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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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Governor Rick Snyder’s million-dollar fund; why are donors a secret?
Posted: 11/19/2012
•By: Ross Jones By: Ross Jones
(WXYZ) - UPDATE: Following last night's 7 Action News Investigation, reporter Ross Jones was invited by the NERD Fund's board of directors to participate in their quarterly conference call, which took place this morning.
When asked to reconsider their decision not to disclose fund donors, board members said that they would not. According to fund president Charlie Secchia, donors were told that their names and the size of their donations would be reported to the IRS, but not to the media or public.
Secchia insisted that the fund, like Governor Snyder himself, is "squeaky clean," and helps to defray costs that would otherwise be paid by taxpayers.
Original report:
When he ran for Governor, Rick Snyder challenged voters to pick him over a slew of experienced politicians because he wasn’t one.
“The nerd,” as he called himself in political ads, won in a landslide. But just over a month after taking office, he borrowed a page from some of those politicians, starting a fund that could take in and spend all the money it wanted it to, all in secret.
His New Energy to Reinvent and Diversify—or NERD Fund—is the same kind of non-profit that others have gotten in trouble over.
The feds say Kwame Kilpatrick pillaged his: using it for things like ritzy vacations, political polling and hiding bribes.
Bob Ficano’s fund paid his old deputy, Turkia Mullin, a secret $75,000 salary, courtesy of the businesses that wanted county contracts. Non-profit experts like George Smith say these kinds of funds are easy to abuse.
“The money can come in, the money can be spent, and there’s no one to ever say: what are you doing with it,” Smith said.
That’s because unlike campaign funds, where politicians have to disclose who gives and how much, these non-profits operate in the shadows
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Snyder’s fund was founded to “lessen the burdens of government” and promote the state’s “common good.”
That includes buying a private security system for the Governor’s Ann Arbor home, and some new furniture, too, costing more than $130,000.
But that’s chump change when you see how just much the fund raised last year alone: more than $1.3 million. According to the fund’s president, funds were also raised to pay for the Governor and his staff to travel around the country to promote the state, and to help fight a recall effort that Snyder thought he might face last year. All the money comes from secret donors.
“You either have very strong convictions, or you want a favor,” said Smith.
“You must be getting something for the money you’re giving.”
Snyder’s office declined to supply 7 Action News with the names of donors to the fund, adding that no not-profit ever does. But that’s not true.
Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson supplied a list of his non-profits donors within hours. Wayne County Executive Bob Ficano’s Wayne County Business Development Corporation used to keep its donor list private, but began releasing it last year after a 7 Action News investigation.
Snyder’s decision to not release a list seems at odds with his public comments about making government more open.
“It’s absolutely critical that we have accountability and transparency in financial information,” Snyder said at an event earlier in his term.
“You might be the state’s biggest proponent for transparency, but donors to your NERD fund are a secret. Why is that?” asked 7 Action News Investigator Ross Jones.
“We’re complying with the law, this is just the normal practice,” Gov. Snyder responded.
Snyder wouldn’t agree to a sit-down interview. Instead, his office told us to find him at a public appearance. We did, and were allowed to ask only 2 questions.
“There’s nothing that exciting about it. We’re just following the rules and moving ahead,” Snyder said.
“If there’s nothing exciting or controversial about it, why not release the donors,” Jones asked.
“Well again, we’ve got so many different activities. We’re making sure we’re complying with the law,” Snyder responded, before being pulled away by an aide.
Our interview lasted 32 seconds.
“People don’t write 5, 6, 7 figure checks for selfless reasons,” said campaign finance expert Rich Robinson.
“Most of these people don’t want to be in the spotlight, they don’t want transparency for what they’re doing,” he said.
And to non-profit experts like George Smith, all that secrecy raises one troubling question.
“They’re trying to garner favors, and they don’t want the general public to know it,” he said.
“If you feel strongly about this fund, wouldn’t you be proud to say you’re giving this fund money? “
In addition to the Governor’s security system and new furniture, Snyder’s office also tells us that the fund paid for a new press auditorium at their Lansing offices and to sponsor an NAACP dinner
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Late Tuesday, 7 Action News was invited to listen in on the fund’s next quarterly conference call, taking place tomorrow. The fund’s president has also agreed to an interview after the holidays conclude this month.
If you have a tip for the 7 Action News Investigators, contact us at tips@wxyz.com or at (248) 827-9466.
Copyright 2012 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
•more: http://www.wxyz.com/dpp/news/governor-snyders-million-dollar-fund-why-are-donors-a-secret#ixzz2gDz8bHZJ |
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Sat Sep 28, 2013 4:24 pm |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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Secret school reform group works to design a for-profit school ...
www.eclectablog.com/2013/04/secret-school-reform-group-works-to...
Secret school reform group works to design a for-profit school model with Governor Snyder’s blessing
Secret school reform group works to design a for-profit school model with Governor Snyder’s blessing
By Eclectablog on April 20, 2013 in Corporatism, Education, Privatization, Rick Snyder
Okay, this stinks
Here’s the thing about the idea of giving Michigan parents vouchers to use at any school, public or private, to educate their kids: it’s unconstitutional. Twice in the past 35 years Michigan voters have shot down ballot proposals to allow the funneling of tax dollars into private, non-public schools. This, of course, doesn’t stop corporatist groups and individuals like the Mackinac Center or the DeVos family for pushing endlessly for a school voucher system and the shifting of tax money earmarked for education into for-profit corporations.
This past week the Detroit News did some fantastic investigative journalism and reported that a group of school reformers, a self-dubbed “skunk works“, has been meeting in secret with the Governor’s blessing to form a new sort of private school where kids will be educated on the cheap using a for-profit model and it will be paid for with vouchers. The best part? No educators are part of the group
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A secret work group that includes top aides to Gov. Rick Snyder has been meeting since December to develop a lower-cost model for K-12 public education with a funding mechanism that resembles school vouchers
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The education reform advisory team has dubbed itself a “skunk works” project working outside of the government bureaucracy and education establishment with a goal of creating a “value school” that costs $5,000 per child annually to operate, according to meeting minutes and reports obtained by The Detroit News … The school would seek to maximize the roughly $7,000 annual per-pupil funding regular schools get from taxpayers by applying “concepts familiar in the private sector — getting higher value for less money.”
John Austin, president of the State Board of Education, whose name is among those talked about as a potential candidate for Governor, knew nothing of the “skunk works” reform group. He’s suitably worried about their efforts:
The initiative is “very unnerving” given the history of Lansing lawyer Richard McLellan, a work group member, in pursuing vouchers, said John Austin, president of the State Board of Education, who was unaware of the “skunk works” project. A voucher system lets parents use tax dollars to choose between private and public schools — something prohibited by the state Constitution
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“This is disturbing to hear of secret group meetings,” Austin said. “That reflects the ideology and political agenda of the creation of a for-profit and parallel enterprise market for schools. Part of its goal is to take down the education establishment: superintendents, school boards and teachers unions.”
The group consists mainly of information technology experts along with anti-public school/anti-union reformers McLellan ensuring that their final recommendations will be aimed at privatizing the education of kids to corporate entities who will use cyber schools and computer learning models to achieve another “concept familiar in the private sector”: corporate profits. However, these profits will come directly from tax payers as the privatized schools cherry-pick the students with the best potential to fatten their bottom line, leaving special needs students and poor school districts behind to fight over an even smaller pool of funds.
The secretive group is headed up by Governor Snyder’s chief information officer, David Behen, one of five state employees on the panel. Behen says the group isn’t being secretive despite the fact that members were asked to use private email addresses “because it’s just easier”. Just why it’s easier to use one email address over another is unclear. What IS clear, however, is that the group was, indeed, secret until the Detroit News broke the story, and they wanted it to remain that way. The secrecy has elicited strong responses from educators and their union leaders across Michigan:
Four state government employees, including the state’s chief information and technology officers, were directed to use private email accounts to correspond on the project, according to records obtained by The News.
Snyder, who has made government transparency a top priority since taking office in 2011, said questions about the education reform team’s discreet actions were “overblown.”
But school groups slammed Snyder for endorsing an aide’s deliberate decision not to involve teachers and administrators in an education reform project
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“I thought we were beyond the Watergate secrecy, all kinds of things being done in a clandestine fashion,” said William Mayes, executive director of the Michigan Association of School Administrators.
Mayes said the secretive group’s deliberations leaves “a dark mark on (Snyder’s) tremendous legacy.”
Steve Cook, president of the Michigan Education Association had some pointed words, as well:
Snyder’s secret group deliberately shut out input from educators in favor of information technology companies who stand to make money off this scheme. This is a direct attempt to undermine elected school boards, principals and school employees, and it’s a slap in the face to teachers and education support professionals, who work tirelessly to educate our children every day
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Rather than holding secret meetings with corporate special interests to concoct new school voucher schemes and value-meal education, Snyder should be making the proper funding of our kids’ schools a top priority.
Michigan kids deserve a world-class education – not a dime store diploma.
Here’s
David Hecker of the American Federation of Teachers
Michigan:
This report indicates that Gov. Snyder and Lansing Republicans are now acting in secret to continue their work to undermine public education. First they cut $1 billion from K12 schools to give a $1.8 billion tax cut to big banks and insurance companies, then they cut a backroom deal to force through right to work, locking citizens out of the Capitol and accepting no input from Michigan workers and families.
Now we learn that Gov. Snyder’s administration has been holding secret meetings with corporate special interests to hatch a risky new voucher scheme that has been twice rejected by Michigan voters, because it shortchanges students. The idea that we would hand the keys to even more of our schools over to for-profit companies when nearly 50% of new businesses fail within five years is not what is best for our students.
Instead of setting education policy in smoke-filled rooms with lobbyists and lawyers, we need our elected leaders to start working together with teachers to invest in education and help our kids succeed. The Snyder Administration must be committed to transparency and inclusiveness to ensure that kids receive the world-class education they deserve
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I’m becoming more and more alarmed by the corporatist takeover of Michigan. It’s something I expected when Rick Snyder was elected but it’s happening on a much more profound level than I thought possible. Now that we learn that members of his staff and administration are actively working in secret to undermine public education to help provide yet another income source for private businesses, it’s time Michigan voters demand accountability from our governor. He was elected to run our state in a way that creates “more and better jobs” and provides the services we expect from our tax dollars. Those tax dollars aren’t a plum for him and his administration to award to private corporations under the guise of “efficiency
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If Governor Snyder wants to run the government like a business, that’s his prerogative. What is NOT his prerogative is to turn our government over to business, whether it’s the education of our students, the incarceration of our prisoners or the delivery of essential public services like fire and police protection.
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Sat Sep 28, 2013 4:27 pm |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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Governor Snyder’s office and corporate interests conspire in ...
markmaynard.com/2013/04/governor-snyders-office-and-corporate...
Governor Snyder’s office and corporate interests conspire in “secret work group” to bring voucher system to Michigan K-12 education
Governor Snyder’s office and corporate interests conspire in “secret work group” to bring voucher system to Michigan K-12 education
By Mark | April 20, 2013
In November, I told you about an attempt on the part of the Michigan Republicans to create a parallel, for-profit education system, right alongside the Michigan public school system, unanswerable to anyone, save for an appointee of the Governor. Well, according to a report in yesterday’s Detroit News, things are progressing quickly thanks to the efforts of a “secret work group” composed of members of the Governor’s staff, representatives of the Koch-funded Mackinac Center for Public Policy, and the leaders of several for-profit corporations, like Royal Oak’s Vectorform, Ann Arbor’s InfoReady, Grand Rapids’ Huizenga Group, and Troy’s Billhighway. The secret task force of 20, according to the News, had only one educator, Paul Galbenski, the Oakland Schools business teacher who won Michigan’s Educator of the Year award in 2011, but he quit the group after coming to the realization that they weren’t looking to improve our existing schools, but to create something “outside of the Michigan public school system” altogether. The following clip comes by way of the Detroit News.
…The education reform advisory team has dubbed itself a “skunk works” project working outside of the government bureaucracy and education establishment with a goal of creating a “value school” that costs $5,000 per child annually to operate, according to meeting minutes and reports obtained by The Detroit News.
The records show designers of the “value school” are in talks with Bay Mills Community College about opening a technology-centric charter school by August 2014. The school would seek to maximize the roughly $7,000 annual per-pupil funding regular schools get from taxpayers by applying “concepts familiar in the private sector — getting higher value for less money.”
Other records distributed to group members indicate they want to explore using fewer teachers and more instruction through long-distance video conferencing. Each “value school” student would receive a “Michigan Education Card” to pay for their “tuition” — similar to the electronic benefits transfer used to distribute food stamps and cash assistance for the poor.
Students could use leftover money on the “EduCard” for high school Advanced Placement courses, music lessons, sport team fees, remedial education or cyber courses, according to an outline of the advisory team’s agenda.
Snyder confirmed Thursday the existence of the work group, but told The News “there is not a specific outcome” for the project…
And, when they say “leftover money,” they don’t, as I understand it, mean the balance of the $7,000 which is to be allotted per-pupil at the beginning of the school year, but the balance of those funds which remain after the above-mentioned for-profit entities take their cut, which, I’ve heard, is likely to be about $2,000 per student. So, essentially, according to this vision, we’ll be educating our children for $5,000 per year, and handing $2,000 over to the companies running the system. And, if kids should happen to use less than that $5,000, they’ll be given the balance on their “EduCard”, so they can do extracurricular things like purchase online American history modules of questionable value from the likes of Mike Huckabee.
Michigan Education Association (MEA) President Steve Cook had the following to say when made aware of the secret initiative.
…The members of this self-defined ‘skunk works’ come from the same political and corporate interests who pushed through a tax break for themselves that was paid for by a $1 billion cut to our children’s schools. Now they’re developing a secret plan to cheapen our kids’ education and replace teachers with teleconferencing. Their skunk works moniker is very accurate – this plan truly stinks.
Their goal to create so-called ‘value schools’ would spend less than half what we currently spend to educate a student, putting those remaining meager funds on debit cards for parents and students to purchase their learning – not unlike food stamps. Such schools would use long-distance video conferencing instead of qualified, professional teachers working with students.
Snyder’s secret group deliberately shut out input from educators in favor of information technology companies who stand to make money off this scheme. This is a direct attempt to undermine elected school boards, principals and school employees, and it’s a slap in the face to teachers and education support professionals, who work tirelessly to educate our children every day.
Rather than holding secret meetings with corporate special interests to concoct new school voucher schemes and value-meal education, Snyder should be making the proper funding of our kids’ schools a top priority.
Michigan kids deserve a world-class education – not a dime store diploma.
It’s also worth noting that the use of so-called vouchers is presently illegal according to the Michigan constitution, which clearly says that public aid cannot be directed toward non-public schools. And the voters of Michigan overwhelmingly rejected constitutional amendments in 1978 and 2000 that would have changed that. Clearly, though, Snyder and company feel as though they have a way around the little problem of illegality.
So, just to recap… We’re presently not able to adequately educate our kids for $7,000 per pupil, so we’re going to try a radical solution. Instead of hiring better teachers, putting kids in smaller classrooms, and investing more, we’re going to fire experienced (and thus more costly) teachers, and invest significantly less. And we’re going to “empower” our students by giving them a choice as to which online edutainment service they choose to sign up for (the one sponsored by Taco Bell, or the one sponsored by Coke). The unfettered free market, you see, will solve everything. All we have to do is remove teachers from the equation.
On a side note, I find it kind of ironic that these same Republicans who are now fighting so hard to get quality educational content streaming into the cubicles of Michigan’s students are the same ones who demand every year that we slash the budget of Sesame Street, the one program which has actually been shown to improve the intellectual aptitude of children… I hate to by cynical, but I have to wonder if maybe it’s not the quality of the content they really care about, or event the education of the students themselves, but the potential revenue that they represent.
And, before you leave a comment about how this wasn’t being done in secret, you should know that it’s been reported that Snyder’s Chief Information Officer, David Behen, asked members of this group to communicate by way of their private email accounts, and not their state ones, which would be more easily accessible by way of FOIA. That, I think, says it all.
Oh, and here’s a great quote, if you want a laugh. It comes from Governor Snyder himself: “Michigan’s citizens are tired of the divisive political culture in Lansing. Midnight deals, closed doors meetings, lobbyists, and special interest influence have stood in the way of long-term solutions. As Governor, I will ensure that government is open, fair, and accountable to the citizens by making Michigan a national leader in transparency and ethics.”
Lastly, I don’t have the time to dig too deeply into this at the moment, but a cursory search shows me that InfoReady CEO Bhushan Kulkarni was among the top contributors to Snyder’s campaign for Governor. Make of that what you will…
This entry was posted in Education, Michigan, Politics, Uncategorized and tagged Bay Mills Community College, Bhushan Kulkarni, charter schools, David Behen, dismantling of public education, distance education, EduCard, edutainment, keeping the poor from education, Mackinac Center for Public Policy, MEA, Michigan Education Association, Michigan Education Card, Mike Huckabee, Oxford Foundation, public education, public school teachers, Rick Snyder, school vouchers, Steve Cook, teachers, threats to public education, top secret, trends in American education, value school. Bookmark the permalink. Post a comment or leave a trackback: Trackback URL.
Edward
Posted April 20, 2013 at 8:36 pm | Permalink
The people of Michigan soundly defeated the Emergency Manager legislation in the polls, but yet we still have Emergency Managers. Our votes mean nothing. We’ve got down vouchers twice, and it won’t matter. They’ll find a way. This is too important to them. Privatizing schools will kill the teachers union, and rob the Michigan Democratic Party of one of its most reliable sources for funds and volunteers. This is a win, win, win for Snyder and company. It kills the union, it puts tax dollars into the pockets of his donors, and it keeps the population stupid.
wobblie
Posted April 21, 2013 at 5:55 am | Permalink
The four state employees are obviously doing this as part of their jobs. Using “private” emails means in fact that the “private” emails are now state property. The laws are such that if you use your personal email in the course of your officials duties, they now become state property. This does not protect them from public disclosure, it only makes it more difficult. The MEA, and what passes for journalist in this state should be filing FOIA demands on all of the participants demanding that they turn over all emails associated with this state function. We long ago stripped employees of the ability to protect their emails. If anyone used state resource, say a work computer, we can determine all the other email addresses. Michigan assistant attorney general Andrew Shirvell thought that using his private email would protect him, but since he used a state computer to access his emails—he lost his job and the subsequent law suit.
anonymous
Posted April 21, 2013 at 6:10 am | Permalink
So, the rich will get their $5,000 from the state, whether it comes in the form of a voucher or an education card, and they’ll spend their money at the private schools of their choice, which likely have tuitions of more than double that, meaning that the poor they’re looking to “empower” won’t have that same option. Instead, they’ll be shunted off to a for-profit teleconferencing center somewhere overseen by an armed guard instead of a teacher. very amazing.
Topher
Posted April 21, 2013 at 6:29 am | Permalink
The scary part to me, as a teacher, isn’t that there are possible reforms to public education – the scary part for me is that much of this is being pushed through with very little thought in regard to research and also in regard to how this system would logistically work (or not work).
As someone who has taught in private school, I wonder what parents of students in high socio-economic levels would think of putting their children in ‘value schools’ where technology drives the school (the implication here is that much of the instruction would happen via a computer and some type of assessment through a computer). I can say that the teachers and leaders that I worked with in private school would laugh out loud at this idea as ridiculous for their student population – private schools know that what they offer is one-on-one time and instruction to students, a clear sense of unique culture, and small class sizes that allow for each student to work at his/her pace with direct instruction from the teacher.
Peter Ruddell, of The Oxford Foundation, talked at the State Board of Education community forum very openly about the fact that he was not commissioned to think about the logistics of PEFA (Public Education Finance Act). He said that the governor asked him and The Oxford Foundation to write the legislature in order to push it through. You can watch his fumbling explanations here: http://blip.tv/ctnannarbor/the-future-of-education-6560753
There are much smarter ways to offer choices to students (such as the Early College Alliance at EMU). Simply having choices (when it comes to education), when they’re poorly thought out choices, does not seem to be good options to me.
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Oliva
Posted April 21, 2013 at 9:27 am | Permalink
Such a sick, sordid history of school voucher efforts in this country, notably in Virginia after Brown v. Board of Education, so it’s completely disgusting that Eric Cantor of Virginia is leading the push for school vouchers. And Snyder, who benefited enormously from public education, is a skunk all right. The tricksters call this publicly funded re-segregation scheme, with its potent built-in union-busting assurances, “school choice,” counting on Americans’ willingness to forget even recent history.
Here’s a long passage re. immediate post-Brown v. Board of Education efforts by white Virginians to implement the school voucher system to avoid integrating the public schools:
“Massive Resistance” to Integration
In the South and elsewhere, reaction to the Brown decision is swift and negative (in some cases violently so). Virginia is ruled by Senator Harry Byrd’s political machine, and he issues a “Southern Manifesto” calling for “Massive Resistance” to school integration (and, by implication, rigid maintenance of all other forms of racial segregation).
[Note that Senator Harry Byrd is not related to the equally pro-segregation Senator Robert Byrd of neighboring West Virginia.]
Byrd’s “Massive Resistance” strategy to maintain school segregation is widely adopted by school boards and state governments throughout the South, and by 1956 more than 100 southern office-holders have signed the manifesto. In Virginia, for example, the 1954 the Democratic Party gubernatorial campaign platform resolves that, “The state [will] oppose it [integration] with every facility at our command, and with every ounce of our energy.”
The details of “Massive resistance” to school integration vary from state to state and county to county. In Virginia, for example, it includes:
Enactment of state laws eliminating funding — or closing — integrated public schools, and allowing the state to seize and close any school that dares to integrate.
The power to assign students to specific schools is removed from local school boards and placed in a state-wide board of appointees who, of course, refuse to assign any Black child to a previously all-white school.
When schools are closed to prevent integration, white students are issued grants (today they’re called “vouchers”) that can be used to pay tuition for segregated private schooling because private school segregation was not prohibited by the Brown decision.
Tax credits are also granted to parents who send their children to segregated private schools.
Laws are enacted allowing local school boards to use public funds to pay for transporting white students to segregated private schools.
Teachers who attended college on state scholoarships that require them to teach in Virginia’s public schools are allowed to fulfill their obligation by teaching in segregated private schools, and to continue participating in the state teacher retirement system while doing so.
When the Court of Appeals overturns the law allowing the state to close integrated schools, the legislature repeals the state-wide compulsory school-attendance law. In effect, this means that counties are no longer required to provide public schools, and they can choose to close their schools if they wish to do so. Counties are permitted to pass local compulsory attendence laws if they so desire, but county-level compulsory attendance laws are required to allow parents to withdraw their children from integrated schools, even if no other schooling is available.
Alabama Attorney General (and later Governor) John Patterson explained it this way:
We concluded then that we could never win the legal battle, that you could not square a dual [school] system of that sort under our federal Constitution. … and that the best thing for us to do would be to never admit that, of course, but to fight a delaying action in the courts. … delay every way we could do it. … avoid having a decision made in court, if possible, at all costs, anticipating that the decision would be against us. Now this was our approach. … so that they’d [Blacks] have to take us on, on a broad front, in a multitude of cases. — John Patterson. [4]
Virginia’s Prince Edward County (site of the Student Strike at Moton High that helped initiate the desegregation movement) becomes a model for “Massive Resistance” on the part of the white authorities. A new and larger Moton High School is built in 1954 in an effort to show that the school board is providing “separate but equal” facilities to Blacks. The old Moton High buildings are converted to a Black elementary school. This ploy, the new state laws, and the Supreme Court’s 1955 “All Deliberate Speed” decision, allow Prince Edward county to maintain segregation for more than a decade.
–http://www.crmvet.org/tim/timhis54.htm
A little more from the end of a piece on Cantor leading the school “choice”–read: publicly funded re-segregation–efforts:
In short, a child of privilege aiding other children of privilege with tax dollars. I want what I want when I want it,” indeed. Sadly, nothing new now. It was Kurt Vonnegut who said “True terror is to wake up one morning and discover that your high school class is running the country.” Boy, was he right.
–guest blogger Mark Esposito,
http://jonathanturley.org/2013/03/17/eric-cantor-and-the-gops-assault-on-public-schools/
Meta
Posted April 21, 2013 at 11:37 am | Permalink
Your comment about Coke and Taco Bell may not be too far off the mark.
From the Washington Post:
Talk about corporate-based school reform. New high-stakes standardized tests aligned with the Common Core State Standards are featuring plugs for commercial products. And the companies didn’t have to pay a penny.
Yes, New York state students who this past week took Pearson-designed exams were just treated to plugs for LEGO, Mug Root Beer and more products from at least half a dozen companies, according to the New York Post.
One teacher who administered the test was quoted as saying: “I’ve been giving this test for eight years and have never seen the test drop trademarked names in passages — let alone note the trademark at the bottom of the page.”
Read more:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/04/20/new-standardized-tests-feature-plugs-for-commercial-products
Edward
Posted April 23, 2013 at 8:19 am | Permalink
They’re saying the group is disbanding, which I’m sure doesn’t mean anything. But, still, it’s a recognition that they know people are watching.
From the Detroit News:
Michigan’s school chief on Monday urged the disbanding of a work group that has been secretly developing ways to lower the cost of public education through technology and a funding mechanism that resembles vouchers.
Mike Flanagan, state superintendent of public instruction, said he was pulling a Department of Education employee off the work group on the same day Gov. Rick Snyder began distancing himself from the project started by his administration’s chief information officer, David Behen.
Flanagan assigned education technology specialist Bruce Umpstead to work on the project at Behen’s request, but said he didn’t know the group had a controversial plan to develop a “value school” that delivers a lower-cost education at $5,000 per child annually.
“Minimally, the perception is a problem,” Flanagan told The Detroit News. “If I could advise (Behen) … start over and try to assure transparency and try to assure that you’re doing the right thing. … If I were him, I’d reorganize it.”
The News first reported Friday the education reform advisory team has been working on a months-long project it dubbed “skunk works.” Umpstead joined after Behen and three other state employees began using private emails to correspond on the project with software and technology companies and charter school advocates in the group.
“In government work, we have to be overly worried about transparency,” Flanagan said after speaking here Monday at the 18th annual Governor’s Education Summit.
Flanagan, who works directly for the State Board of Education, appeared in conflict over the issue with Snyder, who defended the concept of government employees working on an education reform project that, until Friday, was secret.
“I don’t want to be in a position of saying people shouldn’t bring me ideas,” Snyder told reporters Monday.
But Snyder tried to distance himself from the group’s work, saying “it’s not an official function of the government” and criticizing the emphasis on being a “skunk works” — a term used in the business world for secret projects unhampered by a bureaucracy.
“Their choice of names wasn’t a good choice,” said Snyder, adding, “I haven’t been part of this process at all.”
Government employees often use private email addresses to evade public records laws, but the practice is not illegal, said Jane Briggs-Bunting, president of the Michigan Coalition for Open Government.
“There’s nothing in Michigan (law) that would prevent them using private email accounts,” said Briggs-Bunting, a media attorney.
Democrats and school groups have criticized the Snyder administration about the group’s white paper that envisions a “Michigan Education Card” debit card for students to use for attending the “value school,” paying for Advanced Placement courses, music lessons, sports team fees, and remedial or cyber courses.
Behen’s group is using private email addresses because it works best with a project management program the group is using for its “brainstorming,” said Kurt Weiss, spokesman for the state’s Department of Technology, Management and Budget.
“So there is no plan to change that approach,” Weiss said in an email. “With people on the group from different walks of life, not just state government, it makes sense to use those tools.”
Flanagan suggested Behen reorganize, but Weiss said the group will continue “to come up with new ideas for using technology to help educate our children.”
The group will seek a replacement for Umpstead from the education community, Weiss said.
Another educator, Paul Galbenski of Oakland Schools’ career and technical education program, has said he left the group after realizing it was “discussing a special kind of school being created outside of the Michigan public school system.”
In an interview with The News last week, Behen acknowledged some of the volunteer group’s work has been conducted during normal business hours, though most meetings occur during evenings and on Saturdays at private businesses.
Speaking before 650 educators and business leaders attending the conference, Flanagan acknowledged the “tension” in the room among educators about the emergence of the group’s documented goal to deliver education for $2,000 a year less than traditional school districts.
Flanagan told educators he’s going to form his own group, dubbed “chipmunk works,” to help the state’s 2 million schoolchildren better navigate career choices — a central theme of the conference.
Thom Houseman, a retired teacher, said The News’ revelation of the “skunk works” group’s development of a debit card overshadowed the governor’s intent to link talent with job providers.
“It is a voucher. Call it a coupon,” Houseman said. “It’s a way around the Constitution.”
Snyder said in opening remarks at the summit 60,000 job openings exist on the state’s employment website, mitalent.org, that would lower the state’s 8.5 percent jobless rate to 7 percent if they could all be filled.
Snyder said a talented work force is Michigan’s “most precious asset,” but there are shortcomings in the state and national education systems.
“We’ve built a system that doesn’t help people anymore in terms of helping people being successful,” Snyder said.
“We need to do something different.”
From The Detroit News:
http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20130423/SCHOOLS/304230341#ixzz2RIAjKgKz
Edward
Posted April 24, 2013 at 3:46 pm | Permalink
Our “fellow citizens”, by a huge margin, also voted against the Emergency Manager Act, Brainless. But, somehow, we’re still dealing with that. I feel justified in holding Snyder responsible. People may have voted for him, but he didn’t run on a platform of pushing through right to work legislation and ignoring the will of the voters.
Knox
Posted May 3, 2013 at 8:38 am | Permalink
It looks like Snyder’s pledge to be transparent was bullshit. The Detroit News is finding evidence of even more secret committees.
A growing number of unofficial committees are being created in state government to help craft policy, a development highlighted by the revelation nearly two weeks ago of secret meetings by a group focused on developing a low-cost charter school.
Work groups or task forces in the capital city are not new. But some Lansing observers argue their use has increased under Gov. Rick Snyder, who has tried to introduce a business-like management to state government.
In the last legislative session, there were publicly known work groups on juvenile sentencing, increasing transportation funding, oil and natural gas extraction policy and reforming Michigan’s medical marijuana law. Only the marijuana task force led to legal changes, including clarifications on rules for patients wanting to register to use pot and more restrictions on medical marijuana providers.
The emergence of task forces working on state policy ideas has ignited a debate on whether they promote or damage democracy.
“New ideas and work groups can be a good thing and an instrumental part of a healthy democracy,” said Snyder spokeswoman Sara Wurfel. “These efforts are focused on providing better and more effective service to our customers, the 10 million residents of Michigan.”
Critics counter that work groups are becoming increasingly used in this era of legislative and executive branch term limits to shield the public from governmental deliberations.
Snyder’s Council on Law Enforcement and Reinvention recently received publicity after the Lansing newsletter Michigan Information & Research Service reported about the group’s study of possible consolidation of 911 call centers, despite the absence of emergency dispatchers on the 16-person panel.
“I understand that sometimes you can get more things done if you don’t go through all of the cumbersome processes of democracy, but I think it’s really a disservice to the people,” said Senate Minority Leader Gretchen Whitmer, D-East Lansing.
Read more:
http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20130502/POLITICS02/305020312#ixzz2SEiv3hed |
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Sat Sep 28, 2013 4:37 pm |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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Consultants' contracts soar to more than $62 million for Detroit bankruptcy
5:25 AM, September 29, 2013
By Matt Helms and Joe Guillen
Detroit Free Press Staff Writers
EM Kevyn Orr hasn't kept promises of complete transparency
Contracts approved for consultants and lawyers advising emergency manager Kevyn Orr’s team as it restructures city government and prepares for a likely Chapter 9 bankruptcy have skyrocketed to at least $62 million, with some firms getting more than $10-million increases, according to records reviewed by the Free Press.
The documents, obtained with a Freedom of Information Act request, show an increase of as much as $45 million for consulting and legal work above the initial contracts that were signed in recent months and shared with the City Council. The bills are an early indicator of just how expensive the bankruptcy case may end up being for the city and state and raise anew an often-asked question: How can a city that’s broke afford pricey lawyers and consultants?
Meanwhile, legal experts say the tab likely will rise even more if a federal judge finds Detroit eligible to enter bankruptcy, a battle that begins in earnest in federal court on Oct. 23.
■ Related: Detroit's restructing: Which companies received contracts
■ Related: EM Kevyn Orr hasn't kept promises of complete transparency
■ Related: Graphic: Restructuring costs for the City of Detroit
Orr’s spokesman and others say it’s money well spent on high-powered lawyers and consultants battling creditors who are fighting for every penny they can get from a city Orr says has no money to pay its choking debts and liabilities.
“The fact of the matter is, we can’t afford not to,” his spokesman, Bill Nowling, said Friday. “They have expertise in a whole host of areas that we need for the restructuring and in bankruptcy court. We’re literally trying to do five decades of restructuring in 12 months.”
Two firms — restructuring consultant Conway MacKenzie of Birmingham and Jones Day, the Washington, D.C., law firm from which Orr resigned when he was appointed emergency manager in March — were given contract extensions as Detroit moved from a position of trying to avoid bankruptcy to capitulating and filing a Chapter 9 petition in July.
■ How Detroit went broke: The answers may surprise you - and don't blame Coleman Young
■ Full coverage: Detroit’s financial crisis
Conway MacKenzie’s contract grew to $19.3 million from an initial $4.2 million. Jones Day, originally contracted for $3.3 million, now may be paid up to $18 million, according to previously undisclosed documents obtained by the Free Press.
Other recipients of large contracts include Ernst & Young, which has conducted a cash-flow analysis for the city, and Miller Buckfire, the New York-based investment bank whose copresident, Kenneth Buckfire, is the city’s lead financial adviser. Both firms have received contracts that have reached or exceeded $8 million, records show.
Ernst & Young’s initial contract in 2011 was for $1 million, but the firm’s assignments grew as Detroit’s financial condition deteriorated throughout 2012, records show. Miller Buckfire’s initial contract in early 2013 was for $1.8 million for financial analysis, and its role has expanded to include liability restructuring and assistance to Orr in preparing the city’s Chapter 9 plan of adjustment, the statement of how Detroit plans to emerge from bankruptcy.
Council doesn't know?
Under the state’s emergency manager law, Public Act 436, Orr isn’t required to seek council approval for contracts or contract changes. Earlier this year, he pledged to share that information with the council. But that was not done with many of the most recent contracts.
City Council President Saunteel Jenkins, shown copies of contracts and amendments, including the $15-million increase for Conway MacKenzie, said Friday she was troubled that top city officials and administrators haven’t been privy to new and amended contracts.
“It’s really disturbing that Conway MacKenzie would get a contract for more than $19 million when we don’t even have 19 pages of what they’ve done so far,” Jenkins said. “I don’t know what value they’ve brought thus far, and nobody’s been able to articulate it.”
Nowling denied that the contracts haven’t been made available to city officials.
“All the contracts are public record,” Nowling said. “They’re all available. Council has the right and the ability to speak with Kevyn whenever they want to.”
Mayor Dave Bing declined to comment Friday through a spokesman.
The documents do not include contracts with lawyers hired for a committee representing Detroit’s retirees in a battle over pension benefits, the legal fees for which Orr agreed that the city will pay even though Detroit wasn’t legally required to do so. Legal fees also will rise if, as some analysts fear, Detroit’s bankruptcy doesn’t go as quickly as Orr had hoped.
Bankruptcy proceedings are always costly, and experts and lawyers have warned for months that Detroit’s tab for legal representation could reach into the hundreds of millions of dollars as the city tries to pare down decades of accumulated bond debts and liabilities for worker health care and retiree pensions.
The city’s 23,500 retirees are bracing for cuts to make up for as much as $3.5 billion in underfunding for the city’s general employee and police and fire pension systems. On Thursday, Orr released an audit that found significant fraud and mismanagement in the two pension systems and called for freezing pension benefits and moving city workers to 401(k)-style plans.
The source of cash
Outside court, Orr is leading an effort to fundamentally change how Detroit city government operates, with proposals to spin off the Public Lighting and Water and Sewerage departments, sell the city’s parking operations, lease Belle Isle to the state and revamp Detroit’s outdated tax collections and employee payroll systems. Costs associated with contracts for private-sector consultants advising on the restructuring — some approved before Orr arrived in Detroit — are rising, too
.
Nowling said bankruptcy doesn’t mean Detroit doesn’t have revenue coming in, and Orr boosted the city’s bottom line in June when he warned that the city would stop payments to unsecured creditors. The move, part of a strategy to keep the city functioning, also freed up cash to pay for city services and long-term reinvestment of perhaps $1.5 billion in the city
Nowling said that’s also where Orr expects to raise the bulk of the cash the city will need to pay lawyers and consultants working to restructure Detroit and navigate the city through bankruptcy.
Doug Bernstein, who leads the banking, bankruptcy and creditors’ rights practice at the Plunkett Cooney law firm in Bloomfield Hills, said it’s hard for anyone to gauge what fees are reasonable in a matter as complex as Detroit’s bankruptcy.
Comparisons are difficult. In corporate bankruptcies such as those of Lehman Brothers or Enron, legal fees exceeded $1 billion. But Detroit’s public-sector bankruptcy is the largest of its kind in U.S. history. In the next closest municipal bankruptcy, Jefferson County, Ala., filed for Chapter 9 protection in 2011 with $4.2 billion in debts. Jefferson County paid out $38 million in legal fees as of July 31, not including fees paid to consultants and others.
“You don’t really have a measuring stick because we’ve never had a municipal bankruptcy of this magnitude,” Bernstein said. “From a public perception, any amount is too much. But you need the best of the best. It’s of significant importance nationally and internationally, so you’re not going to see the guy who works for $150 an hour. You’re attracting the big multinational firms and their best and brightest.”
And, as Detroit is finding out, the best and brightest don’t come cheap.
Top lawyers for Jones Day are billing Detroit as much as $1,000 per hour. Smaller firms, such as Pepper Hamilton, are charging Detroit $200 an hour for paralegals and $800 an hour for attorneys. Ernst & Young charges $185 an hour for lower-level staff and $805 for top-tier employees working on Detroit’s restructuring.
Jones Day, as the city’s lead bankruptcy law firm, took on outsized new duties when Detroit filed for Chapter 9. Conway MacKenzie, meanwhile, has been given added roles in restructuring the city’s pensions, negotiating with creditors and hiring interim managers to lead city government functions through Orr’s restructuring, records show.
A running tally compiled by the city shows that, as of Monday, Detroit spent nearly $18.7 million of the $62 million authorized to the consultants and law firms. Of the 15 consultants and firms, plus two others the Free Press reviewed that weren’t included in the official tally, 13 have received approval for amended contracts since Orr came into office. Some of the consultants were hired by the city in the months leading up to or during the year the city was subject to a consent agreement with the state that aimed to prevent a bankruptcy Detroit ultimately couldn’t avoid.
Ed McNeil, special assistant to the president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 25, Detroit’s largest municipal union, said that city workers and residents are being asked to bear the brunt of the city’s bankruptcy through reduced services and cuts to benefits.
“The amount of money that’s being spent on those contracts is enormous, and the people don’t know anything about it,” McNeil said. “The citizens and workers are taking the brunt of what’s happening, and the only ones who aren’t losing out are the consultants and contractors who are making millions of dollars. This whole thing was set up to take over the assets of the City of Detroit.”
Within expected costs
Still, the $62 million in contracts represents less than half a percent of the $18 billion in debts and liabilities on Detroit’s books, and Nowling said the fees amount to a down payment for a city that will emerge from bankruptcy with significantly lower debt and the ability to pay for vastly improved lighting, police and fire and other public services.
The tab so far “falls within expectations, especially when you compare it to the size of the restructuring we’re trying to do,” Nowling said. “Our goal is to be done by this time next year. I think that we’re being very frugal and very conscious that we are watching these consultant dollars like a hawk, because we want to make sure we can justify the expense and, more importantly, that we can keep them at a reasonable level. We think we’re doing that so far.”
Other contracts included $622,000 for the Manhattan Institute, the agency Orr hired to work with new Police Chief James Craig to revamp the Detroit Police Department; $250,000 for Christie’s Appraisals to evaluate the worth of hundreds of works of art at the Detroit Institute of Arts; $211,000 for public relations work for Duffey Petrosky, through which Nowling is employed under contract as Orr’s spokesman, and $90,000 for R R Donnelley, which set up a secure online “data room” through which creditors have access to the city’s financial books, information not made available to the general public. Records show the state is paying that company’s contract.
The documents also show the city has approved contracts with other law firms totaling nearly $3 million.
The contracts reviewed did not include direct staff Orr has hired on personal service contracts. They include former Detroit Councilman Gary Brown as restructuring chief and Jim Bonsall, chief financial officer, both of whom make $225,000 a year, along with Shani Penn, Orr’s chief of staff who formerly worked as chief of staff to Councilman James Tate, for $90,000, and senior adviser Sonya Mays for $75,000.
Contact Matt Helms: 313-222-1450 or mhelms@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter www.twitter.com/matthelms. |
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Sun Sep 29, 2013 6:39 am |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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October 8, 2013 at 1:00 am
Daniel Howes
Governor's credibility hinges on openness
Daniel Howes
Gov. Rick Snyder’s bias for speed may be headed for a collision with transparency.
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Stephen Rhodes is expected to decide today whether the state should be forced to divulge the names of candidates for the job now held by Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr. Later this week, the governor and top deputies are set to be deposed by lawyers representing labor unions in the city’s historic Chapter 9 bankruptcy.
And all of that follows ongoing internal deliberations to decide whether the administration should disclose the names of donors to the governor’s NERD fund. The non-profit civic fund, officially the New Energy to Reinvent and Diversify fund, is footing the bills for the emergency manager and raising suspicion about its donors.
If the administration truly has nothing to hide, as it claims, this call on the NERD bucks should be a no-brainer. Doing otherwise, all while professing a commitment to transparency, undermines the governor’s credibility in this highly charged case and slows a process needing every week it can get.
That’s a problem. Even as Rhodes demonstrates his own bias for speed — witness his aggressive courtroom calendar and his use of a half-dozen federal judges-turned-mediators under Chief U.S. District Judge Gerald Rosen of Michigan’s eastern district — his crisp rulings guarantee nothing.
That’s why the governor and his team decided against claiming executive privilege to dodge the depositions, and why they should divulge the NERD donors sooner rather than later. If Orr, his bankruptcy counsel and restructuring teams are expected to press ahead with the Chapter 9 case and the city workout, Snyder’s office concluded claiming privilege would have the opposite effect.
They’re right. It violates Rule 104, too: Do not give thine adversaries a (rhetorical) club to beat you with. It slows the machinery, raises suspicion and fuels critics politically predisposed to assuming nefarious motives that dovetail with a narrative of “democracy hijacked” in the Detroit bankruptcy.
Time is not an ally here. Snyder and Orr are operating under the assumption that a new mayor will press to remove the emergency manager and that a newly elected City Council, seated in January, will oblige and deliver the six votes necessary to remove him by this time next year.
Legal wrangling over who is paying Orr’s bills, who can be deposed, even who lost out to Orr for the toughest job in Michigan, may be satisfying to the governor’s opponents. But knowing answers to all of those questions won’t speed the process, won’t complete the restructuring of city operations and its balance sheet, won’t deliver the certainty sought by all sides.
As much as delay, discovery and litigation fattens fees charged by the lawyers, it also helps creditors, pension funds and labor unions slow the proceedings. And that, in turn, raises hope the bankruptcy could be derailed by the ouster of Orr, or the defeat of Snyder’s certain re-election bid, or the flip in control of the Republican Legislature next fall.
None of those events, as seismic as they would be to Michigan politics, would change the fundamental facts of Detroit’s financial predicament. Pressing ahead with re-engineering city operations and restructuring its balance sheet, with targeted assists from existing federal programs, are the only way to deliver what two generations of failed leadership failed to deliver.
Yes, there are examples of elected leaders responsibly trying to ask the right questions and do the right thing, as Council Member James Tate suggested in a conversation last week. Yes, there are bureaucrats working to be part of the solution. Yes, there is evidence (see polling on the mayor’s race) that Detroiters living everyday with the result of municipal dysfunction accept the need for dramatic change.
But it’s not sufficient. Change is coming in the form of new police cruisers and EMS units already patrolling neighborhoods; in bids for privatized garbage collection that claim to be able to cut the cost to the city in half, according to an individual close to the situation; in plans to exit pieces of the lighting business, repair darkened lights, and speed a regional plan for the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department.
Inundating Orr and his team, the governor and his top aides, with legal challenges and proverbial fishing expeditions will not yield much more than a) delay and b) more fodder for political embarrassment. None of it alters the arc of Detroit’s decline.
daniel.howes@detroitnews.com
(313) 222-2106
Daniel Howes’ column runs Tuesdays, Thursdays and Friday.
From The Detroit News: http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20131008/BIZ/310080027#ixzz2h8UUxJ4g |
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Tue Oct 08, 2013 8:20 am |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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Detroit television station questions Snyder about adviser with Flint, Grand Blanc ties
Ron Fonger | rfonger1@mlive.com By Ron Fonger | rfonger1@mlive.com
on October 08, 2013 at 1:30 PM, updated October 08, 2013 at 2:01 PM
GENESEE COUNTY, MI -- Fox 2 television correspondent Charlie LeDuff has come up empty in his search for Richard Baird, a key adviser to Gov. Rick Snyder with ties to Flint and Grand Blanc.
Baird, who grew up in Genesee County, has been credited with helping Snyder land Kevyn Orr as the emergency manager for the city of Detroit.
The report by LeDuff calls Baird the "most important man you've never heard of" and raises questions about Snyder's NERD Fund, a nonprofit foundation that pays his salary and hasn't disclosed its donors.
Snyder told the station that he is looking into the fund disclosure issue.
A May report in the Detroit Free Press described Baird as "a shadowy figure" and "consummate talent scout and recruiter" -- almost always operating behind the scenes.
That Free Press report says he grew up in Flint and Grand Blanc and attended Albion College. |
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Tue Oct 08, 2013 3:46 pm |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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A Detroit Free press story on 2-28-2014 "Questions hang over Snyder Fund- Donors not secret, but the potential for buying policy influence exists (page 1A) updates the controversy. Reporter Paul Eagan noted that while the Nerd fund is inactive, primarily because of the controversy about the secret donors, Snyder has a second nonprofit. The other nonprofit, the Governor's Club has raised nearly $832,000 and spent $746,000 since 2011.
The funding for the Governor's Club comes primarily from corporations seeking influence.The top five donors are DTE, Consumers Energy,ITC Holdings, Michigan Health and Hospital Association and the Michigan Credit Union League.
Politicians employ such funds because these funds pay for the primarily political expenses that are associated wih holding office.
Last edited by untanglingwebs on Fri Mar 14, 2014 7:45 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Fri Mar 14, 2014 6:54 pm |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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These 527 funds are controversial because they allow the special interest groups and corporations to possibly influence the policy decisions of the politicians. Snyder spokespersons allege Snyder does not allow special interests and politics to influence his policy decisions.
These statements are somewhat discredited by the observations of Rich Robinson of the Michigan Campaign Finance network, who said the potential of these 527's for undue influence on public policy is great. The top five donors comprise the electricity transmission companies and healthcare. Snyder has considered changes in the energy policy and engaged in debate over the medicaid expansion.
"Reciprocity and personal gain are perfectly normal and acceptable business ethics, said Robinson. They should be wholly unacceptable public ethics."
Robinson stressed that citizens should be looking at the relationships between donors and the implementation of public policies to be able to assess if these donors receive benefits not part of the public interest or politically ethical.
Last edited by untanglingwebs on Fri Mar 14, 2014 7:44 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Fri Mar 14, 2014 7:16 pm |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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In January Snyder replaced his New Energy to Reinvest and Diversify (NERD), which refused to disclose donors, with a new nonprofit, Moving Michigan Forward Fund. This new nonprofit is a 501(C) 4 , a social welfare organization, but the Governors Club is a 527, a political organization.
The 527 has spent "hundreds of thousands of dollars on consultants, hotels, conventions and receptions" as well as telephone bills. There has been over $17,000 on a credit card that are used by a handful of unnamed individuals for expenses related to the Governor's Club.
Snyder seems t have realized that transparency is important, however he only discloses what is required by law. |
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Fri Mar 14, 2014 7:43 pm |
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