Emergency Managers Attack Our Democracy

As we prepare to take a bus load of low income people to the Michigan Supreme Court tomorrow, here's another reminder of why this Emergency Manager issue is so significant. Governor Snyder and corporations are trying their hardest to take away our democracy. We've got to stop them from taking away from our families and communities any more of the little we've got left!

Read more about this: Dictators Over Communities of Color: Coming to a Town Near You at Michigan Forward.

The Scandal of Michigan's Emergency Managers

Joe Harris, state appointed emergency manager in Benton Harbor, Mich., unlocks the door of the city manager's office.

 REPOSTED FROM BANCO.ORG

On January 20 the progressive think tank Michigan Forward and the Detroit branch of the NAACP sent a joint letter to Michigan Governor Rick Snyder expressing concern over Public Act 4, the Local Government and School District Fiscal Accountability Act. Signed into law in March 2011, it granted unprecedented new powers to the state’s emergency managers (EMs), including breaking union contracts, taking over pension systems, setting school curriculums and even dissolving or disincorporating municipalities. Under PA 4, EMs, who are appointed by the governor, can “exercise any power or authority of any officer, employee, department, board, commission or other similar entity of the local government whether elected or appointed.”

What are the qualifications for such a powerful office and the six-figure salary that accompanies it? Not much: PA 4 requires “a minimum of 5 years’ experience and demonstrate expertise in business, financial, or local or state budgetary matters."

Last year the state held a pair of two-day training sessions for EMs, both run primarily by companies that provide outsourcing services to municipalities and school districts. Yet PA 4 made the emergency manager the single most powerful person in the city.

Results were swift. In April the Benton Harbor EM, Joe Harris, decreed: “Absent prior express written authorization and approval by the Emergency Manager”—himself—“no City Board, Commission or Authority shall take any action for or on behalf of the City whatsoever other than: i) Call a meeting to order, ii) Approve of meeting minutes, iii) Adjourn a meeting.” The move in effect abolished Benton Harbor’s elected City Commission and replaced it with an unelected bureaucrat, perhaps the first time this has happened in US history.

The implications went beyond Benton Harbor. “Since the beginning of your administration, communities facing or under emergency management have doubled,” Michigan Forward and the NAACP wrote to the governor, citing a “failure of transparency and accountability” in the process of determining which jurisdictions need an emergency manager. The financial review team assigned to Detroit, for instance, had recently met in Lansing, nearly 100 miles away—“a clear example of exclusion and voter disenfranchisement,” according to the authors. On February 6 an Ingham County circuit judge ruled that the Detroit team’s meetings must be held in public.

Of Detroit’s 713,777 residents, 89 percent are African-American. The city of Inkster (population 25,369), which recently got an EM, has a black population of 73 percent. Having EMs in both cities would mean that more than half the state’s black population would fall into the hands of unelected officials.

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Everyone agrees that something must be done to “fix” Michigan’s struggling urban centers and school districts, although news of a $457 million surplus in early February prompted the state budget director to declare, “Things have turned.” But at what cost? In 2011 Governor Snyder stripped roughly $1 billion from statewide K-12 school funding and drastically reduced revenue sharing to municipalities. Combined with poor and sometimes corrupt leadership and frequently dysfunctional governments, these elements have brought Michigan cities to the brink of bankruptcy. Residents of the hardest-hit places have fled if they are able.

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The state’s first emergency managers—previously known as emergency financial managers—were appointed between 2000 and 2002 by Republican Governor John Engler in the cities of Hamtramck, Flint and Highland Park to prevent them from declaring bankruptcy. Although all eventually left when their job was done—the last in 2009—all three cities are back in the red. In January the Highland Park School District was assigned an EM. (That city—population 11,776—is 93.5 percent African-American.) Others followed, in Ecorse, Benton Harbor and Pontiac, as well as Detroit public schools.

Under PA 4, EMs have proven to be a divisive solution. Outsourcing services to private companies and abolishing collective bargaining takes a page right out of the right-wing playbook: a 2011 report titled “101 Recommendations to Revitalize Michigan,” published by the conservative Mackinac Center for Public Policy, calls for ending “mandatory collective bargaining for government employees who already enjoy civil service protections.” Many are worried that EMs will hasten the gentrification of places like Benton Harbor, pushing out poor residents to make way for developers. In one of his first acts under PA 4, Joe Harris replaced nine people on the Brownfield Redevelopment Authority and all nine members of the planning commission.

Despite their relatively short history, EMs have a record of abusing their powers. This past summer Arthur Blackwell II, Highland Park’s former emergency financial manager, was ordered to repay more than $250,000 he paid himself. In Pontiac EFM Michael Stampfler outsourced the city’s wastewater treatment to United Water just months after the Justice Department announced a twenty-six-count indictment against the company for violating the Clean Water Act.

Multiple efforts are under way to rid Michigan of PA 4. The first is a lawsuit brought in June 2011 by the Sugar Law Center for Economic and Social Justice and the Center for Constitutional Rights challenging the law under the state Constitution. Despite efforts by the Snyder administration to bypass the legal process and force the Republican-controlled state supreme court to hear the case immediately, the lawsuit is pending. Representative John Conyers is pursuing the issue through the Justice Department, arguing that the law’s impact on minority populations may violate the Voting Rights Act.

But Michigan Republicans seem to be most concerned about a petition drive, organized by Michigan Forward, seeking a citizen referendum to overturn the law. As of mid-February the petition had more than 200,000 signatures, well over the number necessary to put the law on hold. The group plans to turn in the petitions on February 29. Since PA 4 replaced the law that created emergency financial managers, this could eliminate the positions in Michigan until the referendum is voted on in November.

GOP lawmakers are discussing replacement legislation, with Michigan House Speaker Jase Bolger warning about “the chaos that could ensue if the emergency manager law is suspended.” Since Michigan law prevents referendums on appropriations bills, PA 4 opponents fear that any such law will contain an appropriation to make it “referendum proof,” a tactic already used by the state GOP this year.

The outcome of the citizen referendum and the constitutional challenges may well determine if laws like PA 4 remain unique to Michigan or become the national standard for dealing with impoverished urban areas. With the Indiana Senate having just passed an emergency manager bill of its own, we may be heading down that path. by Chris Savage

http://www.thenation.com/article/166297/scandal-michigans-emergency-managers#

Stand Up for Democracy vs MI Secretary of State

Local news stations have shared the correspondence that Michigan Governor Snyder has offered an opinion to the Appeals Judges who are about to render a decision whether or not to certify the signature process aimed at placing Public Act #4 on the November ballot. He asks in his memo that these Judges NOT impede his forward momentum by certifying this effort.

We have a position as well. We would ask that these Judges NOT impede the people's right to democracy. 

So bizarre are these events relative to the petition activity that even the attention of national newscasters (like Rachel Maddow) has been captured each noting that nowhere else in the nation has so little been written about so huge an event. Over turning elections has a history.

Public Act 4, the emergency manager act, is the crux of what we are alarmed about. It allows the Governor, so he thinks, to void state and local elections in places where the finances of that municipality are stressed, and a person of his choosing is seated who answers only to the Governor.  This "dictator law" has no successful outcome anywhere in the State and, in every example, has led to even deeper financial debt as the assets of the people are sold to the highest bidder at pennies on the dollar.

Benton Harbor had a deficit and after the emergency manager was seated, the deficit is three times greater. Pontiac had a deficit and has a greater one today. The Detroit School District had a deficit and it has grown to a much larger number under the forced emergency manager. So one would ask, what the real agenda is with this outrageous act?

Attacking democracy is no small matter. It starts small -- a little less democracy here, a little less there, and before you know it people are convinced that to appoint officials must be the right thing to do because it keeps happening! 

That pesky "democracy" is getting in the way of what corporations want, so efforts to sideline it are underway across the State.  How egregious is it that the once mighty Pontiac Silverdome, that was the "mecca" of sports and other major events costed out at $55 million when it was first built, was sold for $500,000 just months ago? This businessman has now named the same emergency manager in charge of that sale to his team as he prepares to retrofit the Silverdome for the newest casino owned by him!

We are heading into deep, dark waters and should prepare ourselves for street to street battle.

On Thursday, all segments of the State will learn a valuable lesson about what is taught in civics and  government class in local schools: Do the people have a right to redress? Maybe not anymore. Can the size of the print on a petition be enough to disqualify the will of just under 240,000 people?  Apparently yes. Can a representative of the Tea Party, the Republican party or any party be allowed to tamper with this American process in such a way that democracy is sacrificed?  Don't know yet. No lover of freedom and open government can stand by and let such an action take place.

If you are able, come to the State Bldg at Cadillac Place, 3020 W. Grand Blvd, Suite 14-300 (at Second St) in Detroit on Thursday, May 17th, no later than 9am. Stand and watch as we look to see if democracy still stands. "...oh say does that star-spangled banner yet wave, over the land of the free and the home of the brave?" Democracy has been stolen.  The outcome of this Appeals Court hearing will reveal a great message and will help clarify what stage of this battle we are entering. 
 
MD Taylor
MWRO State Chairperson

MWRO on Board of Canvassers Decision Against Public Act 4 Petitions

Dear Colleagues; 

On Thursday, those in attendance at the Board of Canvassers session witnessed something that shocked and horrified all.  The event at 10am was to officially certify the signatures submitted to repeal Public Act #4, also known as the "Dictator Act."  The review of the process revealed that the appropriate number of valid signatures were indeed collected, some 40,000 more than was needed totaling 206,000 Michigan signatures from all parts of the State. 

There were two Board members who were declared Democrats, and two who were declared Republicans for a total of four persons.  The Tea Party sent a lawyer who argued that the "font size" of the declaratory portion of the petition was the wrong size therefore the signatures could not be certified.  The issue is that in MCL/Michigan Compiled Law, the statute calls for a size 14 font to be used at the top of the petition that explains the rationale for the initiative. Then, it was "our turn."

Our atty. was brilliant as he went point-by-point to dismiss the Tea Party lawyer's allegation. Atty. Hank Sanders was brilliant as he discussed the font size challenge: depending on which print style you use, a size 14 font in one font style may be different in height from another, a fact.  He introduced an engraver who reviewed the print size and validated that the print was a size 14, as did the other witness, the actual printer of the petitions who conclusively validated the size 14 font as a fact.

With all that being said, the first two Democrats recommended acceptance and certification as suggested by their staff. Both Republicans cited the conclusions of the Tea Party lawyer while they declared their need to follow the law -- both denying certification. The Board rules declare that three members must agree to pass anything, so a vote of two to two did not pass. Next step, court!

There were lovers of democracy in the room and they were all dismayed by this incredible breach of the right to vote played out. The room exploded with outrage with the voters not willing to calm themselves. The two Republican Board members left the room for a while, not willing to incur the people's wrath. So incredible was this obvious stalling tactic, that the most steeled among us were speechless. Those who thought righteousness was possible were stunned. 

The question now is what to do about elected/appointed officials who act against us with no threat of repercussions. How do we interrupt their "business as usual" attitude and replace it with the fear of  reprisals should we be betrayed?

What is the answer...

Maureen D. Taylor

State Chairperson - MI Welfare Rights Org.

P.S. This post was typed in a 14 pt font.

Maureen Taylor and Marian Kramer React to Lansing Decision

The bipartisan Michigan Board of Canvassers on Thursday, April 26, 2012, voted along partisan lines -- two Democrats in support and two Republicans against -- and did not validate the 206,000 signatures against Public Act 4, the Financial Manager law.

Listen as Maureen Taylor and Marian Kramer of Michigan Welfare Rights Organization respond to the decision as residents from across the State of Michigan react with disbelief!

Rachel Maddow on Michigan Republicans and Public Act 4

Rachel Maddow, host of MSNBC's The Rachel Maddow Show, talks about Michigan Republican legislative attempts to strip democracy, plus the emergency financial manager law in Michigan. She calls these attempts to preempt the people's will as autocratic and the most radical Republican threats to democracy in the U.S -- we couldn't agree more!

Hear for yourself:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Get on the Bus to Lansing to Deliver Our Petitions

Join us for

the victory lap!!!

We have the signatures needed to stop the Emergency Manager, Public Act #4 law passed by Governor Snyder that takes away our right to vote.

We are escorting those signatures to
the Capitol in Lansing on
Wednesday, Feb. 29^th, 2012.

Bus leaves Detroit at 10:30am.

 
The “leap-year” bus will leave from Central United Methodist Church,

23 E. Adams and Woodward (near Comerica Park)

 We rally in Lansing at noon and will re-board buses between 2-3pm back to Detroit.

Each seat is: $8.00/round-trip,

Fees due by Friday, Feb. 24^th, 2012.

Reserve your seat today:

(313) 964-0618 – MI Welfare Rights Org.

Creative Commons image from momphard.net

What Is To Be Done?

‘Cipients Speak!!
By Maureen D. Taylor, State Chair, MWRO

Many cities across the country are experiencing economic declines like Detroit is going through, but we have the distinction of being “first” on many painful lists. We are in the top five in housing foreclosures, in unemployment, in tax foreclosures, in infant mortality rates, in school closures, in dropout rates, etc.

Some things, however, you can’t make up. Highland Park, Michigan, was one of the most beautiful small cities located entirely within the boundaries of Detroit. The trees stretched across the streets to touch each other, providing shade in the summer and giving all residents a panoramic winter view of deep and lasting beauty that all of us enjoyed. Along the edge of Highland Park was one of the Chrysler auto plants that employed 1000’s. It gave both a solid standard of living and a tax base that helped operate the local government.

Chrysler moved to upscale Auburn Hills, Michigan and took that tax base with them. The decline in Highland Park started. The population dwindled from a high of 66,000 residents to less than 16,000 today. Tough times in H.P.

Knowing this history, knowing about the 1000’s of residents who lost their jobs, knowing that water was disconnected because residents couldn’t pay the rising costs, a series of no-vision politicians vied for elected seats until the juice ran out. A disappointing Governor Jennifer Granholm, not allowing H.P. to declare bankruptcy on her watch, instead appointed a financial manager who took the place of an elected body. The first pirate crew was lead by a now defunct Ramona Pearson & Associates who were dismissed after some 20 months. They took more than $1 million dollars out of Highland Park in salaries. No improvements to turn the crisis around during that reign of terror were made except to benefit themselves at the people’s expense. Now we come to this.

Native son Arthur Blackwell shed tears when he was appointed to serve as the next Financial Manager of cash-strapped Highland Park in 2007. He was so touched by this appointment, and declared his love for the city that raised him & his family. The ‘HONOR” was so great, he vowed to work for $1.00 a year. After a series of FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) requests were filed, we find that he collected since 2007, $495,000.00. Of course, he has an explanation for this, suggesting that it may only be an accounting error, plus noting that he has written back to the City $66,000 that he may have collected unwittingly. He was fired two days ago, and a 3rd Financial Manager from an upscale community has been appointed. Wonder how this is going to turn out?

Just losing his job is not enough. Blackwell should be the focus of a citizen’s arrest, and taken from his nice home kicking and screaming and off to jail where we decide how long he should stay there after stealing from poor people. Class war continues. Who pays for destroying the lives of working people? No one!

(Image courtesy City of Highland Park)