Iron County Finance Committee over rules the State of Michigan!

Where will it end? The following was sent in email today to
Carl Lind, the chairman of the Iron County Board. I await
his reply. I have to add, here, that I've bent over backwards
to reach some rational solutions before hailing the county into
court again. 

The other part of my FOIA request asked to see
documentation supporting that Iron County's incremental
cost for making copies is $0.30 for each copy while regional
businesses are reporting their to be less than 1 cent. It turns
out there is no documentation (could that be because it would
prove the less than $0.01 actual cost to Iron County?). But
what was provided was the minutes to the January 1, 2010
Finance Committee meeting during which that finance
committee over ruled the State of Michigan by establishing
a per copy rate of $0.30 each, well above that which is
allowed by state law.

Yes, you read that right, Iron County has over ruled the
State of Michigan, and it appears that people who swore an
oath to uphold the constitution and the laws are willingly and
wantonly violating those laws.

Did we vote them into office to harm us? That's precisely
what they are doing.


===========================================


FOIA Appeal

Mr. Carl Lind
XXX Lincoln Avenue           
Crystal Falls  MI  49920

Dear Mr. Lind:

This appeal covers the reply by the Iron County FOIA
Coordinator to issue #2 in my FOIA request dated
11 May 2013 and answered 16 May 2013 as follows:

      2) MCL 234(3) requires, in part, that Iron County 
     “a public body shall establish and publish procedures 
      and guidelines to implement this subsection.” I wish 
      to review that published “procedures and guidelines” 
     document.


Although the cover letter in reply to my request states, “Your
request is granted” the actual response (all documents
pertinent to this appeal are attached) is a simple evasion. The
consequence is a de facto failure to reply that, as spelled out in
the FOIA statutes, provides this window for the formal appeal
you are presently reading.

This appeal asks you for a complete and legitimate answer to
my MCL 15.234(3) relevant request as stated above. Any
failure to provide a copy of the “procedures and guidelines”
requested for review will be taken by the undersigned as a
knowing violation by Iron County of state statutes. In that
event, the only available understanding will be that either
statutes are being violated by failing to publish the documents
as required under state law, or that Iron County published
them and is withholding them from public view in an attempt
to conceal knowing violations of the statutes as well as your
own published procedures and guidelines. Or perhaps all the
violative elements above.

Ultimately the questions resolve to a decision whether Iron
County is so married to what gives the appearance of corrupt
practices relevant to financial matters that the county board
will require court proceedings to resolve the issues. The fact
that you have what amounts to a new county board affords
you a window to correct past bad practices that I have lately
called to your attention. You would be surprised how much
easier it is to voluntarily come into compliance with state laws
than it is to embrace the bad practices handed to all of us by
past boards. Settlement of financial issues is always better,
and far less expensive, for all parties than involving the
judicial department of government in matters such as are
before us.

I wish all of us, Iron County government, and the public you
work for, the best.


ENCL:

===========================================

The ball, for a very short time, is theirs to deal with.

Bill Vajk