County update with Phil Duckham

I have the same highest respect for you as I do all of the Commissioners.  In my relationship with you I most value your honesty.  I have never had to wonder how you feel on a topic.  As with Commissioner Kennedy, I will reply to you line by line, with my responses below in red:

Jeromy,

You seem to flip and flop, back and forth.

I understand how you feel and why it may appear that way.  We have not spoken much all year except for at the County functions our duties require, when we’ve mutually been able to attend, as we’ve both had our absences.

The most detailed information about my health that you may have is from what I have shared with all commissioners during our committee Monday lunches, what I have shared with the public on our Tuesday evening meetings, and what I have shared with friends and the public via Facebook, where we are friends and you follow my Commissioner Page.

However, simply put the totality of my healthcare situation has not been made available to you or to anyone outside of my immediate family. So it is perfectly valid the way you feel based on the small bits of monthly updates that I’ve been able to provide you with.

I have found a new way to solve that issue and I have been working diligently through my condition to re-process this year’s medical information and hopefully present it in an easy to read and follow format for public digestion. I believe my story may help others. 

If you want to be “in the loop” and understand some of the changes that have occurred that have affected my decisions resulting in your perception of “flip and flop”, I invite you to come follow along with my story every day at jeromyalexander.com.

You told all commissioners and others in attendance at the November BOC Meeting you were done , you said your good byes as you were going to be too busy to make any further meetings!

Yes, as I told Commissioner Kennedy in my previous email:

Yes that is true yet I also explained at the same time the cause: the immediate prioritization of my healthcare above all else.  In details I skipped for brevity: receiving the surgery before the end of the year even if I had to legally vacate our great state was the priority.  Hence my future attendance could not be expected and I considered it best to say so.  There is also more I said.

That statement was made after your Ill advised attempt to coherce the board to make another attempt to provide Mahoney a resolution for his service as a county Commissioner before becoming the mayor of the city.

I was advised against taking the actions that I did, repeatedly; that part is true.

Your use of the word “coherce” however implies something other than the actual political process for which it is my sworn duty to faithfully execute, which is false.

For your information, let me describe the process I took:

1)     I was made aware of a constituent who deserved recognition.

2)     Evaluating the full context, I choose to delay until a non-opportunistic time.

3)     During that time of delay I built relationships with my colleagues as best as I could.

4)     I arranged a meeting in the summer with Commissioner Williams and among other topics, I asked for and received his support for the item when the time came.

5)     Waiting until the right time to execute, I visited the Chair the morning of the our meeting 11/15/22 to ask for his support to add the item to the agenda for the night’s meeting, which would have informed all commissioners of the upcoming vote, as I was not legally able to contact them all myself.  As of course, we commissioners together are bound by the public meetings act, requiring that less than a majority is aware of an item (hence its future decided outcome) in total before the issue is added to an agenda, motioned, supported and opened for our discussion of the item on its merits or lack thereof in a public meeting, as required by law.  The support to add to the agenda was given to me conditionally based if I could also gain the support of Commissioner Kennedy to do so.

6)     I next visited Commissioner Kennedy and discussed the item and literally gave him my pen to make any corrections necessary to remove embellishments, errors or make other change necessary to gain his support, which he did momentarily attempt then refused; and to be perfectly honest I even offered to rake his leaves at his house and yours for a year, for his support to add the item to the agenda.  Quite specifically, I did not ask for his vote on the item, knowing the context and having respect for him.  However, by the Chair, I needed his support to add the item to the agenda previous to the meeting and I exhausted every manor of influence that I generally find good and proper for use.

7)     Having failed, I contacted the Chair and Commissioner Williams and updated them accordingly.  Also I asked Commissioner Williams, in addition of support for discussion of the item when it arose, if he would also support my attempt to add it at the beginning of the meeting, which he did also give to me, after consideration, as “blindsiding” five fellow commissioners at the moment a meeting starts with a possible difficult decision without time for previous reflection is not generally the most polite action.

8)     As the meeting began, the item was added to the agenda, later the item arose, I motioned, was supported and made my best attempt at the time to gain the necessary votes required for passage.  My goal was to make my best argument. Not to win or to succeed, yet to do my best for one constituent that legitimately deserves the honor more than I do.  Please see my about me page and my resume on JeromyAlexander.Com – Daniel Mahoney outshines me easily.

Also perceptions may vary if this was another attempt or first attempt to pass the item, as to the best of my knowledge the 11/15/22 meeting was the first time the item I added had been on an agenda during the time of a BOC meeting.  I was informed that the item had been on a past agenda and yet was removed before the meeting.  Hence at no time was this matter of policy publicly debated, or even could have been, before the meeting of 11/15.

The motion to reward Mahoney with a Resolution again failed!!

Yes, that is true in part, the motion did fail on 11/15/22, I am not aware of a time it failed previous; hence your inclusion of the word “again”, implies something possibly not true.

You have stated you are a Republican, which you have proven not to be factual.

I presented to you my qualifications as a Republican on the night you appointed me.  For your recollection, my printed three minute speech posted on Facebook is still there, and you can also find it here, along with oaths I’ve taken to faithfully execute my duties.

https://jeromyalexander.com/2021/12/jeromy-alexander-county-commissioner/

I am not sure what facts you might be referring to, though I do agree with your general opinion as I understand it, I am not a welcome part of your republican party.  I am a member of The Republican Party founded by Abraham Lincoln in Jackson, Michigan. I hope you understand the difference, and like I said before, I will wear your words with pride and you can hold me to that.

Then in the closing of your email you stated”if Mahoney doesn’t get his Resolution for Service, you will instruct your attorney to file for a full time disability claim against the county

Shame on you!!

Yes, paraphrased, it is true that I wrote that.

Now, you have to decide if it is also true that I will actually do that, based on all you know about me and all I’ve said in my writing at jeromyalexander.com, and even knowing how I used the same empty threat to negotiate with Henry Ford.

Which worked I think, because no one can believe I would be this forgiving and honest about what I do actually want, and walk away from money on a table that I could legally grab.  Not realizing that to me money has no value past my next meal or months’ rent, which are both well supplied from an independent source of wealth at this time, and so I will negotiate with a worthless item to me, a potential disability claim, to get something important for me – my own legislative success.  

Before I defined the success I sought as the opportunity to present and argue for the resolution, best I could, win or lose.  Now the bar has been raised and I will define my success by its passage.

Of course, even the best people can fall, perhaps this last week before my surgery could be the one to “break the camels” and turn me to a person that would grab anything within legal reach;  however, I hope you know I do follow a moral compass and try to walk a straight path.

Though also be warned, you are dealing with a person you have called an idiot, a fool, and a gold digger, do you trust me to be kind and fair and walk away from a valid disability claim that I have fully paid for?

Then you should decide if allowing me the potential to claim $312,000.00 accumulative from Jackson if I were to live on forty years (650 * 12 * 40) is worth your resistance to pass a resolution that will cost you nothing, not even additional time, if it’s on the consent calendar.

You can help save the County $312,000 from going to a person like me, because God only knows what I would do with it and it should stay right where it is in the County coffers.

And I personally prefer that it does, as needle’s have very small eyes and I already feel a bit too plump.

You have proven yourself to be a ineffective, gold digging, poor excuse as a Commissioner.

Opinions vary, I do try my best.  Thank you for sharing your opinion of me.

I’m not speaking for anyone but myself , but I’m kind of glad your term is over and you are leaving

Again we agree, I do not think I am the best person for the job and am proud to be replaced by a better man than myself, that is the process and the goal I hope I’ve helped maintain.

Sent from my iPhone

IPhones are kind of awesome.

—————————————————————

I love you Phil and I have the deepest respect for you as Commission Duckham.

Personally my goal and hope, and your assistance is requested, is to leave the State of Michigan with my head held high, having kept every word I’ve said.

Regarding you well,

Jeromy