Joseph Weekley, killer of Aiyana Stanley-Jones, at earlier court hearing.
Joseph Weekley, the Detroit cop who shot Aiyana Stanley-Jones, 7, to death on May 16, 2010, is scheduled to be in court on continuing action related to a motion to dismiss his case, on Oct. 29 at 9 a.m. in the courtroom of Judge Cynthia Gray Hathaway, Frank Murphy Hall, Room 801.
To download and print flyer, click on Aiyana rally.
Col. Muammar Gadhafi, leader of the Libyan People’s Jamahirya and also of the African Union, had proposed separate African currency, army to unite continent.
(RT.com) – Libyan rebels abused and mass murdered Colonel Muammar Gadhafi, his son Mutassim, and 66 loyalists, after their capture a year ago, Human Rights Watch says. It calls for an investigation and prosecution of those responsible for what they slam as a war crime.
The 50-page report “Death of a Dictator: Bloody Vengeance in Sirte” details the last hours of Muammar Gaddafi’s life on October 20, 2011, when he was caught trying to leave the city with his remaining supporters.
Bodies of apparent execution victims found at the Mahari Hotel in Sirte on October 21, 2011, the day after the final battle with the Gaddafi convoy (left). An estimated 66 captured members of the Gaddafi convoy were apparently executed at the site by opposition fighters. Human Rights Watch researchers visited the site on October 23, 2011, and found the decomposing bodies of 53 apparent execution victims, all male, still at the scene. Photo: Human Rights Watch
HRW admits difficulty in reconstructing the final days of Libya’s ex-leader since “he was surrounded by a small circle of trusted confidants and bodyguards, most of whom were killed in the attempted escape from Sirte,” stated the report.
The report relies heavily on interviews with Mansour Dhao, a senior security official and head of the pro-Gaddafi People’s Guard, and other surviving witnesses of the event. The interviews took place in Libya two days after Mr. Gadhafi’s death.
Capture, abuse, murder
Col. Gadhafi is said to have fled Tripoli with a handful of his trustful men in the end of August to his hometown of Sirte, where he “spent most of his time reading the Koran and praying,” Mr. Dhao told HRW.
“His communications with the world were cut off. There was no communication, no television, no news,” he added.
Mutassim Gadhafi visiting U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton in 2009. Clinton reportedly gave the order for his father’s execution two years later.
On Oct. 20, Col. Gadhafi’s son Mutassim deemed the situation unsafe and organized a 50-vehicle convoy for all to flee the city in the morning. The convoy consisted of 250 people, including civilians who supported Col. Gadhafi.
As the cars were trying to make their getaway, they were struck by a NATO air-fired missile, which exploded next to the car carrying Col. Gadhafi. In defense, the convoy turned on to a dirt road, but was pinned down by militia fighters and then further bombed by NATO fighter jets.
NATO jet firing missile over Libya. Such a missile struck Gadhafi’s convoy before he, his son and 66 supporters were slaughtered by counterrevolutionaries.
After the bombings Col. Gadhafi, accompanied by 10 other people, including his bodyguards, tried to take shelter by a drainage pipe, but was once again attacked by militia.
One of Col. Gadhafi’s bodyguards reportedly threw three grenades at the rebels, but one of the grenades hit a cement wall and bounced back, injuring Col. Gadhafi and leading to his capture.
“As soon as the militia fighters had custody of Gaddafi, they began abusing him. Blood was already gushing from the shrapnel wound in his head. As he was being led to the main road, a militiaman stabbed him in his anus with what appears to have been a bayonet, causing another rapidly bleeding wound,” described the report.
Col. Muammar Gadhfai suffers vicious beating before being executed by CIA-sponsored counterrevolutionaries.
Video clips taken of the capture suggest that after enduring abuses Col. Gadhafi was shot by militia fighters.
Report suggests that rebels took “bloody revenge” against Col. Gadhafi and his loyal supporters in light of the eight-month civil war.
An HRW team on the ground counted that 103 pro-Gadhafi supporters died during that escape. Half of those were killed by NATO bombings, and the other half was either killed in combat or executed.
On top of that, 140 Gadhafi loyalists were taken prisoner, but instead of being transferred to prison authorities, 66 of them were executed in a nearby hotel.
A Libyan man visits the wreckage of Muammar Gaddafi’s convoy the morning after his capture and death, Oct 21, 2011. The convoy, containing some 250 people, attempted to flee Sirte before being bombed by NATO and engaging in a fierce final battle with opposition fighters. More than 105 bodies were strewn around the wreckage of the convoy. While the majority of them appeared to have been killed during the NATO strikes and the final battle, some showed signs of having been executed. The bodies of an additional 66 members of the convoy who were detained alive after the final battle were later discovered dead at the nearby Mahari Hotel, most of them apparently victims of summary executions.
Col. Gadhafi’s son Mutassim was also captured alive, according to YouTube videos taken by his captors. However, by the afternoon of the same day, Mutassim was dead with a large new wound in his throat, suggesting he was murdered, HRW concluded.
“The throat wound thus must have been inflicted after the videos of a captured Mutassim were recorded, strongly indicating that he was killed in the custody of his captors just hours after he was detained.”
HRW points out that “these killings apparently comprise the largest documented execution of detainees committed by anti-Gaddafi forces during the eight-month conflict in Libya. The execution of persons in custody is a war crime.”
Libya’s powerless authority
HRW also accuses Libyan transitional government of lack of control and unity for failing to properly investigate and prosecute those responsible for the killings in Sirte, a year after the incident.
Aisha, daughter of Muammar Gadhafi, is calling for the International Criminal Court to investigate executions of her father, hundreds of supporters.
“To some extent, the failure of Libya’s authorities to investigate shows their continuing lack of control over the heavily armed militias, and the urgent need to bring Libya’s numerous militias under the full control of the new authorities.”
UN and International Criminal Court (ICC) have already been calling upon Libya to investigate Col. Gadhafi’s death back in October 2011.
ICC had spoken out that there were strong indications Col. Gadhafi was killed in custody, yet it left things be by letting Libya to investigate on its own.
Libya announced it had created a committee to look into circumstances of death. However, there has not been a proper update into the investigation in just under a year.
Back in January, Col. Gadhafi’s daughter Aisha hired Nick Kaufman, an Israeli lawyer, to convince the International Criminal Court to investigate the full circumstances of her father’s death, arguing that time for a proper probe is running out.
“(The investigation) would involve forensic analysis of the crime scene, ballistic analysis of the crime scene, it would involve taking detailed statements from objective and independent witnesses,” Atty. Kaufman told RT. And with time memories deteriorate, people forget, and evidence goes missing.
Yet Aisha’s efforts failed to yield results.
When HRW contacted Libya government imploring them to take action, local authorities stated that all murders were the result of Col. Gadhafi regime’s “dictatorship” and that rebels were defending themselves. However, they failed to account for those evident executions.
Published on Oct 16, 2012 by HumanRightsWatch
New evidence collected by Human Rights Watch implicates Misrata-based militias in the apparent execution of dozens of detainees following the capture and death of Muammar Gaddafi one year ago. The Libyan authorities have failed to carry out their pledge to investigate the death of dozens held in rebel custody. http://www.hrw.org/news/2012/10/16/libya-new-proof-mass-killings-gaddafi-deat…
Tom Barrow (l) ran against Dave Bing in the last mayoral election. He is shown here with supporters at Board of Canvassers hearihg. The Canvassers found over 51 % of the vote unrecountable due to massive irregularities.
BE SURE TO REGISTER FOR THE TOM BARROW EXPLORATORY MEETING
REMINDER OF UPCOMING PLATFORM AND CITY ISSUES MEETING
I am following up to remind you of the Tom’s Exploratory Committee meeting coming up soon in about ten days. Tom intends to discuss the issues and measure potential support. As he values your input, he would like for you to be there and feel free to bring any friends.
Tom will be organizing around a host of issues including his potential platform, volunteer support and handing out petitions to gather signatures on election day at your own neighborhood precinct.
I hope you are planning on attending as it will be exciting to be in on the ground floor. That date again is Saturday, November 3rd at 2PM. Cake, coffee and water will be served.
If you have questions or want to RSVP by telephone, just give my office a call at 313.533.8764 and let us know. Meanwhile, I’ll look forward to seeing you on November 3rd..
AFSCME Local 207 members, supporters from Occupy Detroit protest U.S. District Court Judge Sean Cox’s imposed cuts at federal courthouse Oct. 25, 2012.
The U.S. government has sued Bank of America for “brazen” mortgage fraud, saying its subsidiary Countrywide cost Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac more than $1 billion.
“The fraudulent conduct alleged in today’s complaint was spectacularly brazen in scope,” Preet Bharara, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in a statement. “As alleged, through a program aptly named ‘the Hustle,’ Countrywide and Bank of America made disastrously bad loans and stuck taxpayers with the bill.
As described, Countrywide and Bank of America systematically removed every check in favor of its own balance – they cast aside underwriters, eliminated quality controls, incentivized unqualified personnel to cut corners, and concealed the resulting defects. These toxic products were then sold to the government-sponsored enterprises as good loans.
During a nation-wide day of protest against Bank of America May 9, 2012, protesters in Detroit marched from BOA offices to the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center to demand that BOA and other banks cancel the city’s debt since they had destroyed Detroit’s neighborhoods through fraudulent practices.
“According to the complaint, the “Hustle” (HSSL, for High-Speed Swim Lane) was a program designed to process loans at high speed, with no regard for whether customers could pay them back. “Brazen” is a good description. To keep questions from being raised, Countrywide removed loan underwriters from the process, putting decisions in the hands of less qualified processors – though processors had previously not been considered knowledgeable enough to answer customer questions.
The suit included seven examples of loans that clearly looked fishy. In one, a borrower in Miami claimed to be an airline sales rep earning $15,500 per month. In fact, the borrower earned $2,666 per month working at a temp agency, The Associated Press reported. That borrower defaulted on the loan in less than a year.
Marchers at Detroit BOA offices May 9 also demanded moratorium on Detroit Public Schools debt.
The result of “the Hustle” was “thousands of fraudulent and otherwise deceptive mortgage loans sold to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.” Subsequent defaults on those loans cost the two government-supported entities more than $1 billion, according to the suit. And, the foreclosed homeowners lost their homes.
Countrywide initiated its “Hustle” program in 2007 after default rates nationwide began rising and Fannie and Freddie tightened requirements for loans they would back. Bank of America bought Countrywide in 2008, and the Hustle program continued through 2009.
This is the first civil fraud suit filed by the Justice Department over loans sold to Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. Earlier this month, the U.S. government sued Wells Fargo, accusing the company of lying about mortgages it asked to be insured by the Federal Housing Administration.
In a statement reported by The New York Times, Bank of America spokesman Lawrence Grayson said the bank “has stepped up and acted responsibly to resolve legacy mortgage matters; the claim that we have failed to repurchase loans from Fannie Mae is simply false.” The spokesman added: “At some point, Bank of America can’t be expected to compensate every entity that claims losses that actually were caused by the economic downturn.”
Former Countrywide CEO Angelo Mozilo agreed last year to a record penalty of $67.5 million in a case brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission. The SEC accused Mozilo and other executives of misleading investors as the subprime mortgage business unraveled.
Protest at Bank of America’s national HQ in Charlotte, N.C. May 9, 2012.
Paramount victims Steve Bynum, Kim Pierce, Dana Hill Photo: Metro Times
From Atty. Bob Day; Paramount Homeowners
Oct. 24, 2012
DETROIT— Homeowners swindled by Paramount Land Holdings in a scheme financed by the Detroit Police and Fire Pension Board face a court hearing Friday morning, Oct. 26, which could lead to their eviction. The Paramount homeowners and their supporters will appear in court in front of Judge John Gillis to counter the Police and Fire Pension Board’s claim that they “may not exist at all,” and to testify to the fraudulent practices funded by the Pension Board.
Paramount home Photo: Metro Times
In 2009, the Detroit Police and Fire Pension Board loaned $10 million to Paramount Land Holdings of South Carolina to buy foreclosed homes for as little as $10 and sell them by land contract to area residents for tens of thousands of dollars. Paramount claimed to have paid all back taxes.
It was a swindle from the start. Paramount never recorded its interest in the properties and taxes were never paid. Paramount took down-payments and monthly charges from buyers, but the land contracts did not include legal descriptions of the properties, so buyers could not record their land contracts. Paramount did nothing to repair the homes, so buyers had to pay to make the homes habitable.
Paramount Landholdings co-owner George Kastenes after arrest in Florida.
The whole scheme began to collapse when the Wayne County Treasurer began tax foreclosure proceedings against the homeowners for the back-taxes Paramount had not paid. The Pension Board finally sued Paramount, which is now bankrupt. One of the Paramount principals committed suicide and the other [George Kastenes] has been arrested in Florida.
Paramount homeowners have been organizing and opposing the tax foreclosures and evictions. The Wayne County Treasurer agreed to a temporary stay on foreclosure proceedings, but the Pension Board insists that homeowners should continue to pay under the illegal land contracts and is threatening to evict those who refuse. At this Friday’s hearing, the Pension Board will seek exclusive title to these homes, punishing the victims of Paramount’s fraudulent practices.
The Pension Board made a deal with crooks who profited from the foreclosure crisis. Paramount home owners are fighting back with assistance from the United Community Housing Coalition and Legal Aid and Defender, demanding that the Pension Board negotiate a settlement that will transfer legal title to the buyers who are living in the homes, improving the properties, and helping to stabilize Detroit’s neighborhoods.
Attorney Bob Day
Comments by Bob Day, from earlier VOD article on rally vs. banks, June 12, 2011:
“Bob Day said that not only have the banks robbed people nationwide by foreclosing on them, they are coming back for a second round. Companies like Paramount Land Holdings, Inc., the Rice-Peters Financial Corporation, Destiny Ventures and others are buying thousands of foreclosed Detroit homes in bundled packages for $1 each from Deutsche Bank, Bank of America, and others who evicted the original owners.
Those banks already made huge profits because the full sums of their mortgages were guaranteed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, in addition to money they got from insurance against vandalism, and the trillions in bail-out tax dollars from the U.S. government.
“The developers are putting up signs saying ‘Buy, don’t rent,’ and even going to churches to recruit unaware victims to buy the homes on land contract.” Day said.
“One of my clients bought a $1 home for $45,000, put $750 down, and made her monthly payments,” he explained. “But when her furnace went out and she tried to get state aid to fix it, she did not show up as the owner of record because Paramount had not put the legal description of her property in the land contract, so she couldn’t register it. Then she got a notice of property tax foreclosure because Paramount hadn’t paid taxes on the home. Another client got hit with an outstanding $13,000 water bill.”
Day advocated mobilizing the people in the thousands to seize homes foreclosed by the banks as well as by city and county governments. He said they should be given to those who need them to fix them up and put them back on the property tax rolls, to rebuild the city.”
For more information, contact Bob Day, Legal Aid and Defender Association, 313-971-8170 Paramount Homeowners: Dana Hill, 313-412-4478; Steve Bynum 313-915-8604; DeonColeman, 313-626-8010
Commentary by Greg Thrasher, VOD Washington Bureau
Greg Thrasher
October 24, 2012
Now that the theatre of the presidential debates is behind us here in the nation’s capital, there is an eerie sense outside the beltway that Obama is a one-term president. The DC region, unlike many regions in the nation, has not suffered from the destructive aspects of the recession. In this region over 30% of the entire expenditures of the federal budget are spent here.
Medicare for seniors would be threatened under a Romney administration.
Locals and business interests including the defense industry do not want a Romney/Ryan administration which seeks to reduce the fiscal spending of the federal government. The specter of a Romney presidency is a financial nightmare for the fortunes of Black government workers not to mention seniors and others who depend on Medicare and the entitlement programs.
In America, a place where the original “illegal aliens” and domestic “terrorists” were the pilgrims and puritans, the experiment of having a Black man in the White House in the eyes of the vested interests is over. The devastation of a Romney presidential tenure for the white blue collar class and parts of the middle class is not enough. This voting bloc will still vote against their interests where race matters.
Despite the fact that Obama’s presidency as a person of color was history-making, and proof that a majority-white nation like America could be led and governed by a non-white, it had a short shelf life. White America simply can no longer stomach Obama calling the shots.
The post narrative now is that we have given “negroes” and “colored folks” a chance and that is all they get. Never mind of course that the tenure of Obama was full of global crisis events, from two wars overseas, to a collapse of our financial system, to those patriots who practiced treason against our president by claiming he was not even an American.
In the vision of many whites including white progressives and white liberals Obama did not deliver as promised. In America a Black person has a short lease on anything from a job toownership of a business. The mantra has always been calibrated in the metrics of race. Black folks, even the president, do not get the benefit of doubt nor the chance of a long term commitment.
Protester at rally against poverty.
Here in the bubble of DC the realities of the rest of the world are irrelevant. What matters here in DC is not the everyday issues which confront people in the streets and factories of America. What matters is how one postures for the media and chatter class. For Black Americans, we are on the edge of survival and this truth does not matter to those in the ruling class. In all of the debates between Obama and Romney there was not one utterance or discussion about the plight of Black Americans.
The debates lacked any serious interests in topics about urban development, or the plight of the health of our nation’s poor. Instead of a candid discussion about the poor and the lower class, we got endless rants about the middle class and how this bandwidth of Americans is more important than any other segment of America.
This election has revealed yet again how the ruling class both the Democrats and Republicans are truly not interested in the plight of the poor. Both Obama and Romney are not conduits of the poor and those under siege in our streets. Yet we must select one of them to be our president. Despite all of the blind spots and shortcomings of Obama it is clear and beyond doubt he is the best option for the future of America. We cannot go where Romney wants to take the country. Going backward and in reverse is never the right way.
State Treasurer Andy Dillon led Bing entourage at City Council Oct. 22, 2012. He justs wants a “few more” pounds of flesh (LOL).
Dillon again threatens to withhold bond money
Council members generally agreeable
‘State bullying’ by ‘white folks,’ one Detroiter responds
By Diane Bukowski
October 22, 2012
(VOD: photo quality is not the best because photos were taken from computer while watching session on-line.)
Detroit Mayor Dave Bing lays down the law at Council Oct. 22, 2012.
DETROIT— Mayor Dave Bing brought State Treasurer Andy Dillon, Financial Advisory Board (FAB) Chair Sandra Pierce, Program Management Director Kriss Andrews, and the city’s Chief Financial Officer Jack Martin to the City Council today for what was billed as a Mayoral meeting with the Legislative branch.
During a session that lasted less than an hour, Dillon threatened that if the Council does not immediately pass massive restructuring proposals and contracts on the table, the state will withhold revenue sharing funds of $10 million in November and $20 million in December, with the remainder of $80 million in bonds left open to negotiations.
During public comment, which for the first time was regulated by loud buzzers after each of only four speakers finished their two minutes, Sandra Hines of Free Detroit-No Consent gave her opinion on the unexpected scenario
Sandra Hines at City Council session Sept. 25, 2012 on EMA contract.
“I’m really upset about what I just witnessed,” Hines said. “It was the state making a push to completely take the city over, move things along without any language pertaining to what the people of Detroit want. It was state bullying, with a still illegal FAB along. The vote on Public Act 4 Nov. 6 would affect this takeover, but we have people in office that just ignore the laws and do whatever they want to do because they’re scared of white folks. Bing was surrounded by them. This is nothing but a racist takeover.”
Members of Bing’s entourage were all there as part of a Public Act 4 “consent agreement” the Council approved April 4, allegedly to stave off an “emergency manager” takeover. His entourage did insist that regardless of the PA 4 vote, they plan to move their “reform agenda” forward.
Saunteel Jenkins: It doesn’t matter whether PA 4 is voted down.
“The city’s financial problems won’t change regardless of the vote Nov. 6,” Councilwoman Saunteel Jenkins said.
Bing said in published remarks recently that he supports PA4, otherwise known as the “dictator” act. He is currently facing a recall challenge and a request for an investigation of fraud in his administration from State Rep. John Olumba (D-Detroit.) (Click on OLUMBALETTER for details.)
Bing laid major items on the table with few details and little discussion. Council President Charles Pugh approvingly said Bing had previously visited Council members “door-to-door” to discuss his “reform agenda” in secret.
Charles Pugh applauds Bing’s back door meetings with Council members.
“I am prepared to stand with you and the FAB to move the city forward,” Council member Kenneth Cockrel, Jr. said Oct. 22. “The City Council has been characterized as a roadblock, but we can turn things around quickly unless we have questions. For example, 95 to 99 percent of the contracts brought to us this week will be voted on and approved tomorrow.”
Contracts on the table for the Council’s Committee of the Whole Meeting Oct. 23 include the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department’s $48 million five-year contract with the EMA Group, which proposes to cut 81 percent of the DWSD workforce.
AFSCME Local 207, other DWSD unions held press conference last year to announce legal challenge to U.S. District Court Judge Sean Cox’s Nov. order dismantling DWSD and its union contracts. Appeals Court decision from Oct. 9 hearing is now awaited.
“Working with Judge [Sean} Cox and the Board of Water Commissioners, we feel confident with the expertise and professionalism exhibited with those individuals,” Bing said. “ We have obviously been having problems with DWSD for a long, long time. At this point I am comfortable with this contract. Jack Martin’s been able to bring in expertise from Washington DC to help us with assessment of the contracts, which includes upgrades from the .technology standpoint. We’ve been way behind the eight ball on that. We don’t want to go through and elongated process as relates to an RFP.”
In fact, the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) filed a request with U.S. District Court Judge Sean Cox Oct. 12 expressing alarm at the drastic down-sizing proposal and asking for a 45-day halt on any further movement on the EMA contract until the EPA has reviewed it. Cox currently oversees the federal government’s 35-year review of DWSD compliance with the Clean Water Act, which was initiated by the EPA.
In a report on the EMA contract, City Council’s Research and Analysis Division asked the Council to comply with that request, and raised numerous questions about the no-bid contract. (Click on RAD opinion on EMA.)
DDOT Director Ronald Freeland (i) is blasted by Warriors on Wheels representative during Council session Oct. 15, 2012. Also cpndemning bus service were members of North End Woodward Community Coaltion and Transportation Riders United.
Bing claimed the administration was going to bid out the management contract for D-DOT, currently with Parsons-Brinckerhoff and its subcontractor Envisurage/Transpro. However, D-DOT Director Ronald Freeland is asking the Council to approve new D-DOT contracts totaling $40 million on Oct. 23, including a $25 million contract with Parsons-Brinckerhoff.
Its subcontractor Envisurage/Transpro previously employed Freeland as well as former D-DOT Deputy Director Bill Nojay. Nojay departed in August after his ongoing run for office in the New York State Assembly, begun in May, was exposed by The Livingston County News, The Voice of Detroit, and the Detroit News.
Bill Nojay hosting his right-wing, racist radio talk show in New York.
Detroit COO Chris Brown told the press that both he and Bing were aware of Nojay’s campaign. It likely violated the federal Hatch Act because Nojay oversaw D-DOT federal funds. The U.S. Office of the Special Counsel notified the Livingston County News that it had dropped its Hatch Act complaint against Nojay, but recently informed VOD that it is “still investigating” charges VOD filed against Nojay, Brown, and Bing.
The peripatetic Brown, previously thought by many to be Detroit’s first white “Mayor” since before Coleman A. Young, was not at the Council session and has been little in evidence at public events of late.
“We need contracts with operational turn-around firms to collaborate with the Auditor General’s office to examine challenges and overcome management and systems limitations, regulatory limitations, consolidation limitations, and labor limitations,” Bing added. He did not name the companies he had in mind or amounts for those contracts.
In response to a question from Councilwoman Brenda Jones, Bing said he wants a one-year renewal of the city’s contract with Ernst & Young, which first claimed the city was running out of money in a secret session with Council in Nov. 2011. Ernst & Young is being sued by the states of New York and New Jersey because it was the auditor for the Lehman Brothers before its disastrous collapse in 2008.
Bing also said he wants the Purchasing Ordinance revised to increase the limit on contracts the Council must approve, which currently are those over $25,000. That met with a favorable response from Pugh, who said, “Contract amounts for Council approval need to be WAY larger than $25,000.”
City workers protest privatization, demand city jobs for youth.
Bing told the Council he wants the Privatization Ordinance revised, despite last year’s Charter revision vote on a document which still includes the Ordinance, and despite the fact that the city has flagrantly flouted the ordinance for years, according to many union officials.
The Miller Canfield law firm, including Attorney Michael McGee, a co-author of PA 4, pushed for the Detroit “Financial Stability [Consent] Agreement” on behalf of Bing at the Council table, and later represented Bing in Ingham County Circuit Court when City of Detroit Corporation Counsel Krystal Crittendon challenged it.
Detroit COO Chris Brown (l) and PMD Kriss Andrews (r) review “City Employment Terms” union-busting document with Atty. Michael McGee of Miller Canfield before FInancial Advisory Board meeting June 28, 2012.
Bing told the Council today that “renewing” contracts with Miller Canfield is also a priority. Some Council members said they would vote to do so only if Miller Canfield consults regularly with the Office of the Corporation Counsel, which must approve contracts with outside law firms. That Office has had the proposed contract with Miller Canfield under review since Oct. 16 according to Assistant Corporation Counsel Lewis Smith.
Bing also said he wants final approval from the Council on the dismantling and privatization of the Human Services, Health and Wellness Promotion, and Workforce Development Departments.
Council President Pro-Tem Gary Brown said that if Bing gets all the proposed actions to the Council in one week, he feels confident they will be approved.
FAB chair Sandra Pierce, formerly CEO Charter One Bank in Michigan: “We need to do whatever it takes to get the funds released.”
VOD found this lone Vote No on 1 sign to Repeal PA 4 on St. Aubin off Gratiot. The UAW and numerous others have failed to contribute funds to repeal the dictator law.
