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Steve Myers
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With all the focus around Tuesday’s elections, the media has been paying close attention to national politics. However, the city of Flint, Mich. has been dealing with frustrations in its own local political scene.
For those of you who are in the dark, the “Buick City” is turning into “Pinto Pavilion.”
In 2002, Flint found itself in a $28 million debt, and in the midst of a controversial recall of then mayor Woodrow Stanley.
Former -Michigan Governor John Engler declared the city in a financial state of emergency and subject to a state takeover. Baker College founder and president Ed Kurtz was appointed by the governor to oversee the city’s finances.
In July, the state turned the power back over to the 125,000 people of Flint with the election of new mayor Don Williamson.
Williamson, 70, is a successful entrepreneur and widely known as a multi-millionaire who has found how to put his personal money to work for the city.
Williamson technically recieves a $100,000 a year paycheck but instead only takes $1 salary, as well as paying for his own business expenses. Sounds good so far, right?
In July, he issued an executive order that banned non-work related reading materials from City Hall. In September, he had a newspaper carrier arrested when he declined to reveal the names of subscribers that he was delivering them to.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) determined that the executive order was a direct violation of the employees’ First Amendment right to freedom of speech. The executive order was terminated.
Christofer Machniak, a reporter from the Flint Journal, has described the mayor’s reign in office much like a maverick from the Wild-West. Others have a more conroverisal view of Williamson.
“It’s like he’s Saddam Hussein,” commented Flint City Council President Johnnie Coleman. “He’s running this city as though it were a dictatorship rather than a democracy.”
The City Council and Williamson have been the focus of an ongoing budget battle in Flint that has not only stirred up bitter emotions but media’s attention.
Profanities were thrown from both directions recently at a Flint City Council meeting and at a press interview afterwards, which has led the mayor to release a second executive order that would have council members arrested if profanity is used in council meetings or to city employees.
Although it may appear that this is a grudge match and getting uglier by the moment, there was a time at which both sides of the line were together and in agreement.
Former Senator Joe Conroy (D) said the mayor held eight of the nine council members’ support while running for office. Conroy is the city’s Governmental Relations Officer.
“It’s true that we supported (Williamson) during his campaign, but we did it for one specific purpose- to get control of the city back from the state. Along the way, we were told that this would be a team effort, and as soon as he was elected, all the team talk was thrown out the door,” Coleman said.
“The city of Flint has a strong-mayor form of government,” Conroy said. “The mayor is simply running the city like a business- something that he’s been very successful at.”
In most recent news from the city, Diane Clark, a Flint resident, has begun a petition to have the mayor recalled from office.
An interview with the mayor was to take place at 8:30 a.m. Friday morning, but the mayor’s office called and cancelled at 8:05 a.m. Friday.
Situations like the one that Flint is facing are tragedies. There was a time at which the city was a great place to live in America. I believe it still is.
I grew up in Grand Blanc, a suburb of Flint. However, I spent 20 years of my life attending school in the city of Flint, at St. Paul Lutheran and Flint Powers Catholic. I also attended Mott Community College for two years.
Council President Coleman is correct when he said, “He’s making the city a laughingstock of the state.” But it’s not just the mayor. This whole situation is not doing the city a favor in the view of the public eye.
Members of the Council and the mayor cannot let their emotions get the best of them. Profanity should never be used in a public meeting. I hardly think that arresting someone is the solution, though. Why not fine them? You could even use the money towards the city’s deficit.
Another problem lies in the way that the mayor is running the city. He very well could be one of the most successful businessmen in the city’s history since C.S. Mott. But what does business have to do with politics?
To say that the mayor runs the city with a tight fist isn’t the best thing to say in the birthplace of an organization that set out for equal say and representation when General Motors had a tight fist with its employees.
Taking away the rights of your citizens, such as their right to read newspapers on their breaks or attend a council meeting, is no way to run a city.
The irony of all this is that it sounds like a UAW negotiations session. Williamson sounds like the corporate interest of GM, and the Council sounds like the UAW striving for what they want- a budget. I guess that would mean that the citizens of Flint would be the blue collar line workers stuck in the middle again.
“Roger & Me”, the documentary by Michael Moore, painted a very one-sided view of Flint that shows a really ugly picture of a town no one wants to live in. Although there is a great city to be seen, Moore’s point is pushed across that much easier when people read the recent headlines about Flint.
In short, if I may quote Rodney King: “Can’t we all just get along?”
Full Story:
http://www.ferris.edu/torch/Opinions/11-03-04.htm |
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Thu Nov 03, 2005 1:05 am |
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