This will be interesting

As he himself predicted last summer, Benton Harbor Emergency Manager Joe Harris has been booted. In his place will be Tony Saunders II, a marketing guy from WYLD Marketing Group.

Here’s the Treasury Department notice:

The Local Emergency Financial Assistance Loan Board (ELB) today voted to replace Joe Harris as Emergency Financial Manager (EFM) for the City of Benton Harbor, effective February 1, 2013. The ELB has appointed Tony Saunders II as Successor-Emergency Financial Manager for the city. Saunders has spent the last nine months working with the City of Highland Park in an advisory role on behalf of the Department of Treasury.

Deputy Treasurer Roger Fraser, State Treasurer Andy Dillon’s designee on the ELB, thanked Harris for his work in Benton Harbor.

“Mr. Harris made many difficult but necessary decisions and implemented a number of measures to address the financial crisis in Benton Harbor. We thank him for his work,” said Deputy Treasurer Fraser. “However, while much has been done in an effort to return fiscal stability to Benton Harbor, the city remains in a financial emergency and this is an appropriate time to transition in a new direction for the city. We expect Tony Saunders will work collaboratively with city officials, residents, and others to move the city closer to a return to local control.”

Saunders has most recently provided strategic and financial planning services to the City of Highland Park. Through his involvement, Highland Park has converted a projected $1.3 million General Fund (GF) operating deficit into a GF surplus of approximately $850,000 through spending reductions, departmental restructurings, and proper budget monitoring.

Saunders currently serves as a partner with WYLD Marketing Group, which provides integrated marketing strategies, solutions, and support. Prior to that, he worked as Chief of Staff for Detroit City Councilwoman Saunteel Jenkins and Senior Advisor for Detroit City Council President Charles Pugh. Saunders is a graduate of the University of Michigan.

During Friday’s ELB meeting, the board also approved an increase in Flint Emergency Financial Manager Ed Kurtz’s monthly expense allowance from $1,000 to $3,333 per month. Kurtz annual salary as emergency financial manager remains at zero.

Here’ s what Harris said in July of 2012:

Harris said state officials are in the process of forcing him out of office, bending to pressure from a group of high-power political adversaries of his.

Harris said he recently received confirmation of the decision to remove him via the state treasurer’s office, although he still is not sure when he will be required to step down.

Harris said the move was sparked by a group of his adversaries, who convinced the state to remove him for “political” reasons. Although Harris would not disclose the individuals’ identities or provide more detail, he said he has evidence that five individuals had a meeting in January with state officials to discuss the possibility of an emergency manager change in Benton Harbor.

“Knowing what I know, there’s no question that it’s political,” Harris said during an interview on Wednesday with the MLive/Kalamazoo Gazette about the future of the state’s role in governing Benton Harbor.

He repeated this as recently as last month.

Last summer, I said that Joe Harris has an obligation to share with us who is pulling the puppet strings here. Are they elected officials? Are they businesspeople? Who is truly in control over things like this? The people of Michigan deserve to know who is making decisions that affect entire towns in this way.

My guess is it will be a long time, if ever, before we find out.

I’m sure all Benton Harbor needs is a good marketing man. He’ll get it all sorted out, for sure.

UPDATE: I’ll admit that I’m being glib by not referencing Saunders’ history as a financial guy. It just seems a bit odd that his main experience is with the marketing group, WYLD Marketing Group, that he founded after he graduated from University of Michigan. His degree was not in business or finance but in Literature, Science and Arts. He was ousted from his position in the Black Student Union when he was found to be a member of the Michigamua society.

Saunder is 27 years old and was featured in Crain’s Detroit’s “Twenty in the Twenties” series in 2011. His “claim to fame”?

Business owner, social media guru, leader behind the scenes at City Hall pushing for budget reforms…Social media, conflict and pension reform — those are a few of the things Tony Saunders is passionate about.

The WYLD Marketing Group’s “About Us” page describes Saunders this way:

Tony is the Founder & Managing Partner of WYLD Mobile. Before WYLD, Tony served as marketing manager for Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions — Ann Arbor Region. Tony is a graduate of the University of Michigan. He currently sits on the Detroit Institute of Arts Founders Junior Council Board of Directors, the Coalition on Temporary Shelter(COTS) Development Committee, the Detroit Athletic Club Technology Committee, and serves as the City of Highland Park Transition Team Co-Chair for Mayor DeAndre Windom.

His LinkedIn page is HERE.

Ah. So THAT’S how it works.

As majority African American communities in Michigan are forced to live under the rule of unelected dictators, formerly called Emergency Managers and, now, once again called Emergency Financial Managers, efforts by two Republicans in the heart of Republican Livingston County are hoping to avoid the same fate for their own, mostly white, communities. Fiscal troubles that can be laid largely at the door of state legislators Cindy Denby and Bill Rogers would be conveniently remedied by a new law that Rogers and Denby co-sponsored. Even though these communities are in trouble due to fiscal mismanagement on the part of their government leaders, they, unlike Benton Harbor, Flint, Pontiac and other Michigan communities, would receive a state bailout, not a takeover of their town by a state-appointed dictator.

The story begins about a decade ago when Denby was the supervisor of Handy Township in Livingston County and Bill Rogers was the Livingston County Commission chair. Municipalities in Livingston County, which was, at the time, Michigan’s fastest-growing county, were borrowing scads of money to pay for water and sewer projects for new, private developments springing up all over the area. They created Special Assessment Districts (SADs) for each development. As folks moved into the new homes, they would be charged a special assessment on their property taxes to pay back the bonds. Many of the bonds enjoyed backing by the County that allowed them to get lower bond interest rates.

It’s worth noting that this isn’t always how it’s done. Many counties expect the developers themselves to shoulder the risk, putting in the water and sewer infrastructure that they would recoup when they sold the homes in the development. Not so in most of Livingston County.

Under then-Supervisor Cindy Denby, Handy Township approved a variety of SADs, often approving new ones before previous developments had been completed. And Livingston County itself, under the “leadership” of then-Commission Chair Bill Rogers, went along, allowing the County to back the bonds which resulted putting the County on the hook if the bond payments were not made.

Then came the recession and the collapse of the housing industry in 2008-2009. Many of the developers in Livingston County walked away from their developments. It was easy for them to do: they had much less money tied up than they would have had they been forced to pay for water and sewer infrastructure. The developments sat, mostly empty; vacant lots with unused water and sewer services.

And a large pile of debt.

The extent of the problem went largely under the radar of most Livingston County residents. Although they had upwards of $100 million in debt that the County was now responsible for, Bill Rogers and the County Commission kept it very quiet.

Then, in 2010, Bloomberg News published an article that drew national attention to the ticking time bomb in this Republican stronghold:

Michigan’s auto-industry collapse, which led to the worst home-price drop among U.S. states, has forced some of its wealthiest and fastest-growing communities to seek state aid to prevent municipal bond defaults. {…}

“We’re trying to stem the bleeding,” said Representative Bill Rogers, a Livingston County Republican and cosponsor of some of the legislation. “There’s no way they could pay these [bond payments] with no income coming in.” {…}

“As soon as they would fill one development they’d start another, and then one day it just stopped,” [County Treasurer Dianne] Hardy said. “Now the ground is not worth what it cost to put the infrastructure in.” {…}

“The township’s very weak sewer system operations could have a negative effect on general fund operations if it does not collect a large portion of special assessment delinquencies,” S&P said in its report.

The “state aid” that is mentioned in the Bloomberg article was House Bill 6181 (pdf), legislation co-sponsored by Denby and her Livingston County partner in mismanagement, Bill Rogers, both now state legislators. When that didn’t pass, they tried again in 2011 with Denby sponsoring House Bill 4148 (pdf). Not surprisingly, Rogers was once again a co-sponsor.

Denby and Rogers were unsuccessful in getting their second bill passed, as well, legislation that would have created a state fund to bail out communities like Handy Township and other Livingston County municipalities struggling due to poor decisions made in the past. Poor decisions made, in fact, by the co-sponsors of the bill. Notably, this legislation included only debt resulting from SADs and so would have been unavailable to communities like Benton Harbor, Flint, Pontiac, and other cities under the thumb of an Emergency Manager.

Denby and Rogers, along with newly-elected Republican Mark Ouimet, took another bite at the apple this year, introducing a package of tie-barred legislation, House Bills 5566-5570. This time, they also included Benton Harbor Republican Al Pscholka as a co-sponsor. In order to make the legislation more palatable, they included school districts as well as government entities, not restricting it to debt from SADs. Third time was a charm as they say and this time they were successful. The bills became Public Acts 284-288 of 2012, signed into law on August 1st by Governor Rick Snyder.

What this all boils down to is this: Cindy Denby and Bill Rogers made major mistakes, in the form of bad financial decisions, when they were in charge of Handy County and Livingston County governments. In order to clean up their messes and avoid having their municipalities taken over by Emergency Managers, they came up with an idea for having the state bail them out. In their first two attempts, they restricted it only to debt from SADs, which made the bailout specific to more affluent communities. Like the ones they mismanaged into near-bankruptcy. Only when they couldn’t get their bills passed did they extend it to include other areas.

In a Livingston County Press & Argus article in mid-August (now behind a paywall), Rep. Cindy Denby is quoted saying, “The main thrust of the new law isn’t the size of the fund but expanded access to it to help local governments pay off assessment debt and avoid receivership, Denby said. Loan dollars can only be applied to special-assessment debt incurred before the bills were passed.” In other words, despite having included a wider array of potential beneficiaries of their new law, Denby still sees it as being in place to clean up the mess she was responsible for.

According to one person I spoke with, Denby was quoted as saying that Public Act 4 — the Emergency Manager Law — “not intended for places like Livingston County”. Can’t be having these nice white communities under the rule of an Emergency Manager like those “other” cities, right, Cindy?

I spoke with Livingston County Democratic Party Chair Judy Daubenmier, who helped provide some of the research for this piece. She had this to say:

Eight townships [in Livingston County] were affected the most. They have dealt with it various ways – cutting services to the bone, laying off people, approving new millages so they could continue police and fire while existing taxes had to go to pay for the bad debt.

But Handy Township, sooner or later, is going to be unable to make its payments on the bonds. It recently refinanced some of the bonds to stretch out the payments but, in a couple years, even that won’t help.

Howell Township is expected to miss a bond payment next year and would go into receivership. That may be why local Republicans are shying away from Howell Township government. No Republican filed for township treasurer and only two of the four trustee positions had Republican candidates, meaning our two Democratic candidates will automatically win in November. This is unheard of in Livingston County, where Republicans hold every public office except one position in Unadilla Township.

This special assessment debt was entirely a self-inflicted problem. The townships and county did not have to get involved in financing water and sewer for private developers. They chose to. This is unlike a school district that has seen its property tax collections fall because of home foreclosures, for example. Livingston County chose to do this and got caught. Now they want a bailout so none of its townships is taken over by an emergency manager.

After reading this, it should come as no surprise that Handy Township was first in line with its hand out for the state funds:

Handy Township officials are hoping to “hear back ASAP,” according to Supervisor Hank Vaupel, after becoming the first Livingston County municipality to ask for state emergency financial relief under an expanded law.

The township is asking for $5 million under the the recently revised Emergency Municipal Loan Act, Vaupel said. The law was expanded in August through legislation sponsored by state Rep. Cindy Denby, R-Handy Township.

“Even with the refinanced bonds, Handy Township doesn’t have enough funds coming through to cover bond payments and chargebacks to the county,” Vaupel said. {…}

Vaupel said bond payments for the next 10 years will average $570,000, while only $150,000 is being collected annually.

In March, the township refinanced with the county its 2003 and 2005 bonds for a wastewater-treatment plant and construction of sewer lines, reducing payments by about $400,000 this year, with savings varying in future years.

However, the municipality still owes $2.9 million to the county for chargebacks and interest at the beginning of 2014.

Joe Harris, Emergency Financial Manager for Benton Harbor (and friend of Rep. Al Pscholka who co-sponsored the new version of the legislation that finally was passed into law) has his hand out, too. Benton Harbor is asking for a $7 million loan of its own.

Harris’ plans include a 5-year deficit elimination plan and an application for a $7 million loan from the Michigan Department of Treasury. The loan is part of House Bill 5566 that provides low interest loans to struggling cities. If accepted, it would eliminate Benton Harbor’s deficit and pay off debts to vendors and pensions.

“It would be a game-changer for the city,” said [Benton Harbor Mayor James] Hightower, who likened the loan to paying off credit card debt with a student loan. “This bill was actually created with Benton Harbor in mind.”

What Hightower doesn’t seem to realize is that, if Denby and Rogers had been successful with their first attempt, Benton Harbor would have been out in the cold. So would have all of the other majority African American communities who are ruled by a state-appointed dictator.

But not Livingston County’s townships. Because, as Cindy Denby put it, Emergency Managers aren’t for places like Livingston County.

UPDATE: The day I posted this piece, Handy Township learned that it would NOT receive a loan from the state government:

9/27/12 – Handy Township has been turned down in its bid for emergency financial relief from the Michigan Department of Treasury. Supervisor Hank Vaupel tells WHMI they received word late last week that their request for $5 million under the recently revised Emergency Municipal Loan Act was denied. The municipality has been struggling to repay existing bonds and charge-backs tied to sewer assessments that developers previously defaulted on. He says while there’s not enough money to cover future payments, the denial was due to the fact that they currently don’t have a deficit, which was a requirement of the program. In total, the township will owe $2.9 million to Livingston County for chargebacks and interest at the beginning of 2014. Vaupel says they’ll now have to go back to the drawing board and discuss a potential millage to help cover at least some of the debt. He says they plan a series of town-hall meetings to get more input from residents and may also re-apply for the emergency assistance once an actual deficit exists. The township is also waiting on the outcome of several lawsuits involving local developers and property owners over disputed sewer assessment charges.

The question now becomes if they are unable to meet their financial obligations imposed on them by decisions made while Cindy Denby was the Township Supervisor, will they receive an Emergency Financial Manager? Stay tuned…

Irony this large needs a zip code

In what may be one of the most ironic stories of the year so far, Joe Harris says he’s being forced out of his position as the Emergency Manager of Benton Harbor.

Gee, Joe, I wonder what it’s like to lose power as a person in charge in that town? I guess you could as the Benton Harbor City Commissioners. They’d certainly know since you were the one who forced them out of power.

Harris said state officials are in the process of forcing him out of office, bending to pressure from a group of high-power political adversaries of his.

Harris said he recently received confirmation of the decision to remove him via the state treasurer’s office, although he still is not sure when he will be required to step down.

Harris said the move was sparked by a group of his adversaries, who convinced the state to remove him for “political” reasons. Although Harris would not disclose the individuals’ identities or provide more detail, he said he has evidence that five individuals had a meeting in January with state officials to discuss the possibility of an emergency manager change in Benton Harbor.

“Knowing what I know, there’s no question that it’s political,” Harris said during an interview on Wednesday with the MLive/Kalamazoo Gazette about the future of the state’s role in governing Benton Harbor.

I wonder if this group of political operatives who are his enemies forced him to take himself off the planning commission (pdf), too? He only just appointed himself to the planning commission in February.

I’d say that Joe Harris has an obligation to share with us who is pulling the puppet strings here. Are they elected officials? Are they businesspeople? Who is truly in control over things like this? The people of Michigan deserve to know who is making decisions that affect entire towns in this way.

We deserve to know if we, as voters, still have any say whatsoever.

“I’m sure we can work something out…”

In a fawning editorial about Benton Harbor-based Whirlpool (linked in yesterday’s Emergency Manager news round-up), Tom Walsh of the Detroit Free Press wrote this:

[T]hings are improving, says Jeff Fettig, CEO of Benton Harbor’s largest taxpayer and corporate citizen, global appliance maker Whirlpool.

“Our view is that it’s working and a lot of progress has been made,” Fettig told me Thursday in Detroit.

Whoa, whoa, whoa. Let’s back up a minute here, shall we? Rewind.

…Benton Harbor’s largest taxpayer and corporate citizen, global appliance maker Whirlpool…???

Whirlpool doesn’t pay TAXES, Tom, you silly news guy!

Last May, I wrote this:

You know Whirlpool, the large corporation that is an integral part of the city of Benton Harbor and who received $3.87 million in tax breaks from the city last year as a bribe so they would build their new headquarters there instead of leaving Benton Harbor altogether?

According to Business Week, they haven’t paid a dime in corporate taxes in three full years. And, last year, they got a $64 million tax REFUND.

Just settin’ the record straight here, Tom. They are NOT a taxpayer in Benton Harbor.

In fact, given the power that Whirlpool wields and the way they dangle money over the city to extract the favorable business decisions and huge tax breaks, I’m more likely to call them a corporate blackmailer than a corporate citizen.

[CC image credit: onkel_wart | Flickr]

Michigan embarrassed on the national stage

Rachel Maddow had another terrific piece on Benton Harbor last night. In it, she wonders out loud if the “non-profit” Cornerstone Alliance, the development arm of Whirlpool, might secretly be conspiring to buy the broadcast license of the city radio station, WBHC. During the segment, you’ll see a panoramic photo taken by my wife, Anne C. Savage, that shows you the impact of the Harbor Shores golf course on the beautiful Jean Klock Park. Watch for the “Anne Savage Photography” notation at the top of the screen.

One piece not mentioned in this segment that focuses a great deal on the Harbor Shores golf course is that Emergency Manager Joe Harris appointed himself to the Golf Course Oversight Panel. That bit of information gets a bit more chilling when you ponder what Maddow asks.

Over the weekend on eBay, there were three bids for WBHC. The initial asking price was $5,000 and then there was a bid for 5100 and 5200 and then the listing disappeared. Turns out federal law says you can’t sell a radio station licensed the way that the overseer was trying to sell it. So this listing on e-bay is against the law. The FCC has to approve any sale of a radio license, even a tiny station like Benton Harbor’s.

We know from talking to the emergency manager over the last few days, he still thinks he’s selling the town’s radio station. Under federal rules, it can only go to a nonprofit or a local government. Local government and the emergency manager guy is, himself, a one-man local government now. Who else can it go to? After reporting on this story last week, we heard from a nonprofit group called Public Radio Capital who said they want to find a Benton Harbor nonprofit and help that nonprofit to buy the station. They tell us they have tried for days to to get through to the emergency manager.

Meanwhile, the emergency manager wrote to us to say that he had a “bona fide buyer” and that it might take a couple of weeks to go through the legal steps. He also told the town newspaper that he hadn’t heard of this radio group. He wants to give the radio station back so it can be used by the town again.

So who is the emergency manager guy talking to about buying Benton Harbor’s town asset, it’s town radio station? It does not seem to be the public radio capital people who want to give it back to the town. they’re only now just getting their calls returned. so it’s not them. is it the other big nonprofit in town?

Is it the Cornerstone Alliance? The Whirlpool nonprofit with the executive that wrote the emergency manager law and the fancy golf resort where most of Benton Harbor can’t afford to play or live?

The emergency manager will not say. Nor do we know what the people of Benton Harbor want done with the station. This is the point. They have no say. Sometimes in politics and civil rights, we talk about losing a voice or having a say. We used to use those terms as a metaphor. This picture of Benton Harbor’s radio station up for sale illegally is not a metaphor for the people of that town having their voice taken away from them. They have their vote taken away, their elected officials taken away, their democratic means of decision-making taken away and now the means by at least which they could broadcast their voice to speak to one another, that, too.

Here’s the actual panoramic image. You can use your mouse to scroll around and zoom in and out. You can also make it go full screen.

It’s good to be the king

The Herald-Palladium reports today that Benton Harbor Emergency Manager Joe Harris appointed himself to several city commissions. I guess he’s not planning on leaving soon after all…

In an order dated Tuesday, Emergency Manager Joseph Harris removed, appointed or reappointed members to the Brownfield Redevelopment Authority, the Cemetery Board, the Twin City Area Transportation Authority, the Downtown Development Authority, the Golf Course Oversight Panel, the Benton Harbor Housing Commission, the Benton Harbor Public Library Board, the Planning Commission, the Public Safety/Recreation Committee and the Board of Review.

Harris said Wednesday the city has to make appointments and reappointments to the committees annually but had not done that in the past. [...]

Commissioner Juanita Henry was removed from the Twin City Area Transportation Authority, and Commissioner David Shaw was removed from the Golf Course Oversight Panel and the Public Safety/Recreation Committee.

Mayor James Hightower and Commissioner Sharon Henderson were appointed to the Downtown Development Authority. Hightower was also appointed to the Golf Course Oversight Panel and the Planning Commission.

Harris appointed himself to the Twin City Area Transportation Authority, the Golf Course Oversight Panel, the Planning Commission and the Public Safety/Recreation Committee.

Hmmm…the Golf Course Oversight Panel? The golf course run by Whirlpool property development arm Cornerstone Alliance? My, my. That’s interesting…

H/T: Eclectablog reader Carol D.

[Image credit: Chris Savage/Eclectablog]

There IS goodness in the world

[NOTE: I have edited the title of this piece because PRC does not actually purchase radio stations or licenses themselves. They help other groups to do this.]

Laura Conaway at The Maddow Blog reports in a piece called “The Silencing of Benton Harbor, Michigan” that a private non-profit called Public Radio Capital is looking to help keep Benton Harbor’s city radio station in the hands of the people of Benton Harbor.

As of Saturday afternoon, the auction of the public’s station had drawn three bids, with — I think — two from actor and human rights activist Ben Patrick Johnson. Right after eBay posted the third bid, of $5,200, the listing disappeared.

What gives? Eclectablog, where Chris Savage has been covering the story, sends over a comment on one of his posts in which someone suggests that you can’t sell an FCC radio license without permission from the FCC. An industry site called Radio Info reports the same, writing that “the FCC must approve any transfer.”

Another group following the story, the nonprofit Public Radio Capital, provides support for acquiring and building public radio stations. Erik Langner says Benton Harbor’s license cannot be sold and transferred on eBay. Instead, Langner says anyone interested in the station would have to go through the usual procedures at the FCC, like proving the new owner is based in Benton Harbor and not out to make a buck.

Public Radio Capital already gathered the listed price of WBHC and would like to help keep the station going. “We want to make it possible for a local nonprofit to buy it,” Langner says.
[Emphasis mine]

From PRC’s “About” page:

Public Radio Capital’s mission is to strengthen and expand public media to provide local communities nationwide with more in-depth information, unbiased news, diverse music and cultural programming. Founded in 2001, PRC has led its clients through more than $270 million in radio transactions, securing public radio access for 59 million people.

PRC has worked with more than 200 public media organizations, ranging from first time station owners to the largest, multi-channel public radio station owners in the country. We help public media to buy and finance new channels, preserve existing public radio outlets, and strengthen their organizations and services.

PRC is the only nonprofit in the nation that focuses on expanding the capacity and asset base of public radio. We are currently supported by major grants from the Argosy Foundation, Ford Foundation and Surdna Foundation, and other philanthropic investors.

This may be as close to angels on earth as I’ve heard of in a long time. If you have thoughts about what group might be in a position to take on the responsibility of hosting a community radio station in Benton Harbor, contact me and I’ll put you in touch with Mr. Langner who has reached out to me.

[CC Photo credit: Flickr user gak]

Rachel Maddow did a fine job last night of reporting on an issue I wrote about twice this week (HERE and HERE): the selling off of Benton Harbor’s city radio station equipment. Here’s the video:

This was great journalism – kudos to TRMS producer Laura Conaway – that brought together some seemingly unrelated pieces to show the complete picture including Jonathan Mahler‘s recent New York Times Magazine article.

[And, yeah, she called Eclectablog "the essential Michigan website".]

By the way, the most recent eBay listing has been updated to correct the misspelling of “Equipment” and replaces the improperly used “negligible” with “negotiable”.

It also has one bid.

UPDATE: The eBay post has now been pulled (again). Bizarre.

Click for larger version

Well THAT didn’t work

Benton Harbor Emergency Manager Joe Harris’s effort to sell the city radio station’s equipment (or should I say “Eequiptment”?) on eBay is now over. The auction resulted in [ahem] ZERO bids.

Click image for larger version

UPDATE: It’s baa-aack. Yup, he reposted it on eBay again. You now have just under three days to bid. Same starting price, same $1,000 shipping charge, same misspelling of “Equipment” (“Eequiptment”) and same wrong use of the word “neglible”.

UPDATE 2: Aaa-aand now it’s gone again. “This listing was ended by the seller because the item is no longer available.”

What a clown show…

What’ll ya give me for it?

Back in January, I wrote about Benton Harbor Emergency Manager Joe Harris closing down the radio station that was run from the City Hall basement. He figured it would save the city $10,000-20,000 a year.

This week, Harris put the equipment up for sale on eBay:

Click image for larger version

Item specifics
Low Power radio station and equipment
Transmitter
3 mics
Mackie 16 channel board
2 CD players
Cords included
antenna – negligible on removal [negligible? negotiable?]

The sale has some locals worried. One person wrote to me:

Yes, [the radio station] was low tech and “unprofessional” – but the real folk listened in. In 2008, I was on the show with Scott Elliott. The first time I talked about the environmental issues – very straightforward – explaining how Whirlpool wasn’t solely to blame for the mess – The second time I went on, I went through the facts once again – reading from commission resolutions and other official documents – we found out later that the station engineer cut off the broadcast – all people heard when they tuned in was music. Only 6% of Benton Harbor residents – and I think that includes the whole zip code – subscribe to the paper of record. The other radio stations are controlled by Cornerstone or Clear Channel. The “grass roots” newspaper has been thoroughly co-opted, running fawning pieces about Harbor Shores and Black golfers – Guess we’ll have to go back to broadsheets and smoke signals.

While this is probably not illegal, the optics of it are horrendous. In a town where the local dictator has essentially ended local democracy, this looks way too much like restricting the freedom of speech to many locals. Hard to see how that’s worth it, in the end. But, well, that’s how Joe Harris rolls…

UPDATE: It’s over. See how many bids it got HERE.