Stuff beginning to hit the fan in the fallout of suspending Michigan’s Emergency Manager Law

By on August 10, 2012 in Emergency Financial Managers, Emergency Manager Law, Emergency Managers, Public Act 4

This will NOT be pretty

Now that Public Act 4 — Michigan’s anti-democratic Emergency Manager Law — is suspended pending the November election, stuff is really beginning to hit the fan around the state.

In Highland Park, a school board member sent a letter to Emergency Manager Joyce Parker telling her to pack her bags now that her appointment has been nullified by the suspension of PA 4. (I hadn’t realized this but Parker is also the Emergency Manager for the city of Ecorse, as well.)

Last night in Flint, the city council voted to sue the state to rid itself of newly appointed Emergency Financial Manager Ed Kurtz. They believe the city is no longer in a financial emergency and, therefore, doesn’t qualify to be ruled by an EFM.

In Detroit, the school board got right to work reversing many of the actions of Roy Roberts, the district’s EM.

Late Thursday, board members voted to rescind the move of 15 Detroit schools into the Education Achievement Authority, the state’s new recovery district for failing schools, to sever ties with the EAA and cancel a contract with Teach for America because it was made through the EAA. They also named John Telford, a Detroit activist, as interim superintendent. {…}

Earlier Thursday, DPS spokesman Steve Wasko said in a statement the EAA agreement would not be changed, regardless of any vote by the board. “The EAA was established by a legally binding Interlocal Agreement between Eastern Michigan University and Detroit Public Schools, and is not impacted by the change in law.”

But it doesn’t stop there. EM Roberts sought an injunction to prevent the school board from unraveling what he has done. To make the entire thing even more screwed up, state Attorney General Bill Schuette sued to force the school board to shed 7 of its 11 members. He contends that, because the school system is no longer a Class 1 district, all of their board members should be voted in as at-large candidates and 7 of them were voted in from districts.

This is just the beginning of the fallout from the suspension of PA 4 and we’re sure to see more drama and more lawsuits between now and November and probably long afterwards.

Get out your popcorn.


  • TKPrice

    Despite where the connection is from, Teach for America is a really great program, and I’m sad to see it being tied to this ridiculous Emergency Manager Law.

  • Howard206

    I’m not sure when the State of Michigan became the Soviet Republic of Michigan, but I fear that will be the fate of other states in danger of being taken over by anti-democratic Republican forces. I don’t think authoritarianism is what Michigan veterans fought for in WWII, and I am praying that the courts are going to free Michigan Americans from these tyrannical policies as quickly as possible.

  • http://ramonasvoices.blogspot.com/ Ramona

    All good news, but I’m waiting to see what’s going to happen in Benton Harbor. Will the duly elected officials move back in? If so, when? Yesterday, I hope.

  • kirke123

    i love it! time the people took this state back and time we kick the republicans out!

  • FHVoice

    This streak of authoritarianism comes from the top: a man who has been CEO for years is used to being the “god” of the company, and does not suffer questioning and/or opposition well. Democracy be damned, full speed ahead with the plutocracy, or perhaps more appropriately, full speed backwards into feudalism, where the king granted lords throughout the kingdom full dictatorial powers to do whatever.

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Susan-Dailey/100000940556230 Susan Dailey

      Good point. I recall that he made a comment when asked about accountability under this law. Something like I am the accountability. Oh really. Didn’t know the swearing in ceremony included a scepter.

      • http://eclectablog.com Eclectablog

        LOL @ “included a scepter”. Very nice.

  • http://www.facebook.com/MISFD Richard T. Desvernine Jr.

    Local government should change the locks in the middle of the night and stop being so darned polite. In fact they should have done so on day one and they should have continued to do so until they got the hint.

  • TeacherPatti

    Quote: The EAA was established by a legally binding Interlocal Agreement between Eastern Michigan University and Detroit Public Schools

    Oh, Steve! Kind of like how our union contracts were legally binding agreements between us and the district?! You sure wanted to change those, didn’t you?

    While I no longer teach in Detroit, I did experience years under an EFM. All Rob Bobb did was run up the debt and take $5,000 from me (already one of the lowest paid districts). No idea what this new guy did, except impose a “contract” on the teachers who remain in DFT….

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Jonny-Cache/1039153428 Jonny Cache
  • Pratt

    put away the popcorn and get on the doors! if we gonna mobilize, gotta organize first.

  • Pingback: Viva La Michigan Resistance! Clocking Out « Main Street

  • vmilitant

    For Mike Brown’s last day as EM for Flint , he signed 62 executive orders including “leasing” a park to our local food bank so they can build a parking lot, selling a contentious city property (after creating a tax shelter for vacent property) for $1.00, paying $750,000 in government CDBG funds to knock down said property, eliminating our Citizens District Councils, and allocating millions of dollars to a housing development project that’s currently under federal investigation

  • http://fuzzytek.tumblr.com/ Stephen Boyle

    I was with the Detroit Board of Education recording the press session in the morning and at the evening meeting – http://bambuser.com/tag/dpsboard
    It was with a lot of support and pride from the audience that the names of schools were altered to prevent acquisition into the EAA. Ties with Eastern Michigan University on EAA were also severed during the meeting.

  • http://www.facebook.com/john.merica.7 John Merica

    “Earlier Thursday, DPS spokesman Steve Wasko said in a statement the EAA
    agreement would not be changed, regardless of any vote by the board.
    “The EAA was established by a legally binding Interlocal Agreement
    between Eastern Michigan University and Detroit Public Schools, and is
    not impacted by the change in law.”

    The passage of PA 4 “allowed” the EM to nullify legally negotiated contracts…but Wasko wants to honor a “legally binding” agreement made under the provisions of that very act…which has now been suspended. Too bad, so sad… You can’t play the rules both ways…

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