Free Detroit — No Consent drove UHAUL trucks repeatedly around the Coleman A. Young Center Aug. 7 chanting on a bullhorn, “HIT THE ROAD, JACK AND DON’T YOU COME BACK NO MORE!”
FREE DETROIT NO CONSENT STATEMENT TO CITY COUNCIL
GROUP CALLS FOR ACTIONS BY DPS EM ROBERTS AND COUNCIL UNDER CONSENT AGREEMENT TO BE CANCELED .
FDNC members and supporters including (l to r) Edith Lee Payne, Valerie Glenn, Keith Hines, Linda Hassel, and Sandra Hines spoke at Council as trucks protested outside. The Council has asked Corporation Counsel Krystal Crittendon to render a legal opinion on the current status of the consent agreement since PA 4 was suspended when Supreme Court ordered it put on November ballot.
FDNC CALLS ON COUNCIL’S ‘FATAL FIVE’ WHO VOTED FOR CONSENT AGREEMENT TO UNDO MISTAKE
Second truck sponsored by Free Detroit No Consent and Occupy Detroit.
“Authority overridden by Mayor and Governor in most ruthless and lawless manner”
CALL TO FELLOW CITIZENS TO JOIN WITH FREE DETROIT NO CONSENT
Free Detroit No Consent members campaigned at Belle Isle rally for Detroiters to sign ethics complaints against perpetrators of Consent Agreement.
Michigan Supreme Court rules that PA 4 repeal must go on Nov. ballot
Free Detroit-No Consent mobilizes for Council meeting Aug. 7, 10 am
Detroit Board of Education meets Aug. 7 at 2 pm
AFSCME Co. 25 meeting to organize to defeat PA4 Aug. 7 3 pm
Opponents to confront Detroit Financial Advisory Board Aug. 13
Wall Street’s Fitch Ratings has fit
By Diane Bukowski
August 6, 2012
DETROIT – In the wake of the Michigan Supreme Court’s order that a challenge to Public Act 4, known as “the dictator law,” must go on the state’s November ballot, newly energized organizers are mobilizing to force the immediate nullification of actions taken under PA 4. They are gearing up at the same time to turn out a massive vote in November to strike down the law, passed last year.
Sandra Hines speaks at massive rally against proposed Public Act 4 in Lansing last year.
The State Board of Canvassers will meet Wednesday, Aug. 8 in Lansing to certify the referendum petitions. Once that happens, state law requires the nullification of PA 4 until the voters decide the matter in November. Stand Up for Democracy collected over 220,000 petition signatures to put PA 4 on the ballot.
“This law should never have been enacted in the first place,” Sandra Hines of “Free Detroit-No Consent” said. “It is unconstitutional and violates basic civil and human rights.”
DPS teachers demand “Let the People Vote NOW!” in recent protest.
The Supreme Court’s order has sent Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, Treasurer Andy Dillon, Detroit Mayor Dave Bing, and Detroit Public Schools emergency manager Roy Roberts, among others, scrambling to shore up actions taken so far under PA 4, claiming the law now reverts back to its predecessor Public Act 72 of 1990.
Snyder plans to ask the state legislature to pass a temporary law re-appointing emergency managers in the cities of Benton Harbor, Flint, Pontiac, and Ecorse, and the school districts of Detroit, Highland Park and Muskegon Heights. He also wants to ensure that “consent agreements” tied to Public Act 4 remain in place in Detroit and Inkster.
DPS EM Roy Roberts
Roberts jumped the gun the day the Michigan Supreme Court ruled, sending out a release to his DPS constituency declaring that he still maintains absolute authority until he is re-appointed under PA 72. The release said in bold capital type:
“MR. ROBERTS HAS DIRECTED THAT ALL STAFF CONTINUE WITH YOUR DUTIES WITHOUT INTERRUPTION IN CONDUCT OF THE AFFAIRS OF THIS DISTRICT UNLESS AND UNTIL DIRECTED BY HIM OTHERWISE. THE BOARD OF EDUCATION HAS NO AUTHORITY TO DIRECT DPS PERSONNEL TO TAKE ANY ACTION TO THE CONTRARY.
Wall Street’s Fitch Ratings agency expressed alarm, threatening credit ratings in Detroit and Michigan.
Unphased, Cecily McClellan, Vice-President of the Association of Professional and Technical Employees (APTE), said ,“PA 4 has been repealed, and the state’s previous PA 72 is repealed. All emergency managers and PA4 consent agreements must go out the window now. We plan to ask the Detroit City Council tomorrow to cease and desist moving forward on any plans under the consent agreement. Project Management Director Kriss Andrews and Chief Financial Officer Jack Martin must resign. The Financial Advisory Board (FAB) must step down.”
Cecily McClellan rallies crowd at first rally against PA 4 in Benton Harbor, its first victim, last year.
The Council has called a special session for Tues. Aug. 7 at 10 a.m. to discuss the diversion of federal funds from the health and workforce development departments under the consent agreement, but will likely take up the Supreme Court ruling as well.
“We are demanding that all employees laid off from those departments as well as Human Services because of PA 4 should be restored to their jobs immediately,” McClellan said. She represents workers in all three departments.
McClellan said consent agreement opponents will attend the next meeting of the nine-member, corporate-controlled FAB, appointed under the PA 4 consent agreement. It has said it will meet the second Monday of every month at 2 p.m., making its next meeting Mon. Aug. 12, unless the state treasurer calls on it to meet earlier.
Detroit Corporation Counsel Krystal Crittendon
Detroit City Councilwoman JoAnn Watson said she has asked Detroit Corporation Counsel Krystal Crittendon to issue a legal opinion to City Council on the impact of the Supreme Court’s ruling.
“If PA4 is no longer the law, PA 72 would not come back,” Crittendon earlier said at the June 28 general membership meeting of the Detroit NAACP.
Attorneys Herbert Sanders, representing Stand Up for Democracy, and Melvin ‘Butch’ Hollowell, representing the Detroit NAACP, have agreed with Crittendon. The day before the Supreme Court ruling, the Detroit NAACP had called on President Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder to intervene against Public Act 4, saying it violates the National Voting Rights Act.
Slavemaster Rick Snyder goes after Michigan’s Black-majority cities with PA4.
Under its provisions, over half of Michigan’s African-American residents are disenfranchised, controlled by EM’s or consent agreements that have the power to sell off or privatize city assets, abrogate union contracts, and otherwise lay waste to their jobs and lives.
A similar appeal by U.S. Rep. John Conyers to Holder, sent last December, has gone unanswered.
“It is urgent that provisions including the ‘City Employment Terms’ [CET] unilaterally imposed on city workers under the consent agreement go out the window immediately,” Attorney George Washington, who has represented APTE, Michigan AFSCME Council 25 locals, and Detroit’s Board of Education, said.
Water Department workers protest at Wastewater Treatment Plant July 24, 2012.
“It’s pretty much open and shut that key sections of the FSA are now null and void, including its ban on collective bargaining,” he explained. “Possession is nine-tenths of the law. It’s outrageous and likely unconstitutional that Snyder wants the legislature to pass a temporary bill to keep the EM’s in place. The whole point of this delay on the referendum against PA4 all along has been for them to get in and do as much damage as possible before any repeal.”
Detroit School Board member Elena Herrada (l) waits to testify against Detroit consent agreement at City Council April 2, 2012. Keith HInes is center and former Council President Maryanne Mahaffey’s widower Herman Dooha is at right.
He said that the Board’s power at least over academic matters must be immediately restored, in keeping with an earlier ruling by Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Wendy Baxter under PA 72. Board of Education member Elena Herrada said the Board plans to meet Tues. Aug. 7 at 2 p.m. to discuss the ruling and retake its power.
The Board is currently challenging Snyder’s establishment of a separate allegedly state-wide district for “failing” schools, all of them in Detroit. (See VOD article on Educational Achievement Authority.)
Rev. David Bullock heads the Detroit chapter of Rainbow: PUSH, which marched on Snyder’s house on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Jan. 16, and on the Supreme Court during oral arguments, along with numerous other groups opposing PA 4.
Members of “Free Detroit-No Consent” with Rev. David Bullock (center) outside Ingham County Circuit Court in support of Corp. Counsel Krystal Crittendon.
He also organized a busload from “Free Detroit-No Consent” to support Crittendon in her challenge to the consent agreement before Ingham County Circuit Court Judge Willian Collette. Collette dismissed the case, and Crittendon has not said yet if she will appeal.
Bullock said, “Our organization plans to focus on massive voter education and mobilization to ensure that PA4 is defeated in November. The other matters will likely have to be fought out in court.”
Snyder expressed dismay at the court ruling.
“The bottom line is that there’s a very important word in the state’s emergency manager law, and that’s ’emergency,'” Snyder’s representative Sara Wurfel said in published remarks.
Michigan DHS head Maura Corrigan, with Gov. Rick Snyder, who appointed her, cut tens of thousands of children and families off public assistance unnecessarily.
‘None of this would be necessary unless these communities and schools weren’t facing crises or the most dire of circumstances. The governor must remain focused like a laser beam on helping address the challenges facing our struggling communities and schools. Ensuring they have the tools they need to get back on sound financial footing and provide core, effective services to their residents, parents, and students is a top priority.”
Dillon and Detroit’s Mayor Dave Bing said the terms of Detroit’s April 4 Fiscal Stability [consent] Agreement will remain in place.
Michigan Supreme Court Justice Mary Beth Kelly.
In its July 3 order, the Supreme Court order declared, “Because a majority of this Court holds that a new writ of mandamus should enter directing the Board of State Canvassers to certify plaintiff’s petition as sufficient, a majority of this Court directs the Board of State Canvassers to certify plaintiff’s petition for the ballot. . . we direct the Clerk of the Court to issue the judgment order forthwith.”
Justice Mary Beth Kelly, not known for her special sensitivity to people of cities like Detroit, where she served as Chief Judge of Wayne County Circuit Court, wrote the decision, parsing it down to its most minute aspect.
“This appeal concerns a big constitutional issue, even though its focus is somethingas small as 14/72 of an inch,” Kelly said. “This matter turns on what many citizens may regard as a trivial issue: Whether a heading on a petition signed by over 200,000 people satisfies the statutory requirement that the petition heading be in ‘14-point boldfaced type.’ As technical as this appears, the rule of law is implicated here because this issue concerns the constitutional foundation of how we govern ourselves.”
Joe O’Keefe of Fitch Raings and Stephen Murphy of Standard and Poor’s connive at City Council Jan. 31, 2005 for passage of a predatory $1.5 BILLION pension obligation certificate loan, during Wall Street’s bubble before the 2008 collapse.
Kelly said the law requires the measurement of a 14-point FONT, which includes the white space around a letter, not the measurement of the TYPE itself, and that therefore the referendum petition was in exact compliance.
Her opinion struck down an earlier appeals court ruling that “substantial compliance” was sufficient, causing her three Democratic colleagues to issue separate concurring opinions differing on that point.
The Supreme Court decision reverberated all the way to the canyons of Wall Street.
“As Detroit’s fiscal stability agreement has several features that rely on the existence of PA 4, most notably the ability to suspend collective bargaining, the repeal of PA4 could weaken or nullify the agreement,” Wall Street bond agency Fitch Ratings declared in a statement.
“This may have an adverse effect on the city’s ability to continue the reforms already begun under the agreement and therefore stabilize and improve its credit quality. We also believe the prospects for financial stability among entities assisted by emergency managers now, or those that might need them in the future, are unclear.”
Protest demands moratorium on debt to banks of City of Detroit and DPS, May 9, 2012..
Fitch thus threatened to further destroy Detroit’s credit ratings, as well those as of cities, corporations and nations across the world. Wall Street wants the “99 percent” to continue to succumb to austerity measures to ensure the repayment of gargantuan debt loads to banks already bloated with trillions in tax-payer bail-outs.
On April 9, Detroiters held a march calling the banks as the architects of the city’s ruin. They demanded moratoriums on the debts of both Detroit and its public school systems.
“This demonstration is the first that has told the truth about the Financial Advisory Board,” Jerry Goldberg of the Moratorium NOW! Coalition said during the rally. “The Financial Advisory Board is all about robbery by the banks. The city itself has been victimized by predatory lending. This year, it paid $597 million out of a budget of $1.2 billion on its debt. The consent agreement is a grab by the banks for our tax dollars, even if it means destroying every city service.”
In addition to the city’s debt, 80 percent of DPS state per-pupil aid is set aside to pay the banks, resulting in the closure of hundreds of public schools, tens of thousands of lay-offs, and massive New Orleans-style charterization.
City Councilwoman JoAnn Watson recently called for the city to re-negotiate its debt to the banks rather than laying off 2500 workers, shutting down departments, and leasing out assets like Belle Isle.
Video now online for the Michigan Supreme Court Oral argument for the case Stand Up For Democracy v Secretary of State and Board of State Canvassers (emergency financial manager ballot referendum case taped on July 25). http://www.mgtv.org/video/video-gallery/.
Aug. 1 rally speakers also expose health dept. director Loretta Davis’ theft of federal funds, police push for a special public safety millage
By Diane Bukowski
August 6, 2012
(Ed. note: I apologize for accidentally citing the time for this rally as 1 p.m. in earlier VOD coverage. It began at 12 noon and was set to END at 1 pm. I will be more careful to read EVERY word of fliers in the future. I am especially thankful to Kenny Snodgrass, who got there before I did and covered a good part of the rally in his excellent video. We are trying to get the entire video from the City which includes Councilwoman JoAnn Watson’s talk.)
DETROIT – Hundreds of residents joined City Council members JoAnn Watson, Kwame Kenyatta, and Brenda Jones in a spirited rally Aug. 1 to stop the state from stealing one of the city’s most precious gems, Belle Isle, owned by Detroit since 1879. They also said they were rallying to save Detroit itself from a wholesale takeover and rape, which includes the theft of federal funds from three departments, and an additional public safety tax.
Crowd packed the Belle Isle bandshell, ending the rally in a prayer circle as Councilman Kwame Kenyatta poured libations for the ancestors.
“Whose park, our park!” the crowd chanted at the urging of Council member Kwame Kenyatta during the really. “It’s the people’s park! Whose city? Our city! Keep the Vote No Takeover!”
The landscape of this battle has drastically changed since the Michigan State Supreme Court ordered Aug. 3 that Public Act 4 be placed on the November ballot.
Money for the People’s Park, not the banks.
Under PA4’s provisions, Mayor Dave Bing can get away with unilaterally leasing the island to the state, as he admits he is planning to do. That would mean the loss of jobs and free access for city residents, especially the youth, the loss of revenues from the rent of picnic shelters and other activities, and the loss of control over what will be done with Belle Isle.
Will the state take it to turn it into a resort for the rich, as Whirlpool as taken the land surrounding Benton Harbor’s beautiful Jean Klock public beach on Lake Michigan, and built luxury condominiums and a world-class golf course?
Free Detroit-No Consent had a table at the rally, and collected dozens more ethics complaints against Dave Bing and other city officials who have sold out Detroit’s people.
City Council already passed a NON-BINDING resolution against such a lease, but under Public Act 4, even if BING doesn’t consent, the city’s Financial Advisory Board, Program Management Director Kriss Andrews, State Treasurer Andy Dillon and Governor Rick Snyder can overrule him and take this jewel.
Detroit residents thus have another reason to mobilize to win the fight against Public Act 4, both in November and now, while it is suspended.
Rev. Charles Williams II of the National Action Network and pastor of Historic King Solomon Baptist Church called on the crowd to get ready to take direct action if necessary.
Rev. Charles Williams III, with other speakers, addresses the crowd.
“We can come to STAY on this island,” Williams said. “We can bring our tents and refuse to leave until they back off Belle Isle.”
Ed McNeil, chief negotiator for the City of Detroit Unions, said state parks aren’t superior to the island.
“This is nothing but a power grab,” McNeil told the cheering crowd. “They’re taking over payroll department Public Lighting, D-DOT, eliminating our people’s city jobs and giving them to private concerns. Our workers, with the right equipment and training, have the competence to take care of Detroit, but they want to make sure that we stay in our place. Well, we’re going to send THEM back to their place, to Lansing where they belong, and take our city back.”
Audit shows Loretta Davis (center), Director of Health Department, has stolen federal funds and put them in a separate bank account for the private Institute for Population Health.
Greg Murray, Vice-President of SAAA, said, “We have a thief in the Mayor’s office—if he can’t steal it or transfer it, he doesn’t want it. Ninety-eight percent of the money for the departments of health, human services and workforce development comes from the federal government, not from your city tax dollars. Detroit is the only city in the history of the Head Start program to refuse Head Start money. At Herman Kiefer, they are siphoning federal money targeted for the City of Detroit into private bank accounts to build their privatized Institute for Public Health.”
During City Council’s regular session July 31, Detroit’s Deputy Auditor General, who is auditing the departments Bing is shutting down, disclosed that Health Department Director Loretta Davis has diverted federal funds into a separate bank account for the private Institute for Public Health, of which she is also the Executive Director.
City Council member JoAnn Watson.
Infuriated, Council member JoAnn Watson called for the Law Department to immediately take legal action to stop the theft. The Council passed a unanimous motion asking Corporation Counsel Krystal Crittendon to do so. The resolution also calls for legal action to stop the giveaway of federal funds for Human Services and Workforce Development to private entities.
During the Belle Isle rally, Councilman Kenyatta called on the crowd to come out to the Council’s special session Tuesday Aug. 7 at 10 a.m. It will take up not only the theft of federal funds, but a proposal pushed by Police Chief Ralph Godbee and other city administrators that the Council put a millage to fund the public safety department, which includes police, fire and EMS, on the November ballot.
Monica Patrick during interview by Channel 20 News.
“HELL NO!” many in the crowd shouted. Detroiters are already among the most heavily taxed residents in the country, with the highest poverty and unemployment rates of any major city.
In a separate interview, Monica Patrick, a staff member under Councilwoman JoAnn Watson, painted a stirring picture of what Detroit can look like under the control of its own people.
“We must begin to organize and mobilize our community, teach our children,” Patrick said. “This takeover of Belle Isle and Detroit is about disconnecting the most important people, the least of us, from access to the table. Right here, we are sitting on revenue-generating resources. We are so strategically located on this waterway. There are many things we can do with our water. We can use it to generate electricity and sell energy to the grid instead of paying DTE $150 million to buy power from them. The Public Lighting Department has the capacity. It would take us $300 million to renovate the system, and two years to go to solar power and transition the rest of the city. With that revenue, and with the $224 million plus that the state owes us, we can be debt-free.”
I have been asking many questions regarding this millage and Mr. Gene Gargaro, Chairman of the Board of the DIA has kindly answered all of them.
However, two issues give me pause:
First, it feels like this is just not the right time to ask for such a tax. Right now……..at this moment in time….. We need to ensure that the essentials are taken care of……police, fire, schools, roads, libraries; and
DIA President/CEO Graham W. J. Beal
Second, I just cannot wrap my head around the over-bloated salaries of the key employees of the DIA.
Yes, I did review the AAMD (Association of Art Museum Directors) salary survey of directors and yes, I did my research on the qualifications directors must possess. However, the Director of the most visited, most recognized museum in the world, the Louvre, makes $120,000 per year.
Italian museum directors make even less……why….because these museums are funded by the government (tax dollars) and the government sets the salaries.
I am all for people making loads of money here in the U.S., but, when a non-profit corporation asks struggling taxpayers to support over bloated salaries, costly travel accounts, unfunded obligations……..I take great pause!
DIA’S MOST RECENT TAX FILING SHOWS HUGE JUMP IN REVENUES FROM PREVIOUS YEAR, WITH LARGE EXCESS OF REVENUES OVER EXPENSES, AND HUGE FUND BALANCE. IS IT REALLY GOING BROKE?
BALLOT PROPOSAL DOES NOT MENTION DIA, SETS UP SEPARATE AUTHORITY FOR EACH COUNTY; EACH COUNTY MUST APPROVE FOR FREE ENTRANCE TO TAKE EFFECT
This example from Oakland County’s primary ballot shows DIA millage language that will appear with slight variations in Macomb and Wayne. Each county has its own Art Institute Authority and different projected revenues if the proposal passes. (cited in the Grosse Pointe Patch at http://grossepointe.patch.com/articles/august-primary-dia-millage-proposal ).
“The three county boards of commissioners this year established separate Art Institute Authorities, allowed under a 2010 state law, to submit the August millage question and monitor the use of funds if it passes. The four-sentence ballot wording (see below) asks for a yes or no vote on a tax “to continue providing art institute services to benefit the residents” of the voter’s county.
The phrases “Detroit Institute of Arts,” “DIA” and “museum” aren’t used. (Grosse Pointe Patch)
“OAKLAND COUNTY ART INSTITUTE AUTHORITY MILLAGE
The Oakland County Art Institute Authority established pursuant to Public Act 296 of 2010 to allow for continuing support of art institute services for the students, residents and visitors of Oakland County. The law allows the Authority to seek authorization from the electors to levy a tax of not more than 0.2 mill (20 cents per $1,000 of taxable value) on real and personal property to provide revenue to an art institute services provider for this purpose. Accordingly, to continue providing art institute services to benefit the residents of Oakland County, shall a 0.2 mill on all of the taxable property located within the County be imposed for a period of ten (10) years, being years 2012 through 2021? It is estimated that if approved and levied, this new millage would generate approximately $9,847,191 in 2012.”
The wealthy elite mingle at the Roostertail during DIA fundraiser.
Agnes Hitchcock and Call ’em Out were in forefront of battles against giveaways of Detroit schools, city jobs and services; shown here is protest against Mackinac Island Conference May 28 2009
Michigan Citizen prints Womack’s slanderous remarks re: Agnes Hitchcock
By Agnes Hitchcock
July 30, 2012
Can you trust a candidate for public office who goes out of his way to tell a lie? In response to a question (“What is your position on Public Act 4 and, now that it is state law, what can be done during your next term to address the affects it has had on Detroit residents?) put to him by Michigan Citizen reporter, Eric Campbell, Womack responded “I’ve always opposed an emergency manager, or a financial manager, when Robert Bobb was appointed, even when some grassroots people—that includes Agnes Hitchcock—supported the appointment of Bobb..”)
Agnes Hitchcock receives surprise award from community. Speakers at the dinner included Tom Barrow, Al Garrett of AFSCME Council 25, Attorneys George Washington and Jerome Goldberg, and a host of others who also supported Hitchcock’s heroic efforts over the years.
I, Agnes Hitchcock, did not support Robert Bobb personally or as an activist because I have always held the belief that the people should have full control of their schools and all other forms of government by way of a vote in order insure accountability. I support and favor the people electing their representatives, even if they are self serving liars. This is not his first attempted character assination directed at me. Previously he has referred to me as a “Social Terrorist.”
I hosted the Call’em-Out weekly talk show, which was dedicated to holding elected officials accountable to the people on WHPR TV33 and Comcast 20 for several years. There is no one who listened to that program who can truthfully say I supported the appointed Robert Bobb or for that matter, any elected official who did not serve the interest of the people in the city of Detroit.
As school board president, Jimmy Womack testified against Agnes Hitchcock at her trial for throwing grapes at school board members after a majority, including Womack, voted to close the first 50 schools of many more to come in 2004.
Jimmy Womack took and apparently still takes issue with my views because he was often the butt of my rebuke due to the destruction he caused at the Detroit Public Schools. Jimmy Womack received a Lifetime Achievement Sambo Award at one of our Annual dinners. These awards are reserved for an individual who served the interest of his perceived master over the interest of his own people.
By the way, he never answered the question. He ended his statement by saying “There are more things we should be worried about other than this emergency manager—there are other rights being taken away.”
VOD editor Diane Bukowski has personally requested that the Michigan Citizen print an acknowledgment that Womack’s statement about Agnes Hitchcock is FALSE AND SLANDEROUS.
Agnes Hitchcock presents Sambo Award to Kwame Kilpatrick in protest of water shut-offs and policies of privatization.
Bukowski covered the Detroit Public Schools for the Michigan Citizen for eight years during the time Ms. Hitchcock and Call ’em Out campaigned aggressively against any state takeover or emergency manager, as well as numerous Call ’em Out protests on all matters adversely affecting Detroit residents and the residents of other poor cities.
Newspapers are not given carte blanche to publish quotes such as this without checking their veracity. All the editors and reporter had to do was check their own numerous stories by Bukowski published on Agnes Hitchcock and Call ’em Out.
Those included stories on the school board’s first vote to close 50 schools, of many more to come, when Womack was Board president. Ms. Hitchcock took appropriately aggressive action, throwing the “grapes of wrath” at board members who voted “Yes,” including Womack. For that, she was arrested, tried and convicted, with Womack and board vice-president Joyce Hayes-Giles both testifying against Hitchcock.
Agnes Hitchcock chairs town hall forum to stop takeover of Detroit Water Department during Kilpatrick administration. Call ’em Out was once again in the forefront of this battle, years before Synagro-gate and Judge Sean Cox’s orders.
In 2008, the school board’s vote for a “consent agreement” with the state paved the way for Gov. Jennifer Granholm’s appointment of Robert Bobb as emergency manager. The only member to vote NO was Marie Thornton.
As leader of Call ’em Out, Agnes Hitchcock earned enormous respect across Detroit for their campaign against corrupt state, city, and school politicians (hence the name “Call ’em Out), their annual Sambo Awards Dinners, which were attended by hundreds, and their vanguard positions against water-shut-offs, privatization and other corruption that hurt the people of Detroit, Highland Park and elsewhere.
Call em Out protest in front of Jimmy Womack’s home. A young Womack supporter (in red shirt) berates Ruth Williams, a member of the community group Call ‘Em Out, at a May 28, 2006 protest at Womack’s house. Call ‘Em Out has marched on the homes of school board members whom they feel are not acting in the best interest of DPS students. WYOMAN MITCHELL PHOTO
They marched in front of Womack’s house to protest his stances as Board president, which included the merciless and biased persecution of the only school board member who consistently stood up and voted “NO” on school closings, contracts, and privatization, Marie Thornton. He also consistently supported every private contract despite ties to the late Schools CEO Kenneth Burnley, who was later indicted, and others.
Womack basically supported a corporate agenda designed for the city’s first elected school board since the 1999 state takeover. That agenda paved the way for the second takeover by the state in 2008 under Gov. Jennifer Granholm, who appointed Robert Bobb as EFM despite his affiliations to pro-charter school organizations.
Sandra Hines is hauled out by DPS Police at Jimmy Womack’s direction, for her passionate protest against school closings.
Womack created constant dissension on the board by pitting one board member against another and allowing certain audience members, notably the Rev. Loyce Lester, to loudly taunt his opponents on the board, particularly Thornton, during proceedings without sanctioning them.
At the same time, he directed DPS police to haul out those protesting school closings.
Call ’em Out campaigned against City Council members who voted in favor of privatization, including Kay Everett and Alonzo Bates, and against Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick for the first 40,000 water shut-offs, initiated in force for the first time in Detroit’s history, during his administration.
Call ’em Out was part of mass demonstration protesting water shut-offs, bus cuts and other privatization at the Manoogian Mansion, at the time inhabited by Kwame Kilpatrick
Packed audience at Call ’em Out Sambo Awards Ceremony.
Call em Out “prayer vigil” at the late Councilwoman Kay Everett’s house; she was later indicted for taking bribes to vote for private contracts;
Hundreds at Call em Out’s 7th annual awards dinner Feb. 25, 2010 applauded as Agnes Hitchcock was presented with surpise Lifetime Achievements trophy.
Manuel DIaz, assassinated by Anaheim police at the age of 25.
(FinalCall.com) – The family of a man killed by Anaheim Police filed a federal civil rights lawsuit in the U.S. District Court against the city and police department on July 24, while an outraged community took its battle for justice to the streets with a rally at City Hall that same afternoon.
Lawyers filed the $50 million lawsuit against the city and its police department on behalf of Genevieve Huizar. Her son, Manuel Diaz, was shot, unarmed, on July 21 after running from police, according to police officials.
“They had already incapacitated him. They shot him once, got him on the ground, and then they shot him in the head. This was like an assassination and that’s why people are outraged,” said John Parker, West Coast coordinator of the International Action Center, an anti-war effort that also fights against racism and economic exploitation.
Community memorial for Manuel Diaz at site of his murder by cop.
According to Sergeant Bob Dunn, Anaheim Police Department spokesperson, three officers are on paid leave as a result of officer-involved-shootings, not the protest. Officers shot and killed another man on July 22, in pursuit of a stolen car and also following a foot chase, he said.
Approximately 200 people surrounded City Hall for the July 24 rally while inside, council members unanimously voted to seek an independent review of the officer-involved shootings by the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Early in the rally, a female protestor led call and response chants in English and Spanish: “What do we want? Justice! When do we want it? Now!”
The protestors attempted to enter Council Chambers but made it as far as the lobby, where they were met by uniformed officers—one in the lobby then three who secured the entrance to the chambers.
Protesters confront cops.
But when police in riot gear began to form a barrier between the entrance and demonstrators, the crowd chanted louder and tensions began to flare. “Tell me what a police state looks like,” a lone voice from a bullhorn rapidly instructed. “This is what a police state looks like!” protestors replied. “Just because you have a badge does not make you judge, jury and executioner,’” a man yelled during a tiny moment of silence.
Several hours later, the group of protestors numbered at least, 500-600, Ernest Arce, a journalist with 90.7 FM/KPFK, told The Final Call in an e-mail. The mostly young, very angry crowd left City Hall for a nearby intersection when police declared an unlawful assembly and began firing rubber bullets.
Women and children under attack by police at site of Manuel Diaz murder.
Once a large police line moved forward, some protestors began to break windows, smash trash bins and street signs, and vandalize businesses. “I attempted to enter the nearby Vons (grocery store) in order to take cover from police who seemed to be shooting indiscriminately but they were yelling at passersby not to get close because most of the supermarkets’ windows had also been smashed,” Mr. Arce recounted.
He witnessed at least five to 10 people who were bleeding from open wounds caused by the bullets and terrified Starbucks employees running out of the store as dozens of protestors smashed all of the chain store’s windows.
“It was total chaos for nearly 30 minutes. At least a half dozen fires were set throughout the downtown area as fire trucks were seen scrambling from one site to the next. In a moment too surreal for words, the Disneyland Resort launched its nightly fireworks show as it lit the night sky above what looked like a war zone below,” Mr. Arce said.
Protest at Starbucks.
Anaheim sits in Orange County, about 26 miles south of Los Angeles. Hispanics make up 53 percent of the city’s population of 336,000, according to a 2010 U.S. Census.
Edgar Ibarra, a resident, told Mr. Arce he’s lost trust in the police and feels there’s a lot of corruption and cover-ups. “For the officers to gain the trust of the city, it’s going to take a long time. They’re going to have to rebuild their trust. At this point, we feel disgusted. At this point, we feel they’re bullying us,” Mr. Ibarra said.
The protest at City Hall came after a July 23 demonstration that stemmed largely from the Diaz shooting. During the protest, police fired pepper balls and bean bags into a crowd of men, women and children. One man was bitten by a police dog.
According to Sgt. Dunn, police were securing the scene of the shooting for about two hours, waiting for the district attorney to investigate when people began to leave their apartments.
“Known gang members tried to incite the crowd. … Officers noticed one they wanted to detain and when they attempted to do that, other members of the crowd encroached on the officers,” he told The Final Call.
Protest at city hall.
According to Sgt. Dunn, officers shot the pepper balls to push the crowd back but when one man threw a bottle at them, they fired bean bag rounds toward him. “The dog’s deployment was actually accidental. He was able to escape when handlers got out to detain that individual,” he said.
Mr. Parker refuted the claim and likened it to driving under the influence, when drunk drivers who kill people are still responsible for creating situations for people to be killed.
“The cops did the same thing. … They got in a car drunk with racism, thinking they’re so entitled to attack toddlers, women, and the community with dogs and rubber bullets at close range. That’s an ‘accident’ waiting to happen and with recklessness,” he said.
Bing conducts secret negotiations to lease island to state, cede city control
Feds, state give private RiverFront Conservancy $44 million, no strings attached; Bing, Pugh sit on Conservancy board
Rally against takeover Wed. Aug. 1, 2012 at 1 pm at the bandshell
By Diane Bukowski
July 30, 2012
DETROIT – Belle Isle is the largest public island park in the country, a gorgeous haven predominantly used by Detroiters except when events including the Grand Prix, the Gold Cup races, and the fireworks attract hordes of suburbanites like the fish flies that pester the riverfront this time of year.
Grosse Pointe and St. Clair Shores residents have exclusive access to this part of the beautiful shoreline of Lake St. Clair.
After all, residents of the Grosse Pointes and St. Clair Shores have their own river and lakefront parks, where admission is restricted only to them and their guests. There, they don’t have to be bothered mingling with the likes of Detroiters seen in the photo essay below.
But Mayor Dave Bing and Michigan Governor Rick Snyder are busy in secret negotiations to lease the island to the state. Such a lease would transfer control of its operations and workers from the city, and revenues from an annual park fee or other activities in the works, to the state.
Bing says his only objection is the state’s proposed term of the lease—99 years. He says the city needs state funding to upgrade the island.
Bing also sits (or sat) on the board of the private Riverfront Conservancy, which just raked in $44 million in state and federal funds, no strings attached, to re-develop the east riverfront, including Mt. Elliott Park, Gabriel Richard Park, the Detroit RiverWalk, and the Uniroyal site by the Belle Isle Bridge.
Council President Charles Pugh, along with 40 plus prominent corporate executives, also sits on the Riverfront Conservancy board. (See sidebar.) The Conservancy has assets of $94 million, and investments worth over $20 million. It raked in revenue in 2010 totaling over $14 million, most of it from “contributions and grants.” Two of its directors, David Page and Ann Lang, belong represent entities which have lucrative contracts with the Conservancy.
Detroit Riverfront Conservancy Board of Directors.
Couldn’t Bing and Pugh have used their influence there to get $44 million for the people of the City of Detroit as well?
“Belle Isle is not a “tattered” gem; it is a city park which Detroiters enjoy immensely on warm days,” Tom Barrow, Bing’s opponent in the last mayoral election, said on-line. “It is supposed to look used after a day of activity but it is cleaned the next morning as it should be. My view is the island is owned and controlled by Detroit and should remain so. If the state wants to fix something up, tell us what it is and then provide a specific grant narrowly defined for that purpose. That is a partnership—not giving it to you under some clever guise.’
He added, “It is painfully obvious that many in Lansing condescend when it comes to Detroit and see themselves as superior to the city and its leadership. Why is it not obvious that the busting of our city’s unions, making teachers and organized labor into bad people and seeking the transfer of the city’s pension funds is not part of an obvious plan to effectively subjugate Detroit and make it politically toothless?” . . . We are deeply offended in having a master lord over us condescending with vague offers all of which ultimately result in them gaining control over another of our city’s gems . . .”
Mayoral candidate Tom Barrow in 2010. He has appealed his case charging vote-tampering to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The City Council approved a non-binding resolution against ceding control of Belle Isle to the state, voting 5-4. Councilwoman JoAnn Watson called for court action including a temporary restraining order.
“It’s outrageous to even have a discussion about someone taking away Belle Isle,” Watson said. She and Council members Brenda Jones and Kwame Kenyatta are sponsoring a rally to save Belle Isle this Wed. Aug. 1 at 1 p.m. at the bandshell.
Unfortunately, the “Fatal Five” Council members, Charles Pugh, Gary Brown, Saunteel Jenkins, James Tate, and Kenneth Cockrel, Jr. earlier approved a “Fiscal Stability Agreement” which includes as part of its “reform program” the following language:
“Belle Isle—create park funding for Belle Isle while ensuring continued City ownership by designating Belle Isle as part of a cooperative relationship with Milliken State Park. This would include a long-term lease that would accrue the cost of the park’s maintenance and improvements out of the Park Endowment Fund. We will partner with Belle Isle Conservancy and the City to implement a master plan for the island.”
Considering recent state court rulings on various aspects of the fall-out of the consent agreement and Public Act 4, it is likely legal action against the takeover will involve an uphill battle.
Council members (l to r) JoAnn Watson, Brenda Jones and Kwame Kenyatta are sponsoring the Aug. 1 rally to save Belle Isle. Council member Andre Spivey voted with them against the consent agreement, but also voted against the Council resolution urging Bing to oppose the state takeover of the island.
The City of Detroit bought Belle Isle in 1879 for $100,000, and has financed what likely amounts to hundreds of millions of dollars in improvements on the island since then. (See Recreation Department history of Belle Isle and improvements by clicking on BELLE ISLE HISTORY.)
Detroit Free Press columnist Stephen Henderson trumpeted recently, “Way back in 1879, it was the state that made it possible for the City of Detroit to buy the nearly 1,000-acre island. House Bill 584 of 133 years ago authorized — yes, authorized — the Detroit Common Council to purchase Belle Isle for up to $200,000, and to sell bonds both to pay for it and to erect a bridge connecting the island to the city’s shoreline. The council then forked over $180,000 to members of the Campau family, who owned the island.”
Henderson, in his haste to celebrate state and city “co-operation,” and ignore Detroiters’ right to self-determination, neglects to admit that any municipal bonds have always had to go through a perfunctory state approval process.
The bottom line is: Detroiters paid OUR money to:
Buy Belle Isle
Expand it with infill
Construct a park designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, the designer of New York City’s Central Park
Build its canals (yes, they are man-made)
Construct the Belle Isle Bridge twice (it burned the first time)
Put bridges and ponds on the island
Clear the way for a gorgeous beach
Construct the conservatory, casino, skating pavilion, Scott Fountain, picnic shelters, comfort stations, and maintenance buildings to cite a few.
Hire CITY WORKERS to maintain the island at decent union wages and benefits.
As water department workers mobilize for a city-wide strike, direct action is also needed to save Belle Isle. Detroiters have occupied the island for 140 years—occupy Belle Isle now!
Family enjoys cook-out on west end of island with skyline as backdrop.
VOD editor and life-long Detroiter Diane Bukowski has bicycled around Belle Isle, near where she lives, for the last 32 years. On July 28, 2012, a beautiful Saturday, she took her camera along. While the daily media has shown photos of white folks on the beach and a pictorial history of the island beginning in 1901, her bike tour was a reality check.
SAVE BELLE ISLE! IT BELONGS TO US!
Wally Safford, a Central High School alumni, at New Missionary Baptist Church picnic, seen in background, on southwest end of island.
Friends enjoy a quiet talk on the river with Windsor in the background.
Couple who were bicycling around the island take a break in the shade.
Doing the hustle at SEIU picnic and health fair near the Belle Isle Carillon.
Kids really enjoyed the dance at SEIU picnic.
Friends and family attending Smith family picnic on east end of Belle Isle.
Family picnic along cut-away to south end of island, near inland pond.
City of Detroit Public Lighting Department workers take care of streetlight. Their jobs, as well as those of hundreds of others, mostly Detroiters, are endangered by any state take-over of the island. A regional lighting authority bill in the state legislature would get rid of PLD period.
AFSCME Local 457 President Laurie Walker and class action plaintiff against consent agreement Yolanda King at AFSCME Council 25 picnic. Local 457 represents workers at the Detroit Health Department, which along with two other federally-funded departments, Human Services and Workforce Development, are being dismantled and privatized for non-financial reasons.
Kids enjoy the swings at AFSCME picnic.
AFSCME DJ tent at picnic.
AFSCME family members say NO to EM! Public Act 4, the “emergency manager act,” jeopardizes the assets, services, voting rights, and jobs of city residents around Michigan. So far, over half the state’s African-American population is under its pall.
Couple and baby view deer in pen at “Nature Zoo.” Deer lived free on Belle Isle for centuries, an attraction for families who came with their kids to feed them in the winter. Those deer were killed, allegedly due to disease, and replaced with these (ironically white) deer by Zoo Director Ron Kagan after the Detroit Zoo system was privatized.
Detroit Yacht Club on west side of island, for members and guests only. This club for the well-to-do pays only $1 A YEAR as rent to the City of Detroit. Another source of revenue: charge market-rate rent to the DYC.
Family picnics on the beach in between swims with gorgeous view of downtown Detroit skyline.
Family and friends picnic in front of former Belle Isle Zoo, closed by Kagan in order to direct funds predominantly to the Zoo in Royal Oak.
Blesset, Shaffer and Gussie family re-union at one of island’s largest shelters on west end of island near the beach.
Picnic under the willow trees with view of downtown Detroit.
Coming back, Bukowski took this photo of the section of the Riverwalk near the bridge. The Riverwalk is owned by the private Detroit Riverfront Conservancy, whose board members are primarily corporate executives.
An AP article published July 24 said:
“Efforts to complete a recreational development project along Detroit’s east riverfront are getting a $44 million boost from the federal government and the state, officials announced Monday.
The Detroit RiverFront Conservancy said new partnerships and a series of construction projects will wrap up work in the area. They include the redevelopment of Mount Elliott Park, improvements at Gabriel Richard Park and expanding the reach of the Detroit RiverWalk.
The project is getting $29 million in federal highway money and a $15 million investment by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and the Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund, officials said. It includes work at a site once home to a Uniroyal tire factory.”
But under Ric-tator Snyder’s administration, the state will not fund improvements on Belle Isle itself unless it takes over with a 99-year-lease. The state already owns the Milliken riverfront park just east of the RenCen.
