-2008-01 and 5-6-2008-05, among others, Marquart's cronies, with the support of powerful out-of-town interests, stand to pocket more than $3.5 million in city funds and untold additional amounts in state and third-party funds in relatively short order if the recall fails. Spending fifty grand to retain these Council seats is chicken feed to them, to be repaid a hundred-fold or more at your expense if they win.

There is no pot of gold at the end of the rainbow of success for any recall supporter, and the handful of people who have been carrying the water and writing the ticket for the effort to save our community from corruption and disintegration do not have pockets deep enough or Rolodexes golden enough to prevail in this fight while their so-called supporters continue to wave pom-poms from the sidelines. Surely this should be obvious by now. Yet we still have 5-7-2008-04 telling this Website's readers to "sit back and wait for the show to commence." That is exactly what no putative recall supporter should do. If 5-5-2008-02 and 5-6-2008-02 are sincere converts to the pro-recall cause who wish to help it succeed rather than merely to assauge their own consciences for previously supporting Marquart, they will have to do more than whisper in a few ears and vote for the recall. They will need to write checks to the pro-recall campaign, even though they will show up on public filings, which might spoil the mood at Moose Jackson. So will every reader of this Web site who is sympathetic to the recall. If you can afford the Internet access that you use to read this site, you can spare $10 or $20. If you can afford $8 cups of coffee on a regular basis, you can spare a few hundred. If you are unwilling to do so, then, regardless of what you may say, you do not want what is right as much as Marquart's cronies want to get richer at public expense.

In case I have been less than clear, let me say more than I probably should. Those of us who have watched our family members carry too much of this burden for too long have limits to our patience and altruism. This workload will either be shared more equitably or it will be dropped, because it cannot be successfully borne. Note that I said "workload," not the "bitchload" of registering complaints on this Website or in various coffee klatsches but doing nothing; not the "b.s.-load" of armchair-quarterbacking what other people should do but doing nothing oneself.

If the county prevails in the pending court challenge to the Election Board's decision to approve the recall language, it will be put-up-or-shut-up time for every right-minded citizen of this community and our neighbors who don't welcome the prospect of living next door to the U.P.'s version of Cicero, Illinois. If the recall effort does not attract hundreds of donors and dozens of volunteers willing to do unglamorous grunt work, it will fail, just as 5-8-2008-03 predicted. Every one of you who claims to support the recall should spend the ten days between now and the court hearing deciding whether you are better than that and preparing to live with yourself and with the consequences.

5-9-2008-05

BREAKING NEWS ON PROPOSED CASINO IN IRON MOUNTAIN

Below is PROOF POSITIVE that the Lac Vieux Desert Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians (Watersmeet) applied to the U S Department of Interior requesting 10 acres in the City of Iron Mountain be put into trust status for off-reservation gambling. In all likelihood, they are continuing this pursuit by filing additional information. 

Is the Mariucci-Varda plan tied to this somehow?  Why is Bacco Construction aggressively seeking to buy land in the same area?  Inside information that could skyrocket the value of the land is one obvious possibility.

This story is only one of many that will be unfolding in the very near future that will go a long way toward explaining the desperation of certain local interests to spend large sums of money to legally challenge a rather routine recall.  It’s not because they are enamored with the wisdom of Eden Caudell, Dan Burke or Robin Tchokreff.  They know that as long as they sit on the council and Marquart is the city manager, they can manipulate events toward huge personal payoffs.  Stand by – this is just the beginning of an unfolding story.  It will sweep many local individuals and interests into an unwanted limelight. 

5-9-2008-04

Use your head, 5-7-2008-05.  Why would someone make that kind of effort to convince someone about something on which they already agree?  I know that woman.  Her post is a testimonial of someone who, if not a convert, is mightily fed up with the garbage coming from her own side of the aisle.  Your post is more wishful thinking than knowledge and perhaps a bit of a fishing expedition, to boot.

As far as your reference to liberal, don't pull that nonsense on us.  There are individuals who are in fact liberal and then there are individuals who are only self-interested but choose to hide behind the skirts of what is liberal.  Just like the faithless politicians who hide behind the skirts of Jesus and drag out religion to use for their own narrow, self-serving purposes.  Liberal and conservative have nothing to do with this debate.  Good and bad, right and wrong -- that's how this one is shaping up, sweetheart.  You're either on the side of ethics and the law or you're not.  And that applies to everyone.  I repeat: everyone.  Dig?

5-9-2008-03

A Casino in the Works

I'll be damned.  Liars, conspirators, and fiction writers, huh?  I'm getting a whiff of Erin Brockovich here but without the big movie contract.  Maybe Tina Peterson isn't nuts or paranoid after all.  I wonder if those painting her as such have the decency to be ashamed of themselves.

"The tribe previously submitted a land-into-trust application for an off-reservation casino in Iron Mountain, about 70 miles from Watersmeet. Last Friday, the tribe received a letter from the Bureau of Indian Affairs stating that the application was incomplete and would not be evaluated until more information is submitted."
http://www.indianz.com/IndianGaming/2008/006513.asp

"Michigan's Lac Vieux Desert Band presented plans for a Muskegon casino, one of three off-rez proposals for the city. Odds against the project are high, with Muskegon about 400 miles from the small gaming tribe's reservation. Interior sent back its application for a nearer Iron Mountain casino as incomplete."
"Tribes with incomplete applications can submit them again."
http://www.ggbmagazine.com/articles/Dateline___Tribal

"A slew of other off-reservation requests were returned to tribes Friday due to an incomplete application, including a Lac Vieux Desert Band request for a casino in Iron Mountain, Mich., just 75 miles from its reservation."
"Lac Vieux Desert Band need city and community support."
http://turtletalk.wordpress.com/2008/01/09/lac-vieux-desert-off-reservation-gaming-proposal-muskegon-news-coverage/

Visit the Department of Interior's Web site to explore this issue in more depth (including Director Carl Artman's January 3, 2008, policy guides) or search the Web (e.g., lac vieux + iron mountain + casino and different variations of this) to find info that an effort in fact has been and is being made to put a casino in Iron Mountain.  It probably wouldn't hurt to check with the Lac Vieux Desert Band and the Little River Band (which could kill the deal) to see what they have to contribute to the debate.

How dare you ridicule individuals who broach this subject, with cause, and then claim that their statements are complete fabrication?  Are you simply out of the loop or are you continuing your attempt to keep this a secret until it's a fait accompli and can be sprung on the city?

Stop!  Don't tell me there's not something going on. 

Seems those outside Iron Mountain know more about this than those in Iron Mountain.  Which, I'd suppose, is exactly how the knowing few in Iron Mountain want it.  I can't wait to investigate this further and I invite others to pursue it, too.  So-called "nonsense that crazy people are making up about a casino"?  Crazy indeed.  Marquart, you piece of dirt.  You faked bewilderment and told me and others to our faces months ago that this was nonsense from out of the blue and that you knew nothing about it or anything like it, that even the possibility of it was absurd.  You snake.  5-8-2008-03, I salute you.  And am inclined to believe you.  And now not so easily dismiss what you write about Marquart and the possibility of that investigation.  Duck, Iron Mountain!  I think we're about to get clobbered by a P.R. blitz from City Hall, its most ardent supporters, and its lobbyists.

And to you, Ms. Peterson, my apology, sympathy, and hope that you hang in there and keep on plugging.  Some of us deeply appreciate your efforts to dig up the truth and present it.  Unfortunately, your role is sort of that of a Cassandra.  I suppose a person would indeed seem overly dramatic or hysterical if she kept trying to tell people that rain is wet and, because the fix is on, no one believed her.  Seems to me you've always been straight with us, you've always pointed to some solid evidence when questioning or claiming something, and in me you have at least one believer and supporter.  Keep up the good work.

Letter from the United States Department of the Interior

5-9-2008-02

Interesting development, this new talk of a casino. Someone snidely (my opinion) asked for facts, believing either that there are none, or that they are hidden well enough that they cannot be found. Let's look at what little history we do have on it. This is going to be long, folks. If you stay with me, I promise it gets a lot more interesting at the end, after the necessary groundwork is laid. First, excerpts from past posts on this site:

6-17-2007-01

How about an Indian Gambling Casino in Iron Mountain? Yes, it has been and is being discussed behind the scenes.

It's planned location is near the Pine Mountain Lodge area, probably in the Iron Mountain city limits,

6-19-2007-01

I've heard about the Indian Casino proposal, too. There is definitely something going on. The attorney for the Indians was a former local attorney. The new owners of Pine Mountain are allegedly involved as well.

8-13-2007-04

A friend of mine recently attended a party with a lot of 'big shots'. The conversation centered around the supposedly fact that an Indian tribe from up north wants to buy Pine Mountain resort and also build a casino. Has anyone heard anything about this?

8-14-2007-02

I have heard, as well, the story of a casino around the Pine Mountain Resort area. I don't know if they want to buy out the resort and expand it into a casino, . . . Landowners in the area have been approached to sell their property, BUT NOT by the city. It's a private group, of which at least one member is an incumbent on the city council.

8-26-2007-04

This is the same scenario that may be played out with the potential Casino and Pine Mountain. Doug Rigoni has been heard to ask about those roads at many Council meetings and push for their "realignment." More Grants to make Marquart look good, more money in Rigoni's pocket?

Posts too numerous to cite from November, 2007 - 11-19-2007-03, 11-20-2007-01, 11-21-2007-01, 11-21-2007-03, 11-22-2007-01, 11-24-2007-03, 11-26-2007-01, 11-27-2007-01, 11-27-2007-02, 11-27-2007-03, 11-28-2007-01, 11-30-2007-01, 11-30-2007-02, 11-30-2007-04

Five posts in December, 2007 - 12-2-2007-02, 12-4-2007-01, 12-4-2007-02. 12-5-2007-01, 12-6-2007-02

January, 2008 posts are not accessible. Then there is the new spark of interest in May of this year.

If you actually go back and read the posts listed above, you will see that there was a lot of denial that there was any plan at all to have a casino here in Iron Mountain. Some even tried to say it was not even legally possible.

Then, you have these selected excerpts from a Daily News story dated Feb.. 22, 2008:

Ron Erickson - "There are no plans for a casino."

Former State Rep. Dave Anthony - "If property is purchased away from the reservation, the tribal council must specify exactly what it will be used for."

Perry Franzoi - "(The township) has never received a request for the purchase of casino property in the township." And, "I don't see anything happening around here."

Bruce Orttenburger - "We have no tribal land in our area." And, "I hear lots of stories and I can tell you there is no truth to any of them."

John Marquart - "I don't put any faith in rumors. I don't believe anything is going to happen."

Joe Stevens - "I've never heard anything concrete. If anything were going to happen, it would have to cross the path of the Dickinson County Board of Commissioners."

So, the whole idea was hushed and supposedly laid to rest by that article. All the assurances from all the right people. I am wondering, though, how they can explain the attached letter to the rest of us? This letter is absolute and irrefutable proof that there has been an active pursuit of an Indian casino in Iron Mountain for at least two years! Are we to believe that the tribe submitted paperwork to the Federal government for a casino in Iron Mountain without talking to ANYONE in Iron Mountain and the surrounding area? The behind the back, sneaky underhandedness, and lying strikes again. This sure explains why people with inside information are scrambling to purchase all the land they can possibly get in that area. Oh, and the Indians are free to submit the information needed to continue their pursuit of this casino, in case any of you choose to point out that they were removed from consideration at this time, and try to say it's dead in the water. It's not.

Letter from the United States Department of the Interior

5-9-2008-01

5-8-2008-05

After reading and hearing recent media coverage from the 3 council members up for recall, I remembered something I had read concerning "progress".  I hope all these council members and their supporters who claim they want to move forward and forget about the past, will take this to heart.  
 
"We all want progress.  But progress means getting nearer to the place where you want to be. And if you have taken a wrong turning, then to go forward does not get you any nearer.  If you are on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; and in that case the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive man. We have seen this when doing arithmetic.  When I have started a sum the wrong way, the sooner I admit this and go back and start again, the faster I shall get on.  There is nothing progressive about being pig headed and refusing to admit a mistake.  And I think if you look at the present state of the world, it is pretty plain that humanity has been making some big mistake.  We are on the wrong road.  And if that is so, we must go back.  Going back is the quickest way on."   C.S. Lewis

5-8-2008-04

5-8-2008-03

A Prophecy: Iron Mountain's Immediate Future

Dear 5-6-2008-04:

For the past two years, you or one of your pals writes to this site and says the same darn thing every time someone gets too close to the truth.  You arrogantly scorn and ridicule a previous writer and the site and either try to distract everyone's attention or buy time until you can accomplish your misdeeds.

Thanks but no thanks.  This time I'll just wait until I hear back from the attorneys general, the Justice Department, and the various Michigan agencies I've begun to contact.  I'll decide for myself if I believe that John Marquart is being investigated, thank you very much.  You write "Does anyone reading these posts really, really believe that the city manager of our town could be under investigation by three states and a number of government agencies and no city officials would know about it?"   Are you kidding?  Absolutely anyone believes it.  Do you believe Marquart?  Are you Marquart?  If Marquart knows something, I don't believe he would think twice about withholding it from anyone or everyone -- particularly if he felt it would jeopardize his position, which of course it would.

Personally, I believe there is an investigation, that it's close because the investigators don't know who's in bed with Marquart, and that someone leaked that information -- because I was interviewed then, I know a private investigation was launched over a year ago, initially provoked by his allegedly adulterous nature and behavior, and that it was expanded over time -- and I believe Marquart's goose is cooked this time.  That it's just a matter of time.

You and yours took the same are-you-gonna-believe-that-baloney approach just last December and January about a casino and related projects in town and tried to make us all feel like a bunch of fools for even remotely imagining it might be so despite unhidden public evidence all over the Web and all over the street that would make anyone wonder.  Well, pal, despite your derision and distraction a few months ago in an attempt to buy time, I'll tell you and the others in town what's almost certainly happening now and going happen over the next few weeks, months, and years about that casino that no one presently believes or even thinks about.  Stuff that you ridiculed here just months ago.  Then the regulars can all write back here with their judgment of me and writers like me.  And writers like you.

The Lake Superior Chippewa Indians are going to build and open a Lac Vieux Desert Resort Casino in Iron Mountain.  This is why the Mariucci/Varda project is to be built.  It's an adjunct business.  To host the stream of gamblers and other visitors, not the occasional American Legion or VFW convention.  This is why rich vested business interests and the city itself are snatching up parcels of adjacent and nearby land on the north side.  This is why the rich business interests in town believe that the recall attempt must be defeated at all costs and that the current council members remain in office -- big businesses in the city own their votes.  John Marquart and his 4-3 vote are their grip on the city.  Those businesses are going to make tons of money selling the land and building the infrastructure for the casino and much of the casino itself, as well as the related businesses and supporting infrastructure -- like the Mariucci project.  This is a huge corporate welfare venture.  Gigantic.  The city, including all of us, is going to bust its budget repeatedly and pay millions -- it has already started, the controversial purchase of the Khoury property being merely one example -- making every effort to accommodate and benefit the few rich businesses controlling city hall.  The casino and related businesses will be a bad economic fit for Iron Mountain and the area, despite a flurry of new minimum-wage jobs.  The splurt of development will send taxes and the cost of living for schools and infrastructure through the roof -- but not your income to meet all that expense.  That will stagnate or decrease.  That won't matter, though, because the rich will have made additional fortunes -- they'll get theirs, at your expense.  And they will forge ahead and do this because they don't care what will happen to you, your family, and your livelihood.  The town's middle class will shrink, the rich will get much richer, and the rest of the population will get poorer and the number of this poor segment will increase significantly, putting distressing economic and social strain on the community.  The standard of living will continue to sink, the quality of life will continue to diminish.

And all of this, which long ago began behind your backs, will happen unless you stop it, Iron Mountain.  But you will not.  There won't even be a significant public debate over this.  Because a large percentage of you are lethally apathetic, lazy, complacent.  You don't give a hoot.  At least not until it's too late.  Most of the rest of you will allow the wealthy business interests in town, those about to screw you royally, to buy your opinions and your votes, probably in the media as much as anywhere, either directly or through the expensive lawyers and lobbyists that they'll hire.  You'll effectively vote to screw yourself because you'll have been persuaded to.  You will, and it won't be the first time the last few years.

So, 5-6-2008-04, despite your scorn and deceit last winter, that's what's going to happen.  There are no ifs, ands, or buts.  It will happen.  Everyone in this town might as well prepare for it.  Whether they like it or not, they're powerless to stop it.  You people at this site like to spread news around?  Spread this news around.  It's as good as done and you're going to look really smart later, predicting it.  And, likewise, despite your identical scorn and deceit last Tuesday, 5-6-2008-04, I'd bet that Marquart, professionally, is soon to bite the dust in Iron Mountain.  Give some of us a little credit.  We know some stuff -- stuff that maybe even you don't know and have an opportunity to cover up -- and we can guess the rest.  Not all of us were born in a box behind a rock in the woods outside Amasa.

5-8-2008-02

5-8-2008-01

If you're opposing the rank materialism, pornography, thuggery, selfishness, dishonesty, lawlessness, abuse, unresponsiveness, immorality and other undesirable elements within the power clique of Iron Mountain's present government and its wealthy, wealth-seeking supporters, there's some consolation and a place to turn for solace and strength.

If you try to love the world as God loves the world, you will always be in the middle of trouble.  Following God's way is always costly.  I can't find anywhere in the Bible or throughout the Church's teachings, however, where it says you should stop.  On the contrary.  No one said the right way was gonna be the easy way, not even Jesus.  In fact, you know what He did say. 

Re-read the Gospels for comfort, peace, and resolve.  Listen to what Jesus tells you.  It's not always easy to see, but Jesus is a pragmatist.  Just hang on tight and keep the faith.  Go into a room alone and pray -- don't be afraid to talk with God about this.  Plug away, do what's right and do it for the right reasons.  Stay on the right side of this devilish business and you'll be O.K.  Yeah, I'm serious.  Rely on your faith and what it tells you is good and right.

5-7-2008-06

5-7-2008-05

5-7-2008-04

I don't care what you think, 5-6-2008-04.  Or any of you on any side of these issues who regularly overlook or dismiss evidence and fail to understand its real use and power.  Frankly, it doesn't matter what you think.  It's beyond that.  Be as smug and dismissive as you want.  Choose, like the sad old men you oppose, not to get up off your rear end and retrieve the evidence yourself.  It doesn't matter.  Marquart is toast.  Maybe not this month, maybe not next month, but relatively soon.  Personally, I hope that the authorities don't strike until at least mid-August, so we can get our blows in locally.  How burnt he gets will likely depend on what kind of plea bargain he strikes, if any.  Nothing is going to change that the end is in sight for him.  And no matter what you think, believe, or say is going to change what is going to happen.  So deride and protest all you want.  You too may as well just sit back and wait for the show to commence like the rest of us.  And start protecting your own flank.  Who knows what Marquart will say and produce about whom if it's to lessen the degree of punishment on his own hide.

5-7-2008-03

I kind of doubt there is a three-state Federal and State investigation going on about Marquart.  Sound like a stretch, simply because Marquart himself isn't that big of a fish.
 
However, I do know of a good number of investigations going on right now, right here in Iron Mountain, but with long tenacles that reach well into the bowels of Lansing. They include Marquart, but more importantly, a number of his local-elite buddies.  These investigations are are progressing very well, and many of the local-elite are most assuredly unaware of the full extent of the digging going on.  
 
At the proper time, all this will come out, and it won't be that long from now. Area residents will be astounded at what has been going on.

5-7-2008-02

What IS going on at the council meetings? Why is Ted Corombos at every single meeting? Talk about big money running the city - he's the guy. Why is Don Christy always there - could it be he's protecting some sort of special interest? Why is Bill Toedter and his wife there? And Mike Nicometo dressed up in a suit! Scandalous. What could they be looking for? How mysterious. I certainly can't believe that they are just citizens who are concerned about city government - it has to be some sort of conspiracy. I'm sure they would never attend out of loyalty to any cause or to be supportive of the council - it MUST be a self-serving reason - IT JUST HAS TO BE. After all, this is Iron Mountain the land of giant business interests, frightening conspiracies and big, big money. Watch out everyone.

5-7-2008-01

Why is Bacco president John Fortier, his wife and his father-in-law now attending city council meetings regularly when they never did in the past?  Bacco interests, maybe? $400,000 of free water and sewer lines to their property just south of the Hydraulic Falls Road.  Big jobs on the proposed Mariucci project?  Why are they tryng to assemble land all around it?
 
Why are Maddie Tousignant and Chris Leonard and other Stephens GMAC Realty people there at every meeting? Hoping the Mariucci-Varda scam succeeds so they will get hefty future commissions on land sales there?
 
Why was Gary Benjamin, president of Champion, Inc, at the previous meeting (maybe for the first time in his life) and former Champion accountant Robert Furno at the last two meetings?  Sudden curiosity about city affairs?  Or maybe just looking for more corporate welfare from the city and its TIFA Board.
 
Corporate welfare is alive and well in Iron Mountain, and will continue to be there as long as Marquart and the gang of four are running the show, to the tune of millions of dollars.  Follow the money trail, and the greed rich will be in the mix, that's for sure. They are surely funding the legal fees in trying to stop the recall in court.  Just being nice guys?  Don't think so.

5-7-2008-01

5-6-2008-08

Tho I'd love to believe it, and tho I could believe it, I'd strongly recommend that everyone discount any talk of Marquart supposedly being under the federal and state investigation until such news breaks publicly or someone produces the evidence from the primary sources -- those being the agencies and departments allegedly going after him.  Meanwhile I wouldn't touch that investigation business with a ten-foot fork.  If it's true, fine, but there are plenty of other arguments and damning evidence with which to carry on this fight.  I suggest we marshall all of that and present it to the voters effectively.  And to converts who want to carry on the fight among those we have opposed for the last few years, more power to you, good luck, and thanks.

5-6-2008-07

5-6-2008-06

5-6-2008-01:  John Marquart will not tell you about this.  Unless he feels compelled to do so eventually to save his hide.  Perhaps he is "negotiating," as he is wont to say, as he said about the recent MIOSHA fines of $20,000 his management incurred, with the parties I mentioned. 
 
Go to the primary sources listed and request it from them.  Their evidence is the most direct if not the most immediately accessible.  The inconvenience is that you will have to go to each independently.  If you would rather not do this or are not willing to jump through the hoops these sources will require, or are not willing to face the questions of what you might have for them, then wait patiently and follow the mainstream print, broadcast, and web media.  This is usually the hardest thing to do, but the information is forthcoming eventually.  At least one council member, whether or not that person knows the full extent of things, has already been in touch with at least one of the primary agencies involved and had information confirmed. 
 
It takes a long time for the wheels of justice to turn.  The longer it takes, the greater the number of victims.  Therefore, while you pursue and await evidence of investigations Mr. Marquart has told no one about, you might, investigations notwithstanding, do as some others are doing.  Instead of just speaking and writing about it, that there is proof, you might choose to gather, organize, and present the plentiful current evidence to the city's voters, your friends and relations, in a clear, concise, articulate, and even pleasant way in order that we might finally solve our problems ourselves as soon as possible, certainly no later than August, and that the results of additional investigations be a series of bonuses for the city. 
 
As another writer on Tuesday wrote, we may not share similar philosophies or approach life in the same manner, but perhaps we should "unite" our efforts over this issue.  On this issue and the general health and welfare of the city, and on the broad moral plain, we share common ground, and I therefore wish you the best.

5-6-2008-05

5-6-2008-04

To the readers looking for some sort of proof of the allegations against Mr. Marquardt, there isn't any. This site in general is prone to wild accusations and scare tactics, however, this one is beyond belief. Does anyone reading these posts really, really believe that the city manager of our town could be under investigation by three states and a number of government agencies and no city officials would know about it? Who is this mysterious overseer of secret investigations and how does just this one person manage to infiltrate all these government agencies? Really, three different states and no proof whatsoever. Does he have an insider connection to someone in our city hall who would be able to inform him of these frightful issues? If you put some common sense into your thought process, you will realize that none of it is true. Nothing - not a word. It's made up and it's a sad indication of how far people will go to achieve their bitter dreams. Sad old men - all of you.

5-6-2008-03

5-6-2008-02

5-6-2008-01

5-5-2008-05

Posting twenty ad hominem arguments doesn't make any of them valid.  Like the notes the preacher put in his sermon outline, "Point weak! Shout Loud!"   You would suggest that those who do not visit this site are apathetic and complacent (antonyms of your word zealot).  You argue that the citizenry are to be "tolerant."  In your futile attempt to appear erudite you only expose your ignorance truly a thesaurus is a dangerous weapon when used by the nescient.
Perhaps the real reason for the thousands of visits to Iron Mountain Issues is the one you most fear the citizenry of Iron Mountain have shaken off their apathy and are no longer complacently accepting the status quo, but instead are excercising the free speech rights guaranteed by the constitution.

5-5-2008-04

5-5-2008-03

5-5-2008-02

5-5-2008-01

Thanks for the breakdown on the numbers for each individual person running in both the primary and the final election. They prove the point that Dale Alessandrini didn't win a seat on the council. Please go back and list the numbers about his previous run for the council and then his run for the county board. Those numbers will also show he was defeated. He lost, he lost again and he lost one more time. It's not that he's a bad person for remaining involved or that he shouldn't have a say in his community. It's just that I've attended the meetings and his long-winded presentations are just that - long-winded. The posts on this site continue to name call and threaten and issue dire warnings about crimes and schemes. It sounds ridiculous and foolish as does the continued battling. You are indignant over anything that's said about someone who agrees with you but don't hesitate to throw out unproven claims and plenty of name calling. Grow up and make a real contribution to the world around you.

5-3-2008-03

5-3-2008-02

5-3-2008-01

Reference to post 5-2-2008-01

Your top 20 list makes no sense.  You are just venting some anger issues that you must suffer from.

You forgot the the top reason why this website exits.  To get the information out to the citizens of Iron Mountain.

5-2-2008-02

5-2-2008-01

5-1-2008-03

5-1-2008-02

Re: 4-30-2008-02
Either you have a very poor short term memory or you're very bad at math. These are normally not what one looks for on a resume, but qualifies one to write on the oxymoronically named "Truth" site.

Primary August '08'
Bruce Rosen - 909
Dale Alessandrini - 823
Tina Peterson - 805
David Farragh - 790
Bill Toedter - 668
Jeff Van Laanen - 459
Doug Rigoni - 450
Sally Jacobs - 442
Ken Tousignant - 365

General November - '08
Rosen 1171
Van Lannen 1031
Peterson 1020)
Farragh 1018
Alessandrini 954
Rigoni 938
Jacobs 917
Bill Toedter 781
Wite-Ins (Tousignant et al) 619

5-1-2008-01