9/11 IN DETROIT—TERRORIST JUDGE COX STRIKES WATER DEPARTMENT

DEMONSTRATION TO STOP DWSD TAKEOVER IN FRONT OF WATER BOARD BUILDING SEPT. 7, 2011

 Watson wants Detroiters to pack council chambers Sept. 13;

Other fightback campaigns in the works 

By Diane Bukowski 

September 11, 2011

U.S. District Court Judge Sean Cox

DETROIT – U.S. District Court Judge Sean F. Cox hit Detroit’s water customers and workers with his own 9/11 terror attack Sept. 9. He wrested away the city’s most valuable asset, its Water and Sewerage Department (DWSD), in order to turn it over to suburban-based corporate interests lock, stock and barrel, without a cent of compensation to the City of Detroit. 

Cox’s order anticipates complete separation of the appointed Board of Water Commissioners (BOWC) from Detroit’s government. Meanwhile, it overrides the CityCharter and Home Rule under the state constitution, negates Civil Service provisions, and abrogates DWSD union contracts. (Click on DWSD Cox order 9 9 11  to read entire order.) 

Instead of facing final approval by the Detroit City Council, water rates and contracts would be determined solely by a supermajority of the seven-member BOWC. The supermajority provision, included in a February Consent Agreement, gives veto power to the BOWC’s three representatives chosen by Wayne, Oakland and Macomb Counties. 

Protesters at Feb. 23 mass rally in Lansing

Cox set a cursory 60-day period for Mayor Dave Bing, City Council President Charles Pugh, President Pro-Tem Gary Brown, and one Water Board member to devise a plan to remedy the department’s alleged failures to comply with the Clean Water Act, that meets HIS satisfaction, or face a “more intrusive remedy.” 

“In [devising the plan], they shall not be constrained by any local Charter or ordinance provisions, or by the provisions of union or other contracts,” Cox said. “If these local officials fail to devise and propose a workable solution to remedy the underlying causes of the serious and recurrent violations of the Clean Water Act in this case, this Court will directly order a more intrusive remedy.” 

Cox ordered the city officials to report back to him by Nov. 4. 

Members of the community and water department workers have reacted with furor. 

Councilwoman JoAnn Watson calls for fightback against water takeover Sept. 10

City Councilwoman JoAnn Watson said the Council is meeting in closed session Tues. Sept. 13 at 9 a.m. to discuss Cox’s order with attorneys. She asked Detroiters to pack council chambers at 10 a.m. to insist during public comment that the Council fight the order in court and elsewhere. 

“Somebody has decided they don’t want Black folks in control of the city,” Watson said. “They don’t want us to have self-determination, local control, or local power. The water department is Detroit’s most significant asset other than its people. It can’t be handed away or negotiated away. The suburbs already have county representatives on the board, that is enough of an olive branch. They should not demand nor receive ownership of our water.” 

Mike Mulholland, Secretary-Treasurer of DWSD’s largest union local, AFSCME 207, said, “They want our water because in the wake of global warming water is becoming a scarce resource, it is like gold.” 

AFSCME Local 207 officers Mike Mulholland and Lekita Thomas; Thomas said white Homrich contractors repeatedly use the "n" word at DWSD facilties

He said the union wants the City Council to hold a public hearing on the takeover to mobilize the community. One way to fight back, he said, would be a mass worker-community occupation of the Water Board building similar to that conducted by teen mother students at Catherine Ferguson Academy in February. That takeover received world-wide support. 

“Detroiters have built, paid for, maintained, and operated their public water system for nearly 200 years and currently provide about four million people with some of the best quality tap water in the country, if not the world,” Lynna Kaucheck of Food and Water Watch said during a protest at the Water Board building on Randolph Sept.7. “Our national research shows that such takeovers and privatization have on the average led to a fifteen percent increase in water rates per year, while service has declined.” 

The 60-day period in Cox’s order appears to be a concession to legal precedents he cites, which set minimal limits on federal overrides of local control. Macomb County proposed the “more intrusive remedy” of complete separation of DWSD in a motion Aug. 8 in response to Detroit’s motion to end federal oversight of DWSD. 

Steve Seckler, Chairman and Founder IMG

Federal oversight involving hundreds of plans and studies has existed for 34 years, resulting in billions in private contracts and cost overruns, and billions more in bond debt to finance the contracts. It has led to the deliberate dismantling, privatization and attrition of the DWSD workforce despite constant union objections, on the advice of private consultants like the Infrastructure Management Group IMG), handsomely paid for out of DWSD revenues. IMG is an ardent advocate of privatization of water utilities.

U.S. District Court Judge John Feikens originated the DWSD consent decree in 1977. He kept tailoring it to benefit outsiders, even appointing a “Business Leadership Group (BLG)” composed of Bing, DTE CEO Anthony Earley, DWSD contractor James Nicholson of PVS Chemicals, and others with money to gain from lucrative DWSD contracts and privatization. 

Under Feikens’ oversight and that of Mayors Kwame Kilpatrick and Dave Bing, up to 40,000 Detroit families have faced water shut-offs every year, ironically leading to a conclusion by former DWSD Director Victor Mercado, now under federal indictment, that the “demand” for water had dropped. 

Atty. David Ottenwess, DWSD Special Master and Cox campaign contributor

 But Feikens continually stressed that he would not exercise federal authority to take absolute control of the department away from Detroit, which Cox has just done. 

Cox has appointed his long-time associate Attorney David Ottenwess as “Special Master” during the current period of federal oversight. Ottenwess’ only qualifications appear to be that he heads a law firm that defends hospitals and doctors from malpractice lawsuits, and contributed handsomely to Cox’s campaign for Circuit Court in 1996. Another major contributor was the peripatetic James Nicholson of the BLG, also a major contributor to Kilpatrick’s second campaign.

The City of Detroit had proposed to replace federal oversight with a July 8 Consent Order with the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality for federal oversight, but Cox denied the city’s motion, claiming DWSD had again breached Clean Water Act requirements. 

DWSD workers Andrew Daniels-El holds city charter at Call Em Out meeting Jan. 28, 2009

He repeatedly laid the blame almost exclusively on city personnel and purchasing practices, including union contracts, City Council approval of rates, and set-asides for minority-owned businesses. He cited a litany of reports, including a 2008 IMG report. 

“The report found several problems in terms of human resources and staffing,” Cox said. “IMG noted that there is ‘an alarmingly low number of certified operators for the size and complexity of the DWSD wastewater treatment plant, which is one of the largest wastewater treatment plants in the country.’ (Id. at 8). 

“It also found that civil service rules and union rules and agreements compound the problems with recruiting and retaining qualified staff. (Id. at 10-11). It stated that“[i]n terms of governance, City Council maintains control over all employment matters. All employees of DWSD, with the exception of the Director and Deputy Director, fall under the City of Detroit Civil Service. Job descriptions, pay rates and classifications are all subject to input and approval by the Civil Service Commission (CSC),” and “[a]ny changes to job descriptions must also be reviewed by unions.” (Id.) Because of these constraints, the DWSD has “limited control over who gets hired, what they get paid and job classification revisions.” 

Henry Ford, a known Nazi sympathizer, received the Grand Cross of the German Eagle July 30, 1938, his 75 birthday

Cox cited a 2009 “Consensus Action Report” by the Engineering Society of Detroit, whose members have included such major corporate profiteers as Alex Dow, Henry Ford, Henry Ford II, Lee Iacocca, Albert Kahn, Keith Crain, and C. Richard Wagoner, Jr. 

Cox says, “In addressing practices in purchasing, the Consensus Action Report noted “[t]he often  eedless labyrinth of process and procedures required to award a significant contract.” (Id. at 9). It further stated, “[i]n a word, the City’s Purchasing Department was in the dark, after the fact and out of the loop regarding much of DWSD’s purchasing activities leading to formalistic and bureaucratic procedures that treated symptoms and not causes.” (Id.). It further stated that “bidding procedures introduce problems, as well. There are significant difficulties in obtaining clearances and certifications, and the number of levels of management approval needlessly burdens the process. What appeared missing was a management communication and process linkage that could address the inefficiencies and hurdles to the timely and cost-effective purchase of the staffing, parts and capital needs of DWSD and WWTP.” (Id.).

Detroit youth at Lansing rally demand jobs and businesses for their people

 Clearances and certifications include guarantees that contractors have paid their city taxes and do not discriminate in their work force practices. Cox further condemns the existence of City Council approval of all contracts over $25,000, as well as city emphasis on the hiring of Detroit-based and “minority-owned” companies. (See article below on the recent scurrilous, racist Fox 2 News attack on the Black-owned Bankston Construction, combined with glorification of the white-owned behemoth Homrich Corporation, which lost a water contract to Bankston.) 

As this article went to press, union and community officials were still devising strategies on how to deal with Cox’s order. The order, reached early on Sept. 8, was not announced until the end of the day Sept. 9, and received minimal press coverage as a result. 

STAY TUNED TO VOD FOR FURTHER DEVELOPMENTS. For further information, contact:

AFSCME Local 207: 313-965-1601, 313-919-5011, 313-995-5691

Lynna Kaucheck, Food & Water Watch: Cell: (586) 556-8805, Email: lkaucheck@fwwatch.org