Tag Archives | Emergency Managers

Emergency Mgr Joe Harris puts Benton Harbor city radio station equipment on eBay – UPDATED

By on February 8, 2012 in Benton Harbor, Emergency Managers, Joe Harris

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.…

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Republicans a no-show at Emergency Manager forum in Ann Arbor

By on February 7, 2012 in Emergency Manager Law, Emergency Managers

We’re sorry, the number you have dialed…

All photos by Anne C. Savage – used with permission

On Monday, February 6, 2012, the Political Science department at the University of Michigan held a public forum/debate on Public Act 4 – the Emergency Manager law. The panelists were Representative Jeff Irwin (D-Ann Arbor); Howard Ryan, Director of Legislative Affairs, MI Department of Treasury; Conan Smith, Washtenaw County Commissioner; and Dayne Walling, Mayor of Flint.

One chair was empty – the one that was supposed to have been occupied by Mark Ouimet, a Republican state Representative (my Representative, in fact.) He cancelled at the last minute saying his presence was required “a school board meeting”.…


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Forum on Public Act 4 to be held TONIGHT in Ann Arbor

By on February 6, 2012 in Ann Arbor, Emergency Manager Law, Emergency Managers

Emergency Manager law under the microscope

Tonight, a community forum will be held in Ann Arbor on the subject of Public Act 4, the Emergency Manager law.

On Monday, February 6, from 6 to 8pm in the Eldersveld Room in the Department of Political Science (Haven Hall 5th Floor), the Undergraduate Political Science Association will host: “A Debate on the Emergency Financial Manager Law: Democracy, Expertise, and the Public Good in Financially Troubled Cities”. We often hear in public discourse that government ought to be run more like a business, with streamlined decision-making by expert managers being preferred over the more cumbersome ways of making decisions that are associated with democratic institutions.…

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Reporting on Emergency Manager financial review teams violating Open Meetings Act was wrong

By on February 3, 2012 in Emergency Managers

Oops

Yesterday in my Emergency Manager news round-up, I linked to reporting by WXYZ saying that a Lansing judge had “ruled” that meetings by financial review teams, in a lead up to imposing an Emergency Manager on a school or municipality, violated the Open Meetings Act. Turns out that WXYZ had it quite wrong and Judge Collette made no such ruling. Michigan Radio, who reported the same thing based on the same WXYZ report, has since corrected their error.

In this morning’s status conference, Ingham County Circuit Court Judge William Collette told the attorney for State Treasurer Andy Dillon that he would rather the state not hold any financial review meetings until he rules whether these meetings have to adhere to the state’s Open Meetings Act.…

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The tax timebomb that explodes in Michigan in 2012 is MUCH worse than you thought

By on February 3, 2012 in Emergency Managers, Michigan Republicans

The GOP finally finds a good tax: on the poor

As bad as things are right now in Michigan, they are about to get so much worse that I fear there is a genuine risk of the types of riots we haven’t seen since the 60s & 70s in my state. If you think we have too many failing schools and too many failing cities now, if you think the disenfranchisement of our citizens through the imposition of Emergency Managers was at a shocking level in 2011, wait until you take a peek at what’s to come in 2012.

This is corporatocracy and war on the 99% writ large and writ bold.…


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Thursday afternoon Michigan Emergency Manager new round-up – 2/2/2012

By on February 2, 2012 in Emergency Managers, Public Act 4, Rick Snyder

This is becoming an every day thing…

  • John Conyers & Rev. Charles Williams confront Gov. Rick Snyder in Washington, D.C.
    While Governor Rick Snyder was in Washington, D.C. yesterday, giving testimony to the U.S. House of Representatives’ Education & the Workforce Committee, he was confronted by Congressman John Conyers and Rev. Charles Williams II about Public Act 4.
    U.S. Rep. John Conyers, an outspoken critic of Michigan’s emergency manager law, shared his concerns with Gov. Rick Snyder on Wednesday in Lansing.

    Conyers, joined by Reverend Charles E. Williams II of the Detroit National Action Network, discussed the constitutional validity and “inherently undemocratic nature” of Public Act 4, according to his office.

    • …


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Wednesday afternoon Michigan Emergency Manager news round-up

By on February 1, 2012 in Detroit, Emergency Managers, Highland Park

It just goes on and on and on again…

  • Decision to close Highland Park school not made by Emergency Manager Jack Martin
    Contrary to what some outlets have reported, the decision to close Barber Focus school was NOT made by new Emergency Manager Jack Martin
    During a parent meeting on Monday, superintendent Edith Hightower announced that Barber Focus School would merge with Ford Academy. The decision to close Barber was made prior to Martin’s arrival without his knowledge, contrary to other published media reports.

    At the meeting, tempers flared with one attendee saying, “I’m sick of them in Lansing sending these black men in here to take over”, before being escorted out.

    • …


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Rainbow Push Detroit responds to closing of Highland Park school + Flint EM holds meetings

By on January 31, 2012 in Emergency Managers, Highland Park

Let’s get right to work, shall we?

New Highland Park schools Emergency Manager Jack Martin got right to work yesterday, his first day on the job. He closed Barber Focus School.

Parents and students of Highland Park schools learned Monday evening how the newly appointed emergency manager will change the troubled district, starting with a closure that will leave only two schools.

The moves follow a Highland Park school board member asking a judge Monday to void the recommendations of a state-led financial review team that resulted in the appointment of Jack Martin.

Martin began work Monday saying Barber Focus School for K-8 children would close in the coming week for the rest of the school year and students would move to Henry Ford Academy.

…


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Highland Park school board member asks judge to halt Emergency Manager takeover

By on January 30, 2012 in Emergency Managers, Highland Park

Board member says review team violated Open Meetings Act

Today, newly-minted Emergency Manager Jack Martin had his first day on the job. To celebrate the occasion, school board secretary Robert Davis asked a Lansing judge to issue a temporary restraining order, halting Martin from taking over.

A Highland Park school board member is asking a judge to void the recommendations of a state-led financial review team that resulted in the appointment of new Emergency Manager Jack Martin for the district.

Robert Davis, board secretary of the Highland Park School District, filed the emergency request Monday before Ingham County Judge William Collette, who will decide Feb.

…


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Indiana Senate decisively passes Emergency Manager bill

By on January 30, 2012 in Emergency Manager Law, Emergency Managers

Look out, Indiana! It’s comin’ right for ya!

A couple of weeks ago, I told you about Indiana’s slide toward an Emergency Manager law of their own.

I have been wondering how long it would take for a state other than Michigan to pursue an Emergency Manager law. The wait is over. This week, a Republican-sponsored bill allowing the imposition of an Emergency Manager on a “distressed political subdivision” (i.e., a municipality or school district) passed out of committee and goes on to the full state Senate. [...]

Under the bill, Senate Bill 355, Emergency Managers have the power to, among other things, do the following:

  • Review existing labor contracts
  • Renegotiate existing labor contracts and act as an agent of the political subdivision in collective bargaining.

…


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