I find your quaint city constitutions mildly amusing… At a speech criticizing Michigan’s Emergency Manager law yesterday, former Pontiac Emergency Manager Michael Stampfler was talked about the importance of investing in capital infrastructure and something he called civic capital — engagement of the local citizens in the process of governing. Then he suggested that city charters were just “interesting reading”. […]

Oh. NOW you tell us. Former Emergency Manager of Pontiac Michael Stampfler is giving a presentation to the Rotary Club of Wyandotte about why Public Act 4 – Michigan’s Emergency Manager law — isn’t working and cannot work. Stampfler says, “I do not believe EMs can be successful — they abrogate the civic structure of the community for a period […]

It just goes on and on and on again… Decision to close Highland Park school not made by Emergency Manager Jack MartinContrary 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 […]

This past year, the Emergency Manager of Pontiac at the time, Michael Stampfler signed a five-year contract with United Water to run their water and wastewater treatment systems. The move was said to save Pontiac an astonishing $2.8 million per year. I broke a story that made national news about the fact that, by hiring United Water, Stampfler had hired […]

In September, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder appointed Lou Schimmel to replace Michael Stampfler as Pontiac’s Emergency Manager. Yesterday, Schimmel fired several key department heads: the city clerk, the city attorney and director of public works. Pontiac Emergency Manager Lou Schimmel has fired the city’s clerk, attorney and director of public works in what he says is realignment in City Hall. […]

After the resignation last week of Michael Stampfler as Pontiac’s Emergency Manager, Louis Schmimmel was chosen as his replacement. The former emergency financial manager of Hamtramck and Ecorse is known as an expert at privatizing public services and comes highly recommended by the far-right conservative Mackinac Center think tank. Schmimmel, in fact, was the director of the Morey Fiscal Policy […]

I have a new piece up today at A2Politico that shows just how far Michigan’s CPA-style Emergency Financial Managers (EFMs) will go to cut costs. Michael Stampfler is Pontiac, Michigan’s EFM. He has the dubious distinction of being the first Michigan EFM to use new powers granted by Michigan Republicans to cancel a union contract. What went nearly unnoticed was […]