VOICE OF DETROIT: The city's independent newspaper, unbossed and unbought

Danny Glover addresses standing-room only crowd at Timbuktu Academy Dec. 8, 2012, in opposition to Hantz.

Packed community meeting featuring Danny Glover says NO to largest land sale in Detroit history

Hantz Financial facing lawsuit over its recommendation of $2.5 billion Ponzi scheme to investors; paid $675,00o in 2005 to settle fraud claim 

City Council to hold public hearing today, Dec. 10 at 6 p.m., and vote Dec. 11 at 10 a.m. with little notice to area residents 

By Diane Bukowski 

December 10, 2012 

Proposed area for Hantz Woodlands; Hantz has already purchased many properties in the area from Wayne Co. Treasurer and state land bank authority.

DETROIT—After virtually no notice to east-side residents, except a hastily called hearing today, the City Council plans to vote on the largest private land sale in Detroit history, 143.8 acres for $520,000, to Hantz Woodlands, LLC , during its 10 a.m. meeting Tues. Dec. 11. 

That’s about $3,616 an acre, or 8 cents a square foot (correction noted per reader comment).

“HANTZ OFF OUR LAND,” Urban Network bookstore owner Yusef Shakur and many from the community involved are saying instead. “Broken down houses do not mean we are a broken people,” Charity Hicks adds. 

The Hantz Group, based in Southfield, is owned by multi-millionaires John Hantz and Mike Score. Its parent company, Hantz Financial Services has 20 offices in Michigan, Ohio, and Georgia, more than 500 employees, and $1.3 billion in assets under management.

Hantz Financial, is currently embroiled in litigation over a $2.2 billion Ponzi scheme the company recommended to investors, according to a posting by the White Law Group at http://www.whitesecuritieslaw.com/2012/11/12/medical-capital-class-action-against-hantz-financial/. 

Hantz Group headquarters in Southfield, Michigan.

Earlier, in 2005, “Hantz Financial agreed to pay a $675,000 settlement for fraud stemming from misleading, inaccurate and fraudulent representations, misstatements, omissions and patently incorrect statements about its independent status,” according to Ward Harris of the McHenry Group, in an article in The Inside Edition at http://www.enewsbuilder.net/mchenrygroup/e_article000451796.cfm .

Hantz told the Wall Street Journal Detroit “cannot create value until we create scarcity. Large-scale farming could begin to take land out of circulation in a positive way.” http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304898704577479090390757800.html 

John R. Hantz at part of Hantz Woodlands site.

He said he originally wanted to purchase “10,000 acres of vacant private and city-owned property here into the world’s largest for-profit urban farm.” But after adverse reaction from the community, he and Score claim they only want to grow trees on a smaller swath of land. 

City documents describe it as follows: “1,558 parcels totaling 143.8 acres of surplus City-owned lots within an area defined by (a) Mack Avenue, Van Dyke Avenue, Kercheval Street, and Maxwell Street, on the west side of Indian Village, and (b) Mack Avenue, Fischer Street, E. Jefferson Avenue, and St. Jean Street, on the east side of Indian Village.” 

Michael Score, who became president of Hantz Farms in 2009.

But the documents add that Hantz Woodlands “intends to develop the Property for the purpose of planning and maintaining hardwood trees and conifers, and conducting such other uses as are or will be consistent with applicable law, regulations, and ordinances, including zoning.” (Click on CC Agenda 12 11 12.) 

They say that if the city adopts an ordinance to facilitate urban agriculture, which the City Planning Commission did Dec. 6, Hantz will re-apply to use the land for that purpose. 

Danny Glover at Dec. 8 meeting against Hantz land grab.

During a packed meeting at the east-side Timbuktu School of Science and Technology Dec. 8, featuring actor/activist Danny Glover, many area residents said that the City has not allowed them to purchase even lots adjacent to their own. They called instead for a Community Land Bank Trust, to keep the land in the hands of the people. 

Much of Detroit’s land is vacant due to the hurricane of bank and tax foreclosures that has devastated city neighborhoods over the last decade, policies of urban removal and gentrification, as well as the shutdown of schools and other city services. 

“This violates the City Charter and the State Constitution, because the land is set to be sold at an undervalued rate, “said Lottie Spady of the East Michigan Environmental Council. “There is no fair and transparent process by which the average citizen can purchase land. There is no community benefits agreement in this deal, and no obligation expressed to this generation and those to come.  The land is right next to wealthy Indian Village and only a mile from the Detroit River. There is no soil remediation proposed. If trees are grown and cut for sale, they would have to be classified as toxic waste.” 

Linda Bane

Linda Bane of the Riverview Village Community Block Club said despite a Hantz agreement with the Lower East Side Action Group (LEAP), to which she belongs, and support from the Warren-Conner Community Development Corporation, residents like herself have been left out of the loop. 

“I am LEAP’s community contact person on this,” Bane said. “I met Mike Score at a meeting almost two years ago, and I have been to numerous meetings since, but I have been ignored.  I’ve been out knocking on doors in my neighborhood, and most people know nothing about the plan. They say they have tried to buy lots themselves without success. One man tried to buy a whole block to start a community co-op, but he was denied. We really want to purchase the land ourselves. It would provide all sorts of opportunities for our community.”

Kwamena Mensah

Kwamena Mensah of the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network, and manager of the west-side community D-town Farm, said the question is self-determination.

“We are opposed to this land grab,” he said. “The same thing is happening in other cities and countries in Africa and Latin America. We support a community land bank trust.”

A speaker from South Africa who grew up in Soweto agreed.

“We are fighting for OUR land,” he said. “The Creator made it for the human race, with all its resources. The land can feed the whole planet Earth if it is not held by selfish and greedy people.”

Speaker from South Africa.

The reference to land grabs in Africa is all the more compelling because Score spent four years in Zaire (Congo) working on an agricultural development scheme there, according to the Hantz website.

To a standing ovation, Danny Glover, who had flown in from Savannah, Georgia, then took the mike.

“We are at a critical moment in the history of this city, this country, and the planet,” Glover said. “There is work to be done, protracted work, not a sprint but a long-distance run. Every single one of our voices must be heard. We are in the presence of an incredible shift, not just in people’s consciousness, but also in the way people are treated by those who have power. “

Lottie Spady

He recalled Detroit’s history as a city of promise, where people employed at the auto plants and their off-shoots, many who migrated from the Jim Crow south, could get decent jobs and raise their families in their own homes. He said the city since has been virtually “eviscerated,” and recalled the reaction of Detroiters during the 1967 rebellion.

“That was reaction to frustration, to being alienated from what we need for our very existence,” Glover explained. “The reaction came from people not able to find work, not knowing what to do.”

He said the Hantz “land grab” is symbolic of something much larger.

“But our truth cannot be denied,” he asserted. “We have to get to work knocking on doors to bring people to the table. This is not a fait accompli, but it is one moment in a long journey, on which YOU will be the architects of your own destiny.”

From Hantz website.

THE CORPORATE PLAYERS:

The Hantz Group, Inc. with its subsidiary Hantz Financial, Inc. is a mid-sized brokerage firm based in Southfield, Michigan at 26200 American Drive that has 260 affiliated financial advisers. It also has an office in Taylor. It  operates in Michigan and Ohio. It offers broker/dealer and investment advisory services, including financial planning, tailored ongoing advice, tax planning, retirement, saving for retirement, college savings, risk management, disability, long term care, estate planning, and life insurance; business planning, executive compensation, employer access, individual blue cross enrollment, educational, and benefits services for corporate clients; commercial risk insurance agency services; and underwriting services for life and disability insurance for individuals. The company was founded in 1998. Its website is at http://www.HantzGroup.com . 

Hantz Group members; photo by E.L. Conley.

Hantz Farms, LLC, owned by Hantz Group CEO John R. Hantz, who is also CEO of Hantz Farms.  Hantz Farms owns properties, purchased either from the Wayne County Treasurer or the Michigan Fast Track Land Bank Authority, at 3438 McClellan, 17414 Dwyer, 2526 Fischer, 3075 Belvidere,  17433 St. Louis, 3038 Belvidere, 3070 Belvidere, 1527 Pennsylvania, 1540 Belvidere, 1805 Fischer, 1523 Holcomb, 17403 Dwyer, 17409 Dwyer, 17415 Dwyer, 17421 Dwyer, 17475 Dwyer,  17456 St. Louis, 17426 St. Louis, 17473 St. Louis, and 17400 St. Louis, according to Wayne County Register of Deeds records.

Hantz Woodlands, LLC was just incorporated on May 4, 2012, and maintains an office at 17403 Mt. Elliott in addition to the Southfield location. The Mt. Elliott address is not located in the affected area. The Wayne County Register of Deeds shows that Hantz Woodlands currently owns no property in the county.

Some of what Hantz wants to use for farmland. Environmentalist Lottie Spady said anything grown here would amount to “toxic waste.”

John R. Hantz:  according to Fortune Magazine, “is a wealthy money manager who lives in an older enclave of Detroit where all the houses are grand and not all of them are falling apart. Once a star stockbroker at American Express, he left 13 years ago to found his own firm. Today Hantz Financial Services has 20 offices in Michigan, Ohio, and Georgia, more than 500 employees, and $1.3 billion in assets under management.” He is CEO of Hantz Financial,  Hantz Group, Inc. Hantz Farms, LLC, and Hantz Woodlands, LLC (the last just incorporated in May, 2012.) Wayne County Land Records show he and/or his wife Josephine own properties at 2505 Iroquois, 2550 Iroquois, 1763 Iroquois, 1352 Bedford, 2504 Seminole, 18330 Fairway Drive, 1480 Seminole, 9090 Dwight, 2539 Iroquois, 14421 Harbor Island, 2253 Burns, 2940 Seminole (tax-delinquent under the name of Ursula Wells for over $20,000), and 293 Moran.

Car ferry crossing the Kasai River in Bandundu Region, Zaire. Photo is from Oakland University website on agriculture in Africa. Residents shown don’t appear very happy at incursion of strangers.

Michael Score has been the President at Hantz Farms, LLC at Hantz Group, Inc. since December 2009. Mr. Score has 30 years of experience in agricultural production, food system economic development and community development. Mr. Score has assisted more than 200 entrepreneurs in efforts to achieve their dreams and build sustainable communities through food system business development. For over four years, Mr. Score was involved in international agricultural development … in the Republic of Zaire (Congo). Following their return to the United States, Mr. Score worked for nine years as an Agricultural Educator with the University of Kentucky. Mr. Score served as Coordinator of a Kellogg-funded state-wide study of sustainable agriculture. He then returned to Michigan State University Extension as an Agricultural Educator serving as an Innovation Counselor with the MSU Product Center. Mr. Score received his Master of Arts in Rural Sociology in 1997. Mr. Score graduated from Michigan State University (MSU) in 1980 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Crop and Soil Sciences. 

Matt and Tania Allen in their Indian Village home.

Matt Allen is the Senior Vice President of Hantz Farms, LLC and recently joined the Hantz Group after concluding a governmental appointment as Press Secretary for the City of Detroit under former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick. A former broadcast journalist, Allen also has experience in the mortgage industry as a loan consultant and has 7 years of retail management experience with Dayton Hudson, Target and TJX. (VOD—During his time with Kilpatrick, Matt Allen was involved in a domestic dispute in his home in Indian Village, where news reports said he put his wife’s head through a window. His wife was Black.)

Related article,  “John Hantz prepared to break ground on urban farm in Detroit, but hints of suburban backup” at  http://www.mlive.com/business/detroit/index.ssf/2010/04/john_hantz_prepared_to_develop.html

Also see blog on Hantz Farms at http://www.thebellforum.com/showthread.php?t=9716 .

Detroit Project Management Director “Kriss” Andrews, a joint Snyder-Bing appointee, tells City Council austerity measures including lay-offs, attack on pension funds, will continue even if it votes for contested contracts, during meeting Dec. 4, 2012. Andrews has no experience in public sector “turn-arounds,” only with private corporations.

   After burying Detroit in credit grave, Wall Street gives Michigan  “historically low” rate on $100 million bond re-financing

Dillon threatens EFM if Detroit doesn’t toe the line under “consent agreement” that should be dead in wake of PA4 repeal

City Council to meet again Tues. Dec. 11, 10 a.m.; Councilwoman Watson wants demand letter to release $30 million in state loan funds 

By Diane Bukowski 

December 9, 2012 

DETROIT – Gov. Rick Snyder and the State of Michigan are likely laying siege to Detroit, threatening an emergency financial manager takeover, as part of a pact with Wall Stree. In return, the state got a “historically low” interest rate of 1.16 percent on a $100 million state bond re-financing deal, among other factors. 

State Treasurer Andy Dillon

“The eagerness of bond purchasers to invest in Michigan is a testament to the strong financial turnaround that is taking place,” State Treasurer Andy Dillon said in a release Nov. 28. “The bold actions that Governor Snyder has taken to balance the state budget and make Michigan the Turnaround State have made an impression on investors throughout the country, as reflected in the historically low rate we received on this deal.” 

The Bond Buyer reported earlier that Dillon, Snyder and state budget director John Nixon met with all three major rating agencies in New York City Oct. 11 to try “to regain Michigan’s triple-A rating . . .This meeting comes ahead of a . . .$100 million general obligation bond deal set tentatively for Nov. 8.” 

Wall Street downgraded Detroit’s debt the same day the state announced its deal.   

Moody’s investor ratings firm sent the city to debtor’s dungeon, with rates plummeting from B3 to Caa1, and Caa1 to Caa2, as a result of Michigan voters’ defeat of Public Act 4 Nov. 6, and legal challenges to the use of PA 72 in its place. They even lowered debt ratings for the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (DWSD), which is not in deficit. 

This means investors in Detroit will profit from heftier interest rates, if they invest at all.

(Click on Text of Moody Detroit downgrade 11 28 12 to read full report.) 

Marchers in Benton Harbor, first victim of PA 4, including Rev. Edward Pinkney at left, May 7, 2011.

Dillon’s communications office has not responded to an inquiry from VOD asking whether the two events are related.

Dillon is now threatening to impose an “emergency financial manager” on Detroit under Public Act 72, telling the Detroit News he met with Detroit Mayor Dave Bing and at least some City Council members to discuss the possibility. He claimed he would ask for a 3o-day review of the city’s finances this week as a first step in the process.

Robert Davis

“There’s been a further deterioration of finances since I last met with the city,” Dillon told the News. “We have to move more quickly than we currently are moving to resolve this.”

However, a case is currently pending before the Michigan Supreme Court asking that the Court affirm that PA 72 is dead. Appellant Robert Davis cites state statute MCL 8.4: “Whenever a statute, or any part thereof shall be repealed by a subsequent statute, such statute, or any part thereof, so repealed, shall not be revived by the repeal of such subsequent repealing statute.”

If the Court rules in Davis’ favor, no such EFM could be imposed.

The Council is set to meet Dec. 11 at 10 a.m. to further discuss issues involved, with residents wondering whether they will succumb to Dillon’s threats of an EFM just they did to threats of an EM when they voted 5-4 for the PA 4 consent agreement.

Atty. Michael McGee of Miller Canfield, signer of proposed contract amendment.

Issues on the table include an amended contract renewal with the Miller-Canfield law firm, a co-author of Public Act 4, the consent agreement, and a $137 state loan connected to it, which the Council deemed conflicts of interest. It is also set to vote on the sale of 1,558 parcels of land to Hantz Woodlands (see separate story below).

Miller Canfield’s $69,000 contract has been amended to eliminate language allowing the law firm to advise on “Annex B” of the Financial Stability (consent) agreement, which relates to demands on the city’s unions. The Financial Advisory Board’s attorneys advised it that sections of the consent agreement axing the city’s duty to negotiate with its unions were the only parts eliminated by the repeal of Public Act 4. (Click on Miller Canfield for copy of MC item on council agenda for Dec. 11, 2012.)

Detroit City Councilwoman JoAnn Watson

Their advice was in line with State Attorney General Bill Schuette’s declaration that PA 72 has been restored, a matter that is still unresolved.

Will the Council call what appears to be Dillon’s bluff?

It can do that by voting for a resolution from Councilwoman JoAnn Watson as follows: 

During the Dec. 4 meeting, City Councilwoman Watson cited recent recommendations from Daniel Cherrin, formerly communications director to former Mayor Kenneth Cockrel, Jr., and now a public affairs and strategic communications consultant.

“Dan Cherrin says the state is ready to sit down with the Mayor and City Council and put everything on the table, including the $224 million in state revenue-sharing funds it owes Detroit,” Watson declared.

Joe Louis Arena at its current location. Owner Mike Illitch has announced a $670 million project to build a new arena in the Cass Corridor area, while tens of thousands of Detroiters are homeless, unemployed and poor.

She added that Joe Louis Arena, the Detroit Medical Center, and numerous other entities, additionally owe the city up to a total of $800 million including the revenue sharing funds. She demanded that the city re-hire 80 revenue collectors it laid off to get those debts paid. She also said the city needs to take advantage of the re-election of President Barack Obama and go to Washington to ask for funding assistance in return for the record voter turn-out supporting Obama in cities like Detroit.

“We should renegotiate the debt the city owes to the banks and bondholders,” Watson went on. “There is no way we should be paying $579 million to the same folks who have been putting our folks on the streets through foreclosures, overcharging and exploiting our citizens while their executives get paid huge bonuses.”

Watson recommended that the City Council draft its own “Milestone Agreement” to counter the one signed by Dillon and Bing.

Financial Advisory Board VP Kenneth Whipple, former CEO of Consumers Energy, and Pres. Sandra Pierce, former CEO of Charter One Michigan, whose parent company, the Royal Bank of Scotland, is one of many global banks currently being sued by cities across the U.S. for criminal manipulation of interest rates, in LIBOR scandal.

“We need to operate from a position of power and knowledge,” Watson said. “We are the leaders elected to represent our people, not outside people.”

She clearly referred to Detroit Project Management Director Walter “Kriss” Andrews (in photo at top), being paid $220,000 a year essentially to “de-structure” Detroit, and the nine-member Financial Advisory Board. Andrews previously worked as a so-called “turn-around” expert only with private companies. He has no experience in the public sector, whose goal is service to the people, not profit.

Andrews took what was supposed to be Bing’s seat at the table Dec. 4, while Bing was visiting San Francisco to keep a sports bet with that city’s Mayor.

Andrews alleged that the City faces a deficit of $47 million June 30. Since then, daily media reports have arbitrarily raised the figure to $68 million.

People vs. the banks and state at council meeting: Tyrone Travis, Sandra Hicks, Catherine Phillips.

He said that even if Dillon releases the $30 million, it will not solve the city’s fiscal problems and painted a picture of austerity measures stretching far into the future.

Corporation Counsel Crittendon has had several closed sessions with the City Council to discuss the impact of the repeal of Public Act 4 on the very existence of the FAB and officials like Andrews appointed under the city’s PA 4 consent agreement. It is expected that she may take legal action.

Council Pres. Pro-tem Gary Brown, Pres. Charles Pugh: will they sell out to the banks and state Dec. 11 as they did April 4?

During public comment, many urged the immediate removal of all consent agreement-related entities and personnel, and against the Miller-Canfield contract.

“We stand strong and steadfast against any contract that would include Miller-Canfield,” said Cecily McClellan of Free Detroit-No Consent. “We are not getting the truth about the city’s finances from them or others.”

She and others urged people to call 313-744-3381 to join a campaign to recall Mayor Dave Bing for his complicity with state officials.

“If the Mayor and City Council were looking out for the interests of the people, they would be demanding that the state pay the money it owes Detroit, the $224 million, and other $200 million from local wealthy businesses,” Whitney Mitchell said. “The Michigan Finance Authority is unethically withholding $30 million from the city. The news media is not telling the whole truth.”

June Nickleberry, Pres. AFSCME D-DOT Local 214.

June Nickleberry, President of AFSCME Local 214 representing clerical and maintenance  workers at D-DOT, along with Ed McNeil and Catherine Phillips of AFSCME Council 25 and its attorney Richard Mack, said the city would save a total of $180.2 million under plans proposed by the Coalition of City Unions in January.

In a hand-out to the Council, they spelled out additional outstanding revenues due to the city totaling $457 million, and savings from other sources totaling $116.7 million. (See list below presented by Mack.)

Russ Bellant added to testimony by this reporter calling on the Council to stand up to the banks, including Swiss-headquartered UBS, which is the lender on what now amounts to over $2 billion in so-called “Pension Obligation Certificates.” He noted that the U.S. government is currently negotiating with UBS on another matter described in a Bloomberg.com article.

“Hundreds of wealthy Americans are revealing they have offshore bank accounts as the U.S. and Swiss bank UBS AG negotiate to resolve a lawsuit seeking the identities of 52,000 Americans suspected of tax evasion,” said Bloomberg in a July, 2009 article at http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=ajTou_vRuqkE .

Tyrone Travis called on Detroiters not to depend on the Council, but to look to the people for solutions.

Community member (center)expresse outrage at Council meeting Dec. 4, 2012, as Ed McNeil (l) and Les Little (r)listen.

“We are going from the pillar to the devil,” he said. “Ladies and gentlemen out there in TV land [Council sessions are televised], you had better organize yourselves,” he declared.

One speaker quoted from the 94th Psalm:

“Lord, how long shall the wicked, how long shall the wicked triumph? How long shall they utter and speak hard things? And all the workers of iniquity boast themselves?  They break in pieces thy people, O Lord, and afflict thine heritage.  They slay the widow and the stranger, and murder the fatherless. . . .Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest, O Lord, and teachest him out of thy law;  That thou mayest give him rest from the days of adversity, until the pit be digged for the wicked. . . And he shall bring upon them their own iniquity, and shall cut them off in their own wickedness; yea, the Lord our God shall cut them off.”

To download and print copy of CCU chart above, click on CCU savings.

Governor Rick Snyder, who signed PA 4, a law giving unprecedented and dictatorial powers to unelected Emergency Managers, was invited to be the Grand Marshall of Benton Harbor and St. Joseph’s annual Bloomtime Parade in Michigan. Benton Harbor is the first municipality where new EM powers have
been used to strip power from all of its elected officials. Hundreds of Michiganders from across the state came to Benton Harbor to protest Snyder. Photo by Brett Jelinek.

From Russ Bellant (email) 

December 9, 2012 

Click on SB 865 draft3  for proposed new EM law.

Brandon Jessup, CEO of Michigan Forward, initiated successful referendum drive to overturn PA 4.

First, thanks to Brandon Jessup for sending along the 68 page new EM bill that [was to be discussed in the Michigan House Education Committee at 9 am December 6]. The bill referenced in the committee posting only had 4 pages, hence the draft 3 version attached was not provided. 

This bill is substantially the same as PA4 that voters clearly rejected a month ago. Just as clearly, Snyder is telling Michigan voters that their action means nothing to him and he is going to try and run this bill again. Voters authority does not exist for Snyder. 

Here are the particulars from one quick review: 

• The term Emergency Manager is reused throughout the bill; no EFM. The EM shall have all the powers of elected executive and legislative officials. (P 25, line 23 to P 26, line 12) 
• The State Treasurer or State Superintendent of Public Instruction can impose an EM at their “sole discretion.” (P.11, lines 1 to 6) 
• Upholds PA 4 actions, even though our repeal of PA 4 nullified those actions. (P 13, lines 1 to 10; P 64, lines 21-23; P 67, line 16 to end of bill) 
• Allows impairment of contracts, including collective bargaining agreements (P7, lines 10 to 16), where local units can “exercise powers under federal bankruptcy law.” See also P 33, line 21 to P 34, line 23 for Unionbusting. 
• The EM can be paid in part by private parties (P27, line 5 to 8), an old Granholm/Bobb practice that was not in PA 4. 
• Can bar local officials from access to facilities (P 30, lines 6 to 13) 
• Can take over a pension fund and dismiss its board (P 34, line 34 to P 36, line 13) 
• Can transfer City functions to other public bodies and dissolve local government (P 39, lines 9 to 27) 
• End compensation for elected officials (p 41, line 25 to P 42, line 16) 
• Remove elected officials (P 63, line 25 to P 64, line 4) 

Republicans in both chambers are balking at the EAA power grab legislation. We will see if they will balk at snubbing the voters, even if they personally support EMs, as they did in 2011.

Dear Sisters and Brothers,

AFSCME Council 25 President Al Garrett and Secretary-Treasurer Larry Roehrig are holding a special tele-townhall meeting for Council 25 members tonight (Saturday, December 8th) at 6:00 PM to update you on the Right-to-Work legislation currently being considered by lawmakers and Governor Snyder in Lansing.

In the event you do not receive a call at 6:00 PM, feel free to join the call by dialing (888) 886-6603 and then entering 20652 and then the pound (#) key.

There will be a question and answer period during the call and at the end of the call you will be directed to Governor Rick Snyder’s voice mail so you can leave him a message urging him NOT TO SUPPORT Right to Work legislation.

Please note, if you cannot be on the call tonight, there will be another tele-townhall meeting on Monday, December 10th at 6:00 PM. We wil send the call-in number for that tele-townhall on Monday morning.

In solidarity,

AFSCME Council 25

To download a copy of the information above, click on Stop Hantz Farms Land Grab.

HANTZ AD FROM WEBSITE: THEY ARE TALKING ABOUT LAND THAT IS CURRENTLY TWO-THIRDS OCCUPIED BY HOMES; THE REST LIKELY COMES FROM FORECLOSED PROPERTIES WHOSE RESIDENTS HAVE BEEN EVICTED.

Hantz Woodlands is announcing on its website that they plan to hold a “public hearing” separate from the City Council’s at 4 P.M. Monday. Click on Hantz flier for meeting before Council hearing.

VOD: Tuesday is the target because that is when legislators will take final votes on the right to work legislation. To download a copy of the flier above, click on STOP RTW LAW.

Dear Sisters and Brothers,

We need your help to stop Gov. Rick Snyder and the Republican-controlled legislature from ramming through union-busting “right to work” laws.

This Tuesday, December 11th, we need you at an emergency rally to protest this anti-worker legislation and the underhanded tactics being used to get it passed. The rally starts at Lansing Center at 9:00am.

Please join us for this crucial rally.

We must make Lansing understand that this behavior is unacceptable. There will be buses leaving from Flint, Detroit, and Kalamazoo that are going to Lansing. Friends and family are welcome to join.

You can reserve a seat on the bus by clicking here.

In solidarity,

Al Garrett
Council 25 President

Michigan unionists packed the rotunda of the state Capitol in Lansing yesterday but the House passed a right to work bill. Protests continue today. Photo: AFT Michigan.

By Alix Gould-Werth

December 7, 2012  

Michigan unionists rallied and lobbied in the state capital yesterday to prevent right-to-work legislation. A bill has passed the House and Senate, and fear is that the governor will sign the bill during the lame-duck session. Republicans will lose five seats once the new legislature is seated in January, making defeat of right to work much more likely then.

Capitol police evicted some protesters yesterday, with arrests and Mace, and closed the building.

Here a member of one Michigan union explains how a state that was considered a union bastion came to this point.

Earlier this year I stood on a street corner, holding a clipboard for Proposal 2 and hoping that Michigan would be a trailblazer: the first state to make union rights constitutional rights. Today, I’m filling my tank for the drive to the state Capitol in Lansing, with the apprehension that Michigan will become the 24th state to end unionization as we know it.

The Republican-dominated legislature is poised to adopt “right-to-work” legislation. Yesterday hundreds of workers convened in the Capitol rotunda, chanting “hey hey, ho ho, right to work has got to go.” How did we get here?

Protest at Scott Waler fund-raiser in Troy, Michigan July 14, 2012.

Perhaps it began one state over, in Wisconsin. Michigan’s Governor Rick Snyder learned from the mistakes of his neighbor across the lake, Scott Walker. When Walker attacked unions in Wisconsin with a bludgeon, provoking intense opposition last year, Snyder was watching. He saw the powerful reaction of union-loyal Midwesterners faced with a clear threat.

So instead, Snyder and his allies in the legislature pursued a strategy of a thousand cuts. Instead of introducing a bill that would affect all unions, the Michigan legislators did it piecemeal: taking away teachers’ automatic dues deductions, defining university research assistants as non-workers, and other measures that wouldn’t rile everyone at once.

Campaign for Proposal 2: What is wrong with this picture?

Michigan labor went on offense, to pass a constitutional amendment that would have nullified all those laws-of-a-thousand-cuts and insulated us against new legislative threats, including “right to work.” We collected thousands of signatures for Proposal 2, made thousands of phone calls, and knocked on thousands of doors. In the week before the election we were neck and neck in the polls. And then Proposal 2 was defeated—57 to 42 percent.

There are many theories why we lost Proposal 2. Perhaps there were too many proposals on the ballot, perhaps it was the misleading ads financed by corporate interests, maybe we weren’t explicit enough about the threats to labor and the protections enshrined in the proposal.

Regardless, one month later, Governor Snyder, who previously had called right to work “divisive” and said it wasn’t a priority, now says he’ll sign this legislation if it crosses his desk during the lame duck session. The Chamber of Commerce is pushing it. Right-wing activist Dick DeVos of the Amway fortune started airing statewide TV ads Tuesday. The Republicans control both houses of the legislature and have the votes.

So where does this leave us? What’s on the table is the disappearance of union jobs from Michigan and the standard of living they have given workers, union and non-union alike. Last year Michigan was the state with the fifth highest percentage of unionized workers, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Back from Lansing, Liz DeLisle Rodrigues, communications chair of the Graduate Employees Organization, Teachers Local 3550, reported on the broad spectrum of workers who were there—teachers, electricians, construction workers, service workers, nurses, and more. Rodrigues observed simply: “Working people are getting the word out and banding together to fight.”

See you at the Capitol.

Alix Gould-Werth is a member of the Graduate Employees Organization, Teachers Local 3550, at the University of Michigan.

Protest at Scott Walker fund-raiser in Troy: demonstrators raise issue of public assistance cut-offs Apri 17, 2012.

VOD:  The photo above illustrates a major problem within the labor movement and the Democratic party in Michigan and nationally. When tens of thousands of families, largely women and children, were cut off public assistance by the Snyder administration last year, there was no GENERAL STRIKE to support them by labor; there was no BOYCOTT of Michigan called by Rev. Jesse Jackson of Rainbow PUSH (who gave a horrified “No” response to VOD’s question about such a boycott during a Michigan Welfare Rights Organization march), or the Democrats.

ALL OF US ARE NOW EXPERIENCING WHAT WAS DONE TO THE LEAST OF US THEN. The labor movement’s slogan used to be: An injury to one is an injury to all. Apparently not any more. Aside from AFSCME, the UAW and the rest of the labor movement took a “hands-off” approach to the campaign to defeat Public Act 4, on information and belief because it was an attack primarily on Michigan’s majority-Black cities. But PA 4 was defeated regardless. Now, however, the battle to effectuate the repeal has returned to the courts.

An interesting article in today’s Detroit News at http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20121208/POLITICS02/212080346/How-right-work-got-table?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|FRONTPAGE makes one wonder whether labor leaders took that “hands off” approach to Prop 1 as a compromise with Snyder. Well, the end result illustrates just what compromises with the racist corporate elite, particularly at the expense of Black and Latino folks, get for poor and working people.

Collective bargaining was not won through a constitutional amendment. It was won through massive sit-down strikes across the country that virtually paralyzed the nation in the 1930’s. Until labor returns to those tactics, it will be more of the same.

December 6, 2012

©2012 Mitchell Jon MacKay

THE STAR SPANGLED BANNER as per Jimi Hendrix version, still relevant after all these years, is a facetious hypocritical tribute, as the George Gilder saying goes, by vice to virtue. It is illogical to maintain sovereign freedom with 25% of the world’s prisoners in a population of 5% of the whole.

Sure, there is still wonderful health care and some of the most incredible gadgetry, infrastructure everywhere, education of the highest kind, medical and pharmaceutical miracles. The cost of this however is as spiraling as the military budget for worldwide presence and cost of incarcerating or monitoring 1 in 31 American citizens via jail, prison, probation and parole.

Case in point, Michigan, which has no death penalty, does have the “other death penalty,” Life Without Parole, and a parole system at the whim of the elected Governor, a 4-year term. When Jennifer Granholm was Governor the state loosed thousands of prisoners through an expanded system of parole administered by a fuller body of Board and a supplemental group of Clemency advisors.

A global campaign stopped the death penalty for Mumia Abu-Jamal. But is life without parole–death in prison–much different? FREE MUMIA! END THE DEATH PENALTY AND LIFE WITHOUT PAROLE!

That system reduced the prison population dramatically allowing the closing of many prisons. Coincidently those closings affected communities economically but this is not the intent of prison, to foster a for-profit enterprise. Prison personnel are grossly overpaid for positions that require only a high school diploma and no prison record.

When Rick Snyder was elected Governor in 2009 the Parole Board was soon cut back to former numbers, the Advisory Committee abandoned, a moratorium on parole imposed. This of course ran parallel to the conservative mindset and was justified by the rhetoric of dispensing with “extra layers of bureaucracy”, a stopgap nuance between the lines of “less government”, a Tea Party favorite reissued by folk receiving government largesse in perfect hypocritical mode.

It is well known that monitoring society’s incorrigibles via tether and probation/parole personnel is way cheaper than jailing or imprisoning defendants and convicts alike.

Thesey youth were among 3,000 who marched on Gov. Rick Snyder’s home on MLK Day 2012. Black youth are the prime targets of the school-to-prison pipeline.

Statistics via press news state that since the advent of Rick Snyder as Governor the state prison system has regained some 1000 inmates. Since statistics are not forthcoming as to efficacy of parole, the rumor has been that the Governor is paroling none but some few aged moribund inmates for compassionate purport.

The status stands at a vague proposition that parole is not only in holding pattern but ostensibly nonexistent while this Governor holds office for this term. Actual word on the “yard”, i.e. in prison, is that this is the way of it, possibly relaxed during second term if that should occur though no guarantees of either.

To my immediate knowledge there are two prison inmates that were in line for parole, prepped and tested, aligned with the MPRI program, viz. Michigan Prisoner Reentry Initiative, upon which has been spent hefty amounts of tax dollars, yet the process was stalled and remains in limbo after these three years, these two considered-worthy prisoners being left high and dry with notice of a 5-year hiatus and unknown indeterminate sentence respectively.

Governor Rick Snyder, who passed a law giving unprecedented and dictatorial powers to unelected Emergency Financial Managers, was invited to be the Grand Marshall of Benton Harbor and St. Joseph’s annual Bloomtime Parade. Benton Harbor is the first municipality where new EMF powers have
been used to strip power from all of its elected officials. Hundreds of Michiganders from across the state came to Benton Harbor to protest Snyder. Photo: Diane Bukowski

The Why of this remains mysterious and necessarily inhumane as well as costly to the system. Both these inmates are considered highly worthy of parole, have backup upon release, and have no demerits on their records. It is pure deliberate indifference on the part of the Parole Board to suddenly ignore what has already been in progress and of course the catalyst falls upon the Governor because the Parole Board is seen as unwilling to pursue bureaucratic motions of parole if the Governor is known to be averse to signing parole recommendations.

Why waste time and energy, in other words? So at least two prisoners, and implicitly many more, wait in suspended animation with no discernible good reason for denial of a process already in motion.

The circumstance comes down to who sits in the driver’s seat, actually the passenger’s seat of a State Police squad car to the Capitol and back home each day, Ann Arbor to Lansing round trip. That does tend to imply a temporary situation, the tentative instigation of campaign rhetoric tightening of budgetary woes of the state fiscal annual catastrophe. Continue reading →

Debt ratings drop into dungeon

Council cops pummel protesting pastor

Mayor plans meeting at Council Tues. Dec. 4 10 a.m. 

By Diane Bukowski 

December 3, 2012 

DETROIT – In the wake of debt downgrades by Wall Street and Michigan officials’ denial of $30 million in loans to Detroit, Mayor Dave Bing dutifully went on the air in a CNN interview and denounced the people of his own city Nov. 28. 

Wastewater Treatment Plant workers struck Sept. 30 to stop an 81 percent cut in their workforce.

“We are in an environment, I think of entitlement,” Bing said. “We’ve got a lot of people who are city workers who for years and years, 20, 30 years think they’re entitled to a job and all that comes with it. Nobody wants to go backwards, but in order for us to move this city forward, I think we’re going to have to take a step or two backwards and then I think all of us have to participate in the pain that’s on us right now.” 

Bing said this about the people of the poorest city in the country, where unemployment runs over 60 percent in some neighborhoods, and where the state has cut thousands of women and children off cash assistance. 

His remarks incredibly recalled those of former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney Sept. 17. 

“There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president [Obama] no matter what,” Romney said at a secret fund-raiser. “All right, there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it. That that’s an entitlement. And the government should give it to them.” 

After Detroiters stormed the City Council Nov. 20 to demand that it vote NO on contracts with the EMA Group, which is recommending that 81 percent of the city’s water department workforce be cut, and the Miller-Canfield law firm, which helped draft the now-dead Public Act 4, among others, the Council finally complied to a degree. 

Bing getting ready to put his foot in his mouth like Mitt Romney.

But before Council President Charles Pugh dropped the closing gavel, Bing announced that the state was refusing to pay $30 million on a loan to the city due to the vote against the Miller-Canfield contract. He later announced forced furlough days and lay-offs of city workers in the New Year, claiming the city is running out of cash, knowing full well that the lion’s share of its cash in fiscal 2011, $579 million, went to the banks.

Bing called a disastrous special Council meeting for re-consideration Nov. 26, and has now set another session for Tues. Dec. 4 at 10 a.m., to discuss “Detroit’s economic situation.” The Nov. 26 meeting was shut down due to lack of an 18-hour notice required by the state’s Open Meetings Act. 

But that was not before a respected pastor, the Rev. Charles Williams, Sr. of Greater King Solomon Baptist Church, had had enough. He called out to Pugh, “You’ve been President for three years, and you still don’t know the meeting requirements?” 

Rev. Charles Williams Sr. speaks at protest demanding moratorium on city’s debt to the banks May 9, 2012.

He proceeded to leave, but called Pugh a “clown,” on the way out, whereupon a Council cop grabbed him and called in two others to pummel Williams against a wall before literally tossing him out. If Williams resisted, he had a right to do so, under the recent Michigan Supreme Court decision, People v. Moreno. The Court upheld the common-law right to resist illegal police conduct, including arrests.

Rev. Williams’ revolt reflected the widespread anger many Detroiters feel toward Bing and the “Fatal Five” on City Council, including Pugh. 

Pugh and Council members Gary Brown, Saunteel Jenkins, James Tate, and Kenneth Cockrel, Jr. voted for a disastrous PA4 “consent agreement” April 4 to ensure that the city’s $16.9 BILLION in debt would be paid. They ignored days of public demands that they wait for the anticipated defeat of PA4. 

(Video belows shows beating of Pastor Williams, Sr. by Council cops Nov. 26, 2012.)

(VOD editor Diane Bukowski has sent another letter to Bing and the Council to demand that they comply with the Open Meetings Act Dec. 4 by holding the meeting in the auditorium to allow all the attend. Click on OMA possible violations letter to Mayor Dave Bing et al related to COW meeting 12 4 12.)

The demand for payment of Detroit’s debt, and that of cities and countries across the world, during a period of global economic collapse, is behind attacks on working and poor people everywhere.  

Protest May 9, 2012 in downtown Detroit.

Moody’s, the Wall Street investor ratings firm, downgraded debt for the City of Detroit and the Detroit Water & Sewerage Department (DWSD) Nov. 28. City of Detroit General Obligation Unlimited Tax (GOULT) ratings plummeted from B3 to Caa1, while General Obligation Limited Tax (GOLT) fell from Caa1 to Caa2. (Click on Text of Moody Detroit downgrade 11 28 12 tp read full report.)

“These downgrades reflect the city’s ongoing precariously narrow cash position and a weakened state oversight framework following the repeal of Public Act 4 (PA 4),” Moody’s said. “The negative outlook on the . . . ratings is based on the rising possibility that the city could file for bankruptcy or default on an obligation over the next 12 to 24 months, the general uncertainty of state oversight as challenges to Public Act 72 (PA 72) persist following the repeal of PA 4, and the city’s ongoing inability to implement reforms necessary to regain financial stability.”

Despite the fact that DWSD is an enterprise agency not included in the deficit-ridden general fund, and is not itself in deficit, Moody’s went on to downgrade DWSD debt one notch.

Moody’s detailed what measures it wants Detroit to take, the same measures the state and Bing are trying to impose.

Stephen Murphy of Standard and Poor’s and Joe O’Keefe of Fitch Ratings flew in from Wall Street Jan. 31, 2004 to get the Detroit City Council to agree to a $1.5 BILLION loan.

Such downgrades make it more costly and difficult for the city to borrow money on its own, and allow lenders to profit greatly from higher interest rates.

Wall Street has run Detroit for years. When city clerical workers, many of whom are eligible for food stamps due to wage concessions made through the years, voted down a 10 percent pay cut in 1992, Wall Street downgraded the city’s debt the next day.

Wall Street was glorying in an orgy of predatory lending in 2004, before the bubble burst in 2008, when Standard and Poor’s and Fitch Ratings came to the Council table in Jan. 2004 to demand that the city borrow an astounding $1.5 BILLION in so-called pension obligation certificates. Detroit defaulted on that debt twice, and now both its state-revenue sharing funds and its income from casino taxes are funneled through the U.S. Bank of North America to ensure the debt gets paid.

Even though Detroit is not alone in this Wall Street-made crisis, its leaders have failed to stand up against its perpetrators to a degree greater than that in many other cities.

The City of Baltimore and other municipalities and states across the U.S. are suing global banks in a massive federal class action related to the LIBOR scandal. Banks, including UBS AG, which was the lender in the 2004 Detroit POC deal, were exposed for taking advantage of their role as part of the U.S. Board for the London-Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) panel to criminally manipulate interest rates. Plaintiffs in the LIBOR case are demanding the restitution of hundreds of millions in funds that should have gone to service their people instead.

Baltimore Mayor stephanie Rawlings announces participation in LIBOR lawsuit against global banks.

Detroit’s Mayor Frank Murphy demanded a 10-year moratorium on Detroit’s debt to the banks in the 1930’s, eventually winning national legislation to that effect. When the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the legislation, Detroit’s Common Council voted not to pay the interest on the city’s debt; when that was declared illegal, Murphy at least negotiated with the banks and won lower debt payments.

When will the leaders and people of Detroit decide they have had enough, as did Rev. Charles Williams Sr., and follow Frederick Douglass’ advice 150 years ago:

“Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.”

By Christopher Palmeri & Mary Jane Credeur – Nov 30, 2012 9:38 AM ET

Bloomberg Business Week

(VOD–the strike continues as of today, Dec. 3, 2012. Workers say they are “entitled” to their jobs, which are being outsourced. Detroit Mayor Dave Bing told CNN the problem in Detroit is that city workers feel “entitled” to their jobs–apparently LA workers know what to do about that.)

California ports handling about a third of U.S. container shipments were largely closed because of a strike, stranding vessels carrying last-minute cargos for the holiday-shopping season.

Seven of eight terminals at the Port of Los Angeles are shut, Phillip Sanfield, a spokesman for the city-owned facility, said yesterday. At the adjacent Port of Long Beach, three of six are closed, according to its website. Clerical workers walked out Nov. 27 amid an impasse in contract talks, and longshoremen represented by the same union refused to cross the picket lines.

Day 6 of Cali dock strike, Dec. 3, 2012

The strike will disrupt shipments of clothes, furniture, electronics and other Asia-made goods during the year’s busiest shopping period. The National Retail Federation trade group asked President Barack Obama to intervene, saying a 10-day West Coast ports lockout in 2002 cost the economy about $1 billion a day and disrupted supply chains for as long as six months.

“It’s a logistics nightmare,” said John C. Martin, an economist at Martin Associates in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. “The problems mount exponentially the longer this goes on.”

If the strike lasts, ships will start diverting to Oakland, California, or Seattle, causing backups there as railroads, truckers and warehouse operators handle a surge in volume, Martin said. Perishables such as fruits and vegetables may begin to rot, and shipping lines will have to spend as much as $70,000 more a day to operate vessels, he said in a telephone interview.

Holiday-Shopping

Forty percent of U.S. shipping shut down by 800 clerical workers.

The strike comes after the peak of the holiday-shopping cargo rush, Sanfield said. Still, some deliveries are yet to be made, said Stanley Shen, a spokesman for Orient Overseas (International) Ltd. (316) The Hong Kong-based container line’s Long Beach terminal has been closed by the walkout.

“The Long Beach strike took us by surprise,” he said.“It will have tremendous disruption for all the Christmas shipments that are yet to arrive and be unloaded.”

Hanjin Shipping Co., whose Long Beach terminal closed yesterday, is still assessing the impact on operations, said Sonya Cho, a spokeswoman for the Seoul-based shipping line.

Los Angeles has 10 vessels at berth waiting to be serviced and more anchored nearby, according to Sanfield.

“We rarely have ships waiting, and more are due every day,” he said by phone.

Trucking companies and Union Pacific Corp. (UNP) and Burlington Northern Santa Fe, the two biggest western U.S. railroads, haul cargos from the California ports to destinations across the country.

‘Bargaining Table’

Union workers strike at the Port of Los Angeles on Nov. 28, 2012.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa sent a letter to the International Longshore & Warehouse Union, which represents the clerical workers, and the Los Angeles/Long Beach Harbor Employers Association, which negotiates for shippers, urging them to reach an agreement.

“The City of Los Angeles needs both of you to get back to the bargaining table this week, to work with a mediator, and to hammer out a settlement before further harm is done to our local economy,” Villaraigosa said. “There is no time to waste.”

Port Executive Director Geraldine Knatz echoed that call yesterday in a statement urging both sides to return to negotiations.

“We are starting to see ships divert to other ports, including to Mexico,” she said. “This dispute has impacted not only our port workforce but all stakeholders who ship goods through our complex.”

No Contract

The employers said in an update on the strike that clerical workers rejected a proposed increase in compensation to more than $190,000 in wages and benefits.

The 800 office and clerical employees have been working without a contract for 30 months, according to a statement on the union website.

Salaries aren’t the issue, the union said. More than 51 positions have been lost in recent years because of outsourcing to other locations including Costa Rica and Dallas, according to the statement.

The shippers say no clerical jobs have been sent overseas or elsewhere. The employers say they have offered protection against such actions.

“The real purpose behind this claim is to promote‘featherbedding’ — requiring employers to call in temporary employees and hire new permanent employees even when there is no work to perform,” the employers said in their statement.

Craig Merrilees, a spokesman for the longshoremen, said two of the 14 terminal operators working at the ports had signed agreements with the union and their facilities were operational. The two are Stevedoring Services of America and Pasha Stevedoring & Terminals.

Asked how long the strike would proceed, he said: “It will go on until the companies honestly face the issue of outsourcing and keep good jobs at home.”

Fourteen ports on the U.S. East Coast and Gulf Coast, including New York and New Jersey, may also face a strike in January if a new contract with the International Longshoremen’s Association isn’t reached by year-end. The Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service is involved in those discussions.

To contact the reporter on this story: Christopher Palmeri in Los Angeles at cpalmeri1@bloomberg.net; Mary Jane Credeur in Atlanta at mcredeur@bloomberg.net

Port of Los Angeles.