Photo by Barb Pert Templeton for Blue Water Healthy Living The Marine City Hall is open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Thursdays.
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Flash drive contents pose mystery in Marine City

Hilferink claims one file, city says it had four files

By Barb Pert Templeton

What was on the flash drive?

The issue became a point of contention at an Aug. 3 Marine City Commission meeting after city officials insisted one audio file plus three video files were on a flash drive given to City Commissioner Michael Hilferink, while he denied the claim stating he only saw an audio file on the drive.

The flash drive is alleged to have contained not only an audio file of a July 20 commission meeting but also three video files generated by a FOIA request made by Hilferink.

The FOIA request pertained to a police call on July 18 at 10:45 p.m. to 414 Woodworth Street in the city. Hilferink’s FOIA sought all the body cam footage and audio from the incident and stated that the complaint being alleged at the time was against him. 

In a letter to Hilferink dated July 26, City Clerk Jason Bell stated that the FOIA request had been granted and the cost for the information, the three video files, would be $76.25. 

In response, in a letter dated July 31 from Hilferink to Bell, Hilferink stated that he wanted to appeal the FOIA charges. 

Photo courtesy of CTV Community Television/YouTube
Marine City Commissioner Michael Hilferink addresses the city commission as an ordinary citizen at an Aug. 3, 2023 meeting. 

(Hilferink tried to postpone the appeal before the commission on Aug. 3 but both the postponement and his appeal were denied and the commission upheld the clerk’s FOIA charge of $76 – see story here – MC Commission denies Hilferink deferral and appeal  – Blue Water Healthy Living.)

When the topic was addressed at an Aug. 3 meeting City Attorney Robert Davis asked if Hilferink had possession of the FOIA information for a period of time.

“My knowledge is that Mr. Hilferink did take possession of the thumb drive that the information was on, yes,” Bell said. 

“Who did he take it from?” Davis asked.

“Katy Posey, our treasurer” Bell said.

“So, he had possession of the information for how long? Did he already copy it?” Davis asked.

“That I’m unclear on, I do not know,” Bell said.

 City Manager Scott Adkins said he believed that Hilferink had the flash drive for about 20 minutes but then returned it.

“We interviewed the staff and he did take it from a staff member without permission, took it for about 25 minutes and then brought it back,” Davis said.

“Time enough to copy,” Commissioner Rita Roehrig commented.

“There’s a lot of accusations and seemingly statements being made here to cover tracks,” Hilferink said.

His version of the events

Hilferink explained that he simply went to the city offices to pick up an audio recording of the commission’s last meeting which was not video recorded due to a power outage. He said when he was handed the flash drive by one employee another employee stepped up and said he needed to pay $76 for the drive at which time he asked why he had to pay for an audio tape of a city meeting.

“It seemed odd to me, just very, very odd,” Hilferink said, noting that he offered to pay for the flash drive itself if need be and then he left with the drive to make a copy. 

“There was no bodycam footage on that USB drive, I don’t know if somebody mixed it up in the office, all thumb drives look alike, I don’t know but it wasn’t there so these accusations are pretty inappropriate,” he said.

Adkins then stated that Hilferink had been notified that the audio from the meeting and his FOIA request, which contained three digital video files, were placed on the same flash drive for convenience. He said Hilferink then took the entire file and left without paying the FOIA fees but did return it about 20 minutes later.

Adkins said that on the flash drive that the commissioner brought back, all of the files, the July 20 audio of a meeting and three digital FOIA files, were there. He said the files were imbedded on the drive and it reflects the date the clerk put all the items on the flash drive.

“I can assure you that all of the files remain on that flash drive today,” Adkins said.

“It wasn’t on there,” Hilferink insisted. 

“It’s still on there,” Adkins replied.

Hilferink then further explained that when you access a drive via the music player on a computer it will only open those files not video files so perhaps that’s where the confusion comes in.

Mayor Jennifer Vandenbossche asked if the employee made it clear to Hilferink that the FOIA files were on the flash drive when she sought payment. Adkins responded that he’s sure that was the case as all the paperwork related to the FOIA was with the flash drive.

Bell then told the commission that the flash drive was the only one the city had so it was simply convenient to put all the files for the same person, in this case Hilferink, on one drive.

“I was being accused of some very, very, serious accusations so I felt like returning it was the right thing to do,” Hilferink said. “Then the miscommunications started taking place…Katy (a city employee) didn’t know what was on it and she didn’t even know I was supposed to be charged for it.”

In a phone call to Bell on Monday, Aug. 7, he confirmed that Hilferink has yet to pick up or pay the $76 charge for the three digital FOIA files he had requested. 

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