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The State of Flint Under Emergency Management
Published by Defend Democracy
Rebuttal to Flint Mayor Dayne Walling 2014's State of the City address. It highlights the life of Flint residents living under the heinous Emergency Manager Law, ie. PA 436 of 2012.
The State of Flint Under Emergency Management 3/3/2014
In Flint, democracy is dead. What you just saw was not democracy in action, but a sham. The charter says that the mayor has to give a state of the city address at least once a year. First of all per Public Act 436 (the emergency manager law), the emergency manager replaces both the mayor and the city council. Also per PA 436, the emergency manger can choose which parts of the city charter to follow. So this “State of the City” address was done with the approval of the emergency manager. Without his approval, Mayor Walling wouldn’t have been able to give his speech.
With that said, the mayor gave his annual State of the City address mandated in the charter. But the charter says the mayor has to make proposals to the city council for dealing with Flint’s problems. The charter says that he has to uphold the law, including the charter, a document that Michigan courts call Flint’s constitution. The charter says that Flint’s residents must have an ombudsman to provide oversight and accountability. The charter says city council meets regularly and proposes ordinances. And just like Michigan’s constitution, Flint’s charter also says the mayor has to respect the rights guaranteed by collective bargaining agreements. Flint’s charter makes it a Promise Zone.
Democracy is what makes Flint work. Democracy doesn’t work without transparency and accountability. So the first thing that the emergency manager did was get rid of Flint’s ombudsman, even though the charter Walling talked about requires the ombudsman. Judge Damon Keith said, “Democracies die behind closed doors.” The new emergency manger’s Blue Ribbon Committee meets behind closed doors, planning Flint’s future in secret.
The mayor doesn’t care about the charter’s open meeting requirements, and
his own city attorney, one of the few employees the emergency manager kept on, says that Flint’s residents don’t have any right to be in those closed door meetings. So much for democracy. Welcome to Flint today, the city Rick Snyder calls “Murdertown,” a city where he killed democracy. And what killed it? Corporate favoritism and corruption has turned Flint into a broken promise zone. Today’s speech is a distraction, just like most of the M-Live headlines you read. The real story is between the lines
. The real rulers of Flint who meet behind closed doors with Rick Snyder’s donors just need a figurehead, and maybe someone to take the heat. Mayor Walling is just doing his job, but the people of Flint, the voters, he doesn’t answer to them. He answers to the emergency manager, and most of the time the emergency manager answers to Uptown Reinvestment and all of its shell corporations. It is just one big revolving door: Money goes in and out, just like Mike Brown did.
And if it isn’t Uptown and its subsidiaries, there are other corporations that donate to Snyder that the emergency manager can answer to. But he will never answer to us. Breaking promises frees up a lot of cash for those corporations. They play with your money just like the banks did. First came hikes in water and sewer fees. The emergency manager said it was to cover the cost of water, and Walling didn’t have a speech for you then. Turns out, they want to use it as a tax to plug the deficit that Rick Snyder’s buddies created. You remember that business tax cut? Well this is how they’re paying for it.
Then came the rest: illegal street light fees, garbage fees, the public safety millage, questionable fire sale of the garbage truck fleet and subsequent outsourcing of the sanitation department that effectively eliminated snow removal for the city; lying about the purpose of the water fee increases, which were intended to pay off the deficit from the outset; the theft of Community Development Block Grant dollars, which were taken from low and moderate income areas and given to Uptown Reinvestment Corporation, a multi-million dollar nepotistic “nonprofit”; an outrageous $450 water deposit fee for renters along with exorbitant water bills for all; and a demeaning and insulting “directive” singling out Councilman Mays that attempts to “put him in his place” by exerting illegitimate executive power and authority at the expense of the residents he was elected to represent. Rather than resolve these broken promises with the residents of Flint, the emergency manager has instead issued tax abatements to Uptown and their shell corporations, local family networks, and other corporate stakeholders. The lucrative lines for the Obsolete Property Rehabilitation Act were conveniently drawn around buildings owned by Uptown and the Mott Foundation. Further, $880,000 in Community Development Block Grant money was given to Uptown Development Corporation to assist with the demolition of Genesee Towers, a property they purchased from the emergency manager for $1.00. This is especially insulting considering that this money was earmarked for anti-poverty programs.
Take a look at Uptown’s assets; do those multi-millionaires need to steal from the poor? There’s a reason they call it vulture capitalism. Let’s not forget crime. Not corporate crime of course. Not the kind of crime that you solve through independent audits or by using the ombudsman, like the charter requires. Not the kind of crime solving that keeps democracy alive.
We’ve solved the violent crime problem instead: Instead of being the number one most violent city in America, we have now earned the dubious distinction of second place! Of course, this statistical calculation does not take into account the increased control, surveillance, and harassment of residents by Rick Snyder’s state police and other unaccountable agents of law enforcement who target select areas of the city. Our police officers are too busy worrying about real crime while the emergency manager threatens their pensions and health care. What does Walling have to say about that? The emergency manager has a solution: Pay for your own police. We ARE paying for our police through the public safety and community policing millages. Where are the police and where is the money going from those millages? Now the emergency manager wants you to donate to a private corporation that is being set up with a $9,000 grant from the City. Instead of putting that money towards a police officer’s salary or equipment or using a Flint-based community group to fundraise, the emergency manager chose Max Chiddister, a JP Morgan lobbyist hand-picked by the Republican Speaker for the House.
We were promised water independence in the form of joining the Karegnondi Water Authority. Though stripped of their powers, the city council created a water purchase agreement which was utterly ignored by the emergency manager, who passed on his own version to the governor. This contract, created without any democratic input, was called a “major risk” by an independent audit and raises serious questions about the so-called economic growth that will occur as a result of the pipeline. That same audit claimed Walling’s estimates for the cost of construction were $100 million short.
The risk is not just financial. We are already paying one of the highest water bills in the state, after all. But the same audit said that the lack of back up power systems could cause a major problem for delivery of water. But then, if we don’t have a say in government, and we don’t have a say in what we pay for water, we really don’t have any right to water, now do we?
Don’t be fooled: when the emergency manager leaves, our democratic rights will not be automatically reinstated. Instead we will get a transition advisory board, one that Rick Snyder will pick for us and there is no timetable. That means members of the board can serve indefinitely. Anything that the mayor and city council do is subject to a veto. The name has changed, but the game is the same. A rigged, lucrative game for oligarchs is not a democracy. But if we start demanding our rights back, well there are people that might lose some money. So the emergency manager is trying to rush through his “seven point” plan. He says if we want our rights back, we better agree, and we better follow the so-called “advisory” recommendations of his Blue Ribbon Committee.
Flint may be a broken promise zone right now, but Flint’s people are full of promise. Flint’s people gave birth to the middle class, and organized to help secure a future not only for themselves and their children, but also for the very people who spit on their legacy today, denigrate Flint behind closed doors and steal its money under the façade of “economic development.”
The dismantling of Democracy in Flint is poisonous and disruptive in our quest for jobs, safe neighborhoods, affordable water, and our ability to keep and enjoy the assets we have built and maintained over the years.
Flint’s democracy may be dead, but the people of Flint have worked miracles before.
This isn’t a real emergency, it’s made up. It is a manufactured scheme to take away the power from the people and hand it over to select special interests. We will not stand by and let Flint be sold to the lowest bidder. Working together, we will bring democracy back to life. Stand with us. Stand up for OUR democracy.
John Streby added this note|
I don't see much in the way of solutions, only complaints. Get serious and offer some ideas, not just complaints.
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