welcome to the home page of John Anthony La Pietra More FOIA Information Here!     John has permission from the Michigan Freedom of Information Committee to post some of MFOIC's compilations of state FOIA caselaw.  A FOIA Reference page, with links to those compilations and other useful sources of FOIA information, is now posted at this site.  Enjoy! Recap of the Events of Fri 5/1/09:      John got his free copy of the new draft of the nuisance ordinance from the Clerk-Treasurer's Office a bit before noon. He scanned & posted a clean copy. He marked up that copy with notes -- showing the changes made, and commenting on those changes . . . and some things that should have been changed but weren't.  (This version no longer posted.) Then he transcribed and posted those notes in a PDF document. (Here, for comparison, is last year's draft discussed at the public hearing 4/16/09.)      John has had to take down some of this stuff that exists elsewhere -- his space is small and getting full.  But you can still see what he found out before the 5/4/09 Council meeting about which other local governments have noxious-weeds and nuisance ordinances . . . and which don't. Previously:     See the comments John wrote to offer at the 2009/04/20 public hearing on the proposed amendment to the City's noxious-weeds nuisance ordinance.  PDF or HTML, 4pp each.  (But that doesn't include the attachments . . . such as the proposed amendment itself, 5pp.  Or a law-review article on weed ordinances which the City looked at in preparing its 2005 amendment proposal.  You can see that at several pages on the EPA Website, starting here.  John also has that article and all its attachments compiled into an 18-page PDF file; it's no longer posted here, but you can ask him to e-mail a copy.)     See the comments John offered on the City of Marshall's energy plans at the 2009/03/30 public hearing.   (4pp with selected quotes from the state law OR 2pp without quotes -- both PDF.) Name This Project! Information on local governing boards across Calhoun County (meeting dates/times/places, contacts for agenda information, etc.) can be found here (HTML) or here (PDF). AND NOW (as of 2009/03/20) -- info on local governing boards' FOIA and public-comment policies: here (HTML) or here (PDF). Join This Project!     Come to a meeting to discuss what it should do next -- Sunday, March 22 at the Marshall District Library (124 West Green Street, at Jefferson) starting at 1:30pm.  An announcement to the press can be found here (HTML) or here (PDF). interests words numbers ideas languages music humor theatre politics law & order and justice     (but not always in that order) learning good things meeting good people . . . & other ways of combining     two or more of the above links (a work in progress; more will be coming soon . . . in the meantime, here are a few assorted Webpages I've been visiting lately) Ballot Access News If you've noticed that bi-partisanship isn't the same as non-partisanship, this is a good resource for following how people of other parties (and people of no party affiliation at all) are being treated by the system built by and for the only two parties we hear about. Japanese sound and state/condition words A good way to look up examples of Japanese onomatopoeia (giongo) and mimesis (gitaigo), which is very useful if you like manga and anime.  I'm a fan of Maison Ikkoku -- which you can find out about here and here. among other places. And the author of Maison Ikkoku, Rumiko Takahashi, has a new series -- Kyôkai no Rinne.  That's 境界のりんね if your browser can show you the Japanese characters, though they're using rôma-ji to spell out RINNE (or RIN-NE, to emphasize the multi-syllabic Japanese pronunciation).  And it's being posted on line in English almost simultaneously with its publication in Japanese.  You can read it from here.  And then you can look at my rash attempt to match imaginations with Takahashi-sensei . . . my first thoughts about where the story might go. Michigan Compiled Laws Here you can do an advanced search of the Legislature's database of state statutes.  (And from the menu on the left side, you can also find out about current and past bills, and other activities at and around the Capitol in Lansing.) "One Court of Justice"/Opinion Search This is the page on the "Michigan Courts" Website where anyone can search through case decisions by the state Supreme Court and the four branches of the state Court of Appeals.  There are also links to court rules and other useful categories of information. Weather Underground The link is set up to show weather information for Marshall, Michigan -- where I live.  But you can put in your own town name or ZIP code.  Activities        jalp's activities include: Green Party     the Ten Key Values of the Green Party -- summarized by jalp in 300 words (in HTML and PDF formats)     Green Party of Michigan     Calhoun County Green Party (jalp is the County Co-ordinator for GPMI)     jalp's campaign for County Clerk-Register of Deeds Law     graduated cum laude from Thomas M. Cooley Law School in May 2008     passed the July 2008 Michigan State Bar examination; admitted to the State Bar of Michigan Nov 2008 Writing     letters to editors and guest editorials:        ·  one letter to editors county-wide (dated 12/31/08) on a county-wide project is shown below        ·  more will be posted soon     columns for the Marshall Review (now defunct):        ·  several will be posted soon     other writings -- for example:        ·  "I Am the Very Model of a Modern Surgeon General" -- a parody (of what, I wonder?)                 dating way back to 1998! . . . HTML or PDF (1 page)        ·  two tales of Maison Ikkoku-related fan fiction:                 "Find Your Voice" and (co-authored "Take a Bau"        ·  more will be posted soon Update -- 4/26/09 Well, the noxious-weeds nuisance ordinance is being revised -- so I've taken off this page the cover message I sent City Council about it.  The links are still good, in case anyone wants to see the source material, though:         http://members.triton.net/jalp/090420stmt.pdf             AND         http://members.triton.net/jalp/090420stmt.html And the old draft ordinance is still here, too -- at         http://members.triton.net/jalp/090420stmt-att1b.pdf But it's up to us to make sure the changes are for the better.  I'll post the new version when I get it -- or a link, if the Clerk-Treasurer's Office posts it on the City's Website as part of its duty under the Charter to distribute free copies.  Don't forget to ask for your copy!   John Anthony La Pietra                386 Boyer Court    *   Marshall, MI  49068    269-781-9478                            jalp@triton.net           http://members.triton.net/jalp/ Something YOU Can Get for FREE at City Hall!                        4/17/09 A copy of the City's proposed new noxi- . . . um, *nuisance* ordinance!  The one about which a public hearing has been scheduled at Monday's Council meeting. What do I mean, a free copy?  Well, you wouldn't know it from the City's public notices for the hearing, but it's right there in the City Charter.  Subsection 4.02(b) of the Charter says: ARTICLE IV LEGISLATION Section 4.02, Ordinance Procedure     (b) Following introduction of any ordinance, the city clerk-treasurer shall publish a summary of the proposed ordinance in a local newspaper of general circulation in the city, together with a notice setting out the time and place for a public hearing on the proposed ordinance; the public hearing may not be held sooner than five (5) days after the publication; copies of the ordinance shall be distributed without charge at the office of the city clerk-treasurer; You can see this language for yourself on page 12 of 32 here:           http://www.CityofMarshall.com/reference/refdocs/1381-MARSHALL_CITY_CHARTER.pdf So rush right down to City Hall and get YOUR copy today! . . . Or not.  If you still have the text of the amendment proposed last year -- the one Council thought it had adopted -- you have the text of this year's version.  Oh, this one has spaces for the Mayor and the interim Clerk-Treasurer to sign . . . but only two things of any arguable substance have been added. One is a sentence of introduction at the very top of the first page: This Ordinance is established to eliminate health nuisances throug the elimination of harborages and conditions that are conducive to the causes and propagators of unhealthy animals and plants. I'll hold on while you pencil that in at the tops of your first pages. . . . The other addition is a new section: § 92.12 REPEALER     Ordinance Sections 92.25 through 92.27 (Ord. 00-08, passed 9-18-2000) are repealed. (In case it doesn't come out right on your end, the character before 92.12 is a "Section" symbol -- looks like two S-es piled one on top of the other, kind of like the double-P symbol for "Paragraph".) This other addition is treated pretty casually, though.  In fact, it's not even listed in the table of contents. Anyway, that's all you have to add to last year's draft to get this year's draft.  But you don't have to use up your pens or pencils -- you can get a FREE copy of the new draft from the Clerk-Treasurer's office today! And if you do get a copy -- and you see something in there that you don't like -- maybe I'll see you at the Council meeting Monday evening.  And we'll see if we can get Council to think beyond staff's twice-in-a-row recommendation:  that Council hold the public hearing, hear public comments, and then go ahead and approve the ordinance amendment as is regardless of any comments. John Anthony La Pietra <jalp@triton.net> 386 Boyer Court Marshall, MI  49068 February 28, 2009   To the editor:     As I’ve mentioned in other letters, I've been working on a sort of "Public Participation Project" for Calhoun  County.  I've already posted pages on my personal Website with information on meeting dates, times, and places for county, city, township, village, school district, and library boards.  Unfortunately, when the Enquirer posted last month's letter naming those Webpages, the double hyphens caused some confusion . . . so the addresses are now   http://members.triton.net/jalp/LocalGovBds-overall.pdf    and http://members.triton.net/jalp/LocalGovBds-overall.html   I’ve also been gathering two other kinds of information from our local governing boards:   * the opportunities they give citizens to speak at those public meetings; and * their policies for working with Michigan's Freedom of Information Act.   I aim to compile that information onto new Webpages by or before Sunday, March 22.   Why that date?  Well, it's the weekend after spring starts -- so it should be a good time for fresh air and new beginnings.  And I've reserved the Reference Room of the Marshall District Library (124 West Green Street) that afternoon.  Please join me there, starting around 1:30pm.   I want to meet and talk with anybody who's interested in figuring out what to do next.  And, better yet, willing to help do some of it.  Should we expand to more public bodies?  Committees and subcommittees?  Find people to attend meetings and take "citizen minutes", and publish and post them?   Or should we just start by picking a better name than the "Public Participation Project"? . . .   If you want to RSVP, or suggest ideas for the agenda of this meeting, please e-mail jalp@triton.net or call 269-781-9478.     John Anthony La Pietra            jalp@triton.net                              (this letter in PDF or HTML) 386 Boyer Court                       269-781-9478 Marshall, MI  49068 My January 28, 2009 letter to the editor -- on exercising our rights under Michigan’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) as well as our shoveling muscles -- is here (HTML) & here (PDF). My December 31, 2008 letter to the editor is here (HTML) and here (PDF). last updated:  October 18, 2009 (full update of local-government meeting-info and FOIA pages)