SIX MORE CONNECTED TO SNYDER, ENGLER, BUSH, BUSINESSES
The 10 member PA 4 review team appointed by Snyder includes six African-Americans, likely an effort to counter allegations that the PA 4 move on Detroit is racially-motivated.
Critics including prominent Detroit, state and national elected officials contend a state takeover of Detroit would leave 50 percent of the state’s African-American population under the control of emergency managers, in violation of the federal Voting Rights Act.
The daily media has prominently displayed photos of the team’s Black members and downplayed the role of state staff. The Detroit Free Press ran a banner headline declaring, “State review team for Detroit is met with praise.” However, they have ignored the role many of its members have played in furthering the Snyder agenda.
Andy Dillon running unsuccessfully for governor in Democratic primary
ANDY DILLON, State treasurer. Dillon conducted emergency manager classes for more than 40 people after PA 4 was enacted. He has authorized the renewed takeovers of Benton Harbor, the Detroit Public Schools, Ecorse and Highland Park under PA4, as well as the new PA 4 takeovers of Flint, Inkster and Pontiac.
He is an attorney who was president of DSC (Detroit Steel Co.) Ltd. until 1999, according to state records. His company bought the closed McLouth Steel plant in Trenton in 1996 after an employee stock-ownership plan failed, leaving thousands jobless. DSC Ltd. never got the plant up and running. Current Wayne County Tax Records show the property owes $4, 219,201.19 in delinquent taxes. Although it has not paid for at least five years, it has never faced foreclosure.
McLouth Steel in ruins after Dillon company DSC, Ltd. failed to revive it
Dillon also worked as the managing director of Wynnchurch Capital, vice president of GE Capital and as a financial analyst at WR Grace.
Dillon, formerly Democratic Speaker of the House, went over to Snyder’s side after progressive candidate Virg Bernero, Mayor of Lansing, won the gubernatorial nomination. Bernero had advocated standing up to the state’s corporations and banks.
FREDERICK HEADEN has been director of the state Treasury’s local government services division since 1997. Headen has been appointed by Governors John Engler, Jennifer Granholm and now Rick Snyder to serve on at least 15 review teams. He has authorized the takeovers of Benton Harbor, Ecorse, Flint, Highland Park, Inkster, and Pontiac.He formerly was legal counsel to the Citizens Research Council of Michigan, which frequently advocates privatization of public services. Its board members represent AT&T, Blue Cross, BorgWarner, Citizens Bank, CMS Energy, Comerica Bank,Compuware, Deloitte LLP, Detroit Economic Club, Dickinson Wright PLLC, DTE Energy, Dykema Gossett PLLC, Ernst & Young LLP (being sued for helping Lehman Brothers cook its books before its collapse); Hennessey Capital LLC, Hudson-Webber Foundation, JPMorgan Chase & Co., Kelly Services, Inc., Manoogian Foundation, Meritor, Inc. Miller, Canfield, Paddock and Stone, PLLC, PNC Financial Services, Rockbridge Growth Equity, LLC, W. E. Upjohn Institute and Wells Fargo Bank (recently implicated in laundering hundreds of millions in drug money.)
Brom Stibitz
BROM STIBITZ, senior policy adviser for the Treasury Department, was on the Flint review team with Headen and is on a current review team dealing with Highland Park Schools’ finances. He was formerly legislative director for Dillon.. He chairs the Finance and Claims Committee under Dillon, which on Dec. 13 recommended approval of the state’s Recovery Act Funds agenda. Detroit City Councilwoman JoAnn Watson has said the state has failed to transfer those federal funds to local municipalities, but used them to plug holes in its own budget.
DOUG RINGLER, state director of the Office of Internal Audit Services, Department of Technology, Management and Budget, is also on the Highland Park Schools’ review team, and was a member with Headen and Stibitz of the Flint financial review team.
Jack Martin
JACK MARTIN is a CPA and Chairman of Martin, Arrington, Desai Meyers, P.C., an accounting and business consulting firm. He was chief financial officer for the U.S. Department of Education under President George W. Bush, where he helped implement the No Child Left Behind Program. It is an unfunded mandate which requires schools nationally to achieve specified standards, despite factors such as poverty and unemployment. If they fail at the last stage, they are turned into charter schools. It has faced extensive criticism from school officials, school union leaders, parents and students.
Glenda Price
GLENDA PRICE was president of Marygrove College until 2006, and also serves on the board of Compuware. She was previously a director at LaSalle Bank. She sits on the boards of numerous community and civic organizations. She was an appointed member of former Gov. John Engleris DPS state takeover board, which displaced the elected board. During her term, massive privatization, school closings and lay-offs took place. Under the second state takeover, Price served on an advisory “leadership” committee appointed by former school board chair Anthony Adams.
Conrad Mallett applauding Vanguard takeover of DMC at ceremony held at Sinai
CONRAD MALLETT has been President and CEO of Sinai-Grace Hospital, part of the Detroit Medical Center, since 2003. He prominently supported its controversial sale to the for-profit Vanguard Health Systems last year. Vanguard, which is 75 percent owned by a prominent Wall Street hedge firm, has slashed services and jobs in its hospital chains. MICHUCAN recently reported that uninsured individuals are now being turned away from some of DMC hospitals.
Mallett was a State Supreme Court justice for seven years, becoming its first African-American Chief Justice in 1997..He has also been president and general counsel of La-Van Hawkins Food Group LLC, and been a registered lobbyist for Hertz and Avis Rent-A-Car corporations.
Irvin Reid
IRVIN REID was Wayne State University’s first African-American President from 1997-2009. He increased fundraising for the university from $27 million to $80 million a year. He spent much of that on new construction projects, including dormitories for out-of-state students. But WSU’s African-American and Detroit resident student population is disproportionately low, particularly in its Law School and other advanced program. Reid closed WSU’s College of Lifelong Learning and College of Urban, Labor and Metropolitan Affairs, facing allegations from community members that he was seeking more affluent students.
Shirley Stancato
SHIRLEY STANCATO is president and CEO of New Detroit, which was founded after the 1967 rebellion to smooth the waters. It has numerous corporate representatives on its board. She is a former vice-president of Chase Bank. She is also one of 11 members on the board of Gov. Snyder’s Education Achievement System, which will take over and run Michigan’s lowest-performing schools, beginning in Detroit. She serves with current DPS Emergency Manager Roy Roberts, Sharlotta Buckman of the Detroit Parents Network, which favors the involvement of private foundations and charter schools in the state’s schools system, Carol Goss, chief of the Skillman Foundations, and others. Its Chancellor is the controversial John Covington, who came to Michigan from Kansas City after thoroughly destroying its school district.
Isaiah McKinnon
ISAIAH MCKINNON was Detroit’s chief of police under Mayor Dennis Archer. He is a graduate of the FBI Academy in Virginia. During Archer’s term, numerous unjustified killings by police were exposed by the Original Coalition against Police Brutality, including the story of the infamous cop Eugene Brown, who killed three men in separate incidents in 1995, 1996 and 1999 and shot a total of nine. He was not disciplined or charged in any of the cases. McKinnon was recommended for the position by State Representative Randy Richardville (R-Monroe), Speaker of the Senate. Richardville was an ardent opponent of a moratorium on foreclosures. His constituents marched on his home several years ago. He has also been the subject of a recall campaign for voting to tax retirees.
Click on http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2011112280400 to read the Detroit Free Press article, “State review team for Detroit is met with praise.”
