Gov Rick Snyder Continues to Dismantle Detroit’s Democracy Brick by Brick

[Purveyor]

This is how to destroy a city.

In Detroit, it’s hard to keep up these days with all the flurry of activity generated by Detroit Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr as he scurries about figuring out how to make the numbers right so that the creditors get paid and all those billions of dollars in debt that is apparently about to blow our house down is scrubbed away with much efficiency so that Detroit may be allowed to live yet another day.

That’s the story we’re being sold, anyway. The full truth, as always, is a bit more complex. And I will admit up front that I don’t pretend to understand all the ins and outs of unraveling the consequences of years upon years of mismanagement that have plagued this city (that much is true). I have never argued that Detroit wasn’t facing a crisis, nor was anybody else with any sense. As I’ve said numerous times before, we who live here already know how bad it is, and most of us, if we’re honest, know how it got this way. White flight and racism played a large part in the decline of one of America’s greatest cities, no doubt about it. But Detroiters ourselves have had a hand in it too.

That being said, you don’t put out a fire with gasoline. And when you steal the people’s right to vote as part of a supposed remedy ‘for their own good’, what you’re really doing is enforcing a very dangerous view among the residents (who already have very little to lose) that they now have little to no stake in their own community anymore. When our elected leaders can be swept aside by an appointed all-powerful dictator, then what reason do we have to feel like our city belongs to us anymore?

In November, Detroiters will be voting for a new city council and a new mayor, and I think it will be very telling to see how many voters turn out in a city already notorious for low voter turnout. Why? Because how can we get excited about voting for a new mayor and city council when they have to bow down before Orr? And even once his 18-month tenure comes to an end, he has already said that Detroit will most likely still be subjected to fiscal oversight, once again from a board not elected by Detroiters.

Already our Council President Pro Tem Gary Brown has resigned his position to go to work for Orr at more than twice what he was getting paid before at the hefty new salary of $225,000. The Devil does offer good benefits. Council President Charles Pugh has skipped town in the midst of a brewing potential scandal, and Council member Kwame Kenyatta has submitted his resignation. Rumor is there may be at least one more before all is said and done, and Orr has decreed that the vacated seats may not be filled until after the upcoming election, so where we once had nine councilmembers we now have six, which could possibly drop to five.

MORE...

http://www.politicususa.com/2013/07/11/gov-rick-synder-continues-dismantle-detroits-democracy-brick-brick.html

[MinM]

1. @onetoughnerd subverts democracy

Rick Snyder @onetoughnerd: See Michigan from space! RT @AstroKarenN Michigan, Lake Huron coast. July 11. pic.twitter.com/sbHGdw33Cj

@theMadLiberal: @onetoughnerd [font color="red"]Wow, even from that view you can tell that Emergency Managers subvert democracy[/font].

[Bay Boy]

2. Can you see me waving?

I'm right there in the crotch of the thumb.

[dixiegrrrrl]

3. Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder says he's not sure if some Detroit creditors will ever be paid

THIS is the PATTERN:

This is exactly how they did it in Greece and Spain and Ireland.
Step by step they slowly announced the plan, as if it were happening all by itself.

First they talk about the problems the city/country is having.
a Bit later they talk about some of the possibilities of handling the problems, in a "maybe" and "possibly" tense.
A bit later they announce they are "thinking of" reducing public services, schools, etc.
Then comes the announcement that they WILL reduce services, lay off people, with a warning that if it is NOT done,
bankruptcy might be in the cards.
Slowly they get the people used to the idea of eroding tax payer programs, via threats of even worse solutions.
Then comes the bankruptcy "idea" which soon becomes a "discussion" and later a "plan"
and then later " not sure if some creditors will ever be paid"..."creditors being pension funds, retirement funds, health care for city employees, etc"

But the people dismantiling government in the city/country?
THEY get paid..Oh yeah.

Detroit citizens had option to move from the crumbling city, which of course eroded the tax base even more.
But the citizens of countries often do not have moving as an option, so they get dragged down along with the country's services.

It is happening all over. You can see the pattern.

[blkmusclmachine]

4. Race To The Bottom

[MinM]

5. Michigan's Hostile Takeover

A new "emergency" law backed by right-wing think tanks is turning Michigan cities over to powerful managers who can sell off city hall, break union contracts, privatize services—and even fire elected officials.

By Paul Abowd, Center for Public Integrity | Wed Feb. 15, 2012 3:00 AM PST

When the city of Pontiac, Michigan, shut down its fire department last Christmas Eve, city councilman Kermit Williams learned about it in the morning paper. "Nobody reports to me anymore," Williams says. "It just gets reported in the press." This was just the latest in a series of radical changes in the city, where elected officials such as Williams have been replaced by a single person with unprecedented control over the city's operation and budget.



Gov. Rick Snyder put Louis Schimmel in charge of Pontiac last September, invoking Public Act 4, a recent law that lets the governor name appointees to take over financially troubled cities and enact drastic austerity measures. Under the law, passed last March, these emergency managers can nullify labor contracts, privatize public services, sell off city property, and even dismiss elected officials.

Schimmel got to work quickly, firing the city clerk, city attorney, and director of public works and outsourcing several city departments. City fire fighters were told that they would be fired if their department was not absorbed by Waterford Township's. Schimmel has proposed putting nearly every city property up for sale, including city hall, the police station, fire stations, water-pumping stations, the library, the golf course, and two cemeteries...

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/02/michigan-emergency-manager-pontiac-detroit

[bobthedrummer]

6. Just like WALKER and his ALEC net here in Wisconsin MinM. Same fascist crap. n/t