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Steve Myers
Site Admin
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Williamsons cleared: Charges of campaign law violations dismissed
FLINTTHE FLINT JOURNAL FIRST EDITIONTuesday, June 26, 2007By Marjory Raymermraymer@flintjournal.com • 810.766.6325
FLINT - The Secretary of State's office has found no evidence of wrongdoing by Mayor Don Williamson or his staff for sprucing up Woodlawn Park last year just prior to a campaign event for his wife.
Most complaints alleging violations of campaign finance laws against the Williamsons and key city staff were dismissed because of lack of evidence, according to a letter from the Secretary of State's office.
But, the office is continuing to investigate allegations of illegal corporate donations to Patsy Lou Williamson's unsuccessful campaign for state Senate by her car dealership
Mayor Don Williamson said he was not surprised by the ruling.
"It was just sour grapes in politics," Williamson said Monday of the complaints against him, his administration and his wife.
The allegations were dismissed because "the evidence submitted does not establish that there may be reason to believe that violations ... occurred," according to the letter dated Thursday from Anne L. Corgan, the Secretary of State's director of legal and regulatory services administration.
Alex Harris, a Flint resident and one of those who accused the Williamsons of violating campaign finance laws, lashed out after hearing about the decision.
"You've got to be an absolute moron to conclude (city employees were not used to aide the Senate campaign)," Harris said.
Complaints surfaced after city workers spent days cleaning, mowing and painting at Woodlawn Park in July 2006, just before Patsy Lou Williamson hosted a neighborhood meet-and-greet there in connection with her Senate campaign.
The Flint City Council investigated the allegations of wrongdoing, and ultimately forwarded the complaints to the Secretary of State and state Attorney General.
One city worker testified the work was done in preparation for Patsy Lou Williamson's party, but the Secretary of State's office noted that several other workers testified to the contrary.
The letter also dismisses allegations that the Senate campaign stole city water for use in its rented street sweeper, citing campaign finance records that appear to indicate the water was paid for.
Still under investigation is the allegation that Patsy Lou Williamson's car dealership made illegal corporate contributions to her campaign. The complaint alleges the campaign used dealership vehicles and received other nondirect contributions.
A corporation cannot, by law, make any contribution to a political campaign.
Williamson said he fully expects that allegation to also be dismissed.
http://www.mlive.com/news/flintjournal/index.ssf?/base/news-44/118286951887270.xml&coll=5 |
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Steve Myers |
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Wed Jun 27, 2007 8:36 pm |
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Ted Jankowski
F L I N T O I D
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quote:
Alex Harris, a Flint resident and one of those who accused the Williamsons of violating campaign finance laws, lashed out after hearing about the decision.
"You've got to be an absolute moron to conclude (city employees were not used to aide the Senate campaign)," Harris said.
Going to have to see the show this weekend.
Saturday at 5:00PM and Sunday at 8:30PM. |
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Fri Jun 29, 2007 11:54 am |
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Ryan Eashoo
F L I N T O I D
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Now the truth clears Williamson! You are innocent until proven Guilty here in America!
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Flint Michigan Resident, Tax Payer, Flint Nutt - Local REALTOR - Activist. www.FlintTown.com |
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Fri Jun 29, 2007 2:26 pm |
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Biggie9
F L I N T O I D
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quote:
Ryan Eashoo schreef:
Now the truth clears Williamson! You are innocent until proven Guilty here in America!
hardly. if you read it closely.
the evidence didn't "clear" anyone [I thought it was Patsy Lou's campaign and vehicles in question, not the Mayor's]
the state said there was insufficient evidence presented to proceed with.
there is a real difference, but the result is the same. |
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Biggie |
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Fri Jun 29, 2007 8:01 pm |
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Richard
F L I N T O I D
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At least the park got cleaned up didn't it? Politics, no matter what you do there is someone who willbelieve you are doing something wrong!
richard |
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Sat Jun 30, 2007 1:38 pm |
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FlintWorker67
F L I N T O I D
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| The mayor paid someone some money I bet. |
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City of Flint Employee Who is pissed off and tired of the decline of our City! |
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Sat Jun 30, 2007 4:09 pm |
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Ted Jankowski
F L I N T O I D
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quote:
Now the truth clears Williamson! You are innocent until proven Guilty here in America!
Actually you are innocent until proven guilty if you have the money to influence people.
Help me out here? What did you consider the Truth? The Fact that the City Paid out grievances to city workers who were not campaign workers to clean up the park because only campaign workers cleaned up the Park?? But that this information was not followed up on? Because so many of Patsy lou Williamson's campaign workers said it wasn't? It doesn't matter what they said! It matters what the FACTS are! |
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Sat Jun 30, 2007 9:32 pm |
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Ted Jankowski
F L I N T O I D
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| So no body here watched the show tonight? Hmmm I had at least six different pictures of Vehicles with Dealer Plates on there. As I mentioned on the show. The Don is still doing it. The state refuses to enforce the Law! Why should we follow any if they don't enforce these? |
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Sun Jul 01, 2007 11:10 pm |
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00SL2
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Frankly, I could care less who's driving a car bearing dealer plates. I'm more concerned with the idiots who drive cars while talking on cell phones not paying attention to traffic. Anyone driving around town chasing dealer plates has too much time on their hands that could be spent being productive.
As for complaints about city employees cleaning a park for Patsy Lou's long gone campaign, my complaint would not be that they did it for her but that they should have cleaned ALL the parks in the city while they were at it. That's what I pay Parks and Rec millage in my property taxes for! When are the rest of the parks going to be cleaned? How about having all the complainers with too much time on their hands take care of it?
Find something constructive to do with your time like finding solutions to problems instead of looking for menial stuff to complain about. |
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Mon Jul 02, 2007 8:08 pm |
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Ted Jankowski
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quote:
00SL2 schreef:
Frankly, I could care less who's driving a car bearing dealer plates. I'm more concerned with the idiots who drive cars while talking on cell phones not paying attention to traffic. Anyone driving around town chasing dealer plates has too much time on their hands that could be spent being productive.
As for complaints about city employees cleaning a park for Patsy Lou's long gone campaign, my complaint would not be that they did it for her but that they should have cleaned ALL the parks in the city while they were at it. That's what I pay Parks and Rec millage in my property taxes for! When are the rest of the parks going to be cleaned? How about having all the complainers with too much time on their hands take care of it?
Find something constructive to do with your time like finding solutions to problems instead of looking for menial stuff to complain about.
APATHY!!
So it's just fine with you that the City paid 16 employees approxamately 100 hours of pay to sit at home and not clean up any parks?
And it is also ok for you, that if you have enough money, and are an electde official. THe laws don't apply to you
Wow I wonder what is wrong with society. You say I should spend my time more productively.
I do present solutions. But because of people like you that don't care about right and wrong. No solution will ever work. |
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Mon Jul 02, 2007 9:18 pm |
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00SL2
F L I N T O I D
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Not apathy here, Ted. You and I apparently don't agree on priorities. I am more interested in seeing business taken care of in this city than to have some citizens and some city council people wasting time trying to prosecute the mayor and his wife. There's an election coming up and if the people of the city of Flint don't want Don Williamson for mayor they'll voice it at the polls. I am disappointed to see three mayoral candidates I considered forerunners who said they weren't going to participate in negative campaigning do an about face. What a blow to their credibility and promise for a new Flint! With that attitude they join all the other hateful voices holding this city back.
You didn't mention "the City paid 16 employees approxamately 100 hours of pay to sit at home and not clean up any parks" before so how do you ASSUME "it's just fine" with me? If that's a fact please explain so we'll all know what you're talking about. As stated it makes no sense.
You state: "And it is also ok for you, that if you have enough money, and are an electde official. THe laws don't apply to you." Again, you assume it's okay with me about your statement that makes no sense. No one is above the law (except maybe GWB).
As a matter of fact I do care about right and wrong, just as I don't like it when you make erroneous assumptions about myself or others.
If you have a solution please let's see it.
Apathy, not! |
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Mon Jul 02, 2007 11:08 pm |
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Josh Freeman
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quote:
00SL2 schreef:
You didn't mention "the City paid 16 employees approxamately 100 hours of pay to sit at home and not clean up any parks" before so how do you ASSUME "it's just fine" with me? If that's a fact please explain so we'll all know what you're talking about. As stated it makes no sense.
If you have a solution please let's see it.
Apathy, not!
Apparently, the City of Flint settled a grievance that was filed by the union whereby the parks employees were each paid 100 hours of pay. This was the result of the Administration not following the rules governed by the contract as it relates to who was eligible for overtime hours. Instead of rotating the list, all of the overtime was given to just a certain group of employees (Like Kinnee and Lawrence.)
Essentially, taxpayers got stuck with a nearly $20,000.00 bill (the amount of the settlement) with nothing to show for it.
Now as I drive around the City, and see the condition of the park property, I have to wonder what that $20,000.00 could have done in terms of employees working in the parks.
As for a solution, how about we just follow the contracts and laws of the City so that we don't end up spending what little resources we have paying to settle employee grievances. |
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Wed Jul 04, 2007 9:52 am |
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FlintWorker67
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Do you believe he did in fact screw over the peoples of Flint?
quote:
Biggie9 schreef:
quote:
Ryan Eashoo schreef:
Now the truth clears Williamson! You are innocent until proven Guilty here in America!
hardly. if you read it closely.
the evidence didn't "clear" anyone [I thought it was Patsy Lou's campaign and vehicles in question, not the Mayor's]
the state said there was insufficient evidence presented to proceed with.
there is a real difference, but the result is the same.
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City of Flint Employee Who is pissed off and tired of the decline of our City! |
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Wed Jul 04, 2007 11:56 am |
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Ted Jankowski
F L I N T O I D
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00SL2,
I'm thrilled that you use me as your only input for what is going on in flint. I mean, This was covered in the investigation. It was in the Flint Journal, it was on TV 12. But the only thing you seen, or meant anything to you was jus the little bit that I posted here. You based a whole opinion on just a few sound bites. Didn't bother to (On your own) look into the facts in order to form your own opinion.
I also verified the definition of Apathy. I am correct!
quote:
FlintWorker67
the evidence didn't "clear" anyone [I thought it was Patsy Lou's campaign and vehicles in question, not the Mayor's]
the state said there was insufficient evidence presented to proceed with.
there is a real difference, but the result is the same.
The issue is whether Flint resources where used in one case. And in another whether state campaign laws were being violated.
These are not limited to the latest Patsy Lou Campaign. It stems back from the very first "Don Williamson For Mayor" Campaign. He ignored not only campaign laws. but has been and is still violating State Laws!
Reminds me of the old kids church song about the Wise man building his house upon the rock. Simple Song, simple message. It's a LIFE Principle!
When the foundation of a Man/person. Their Character! is built upon "SAND" (poor character, lies, illegalities. You can expect what he has built will fall.
Now when the State says there was insufficient evidence to continue. Just the FACT that people were passed over to clean up the park, resulting in 20 employees being paid “Not to do a damn thing” BECAUSE!!!!! Only Campaign Workers that worked for the City worked the over time to fix up the park. Seems pretty darn clear to me.
You cannot get any clearer that what happened was illegal! Otherwise, had it been planned in advance (as was stated by so many people working for the DON!) then there wouldn’t have been ANY overtime. Because it would have been being cleaned up during normal working hours (there wouldn’t have been any need to clean it up faster, except that it was going to be used for a campaign event). Then to pay other employees for not doing anything. Shows they were too busy trying to cover up the fact that what they were doing was wrong. They violated their contract with the City Workers. Which the Way Don Williamson thinks about following rules and contract agreements, doesn’t require any further explanation. |
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Wed Jul 04, 2007 1:01 pm |
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00SL2
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Ted, don't flatter yourself. You have no way of knowing my sources, you're jumping to conclusions and making assumptions. I have no need to write a book, I simply asked you to explain your own statement so we on this board could see what you're talking about.
You write: "I also verified the definition of Apathy. I am correct!" Why do you persist writing in riddles? Here's the definition:
apathy: 1: Lack of feeling or emotion : impassiveness 2 : lack of interest or concern : indifference.
If you are using "apathy" to describe my statement about not caring who's driving cars with dealer plates, it's true I have a lack of interest or concern about that. It's a non-issue to me, not important at all.
"Still under investigation is the allegation that Patsy Lou Williamson's car dealership made illegal corporate contributions to her campaign. The complaint alleges the campaign used dealership vehicles and received other nondirect contributions."
Let the initiated procedure take its course and the chips fall where they may. I am more concerned about the mayor and city council taking care of business now. |
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Wed Jul 04, 2007 7:34 pm |
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