Category: Flint

UPDATED: Flint Mayor Dayne Walling talks about Flint’s water crisis, Emergency Managers, and the State government

UPDATED: Flint Mayor Dayne Walling talks about Flint’s water crisis, Emergency Managers, and the State government

As the water crisis has unfolded in Flint over the past few months, there has been an enormous amount of finger pointing and blame shifting going around. Just this week, Darnell Earley wrote an op-ed piece for The Detroit News absolving himself of any of that blame, despite the fact that he or one of his predecessors was in charge […]

Read more ›
The colossal failure and scandal of the Snyder administration in preventing the lead poisoning of Flint residents

The colossal failure and scandal of the Snyder administration in preventing the lead poisoning of Flint residents

In April of 2014, under the direction of Flint Emergency Manager Darnell Earley, the City changed the source of its drinking water from the Detroit water system (drawing from Lake Huron) to the Flint River. The move was touted as a cost-saving measure which would save $7 million annually. However, there were problems from the start. High levels of bacteria […]

Read more ›
GUEST POST: The catastrophe of Flint’s water crisis falls squarely on Gov. Rick Snyder and the MDEQ

GUEST POST: The catastrophe of Flint’s water crisis falls squarely on Gov. Rick Snyder and the MDEQ

The following post was co-authored by David Holtz, the Chair of the Michigan chapter of the Sierra Club, and Anne Woiwode, the chapter’s Conservation Director. As leaders of one of the primary watchdog groups in Michigan when it comes to water quality, I asked them to weigh in on the ongoing crisis with Flint’s water supply. In their essay, Holtz […]

Read more ›
With Flint’s primary election an utter catastrophe, who is to blame? Emergency Manager? His appointed City Admin? Who?

With Flint’s primary election an utter catastrophe, who is to blame? Emergency Manager? His appointed City Admin? Who?

What started out as bad has turned to worse in Flint’s primary election. First, three mayoral candidates (including incumbent mayor Dayne Walling) and two city council candidates all failed to make the ballot after they were all given the wrong date by the City Clerk to submit their nominating petitions. Then yesterday, the only remaining candidate to submit his petitions […]

Read more ›
After slashing teacher benefits, firing staff, and outsourcing “nearly everything”, Flint schools face Emergency Management

After slashing teacher benefits, firing staff, and outsourcing “nearly everything”, Flint schools face Emergency Management

Welcome to Michigan under Republican rule Flint schools have been in financial trouble since 2011 when it first went into debt. In 2012, they eliminated 460 teachers and staff positions. In May of this year, they laid off 91 more teachers and staff and slashed benefits of the remaining teachers as an alternative to a 19% pay cut. Later in […]

Read more ›
Democracy denied: Flint Emergency Manager appointing City Council members instead of holding elections

Democracy denied: Flint Emergency Manager appointing City Council members instead of holding elections

Flint Emergency Manager Darnell Earley is using his powers as a state-appointed overseer of the city to appoint two outgoing City Council members rather than permitting a special election as the City’s rules require: Emergency manager Darnell Earley says he will use his power under state law to appoint replacements for two departing City Council members, rather than allowing their […]

Read more ›
City councilmember works overtime to make Flint a laughing stock, arrested while changing tire on car with 4 flats

City councilmember works overtime to make Flint a laughing stock, arrested while changing tire on car with 4 flats

You’re not helping. Not at all. Flint is a city that is slowly working to crawl its way out of the crater left behind when automakers left and the manufacturing sector imploded. Bit by bit, one step at a time, city leaders are bringing the city back with a strong vision for the future. Then stuff like this happens: Flint […]

Read more ›
INTERVIEW: Flint Mayor Dayne Walling, Part 2 – Reflections of a Mayor under Emergency Managers & a better path forward

INTERVIEW: Flint Mayor Dayne Walling, Part 2 – Reflections of a Mayor under Emergency Managers & a better path forward

“The laws right now are written to mete out punishment to local officials, but there need to be clear partnership requirements for the state to address fiscal stress.” Flint, Michigan is rare in that it has not had just one Emergency Manager. It has had four different managers and the current “emergency” is the second one for the former manufacturing […]

Read more ›
INTERVIEW: Flint Mayor Dayne Walling, Part 1 – The community-driven reinvention of Flint

INTERVIEW: Flint Mayor Dayne Walling, Part 1 – The community-driven reinvention of Flint

“We had hundreds of people involved. There was a real community appetite for this process…they wanted their voice to be heard and they were prepared to come out and be a part of it.” NOTE: Part 2 of this interview can be found HERE. When Dayne Walling was elected to be the mayor of the struggling city of Flint in […]

Read more ›
Michigan’s Emergency Manager law faces legal challenge from Flint & Pontiac retirees for favoring banks over people

Michigan’s Emergency Manager law faces legal challenge from Flint & Pontiac retirees for favoring banks over people

This isn’t going away, governor

Retired government employees from both Flint and Pontiac have filed a complaint with the U.S. District Court in Detroit to have Public Act 436 and its predecessor Public Act 4 — Michigan’s anti-democratic Emergency Manager laws — declared illegal under the Bankruptcy Clause and Contracts Clause of the US Constitution, as well as Chapter 9 of Title 11 of the United States Code. The complaint (pdf) rests largely on the argument that these laws favored one set of creditors over others. Namely, they claim retirees and unions have seen their contracts negatively impacted while businesses and banks have gotten away without taking a hit.

Details are after the jump.

Read more ›
Apparently you can’t cut your way to prosperity after all. Flint Emergency Manager wants a tax increase.

Apparently you can’t cut your way to prosperity after all. Flint Emergency Manager wants a tax increase.

Uh, someone didn’t get the memo that the answer to everything is to cut corporate taxes

Flint Emergency Manager Ed Kurtz is leading a push to increase city income taxes by 0.5% for residents and 0.25% for non-residents. That’s a 50% increase. Why? Turns out Flint is out of money and needs revenue. It’s almost as if Flint’s problems weren’t caused by waste, fraud, and mismanagement after all.

More after the jump.

Read more ›
Quantcast
Quantcast