Tears of Joy as Emergency Manager Is Leaving Detroit Public Schools

 By: Black Liberal Boomer/politicususa

“If I’m wanted on a computer or by phone, I will be of help from afar… but I have no business inside the school district,” Roberts said Thursday after announcing his decision to step down.

This may prove to be the most honest thing Detroit Public Schools Emergency Manager Roy Roberts has said during his entire unwelcome tenure as Gov. Rick Snyder’s appointed pitbull to assist his ongoing efforts to destroy democracy and civil rights in his own state, while dismantling public education at the same time.  Roberts was quoted as saying these exact words in the Detroit News on Thursday when he announced his all-too-welcome decision to GTFO and step down in a couple weeks.

So just like that, eh Roy? After all that bluster and bravado and windbaggery flapping your lips about all these things you were gonna do for (to) Detroit Public Schools, proclaiming yourself to be the all-powerful, all-knowing, all-seeing Oz in control of your very own imaginary Wonderland where Roy Rules, you suddenly ran outta wind and decided now was a good time to exit stage left. Why, you even said that you had been considering retiring for quite some time now, Roy, which I find, well…hell….

What does one say exactly when one simply cannot believe this s—?

Interestingly enough, this comes just a week or so after it was discovered that the Educational Achievement Authority sorta kinda ‘borrowed’ $6 million from DPS to help cover its bills. It did this without alerting the Detroit Public School Board, and without alerting the board members of the EAA. Sorta kinda illegal. From the Detroit Free Press:

The security concerns come on the heels of accusations against the EAA from Rep. Ellen Cogen Lipton, a Democrat from Huntington Woods, who said the EAA had stalled and charged her $2,642.05 for documents she requested under the Freedom of Information Act last month. Lipton released the information this week, including documents that show that Detroit Public Schools took out loans through +the Michigan Finance Authority’s state aid note program and gave the money to the the EAA to pay its bills.

 Strangely enough it is Roberts who has been overseeing both DPS as Emergency Manager and also the EAA. Some may say this appears to be a conflict of interest but, oh well, whatever. After all, Roberts says he didn’t know nothin’ ’bout it. And now he’s headed off into the sunset to spend more time with his wife, he says. Because he has sacrificed so much for so long and now it’s just time he spent a little more time with the little lady. And I, for one, think that’s just lovely, Roy.

Way to stand tall, big fella. Yes indeedy.

Michigan gives up on democracy

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Benton Harbor still deep in the red. Is the magic of an Emergency Manager simply not enough?

By Eclectablog/Eclectablog

Joe Harris has been on the job as Emergency Manager in Benton Harbor for over a year and a half now. However, a recent report indicates the success he is credited for at "turning Benton Harbor around" may not be based in fact. Michigan Radio has this important story.

The State Treasurer’s office is reviewing an independent audit of Benton Harbor’s finances for the 2011 fiscal year. The audit shows the city still spent more money than it made during its first year under a state appointed emergency manager.

The audit shows Benton Harbor Emergency Manager Joe Harris cut the yearly operating deficit by about $126,000 from when elected city leaders were governing. The city still spent about $653,000 more than it took in for the fiscal year that began in July of 2010 and concluded at the end of June 2011.

“The point that I want to make is that the changes we made occurred during the year and we did not have a full year of cost savings,” Harris said. Harris was the city’s emergency financial manager for most of the 2011 fiscal year but became an emergency manager with more power in April of 2011 (more than 9 months into the fiscal year).

With these types of results, it's puzzling as to why Harris has been talking about leaving by the middle of 2012. And considering how nearly every conservative commentator in the state is crowing about Harris's amazing results in Benton Harbor, one wonders where they get their information from.

Why is it that Harris hasn't had the success he's claimed to have had? Could it be because, as I have said time and again, that these problems go far deeper than simple bookkeeping and union-busting? Could it be because Benton Harbor's problems are systemic and relate to having nearly no manufacturing base and an education system that gives few of their residents the chance to succeed? Could it be that Benton Harbor is broke because there are no jobs and half its population is below the poverty line.

The answer is clearly yes and the sooner we quit pretending Emergency Managers can solve these issues with simple bookkeepping tricks and at the expense of public employees, the better off we will be.

Harris's problems in Benton Harbor get worse, though. It turns out that under his watch the City is in violation of federal laws.

The audit outlined three accounting mistakes where the city violated state and federal laws (as stated in the audit) in fiscal 2011. Harris says those mistakes have been or are being addressed.

The City did not make timely payments to the IRS for FICA taxes (both the employer portion, and the employee withholdings) throughout the year. As of June 30, 2011, the outstanding liability to the IRS amounted to $402,305.

Harris reported in September the city has paid what it owed the IRS and the accompanying fines for being late.

While it appears that the City made a good faith effort to be timely with distributing current tax collections, we noted that as of June 30, 2011, the City still owed approximately $1,700,000 in back taxes to local entities. These balances appear to primarily relate to collections from prior years.

And there's more. Read about it HERE.

On Sunday, I will have an op-ed published in the MLive newspaper the Muskegon Chronicle, challenging the lies, strawmen and obfuscation in an op-ed published yesterday and written by Steve Gunn from the anti-teachers union group Education Action Group. His piece is so rife with falsehoods and red herrings that it simply must be refuted. Stay tuned. 

Michigan’s Undemocratic Emergency Managers Paid Six Figures At Local Taxpayers’ Expense

By Alex Seitz-Wald/Think Progress

Last year, Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R) signed into law a drastic expansion of the state’s emergency manager law, which imposes what critics have dubbed “financial martial law” on local governments the state deems to be mismanaging finances. The emergency managers, who are appointed without input from local communities, have the power to effectively depose elected officials, break collective bargaining agreements, and unilaterally dictate decisions about city operations, finances, infrastructure, and public safety.

Today, the Flint Journal points out that the managers receive six-figure salaries, set by the state and paid for by the local communities, which are all cash-strapped (or else they wouldn’t be subject to emergency managers in the first place). In Flint, in fact, the manager earns more than the mayor earns:

By law, the pay of Michigan’s five emergency managers — ranging from $132,000 to $250,000 — is set by the state, but the money actually is paid by the local communities they’re in charge of. [...]

Mayor Dayne Walling’s was Flint’s highest-paid elected official, receiving $91,800 before [Flint emergency manager Michael] Brown eliminated his pay and benefits and those of city council members.

Brown on Tuesday partially restored Walling’s pay to $55,000 and council members each will receive $7,000 a year.

The Journal points out that law has dictated that local communities pay the salaries of emergency managers since 1990, but Snyder’s expansion of the law means that many more communities have become subject to it than ever before. Activists are working to repeal the law via referendum of through a court ruling.

Hundreds gather at Emergency Manager town hall

From Channel 7 WXYZ

DETROIT (WXYZ) - Hundreds of people have gathered for an special Town Hall meeting at the Tabernacle Missionary Baptist Church in Detroit to protest the possibility of an Emergency Manager in the city.

Speakers include community leaders and activists.

It comes as the city is in the midst of a financial review that could lead to Governor Rick Snyder appointing an EM to run Detroit.

However, both Mayor Bing and the city council say they are working to come up with a plan that would make the appointment of an Emergency Manager unnecessary.

State-appointed emergency managers make six figures at local community's expense

By Kristin Longley | Flint Journal 

FLINT, Michigan — Cash-strapped communities and school districts in Michigan are paying six-figure salaries to the governor-appointed emergency managers who are supposed to rescue them from financial ruin.

By law, the pay of Michigan’s five emergency managers — ranging from $132,000 to $250,000 — is set by the state, but the money actually is paid by the local communities they’re in charge of.

That rankles those who disagree with the law in the first place, saying the expanded powers of emergency managers go too far.

“What is the proper salary of a dictator?” asked Flint resident Paul Jordan, one of many Michigan residents who has sued the state, saying the emergency manager law overreaches. “Certainly it’s a very big job. But on the other hand, here the people who are paying his salary had no opportunity to hire him.”

Flint’s emergency manager, Michael Brown, is paid $170,000 a year, according to his contract. Managers in Ecorse and Benton Harbor each make $132,000, while the manager in Pontiac receives $150,000.

The chief of Detroit School District, Roy Roberts, was given a $250,000 salary, but took the 10 percent pay cut he ordered for all school employees.

Brown was appointed Dec. 1 to take over Flint’s finances. A state review panel recommended a takeover after finding a structural deficit, recurring cash flow shortages and other financial deficiencies.

The city ended the 2010 budget year with an estimated $15 million deficit. A $7 million deficit is projected for budget year 2011.

Mayor Dayne Walling’s was Flint’s highest-paid elected official, receiving $91,800 before Brown eliminated his pay and benefits and those of city council members.

Brown on Tuesday partially restored Walling’s pay to $55,000 and council members each will receive $7,000 a year.

“We can’t afford to get the things done we need to do, how can we pay (an emergency manager)?,” said Bishop Bernadel Jefferson, pastor of Faith Deliverance Center in Flint. “The state brought him in but we got to pay for it? The state should pay some.”

Emergency managers got more power in March when the state law was amended, but the part that dictates local communities pay their salaries dates back to the original 1990 statute.

It has been tweaked to have the state treasurer set the emergency manager pay, rather than a board of state officials.

The compensation takes into account the community’s population, geographic size and the complexity of the financial problems, said treasury spokesman Terry Stanton.

Any expenses the emergency manager incurs are also overseen by the state treasury and are required by law to be publicly posted online, he said.

Brown’s salary in Flint is the highest of any of the managers appointed to run cities. Flint, with more than 100,000 people, is also the largest city under a state takeover.

Brown’s pay is comparable to that of Detroit Mayor Dave Bing. The mayor of Michigan’s largest city reduced his pay to $158,558 from $176,000 after ordering furlough days for other city employees, according to The Detroit News.

State Rep. Woodrow Stanley, D-Flint, said emergency manager pay should be commensurate with the mayor’s pay. Stanley, a former Flint mayor, said he’s opposed to the emergency manager law in general because it interferes with voters’ rights to choose their leaders.

“I’ve never been a proponent of what appears to be exorbitant pay,” he said. “I’m sure if the state was required to pick up the tab for some of these expenses, the state would less prone to intervene.”

But a government finance expert and Michigan State University professor who has helped train emergency managers in Michigan said the managers are paid more because they often fulfill the duties of several people or departments.

“People need to think of it as a city-manager-plus,” said Eric Scorsone. “It’s what a city administrator would do, but with the responsibilities of a mayor and the responsibilities of a city council.

“It’s a pretty big job, really unusual in the scope.”

Emergency managers make decisions regarding most city operations, including finances, infrastructure and public safety, Scorsone said.

“And let’s be honest, it’s a temporary job,” Scorsone said. “An emergency manager may be in office a year or two and then that’s it. It’s a high-profile job with responsibility.”

Flint’s former emergency manager Ed Kurtz, who served during the previous 2002-04 state takeover, originally turned down the state-recommended $114,000-a-year salary in favor of $1,000 a month, according to Flint Journal files. He started taking $3,000-a-month salary in 2003, files show.

Brown said he took a pay cut to become Flint’s emergency manager. He was paid $160,000 as president of the Prima Civitas Foundation, an East Lansing-based nonprofit that focuses on economic development, but also received a retirement package he doesn’t get as emergency manager.

Brown said he expects to put in long hours and be on call 24 hours a day in the Flint job.

“I’m going in to this to do a public service,” he said. “I’m going to earn my salary. I know how challenging and tough it’s going to be.”

We'll use civil disobedience if needed to oppose Detroit emergency manager, coalition says

By Steve Neavling/Detroit Free Press

The Rev. Jesse Jackson joined a coalition of pastors, civil-rights leaders and elected officials today in Detroit to pledge strong opposition — including civil disobedience, if necessary — against the state’s new emergency manager law.
Jackson and others likened emergency managers to dictators who wipe out the democratic process with unilateral authority to gut union contracts, sell cherished assets and slash essential services.
“We are prepared to go from education, mobilization, litigation, legislation, demonstration and civil disobedience,” Jackson said during a press conference at Bethany Baptist Church on the city’s west side. “We want a positive commitment to restoring democracy and economic justice for all citizens.”
Jackson’s comments come one day after the city moved closer to the appointment of an emergency manager following the release of a state financial report that painted a bleaker-than-expected picture of a city digging deeper into debt just to pay for its everyday bills.
The coalition acknowledged the city was in a crisis but didn’t offer financial solutions.
The point, they said, was to underscore the recklessness of an emergency manager bill that allows the state to remove elected officials.
Asked whether civil disobedience is a possibility, leaders didn’t hesitate.
“We are prepared to utilize all of the measures afforded to us citizens to protect democracy,” said David Bullock, president of the Michigan Chapter of the Rainbow Coalition, a civil-rights group led by Jackson. “We aren’t going to take it any longer. We marched, fought and died for our right to vote. Enough is enough. We will not allow democracy to be dismantled.”
One by one, speakers vowed to do whatever it takes to end state takeover of the city’s finances.
“This is bigger than Detroit,” said Herb Sanders, a leader in the petition campaign to repeal the emergency manager law. “This is bigger than Michigan. This is about democracy. We are sending a message that we will have demonstrations in Michigan and nobody will be allowed to trample our rights.”
As the possibility of an emergency manager in Detroit appears to increase, leaders of a demonstration outside Gov. Rick Snyder’s house in Superior Township on Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Jan. 16 said the cause is gaining momentum and more people.
“The country and the world will be watching as the governor continues to send dictators throughout the state,” said the Rev. Charles Williams II, of the Historic King Solomon Baptist Church in Detroit. “We won’t stand by and let that happen.”
Mayor Dave Bing and a majority of the City Council also are opposed to an emergency manager and are working throughout the holiday and on weekends in hopes of gaining major concessions from labor unions to save more than $100 million a year.
Reducing the long-term costs of pension and health care benefits is the top priority of the governor and city.

Democracy threatened in Michigan

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Civil rights groups to march on Snyder over emergency manager bill

By Steve Neavling/Detroit Free Press

Saying the new emergency manager bill unfairly targets predominately African American communities, civil rights leaders pledged today to march in Superior Township — home of Gov. Rick Snyder —on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. 

They plan to march in the township — about 12 miles east of Ann Arbor — on Jan. 16 in an effort to call attention to a bill that could soon lead to an emergency manager in Detroit. 

The cities under an emergency manager are Flint, Benton Harbor and Pontiac. Detroit Public Schools also has an emergency manager. 

The group opposes the bill because an emergency manager has unilateral authority to cut union contracts, sell assets and dismiss elected officials, such as the mayor and city council. 

“We’ve been fighting the dictator bill since its passing, all the time knowing it was meant for unilateral opportunity to take over Detroit just like it did in Benton Harbor,” said the Rev. Charles Williams II, pastor of the Historic King Solomon Baptist Church and one of the state’s leaders of Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network. “An emergency manager has yet to prove that it can get rid of deficits.”

Inspired by the Occupy Wall Street movement, the group plans to “occupy” Snyder’s home by demonstrating outside his house. 

"We started this fight in Benton Harbor but we plan to end it in Superior Township,” said Rev. D. Alexander Bullock, local leader of the Michigan Chapter Rainbow Push Coalition, a social justice group founded by Jesse Jackson. “We will show the world that democracy is at stake in Michigan just as it is in Libya or Egypt.”

Snyder’s office has long denied race was a factor and said it only is intervening in cities that are the most financially distressed. 

Government takeover in Michigan

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'Tyrants' replacing local democracy in Michigan

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Conyers Calls For Review Of Emergency Manager Law

From CBS Detroit

LANSING (WWJ) – Michigan Congressman John Conyers is asking the Justice Department and U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to review and possibly challenge the constitutionality of the new Emergency Manager law.

Conyers saif he has grave concerns about the Emergency Manager law because, among other things, it allows the termination of union contracts.

“As enacted, this law allows the Governor, after following a specified review process, to take over a local government or school district by appointing a manager to assume the authority and responsibility of locally elected officials. It includes the power to terminate collective bargaining agreements and contracts and even to dissolve outright a unit of government,” wrote Conyers in a letter to Holder.

Conyers says the U.S. Constitution says, in part, no state shall pass any law impairing the obligation of contracts.

In the next step to a possible move to an Emergency Manager in Detroit, Governor Rick Snyder is expected to announce a financial review team to look at the city’s finances. Sources tell WWJ Newsradio 950′s Vickie Thomas the governor will initiate the review as early as Friday. (More on this, here).

Half of Michigan African Americans will soon be under the rule of an Emergency Manager

By Eclectablog/Angry Black Chronicles/Eclectablog

With the breaking news today that Michigan Governor Rick Snyder will be installing an Emergency Manager in Detroit, this brings up an interesting point to ponder:

Based on 2010 census figures, when Detroit gets an Emergency Manager, 49% of Michigan African Americans will have lost their representative government and will be under the rule of an Emergency Manager.

City	Population	% African American	# of African Americans
Benton Harbor	10,038	89.2%	8,954
Detroit	713,777	82.7%	590,294
Flint	102,434	56.6%	57,978
Pontiac	59,515	52.1%	31,007
Total			688,233

[Source: U.S. Census Bureau]

Michigan had 9,883,640 residents in 2010, 14.2% of whom were African Americans for a total of 1,403,477.

I’ll leave you to do the math as a take-home exercise.

Former Acting Mayor Michael Brown named Flint's emergency manager

By Kristin Longley/MLive.com




FLINT, Michigan — Michael Brown, Flint's former temporary mayor, has been appointed by the governor as Flint's new emergency manager.

The appointment was announced this afternoon and is effective Thursday, according to Gov. Rick Snyder's office.
As emergency manager, Brown will have wide-ranging authority to make cuts, impose fees or make other changes to overhaul city government after a state review panel found the city in a financial emergency.

"Michael Brown has a strong track record of serving the Flint-area community,” Snyder said in a statement. “Given his experience in public, private, and non-profit settings, I’m confident he is well-equipped to take on this critical post."

Brown is currently president of the Prima Civitas Foundation and director of the Flint Area Reinvestment Office, which he established in 2009.

As emergency manager, Brown will make $170,000, according to his contract, which he signed Monday. (SEE ALSO: Facts about emergency managers salaries, powers, etc.)

Brown served as acting Flint mayor for six months after ex-Mayor Don Williamson resigned in February 2009. Brown served until Flint Mayor Dayne Walling was first elected in August of that year.

Brown, who was born and raised in Flint, said he wants to return the city to local control as quickly and efficiently as possible.

"I believe we can work together to resolve Flint’s financial emergency," Brown said. "This is my hometown, so this is a personal task."

As emergency manager, Brown said he will also appoint an advisory committee to assist him, which will include an elected city official, a representative of the business community, a Flint resident and "up to two persons with relevant professional skills" to assist him.