Downtown Proposed Demolition

Ben Smith and I stand opposed to the current plan that
involves tearing down the Coast to Coast building at
public expense. Iron River does not need another vacant
lot downtown, we have plenty of those already.

We recommend repairs at the least expense necessary
to stabilize the building over a long term. To that end,
Ben and I will be circulating a petition requiring the
proposed bond be approved by the voters.

Half a million dollars, or more, could go a long ways for
the city to provide services and infrastructure we actually
need, like street and alleyway repairs Please sign the
petition to take the proposed half million dollar bond to
the voters for approval. You must be registered to vote
in Iron River for your signature to count.

Bill Vajk

Computer Hacking

A little over two decades ago, before Glen Roberts
completely lost his mind and renounced his US
citizenship, the two of us published an article in
Full Disclosure, a newspaper of that era, about
computer hacking. Centcom's breaches today
are a stark reminder of the risks warned of decades
ago.

That period was known for teen aged hackers
breaking into sensitive telephone company sites
and reading or downloading materials that the phone
companies would have preferred to keep private.

Instead of securing the computer networks, as we
suggested in that day, the companies affected, along
with providers of networking software, chose to rely
on law enforcement to do the bidding of computer
network users by prosecuting the hackers. Craig
Neidorf was wrongly prosecuted by the federal
government, and fortunately for Craig and his family,
the costs were picked up through Mitch Kapor's
Electronic Frontier Foundation. Mitch was also the
founder of the Lotus Corporation. In the end, Craig
was found not guilty, and the federal judge presiding
over that case severely criticized the US Secret Service
that was charged in those days with investigating and
litigating computer crimes. As a direct result, jurisdiction
was taken away from the Secret Service and
transferred to the FBI.

Unfortunately, over the decades, the publishers of the
software the internet relies on for security have failed
to do their very best to hackerproof their software,
continuing instead to rely on law enforcement to strike
terror in the hearts of would-be hackers and others
with nefarious intent.

What we as a nation rediscovered of late is that the FBI's
reach and the authority of the federal courts is ineffective
beyond US borders. Surprise surprise!

So we've lost several decades during which development
of better strategies for internet software have been lost,
and suddenly it is too late to secure this Goliath of an
internet that we rely on for so very much. Heck, we, as a
nation, couldn't even get a failure proof federal web page
on line for Obamacare.

What, you may well ask, does this have to do with local
politics. Everything. We each rely on the internet for
communications, control of our  power grid, and the safety
and security of US pipeline companies, including those
that deliver natural gas for residential heating to much of the
nation, and our financial systems. Why on earth would
anyone thing for a second that such computer
communications could be maintained as 100% secure?

As can easily be seen, you don't have to own a computer
to be significantly affected. Others are exposing us all
to unwanted risks.

What Glen and I warned of so long ago has come to be
the new reality. I'll say it again, the purveyors of software
must build in hackerproof protection. In addition it would
be prudent to create a second internet, limited to national in
scope, that is secured and under permanent 24/7/365
security scrutiny, for those functions we must have as a nation
while removing all sensitive sites from the hum-drum of
the international wild-west internet that everyone can access.

Better we do something now instead of never.

Bill Vajk

2014 Local Government Awards

Unfortunately there were no positive 
outstanding achievements by local 
governments in Iron County during 
2014 deserving of notice and award.

On the other hand, the Iron County 
Board, the City of Iron River 
council, and Iron County Treasurer 
have earned the Lump of Coal award 
for the year 2014 for the illegal 
collection, under the threat of 
foreclosure, of unlawful property 
taxes. Tax documents that are required 
under law to be certified were not, and 
in the case of delinquent water bills 
and unpaid noxious weeds mowing 
invoices have not been certified for 
more than a decade by the 
city. 

The County Board is required to 
certify the taxes for collection by the 
treasurer has failed in their duty to 
the public to provide more than a rubber 
stamp approval for whatever infractions 
of laws local municipal governments 
under this jurisdiction commit. The state 
has required the county board to provide
checks and balances sufficient to 
demonstrate compliance by municipalities
to state laws. This they failed to do. See
Vajk v. City of Iron River, Michigan 
Supreme Court docket # 150015.

It is the duty, in compliance with their 
oaths of office, for each of the people 
singled out by these awards to comply
with the laws and thus to enforce 
compliance by local governments to the 
laws, and they have failed to do their 
sworn duty.

Each deserves this lump of coal award
for failing their sworn duties.

Bill Vajk

What's Pure About Michigan?

A New Local Tax

If you own or rent property in the City of Iron River
please beware of the city’s new ordinances enacted
on October 15th. I have posted them to the internet
at: http://tinyurl.com/o2rxnew  You can also read them
at City Hall.

These ordinances infringe on your rights as property
owners and unnecessarily increase housing costs to all
of us, especially renters. There’s enough at stake here
to warrant a recall of the entire city council. This isn't
simply “regulation,” it is a new taxing measure disguised
with intent to fool the citizen.

Bill Vajk

The Recent Hit Parade

The following articles along with date of publication are
listed in the order of most recent interest:

Ne Nantium Necare 9/14/2008

Harbingers of Our Future 8/28/2011

The Ordinary Audit Is Not Good Enough 9/2/2014

Without A Tax Limitation 9/2/2-14

A Civics Catechism - Lesson First 5/1/2014

Over the longer term, it seems to me that the Harbingers
article has received the most readers, and probably has
the largest international readership as well. It is a bit of a
surprise to me that older articles are the most popular,
let alone to international readers.

Bill Vajk

The Ordinary Audit Is Not Good Enough

Every Michigan municipality must be audited annually
by an independent auditor. But what we've found
should make the hairs on your neck stand up. The
audits fail to address the legitimacy of what local
governments must do with and about money to be
remain in accord with the laws.

For the first example, the City of Iron River spent
$150,000 of water system funds to pay down the
employee pensions that are supposed to be paid
out of taxes. If the reader chooses, you can find
the event memorialized in the minutes of the city
council meetings. The City Attorney, Tousignant,
referred the matter to the independent (are they
really? Really???) auditor who said there was
nothing wrong with it.

Technically, so far as the local ordinances and state
statutes are concerned, nothing speaks out against
the commingling of funds that way. And she's right,
so far as making excuses goes. But there are legal
considerations that will be addressed later in this
publication, after the Michigan Supreme Court
decides the issues that your humble correspondent
has placed before it that was delivered to the Court
this morning.

There is, however, another bee in my bonnet that
should aggravate everyone in Iron County. It
starts with late payments for water/sewer/garbage
bills. Under Iron River ordinances 52.70, 51.10,
and 50.077 they can be converted to taxes and
attached to your property tax bill, along with a
10% per month compounded (some 214%
annualized.) The ordinances each say that the
amount must be certified as part of that process.

You can find the Iron River ordinances on the
internet:

http://tinyurl.com/p4wvq24

State law, in MCL 141.121(3) says in part:

"The time and manner of certification and other details 
in respect to the collection of the charges and the 
enforcement of the lien shall be prescribed by the 
ordinance adopted by the governing body of the 
public corporation."

None of the three ordinances, let alone any of the
Iron River ordinances, complies with the MCL
quoted verbatim above.

But it doesn't stop there.....

take a look at:

http://bill-vajk.angelfire.com/unsigned-documents.pdf

When I first asked Iron River for a copy of the
certification I first received the page marked "A".
Some time later, I pressed the issue and received "B",
"C", and "D". I had earlier acquired a copy of "D"
from the County Treasurer.

If you look at the notes in the margin of "A" and "B"
you'll notice they are identical, although in the copying
process a bit of the scribbling has vanished on "B."
What that means is that "A" is the physical parent of
"B" and that when I first received "A", in February of
2014 (when I went in and paid my property taxes) the
signature and date that later appeared on "B" weren't
actually there. Given that when first approached on the
topic, city employees maintained that certification was
not required, only the transfer to taxes per the
ordinances. Either they didn't know or didn't care, and
it doesn't much matter which is true, the outcome is the
same.

When pressed, the City Manager produced the pages
for "B", "C", and "D". I already had a copy of "D"
that I got from the Iron County Treasurer in February.

A signature might pass for a certification if the state
statute had been obeyed and the ordinance described a
signature alone as being a valid certification, AND if the
copy I received in February had that certification on it.

But it didn't.

Then the situation got even worse.

MCL 211.10(d)(7) requires that the tax roll be certified:

"Every lawful assessment roll shall have a certificate 
attached signed by the certified assessor who prepared or 
supervised the preparation of the roll. The certificate shall 
be in the form prescribed by the state tax commission. If 
after completing the assessment roll the certified assessor 
for the local assessing district dies or otherwise becomes 
incapable of certifying the assessment roll, the county 
equalization director or the state tax commission shall 
certify the completed assessment roll at no cost to the local 
assessing district."

And as the reader can clearly see, the tax roll in "D"
is not certified, and is therefore unlawful. But Iron 
County treasurer collected anyway, and took those who
didn't pay up to the Circuit Court and foreclosed those
properties.

Look at all the opportunities they missed to get the 
document signed as required by law. Perhaps no one
else would sign it? There are cover ups within cover ups,
who knows how long that queue is? The ordinary audit
of  Iron River and Iron County doesn't turn up such
illegal performance by two of our municipalities.

What should be done to prevent a repeat anywhere else? 
Our local governments are now embarrassed, and so 
long as I'm alive I'll be checking these, and any other
items I can think of. But what of the rest of this state?

As you might suspect, the "noxious weeds" bills, for 
mowing by the City of Iron River whenever they don't
like the look of your grass, that people don't pay in a
timely fashion are also converted to property taxes.
There too, the bills must be certified, actually "sworn
to" in this case, and that wasn't done either.

We need a committee of some sort to go through
every governmental function and to compare those
activities to state laws regulating them along with
ordinances.

Is it a shock that Iron River can't comply with state
laws even in how the ordinances are written? Someone
needs to hold our elected representatives collective feet
to the fire!

Without A Tax Limitation

Here's what happens in other states, like Georgia. Forsyth
County is north of Atlanta within commuting distance. It
looks like every interaction with government gets hit with
some sort of tax.

In this instance, they've added a "library impact fee," note
how it is always a fee, tacked on to a building permit charge.
That's designed to make the individual paying the tax as
though they're personally getting something out it.

http://tinyurl.com/kp76gn9

It might not sound like much, but at 5.8 cents per
square foot, a rather ordinary 1400 square foot home
is hit with a $81.20 tax to support the local library.

Is this our future in Michigan as well?

Please note that one of the best library systems in 
the world is the New York City Public Library. And 
since the beginning, not one penny of public money
has gone into funding it. Government doesn't belong 
in anything where their impact isn't necessary.

Newark, Illinois, also has a privately endowed public
library. Current population of the village is estimated
to be about 1000 souls. If they could do it decades
ago when they were much smaller, anyone can.

Bill Vajk

Rumor Has It

Rumor has it that there is a large business interested in buying all the
closed Michigan prisons on the UP.

Bill Vajk

So What Is Proposal 1? Vote NO!

An anonymous response (I get some now and again) gave me
a location for finding the contents of Proposal 1, a text that is
purposely as misleading as the flyer that came in the mail a
few days back.

In effect, what Proposal 1 does is to create a new "local tax"
in an end run around the Headlee Amendment while promising
to eliminate part of the state sales and use tax. In order to do
that, the state is setting up a new "Local Community Stabilization
Authority" to oversee the new local tax, and prohibits that
"Authority" from increasing the tax above 6%.

But of course there's nothing preventing the state from increasing
the sales and use tax at any time in the future. It could be next week,
it could be next year, but we know it will happen.

The proposal is terrible, and the lies used to promote it are even
worse. I will vote against it and urge everyone to vote NO on
this measure. If the intentions were honorable, the state would have
gone out of its way to providing information that the voters can
understand. Every time government does something "for your
own good" you better look more closely at what they are
proposing. It is a "local tax" that's supposed to get voter approval
by the local region, like a small taxing entity like a city or a county.

By doing this as they have framed it, statewide voter approval will
replace local approval that the Headlee Amendment intended. A
one vote majority out of the millions in the state will pass the measure.
If it were left to Iron County, that would be a one vote majority in
11,000 or so, and your vote would count for more than it does the
way they're doing it. Why should a voter in Detroit have any say in a
tax that the state says is an Iron County local tax?

Please don't be their fool. Vote NO.

Bill Vajk

Proposal 1 - August Elections

A couple of days ago I received a 1 page flyer in the
mail urging me to vote for Proposal 1 that promises
to eliminate a business tax and increase jobs by 15,000.

BUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

No where in the flyer does it give me the text of
Proposal 1. In short, it screams "trust me."

What?

It does reference www.proposal1facts.com

Nice of them to do that. So I went and looked,
and sure enough,, it was more of the same sort
of hype that's in the flyer, and there's no text
of the proposal to be found anywhere.

I don't believe a word of it, simply because
they're not coming clean with what the text
of the proposal is.

Too bad. Guys, you've screwed up despite
the fact you've had every opportunity to get
this right. If you're ashamed to advertise
what it is you're doing then how dare you
even think about asking for my vote.

Bill Vajk

value to the recipient

In 1974, the U.S. Supreme Court wrote:

"The phrase 'value to the recipient' is, 
we believe, the measure of the authorized 
fee."

http://tinyurl.com/m6jb87y

When the water is shut off at the curbstop 
by the provider, what "value" does a
person receive? 

It is a simple question with a simple answer
that the City of Iron River evades.

Bill Vajk

The Ultimate Evil – An Insult to All Americans

This news outlet has been silent for a 

while since your editor has been busy 

suing the City of Iron River and Iron 

County under the Headlee Amendment. 

Original jurisdiction lies with the Court 

of Appeals. In my opinion, the court's 

finding does not comply with Michigan 

laws , any system of morality and ethics, 

or any modern laws.

The ultimate evil, I think, is to hold a 

person responsible today for what some 

random unknown stranger may do in 

the future. Avoiding all religious 

trappings normally associated with the 

word “evil,” I only contemplate ethical 

and moral meanings devoid of any 

organized religion. There is no historical 

ethic, let along a formal legal system 

since the classical Greeks that allowed 

one person to be punished for the acts of 

another. So far as I know, the last one to 

permit such injustice was Hammurabi in 

about 1750 B.C. That's more than 3,700 

years ago! Yet here we are today, in 

Michigan, reverting to ancient forms that 

have long been abandoned as unjust.

Still, the Michigan Court of Appeals 

found it provident to impose the City 

of Iron River's financial interests over 

those of its citizens, and make that 

citizen financially responsible for what 

someone might do in the future. How 

far in the future? They didn't say. It 

could be next month, or a hundred years 

from now, but your humble 

correspondent is financially responsible 

for such speculative people performing 

such speculative acts as asking that the 

water be turned on.

As if that isn't bad enough, there's a 

kicker. It isn't just me, but if you read 

the water ordinances for Iron River, and 

it is found in just about all towns and 

cities, anyone who owns property near a 

water main can be held responsible to pay 

for water they don't use on their vacant lot 

because the city is required to provide water 

to you in 48 hours after request! It's right 

there in ordinance § 52.18, “Written notice 

given not less than 48 hours in advance 

shall be made to the city by the property 

owner and/or occupant of the premises when 

water service is desired.” You don't have to 

have a house or any other structure!

Here's what the Court of Appeals, at the 

instigation of the City of Iron River, wrote:

“Plaintiff provides no authority from which 

it may be inferred that, by turning off the 

water at curbstop, the City is released from 

its continuing obligation to maintain the 

capacity to provide water and sewer 

services to the Plum Street property 

should plaintiff or a successor owner 

request a resumption of the water 

supply. Under such circumstances, 

plaintiff receives the benefit of use of 

the municipal water distribution and 

sanitary sewer systems, albeit to a lesser 

degree than other users of these systems, 

and the City's allocation of maintenance 

costs to those like plaintiff who are 

connected to these systems constitute a 

fee for service for purposes of the Headlee 

Amendment.”

As the cornerstone for the Court of 

Appeals finding, it is morally, ethically, 

and legally bankrupt in my opinion. I 

filed my motion for reconsideration. 

Anyone with access to a computer has 

only to ask for a copy and I'll gladly 

provide it since all court documents 

are public unless a judge issues an 

order privatizing it in some form or 

another.

You can find the court's complete 

order at: http://tinyurl.com/opxaafu

Another significance of what happened 

here is what will this do to our future? 

How long will it be before this mindset, 

that government can do simply anything 

to us that they want, finds its way into the 

criminal laws? Hammurabi's code 

authorized the killing of an innocent 

child of a builder whose shoddy 

construction collapsed and killed the 

child of the homeowner. Is that what we 

want? No sir!

Like it or not, that's where this thing is 

headed unless I manage to stop it.

Please join me by pestering the city 

fathers with your objections, all in the 

legal way, of course, by writing letters 

and speaking at City Council meetings.

Iron River, you're back on the map again. 

But sorry, it isn't for any reason we should 

be proud of. 

Bill Vajk

Another Illegal Tax?

The agenda for the Iron County Board of Commissioners on 

13 May 2014 contains the following item: “Discussion and 

Possible Action on the Iron County Construction Code's 

Request to Increase House Numbering Fee”

During last month's meeting, the board reversed an earlier 

increase of the FOIA per page charge of 30 cents because, 

as attorney Tinti pointed out to Commissioner Patti Peretto 

before the meeting, “You can't do it that way.” But the 30 cent 

“fee” had been in effect for some time and is one of the counts 

in the lawsuit brought by the undersigned against Iron River and 

Iron County.

Now here we are, with another department asking for an 

increase in a fee, this time for something as simple as “house 

numbering.” Why? Because “fee for service” is one place 

where a local government can gin up some extra income. The 

entire principle of collecting fees is to help offset the cost of a 

governmental department existing. Back in the 1970's the 
Federal Communications Commission tried it and were sued 
by the National Cable TV Association[1] which handily won 
the case with the Supreme Court establishing the credo that 
“The phrase "value to the recipient" is, we believe, the 
measure of the authorized fee. The words 'public policy or 
interest served, and other pertinent facts' would not seem 
relevant to the present case, whatever may be their ultimate 
reach. “

Since this was a Supreme Court case it applies universally 
to every jurisdiction in the USA. In the famous Michigan 
Bolt v. Lansing case[2], our Supreme Court (repeating from 
an earlier case) stated that, “"Exactions which are imposed 
primarily for public rather than private purposes are taxes. 
Revenue from taxes, therefore, must inure to the benefit of 
all, as opposed to exactions from a few for benefits that will 
inure to the persons or group assessed."

Applying the Court's reasoning, for whose benefit is “house 

numbering” generated and applied? It seems to the 
undersigned that significant thought ought to be given to this 
topic before changes are applied, with consideration 
given to the possibility that this exaction should be eliminated 
since the service being provided is to the community as a 
whole, not to the person whose property gets a number. 
Once the consequence of the exaction benefits the entire 
community, it is a tax prohibited by the Michigan 
Constitution rather than a fee for service unless it was 
permitted as a tax prior to the enactment of the Headlee 
Amendment to the constitution.

Because local governments in Michigan are so careless 
in applying their power, it seems to the undersigned that 
an initiative needs to be undertaken by the citizens to 
assure that we are not being taxed inappropriately. The 
system that is currently in place encourages inefficiency 
on the part of government employees because they can 
simply improve their lot by applying to the county board 
or equivalent governing body at lower levels for a “fee” 
increase every few years. In the meanwhile the entire 
premise of the Headlee Amendment is defeated with 
the exception of an occasional whimper by someone 
paying an illegal tax. The only way to stop this is for 
citizens to band together and study the problem, 

bringing lawsuits whenever and wherever necessary 
to enforce the law that citizens enacted by voting for 
it.

So as soon as the lawsuit in which the undersigned is 

presently engaged is completed, this describes the new 

initiative I will undertake. All local government bodies 
keep saying that they welcome greater participation by 
the public. Here's a chance for everyone to participate 
without actually attending those generally boring meetings 
where the public knows little, and usually understands 
even less, of what happens during those meetings. Here 
is a chance for the public to sink their teeth into how 
government functions where it is significant and 
meaningful.

We will make a difference!

[1] National Cable TV Association v. United States, 
    415 US 336, 1974

[2] Bolt v. City of Lansing, 587 NW 2d 264, 1998

Bill Vajk

A Civics Catechism - Lesson First

A Civics Catechism – Lesson First

Question: What is civilization and why have it?

Answer:

Civilization is the organization of human beings into 

artificial groups for the purpose of eliminating internal and 

external predation. Today we have nothing to fear from 

the animal kingdom killing and eating us. Living outside 

the footprint of civilization, for example in the Alaskan 

bush, continues to provide such risks.

Here in Iron County our predators today are local 

governments subjecting us to economic destruction; 

sometimes they nickle and dime us, sometimes a heavier 

hand is evident such as in charging $870 a year for 

municipal utilities we cannot use, or overcharging $10 

for a few pages of a court docket. Such economic 

predation has no legitimacy.

Our governments have been around so long they think 

they are like people, especially here in Michigan. They 

forget their reason for existing, to provide safety and 

services for every citizen as a servant of the people, 

not as an organism on equal footing with human beings. 

Government is artificial, it has no life of its own! Our 

laws are designed to have governments work for us, 

not the other way around.

Michigan is worthy of mention because there is 

absolutely no oversight or control of local governments 

by those who give them limited powers, the state. We 

have to look no further than Detroit to see a worse 

case example. Or how about 13 local governments 

serving, on average, less than 1000 souls each in Iron 

County. Why two school districts, just to make a few 

jobs at the expense of providing the best education 

possible?

The model for what our governments are supposed 

to be is completely defined in our constitutions and laws. 

We must not permit failed civilizations, like Putin and 

the Ukraine, to detract from the high standards we 

have established. But sadly we haven't been living up 

to those standards.

Bill Vajk

Community Conversation 2014

Editor's note: I can't help but think that the people who attend functions like this one are the ones who have it in their power to help advance this community and get Iron County out of the economic depression we've been experiencing for decades. Two things happen: First nobody is willing to ask them to assume leadership roles and secondly no one is willing to apply the pressure necessary to get such an initiative going. In the end it doesn't matter what these folks think so long as they're not willing to do anything about anything/ 

Bill Vajk

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

Please join us for a Community Conversation to help set the agenda for Michigan in 2014, sponsored by The Center for Michigan.

WHERE: West Iron District Library

WHEN: Monday, March 24, 2014-4PM

RSVP: Sara Basso at 906-250-0416 or sara@bassoandbasso.us

Community meetings just like this are happening all over Michigan. Make sure your voice is heard.

For more information, call 734-769-4625, or visit thecenterformichigan.net

Community Conversations are presented by The Center for Michigan, a 501(c)3 nonprofit, non-partisan organization working throughout the state to amplify the voices of ordinary citizens and find common ground solutions for a more prosperous future. Please visit www.thecenterformichigan.net for more information.

What It Looks Like

This is what the bill for not using water, with the valve
shut off at the curbstop, looks like. This edition arrived
in today's mail.

The famous case Bolt v. Lansing says that no one can
be compelled to take water. I'm pretty sure that the
Court also meant that no one can be billed for water
they cannot be compelled to take! Otherwise their
statement would be nonsensical, and I'm certain that
the Michigan Supreme Court never publishes any
nonsensical decisions.

So the nonsense must come from the City of Iron River.

Anyway, the lawsuit should, if nothing else, prove
interesting.

Bill Vajk

A Piece of the Case Summary

The summons and complaints were served today on the
City of Iron River and Iron County, and the entire package
mailed to the Court of Appeals with the filing fee. A "case
summary" was included, part of which I reproduce below.

======================================
Although this case is about the violations of the Headlee
Amendment, Michigan Constitution Article IX § 31, in the
interests of understanding how we came to be at this
juncture, the case is significantly assisted by knowing a
bit if the history of the mainstream lawlessness that began
with the earliest days of Iron County and persists almost
unabated through the modern day.
It began with the “stolen courthouse” from which
history the county clerk republished the events of  1885,
see Exhibit “R”.

(editor's note- this is a segment of the Iron County Directory
of 2013)

The next major event occurred  in 1920 during Prohibition
with the Scalcucci brothers commercially making and selling
wine in Iron River. When federal officers were dispatched
from Chicago to put a stop to the illegal practice, local
officials were ordered to fire on anyone attempting to
enforce prohibition, and in the end were driven out of the
area. The event is a matter for an annual local three day
celebration. See the last page of Exhibit “R”.
Without delving into the details of this case too heavily at
this juncture, Plaintiff must here point out that the July 31,
2013 acts of amending Iron River ordinances in order to
allow the city council to establish new utility rates by
resolution instead of by ordinance directly violates the
alleged charter’s § 2.11(e). Please see Exhibit “B”. The
charter that Defendant City is allegedly obeying says an
ordinance is required to regulate the rate charged by a
public utility for its services. It is clear, in this act, and
others too numerous to discuss here, that Defendant City,
just like Defendant County, ignores the laws that govern
them unless and until someone like Plaintiff calls them to
task in court.
In Exhibit “S” Defendant City acknowledges no provision
of utilities to Plaintiff, but charges for them anyway,
knowingly violating the laws of this state and forcing the
situation to this Court for resolution that already exists in
the laws of the state.
As part of the election in November 2013, Defendant City
included a measure requesting the elimination of “conflict of
interest” by elected officials from the Iron River City Charter.
The deciding vote in the city council for the resolution to get
this measure on the ballot was cast by an individual who, at
that time, was knowingly in the very conflict he was trying to
get removed. Subsequently, after your Plaintiff complained to
the governor and the attorney general, the county prosecutor
investigated and asked two members of Iron River’s city
council to resolve the conflict issue by resigning one post or
the other. The city council, itself, did nothing while all the
members were knowledgeable about the conflicts that should
have been sufficient to keep the two from being sworn into
office and seated.
Unfortunately, both City and County defendants are so
deeply entrenched in their illegal activities that they seem to
have no way of stopping because once the first lie is told,
and then another to cover that up, the entire scheme just
spirals out of control and the lies can never stop. In
Exhibit “Q” Defendant County acknowledges it know the
source for the bills it will attempt to collect by undertaking
a foreclosure action, and ignores the illegality in Plaintiff’s
case.
That is why we are here, in order to get a fair hearing and
to break the cycle of lies, subterfuge, and deception, by
local governments who are thus damaging the Plaintiff, and
many others, financially.
======================================

It is well past time for municipalities to stop charging for
public utilities that are not delivered to citizens.

Bill Vajk

Is Futility our Hallmark?

This evening I posted Iron County's Strategic Plan for
the year 2000 at:

http://bill-vajk.angelfire.com/plan-2000.pdf

I note that not one single goal in that plan has been
achieved. This particular strategic plan was put
together by the team that included Ruth Briney, John
MacPherson, Kenneth Phillips, Bette Premo, Thomas
Rorabaugh, and J. Cyrus Warmanen.

I have to wonder why they put forth the effort to put
together this plan, and then simply disappear into the
background noise of Iron County.

Is futility the hallmark of Iron County?

Bill Vajk

Common Sense

Why is there such a shortage of common sense in Iron
River? The following is a letter to the editor submitted to
the Reporter.

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

To the Editor:

Last summer the Iron River City Council all but
announced their intention to permanently close
Blossom Street that has a failed pavement because
they lack funds to make repairs. Unfortunately there
is only one way to fund street repairs, taxes. Of
course once properly fixed, the street would be fine
for decades.

Then, in January, the same city was approached and
asked for help by funding the Iron Line Dog Race
through sponsorship, and they agreed. The level of
funding was more than half of what it would take to
fix Blossom Street. The city did this while finding
street lights to shut off because they’re trying to save
money. What for, in case there’s another dog race
asking for money? What about the requests of citizens
for street repairs?

How many sources are there for money to sponsor a
dog race? Thousands. How long does a dog race last? A
few days.

Perhaps if Blossom Street were made part of a dog race
route the City Council might see fit to fix it. But they
can’t seem to fix it for humans. Hmmm!

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

Yesterday I became involved in a discussion with a local
business owner whose philosophy is that if no one is living
on a street it shouldn't be repaired, just close it. That's
another exhibition of a lack of common sense. After all,
nobody lives on the Mackinac Bridge, or any of the
arteries in the US, but we don't close them because they're
important routes for others. The myopic views held by the
clique I keep talking about are killing this region.

There's no justification whatever for any Michigan municipal
government to fund a dog race and every justification for
keeping the streets in good repair.

What's wrong with you people?

Bill Vajk