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

Detroit’s “Financial Advisory Board” in its meeting June 28, 2012. Its main agenda item was a closed session to discuss “upcoming contract” issues. Also present in the closed session were State Treasurer Andy Dillon, PA4 co-author Attorney Michael McGee, and Detroit COO Chris Brown.

CITY COUNCIL TO DISCUSS ‘CET’ MON. JULY 16, 1:30 pm

By Diane Bukowski 

July 15, 2012 

DETROIT – This past week, the daily media declared that the city’s Financial Advisory Board (FAB) set up under its PA4 consent agreement had “agreed” to Mayor Dave Bing’s imposed set of “City Employment Terms” (CET). The CET involves drastic cuts in services, as well as wages, benefits and terms of employment for workers and retirees, and a complete abrogation of union contracts.

City Council is to discuss this “CET” Mon. July 16, 2012 at 1:30 p.m., with public comment to follow.

It is a complete falsehood that Mayor Bing presented this CET to the FAB. From its first meeting, held after the City Council approved the final two members of the FAB, this virtual cabal has met three times primarily to draft the document.

It, not the City Council, the Mayor, or the unions has the absolute power under the consent agreement to dictate and approve this CET, which then is subject to final approval by State Treasurer Andy Dillon and Gov. Rick Snyder.

The FAB is dominated entirely by banking and corporate interests. (See sidebar). State Treasurer Andy Dillon, PA4 co-author attorney Michael McGee, of the law firm of Miller, Canfield, Paddock and Stone, Detroit Chief Operating Officer Chris Brown, and Labor Relations Director Lamont Satchel were all present at the FAB’s second meeting. Along with their staff, they went into the closed session on the CET and never came back out.

“These lawless people are on a fast track to dismantle the entire City of Detroit,” Cecily McClellan, vice-president of the Association of Professional and Technical Employees (APTE), said. “The terms of the CET are brutal, particularly for retirees.”

Cecily McClellan participates in first Benton Harbor protest against PA4.

Yvonne Ross is a city employee and taxpayer who is a co-litigant in a civil lawsuit against the consent agreement.

After a hearing on the suit July 13 (see story below), she said “We are facing huge lay-offs, the closing of our recreation centers, the health department and other vital services. The state needs to give us the money they owe us so this doesn’t have to happen. Detroit is a jewel, a money-maker. That’s why they want it.”

Ross, Rose Roots and Yolanda King sued the city, Bing, and the City Council for approving the consent agreement while the state is in default to the city for over $307 million as determined by Detroit Corporation Counsel Krystal Crittendon.

Detroit Corporation Counsel Krystal Crittendon

The so-called CET is headed by the hypocritical term “Agreement.” There was no agreement by city residents or workers to the Financial Stability [consent] Agreement, and there has certainly been no “agreement” by city workers or their union leaders to the CET. (Link to CET at end of article.)

“Any provisions in the most recently expired Collective Bargaining Agreements . . . .that are not expressly referenced in this CET or any addendum and are inconsistent with the terms of this CET or any addendum are null and void as of the effective date of this CET,” the document begins.

It does not acknowledge the decades-long provisions and protection that Civil Service laws provide.

While following the familiar pattern and language of previous contracts, the CET actually guts them.

AFSCME and Coalition of Black Trade Unionists members demonstrate at CAYMC May 27, 2010.

It declares that all city workers will be subject to an immediate 10 percent pay cut, and eliminates furlough days. It wipes out annual longevity payments and merit and step increases in pay, a long-time part of city employment terms under Civil Service.

It says workers will still contribute five percent of their annual pay to a retirement plan, but then astonishingly states that the workers’ contributions will be considered the CITY’s contributions, eliminating the city’s obligation to pay separately into the fund.

It eliminates the 35-hour work week.  It doesn’t guarantee a lunch hour, only two 15-minute breaks. It sets up a two tier system for workers hired after Sept. 28, 2010, cutting their available sick and vacation time.

Dave Bing with Blue Cross Blue Shield officials; photo is from city’s website.

The CET emphasizes the role of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Caremark plan, although workers are allowed to opt for other plans. They will be forced to pay 20 percent of the premium cost for all plans, and doctor visit and prescription fees will also increase.

This is especially galling to the coalition of city unions who presented a proposal to City Council Dec. 1, 2011 which cited among other savings the amount the city could save by cutting the use of Blue Cross Blue Shield.

Protest outside BCBS building in North Dakota.

“The city could achieve agreements with the major Detroit-based hospital chains to offer the option of employees signing up to have their medical care performed by the doctors at that hospital chain,” the union proposal said.

“ . . .the rate will likely be cheaper to the City and its employees than the rate charged by Blue Cross Blue Shield. The administrative fees and stop loss fees that the City paid to BCBS, during the 2009-10 contract year, were estimated at more than $14 million. . . For the last six months, the Administration has promised to seek bids from other health insurance companies, to see if the rates received from Blue Cross Blue Shield are competitive. This bid request has not been sent out, and therefore BCBSM continues to maintain its virtual monopoly.”

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. came to Memphis to support striking AFSCME sanitation workers and was assassinated there shortly after he marched with them in 1968.

Coverage for sponsored dependents of city workers and retirees is cut, as is coverage for the spouses of retirees if they marry after retirement.

But for workers hired after Sept. 28, 2010, all hospital/medical and prescription benefits shall cease for retirees and their dependents after the retiree turns 65. Prescription drugs for “health habits, reproductive (fertility) and lifestyle prescription drugs except for smoking cessation and weight loss” will not be covered.

In the CET, the city reserves the absolute right to change all terms of the contract without consent of the unions. Ironically, the CET bars strikes although at the same time the consent agreement says city workers will no longer be covered under the Public Employee Relations Act, which while providing some protections for workers, has been the chief mechanism to bar strikes.

It says the city will have the absolute right to contract out and eliminate services and departments.

It says, “This CET, nor any other terms and conditions of City employment regardless of sources shall not be binding upon the successors and assignees of the Employer by the consolidation, merger, sale, transfer, lease or assignment of the Employer in any respect whatsoever by a change of any kind of the ownership of management of either party hereto of any separable, independent segment of any party hereto.”

It thus eliminates in one fell swoop the time-honored “successor clause” from all union contracts.

Despite the fact that the city has more than 40 unions, each with their own contract, and some with supplemental agreements, the CET purports to be the sole “contract” for all city workers.

The response of city unions and their workers to this outright union-busting document remains to be seen.

Click on City Employment Terms to read entire document.

Marchers support Jennifer Britt, protest Fannie Mae and Flagstar Bank outside Detroit federal McNamara Building July 9, 2012.

By Diane Bukowski 

July 11, 2012 

Jennifer Britt at her family’s home in Detroit.

DETROIT – Over one hundred marchers targeted Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in front of the McNamara Federal Building in downtown Detroit July 9, on behalf of Jennifer Britt and thousands of others who are facing evictions by the two agencies. The agencies, now controlled by the federal government, now own or guarantee over 70 percent of all mortgages in the country.

Protesters chanted, “Hey, hey Fannie Mae, how many families did you evict today?”

Attorney Jerome Goldberg of the Moratorium NOW! Coalition against Foreclosures, Evictions and Shut-offs, who represents many clients facing foreclosure, explained the situation.

Attorney Jerry Goldberg explains how most evictions now carried out through taxpayer dollars by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

“Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were fully taken over by the federal government in 2008, under the Federal Housing Finance Agency,” Goldberg said. “They bought up more than $5 trillion in toxic mortgage loans for their full value. When you go to to 36^th District Court, you see that the majority of evictions taking place are being done by these agencies. But they are hiding the fact that the banks have ultimate control. This is an outrageous policy of bailing out the banks and evicting people. We are calling on President Barack Obama to issue an executive order halting all foreclosures.”

According to Detroit Eviction Defense, federal agencies now own or guarantee more than 70 percent of all single-family mortgages, in the wake of the housing collapse. Fannie Mae by itself has cost taxpayers over $116 billion for its mortgage bail-outs.

Jennifer Britt thanks protesters as Jerome Jackson (in yellow shirt) who is also facing eviction, listens.

Jennifer Britt lives with her 78-year-old mentally ill uncle, her 74-year-old mother, and her 19-year-old daughter in home in the Rosedale Park neighborhood.

“I would like Fannie Mae to reconsider the offer they made on my home,” Britt told VOD. “They need to let it go for the appraised value, not hold me to a mortgage they told me wasn’t even mine.”

Flagstar Bank first foreclosed on Britt when her husband, a member of UAW Local 600, died in 2006. She paid $26,000 from his life insurance to forestall eviction. Flagstar refused to put the mortgage in her name and negotiate a loan modification.  Then it raised monthly payments on the home from $1,550 to $1,975 by the time Britt lost her own job in 2008.

Apostle Linda (r) campaigns for Jennifer Britt and family.

Fannie Mae told the non-profit agency Southwest Solutions, which offered to buy the home on Britt’s behalf for its appraised value, that it would accept nothing less than the $121,000 full value of the mortgage.

“The average sale price for foreclosed homes in Detroit is $11,300,” says Detroit Eviction Defense in their flier. “Fannie Mae will never be able to sell Jennifer’s home for ten times that amount, meaning taxpayers will receive nothing and the house will go empty—with all the negative consequences that such blight brings for neighbors and homeowners.”

Britt and a representative tried to gain access to the McNamara Building to meet with Fannie Mae representatives, but were stopped immediately by guards on the first floor.

Jennifer Britt (center) and representative (r) are interviewed on TV.

Apostle Linda, of a group which has been advocating for Britt, said the actions of Flagstar and Fannie Mae in Britt’s case are unconscionable.

“Jennifer Britt and I sat down and figured out that her family has paid $118,000 over the course of the years on her home,” Apostle Linda said. “Every day when she’s at work, she doesn’t know if she’ll be getting a phone call that another elder in her family is dead because of the stress of this situation.”

Detroit Eviction Defense is conducting daily vigils at Britt’s home, located at 15701 Warwick at Midland, south of Grand River, anticipating that they may have to protect her from eviction any day. They are also conducting a call in and email campaign demanding that Fannie Mae accept the actual value of the home. For more information see below.

Contact numbers for the call-in campaign are:

Fannie Mae Chicago Office:                       312-368-6200

Fannie Mae Mortgage Help Center:        866-442-8572

Email: Chicago_mhc@fanniemae.com

 They are asking supporters also to call the offices of the following U.S. Congresspeople on Britt’s behalf: 

Senator Debbie Stabenow                        313-961-4330

Senator Carl Levin                                      313-226-6020

Congressman John Conyers                     313-961-5670

Congressman Hansen Clarke                    313-962-7700

Congressman Gary Peters                         247-273-4227

Congressman John Dingell                       313-278-2936

For more information, email DetroitEvictionDefense@gmail.com or go to the People Before Banks website at http://peoplebeforebanks.org/.

Spanish miners enter Madrid after marching huge distances from their mines to protest austerity measures after bank bailout, July 10, 2012. AP photo

July 10, 2012

The Associated Press reports from Madrid — Spanish coal miners angered by huge cuts in government subsidies for their industry converged on Madrid Tuesday for protest rallies after walking nearly three weeks under a blazing sun from the pits where they eke out a living.

The miners, wearing hard hats with lamps, were joined by thousands of sympathizers in the city. One group of about 160 miners walked all the way from the northern Asturias and Leon regions, as many as 250 miles away from Madrid, and about 40 made an almost equally long trek from the northeastern Aragon region. Read the full story.

Related content:

Spain’s economic crisis turns middle-class families into illegal squatters

Faces of the Spanish crisis

More photos of protests in Spain on PhotoBlog

Appeals Court hearing set for Tues. July 10, at 10 a.m

By Diane Bukowski

July 9, 2012

Maryanne Godboldo spoke at rally in Hartford Memorial Church only days after her release from jail in 2010.

DETROIT – After the extreme mental and physical torture that Detroiters Maryanne Godboldo, Mubarak Hakim, and their daughter Ariana Godboldo-Hakim experienced since a horrific police assault on Godboldo’s home in March, 2010, and the kidnapping and forced medication of Ariana, prosecutors for the Wayne County Juvenile Court and the County are not done with them yet.

The Department of Human Services (DHS), represented by the state attorney general’s office, has challenged the parents’ right to Ariana’s custody in cases to be heard in the Michigan Court of Appeals Detroit office Tues. July 10 at 10 a.m. The office is located in the State Building (known as Cadillac Place), located at W. Grand Blvd. and Second, on the 14th floor.

The family is asking supporters to attend.

Attorney Allison Folmar speaks to media after Godboldo criminal court hearing July 8, 2011.

“We are continuing to fight, and my attorney Allison Folmar has pulled a small group of attorneys together to focus on combatting the illegal, court-sanctioned abduction of Michigan’s children,” Godboldo told VOD. “But it is not easy. Ariana is still suffering from the effects of her forced confinement and medication at Hawthorn Psychiatric Hospital. We just try to hang in there from day to day.”

Not only was Ariana forcibly medicated for six weeks with at least four anti-psychotic drugs, Hawthorn staff took away her prostethic leg. Her mother has filed a police report that she also was infected with a sexually-transmitted disease (STD) while at Hawthorn.

World-wide support has buoyed the Godboldo-Hakim family during their ordeal. Their case exposed for the first time Wayne County Juvenile Court’s stunning long-standing practice of removing children without judicial review or a judge’s order as required by state law. A social worker simply brought in an order for removal, got a probation officer to stamp the Juvenile Court Chief Judge’s name on the order, and then called the police to summarily remove the child(ren) in question.

Wayne County Juvenile Court Judge Lynne Pierce, under severe public and media scrutiny, finally ended DHS supervision of Ariana in a ruling Dec. 12, saying medical plans for the child under Dr. Margaret Betts appeared to be more than adequate. The same day, Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Gregory Bill emphatically dismissed all criminal charges against Godboldo, replicating 36th District Court Judge Ronald Giles’ earlier action.

DPS Child Protective Services worker Mia Wenk (Facebook photo)

Godboldo said the custody appeals stem from a continuing vendetta by Wayne County Juvenile Court Prosecutor Deborah Carley and DHS worker Mia Wenk. Prevented from contesting medical plans for Ariana, they have focused on what they say are insufficiencies in her education. Another hearing will consider whether the court order used to take Ariana from her home was valid, Godboldo said.

The case began when Godboldo had Ariana immunized in preparation for her return to regular schooling. Ariana’s reaction to the immunizations was severe. Godboldo took her to the New Oakland Child Adolescent and Family Center, not knowing it was a research facility for testing new drugs, as an administrator admitted to VOD.

She signed a consent form allowing Ariana to be medicated with Risperdal. The drug has since been exposed nationally as a dangerous anti-psychotic drug with severe adverse side effects, including extreme weight gain, the formation of breasts in males, and mental disorientation.

The form said Godboldo could take Ariana off the drug at any time. When Ariana began experiencing the side effects, Godboldo took her to a private doctor who weaned her off the drug. However, when she told The New Oakland Center, they and another agency, the Children’s Center, reported her to Child Protective Services.

Wenk, who has a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice and had been on the job for only three years, admitted during the custody trial that her reason for removing Ariana was “because her mother wouldn’t give her the medication.”

Attorney David Robinson filed an eloquent civil lawsuit May 10 on behalf of the family. Defendants are the City of Detroit and the police officers involved in Ariana’s removal, Wayne County and various employees, Mia Wenk and her supervisors at Child Protective Services, as well as Hawthorn Psychiatric Center and its employees.

Attorney David Robinson

He cites a “court system policy and procedure that allowed, supported and condoned the entry of perfunctory court orders for extraction of minor children from their parents to be the product of rubber-stamped justice.”

He adds, “This case is as well about governmental agencies . . . .who failed in their diligence to properly investigate allegations of neglect or to adequately probe the background of a minor child’s history instead looking only to find biased support for hapless allegations in order to place a mother and her child in the clutches of an indifferent system, and about a police system itself ignorant of its own rules and authority that conspired to arrest, extract and separate the nurturing bond between the mother and her child.”

Robinson condemned Wenk in no uncertain terms.

“Mia Wenk, devoid of proper medical or psychiatric training . . . .knowing how easy it was to have an unauthorized court employees stamp a judge’s signature on an order of custody for the minor, impulsively and grossly negligently petitioned the court securing what she alleged to the police to be a ‘warrant’ improperly directing Thomas Trewhella, Michael Nied, Kevin Simpson, Robert.Stankiewicz, and Ahmed Morsy to wrongfully engage Godboldo in an unconstitutional 4th amendment patently wrong invasion into her home resulting in her apprehension.”

Godboldo faced multiple criminal charges stemming from her refusal to leave her home so the police could take her child, including two-year felony charges of assaulting, battering, wounding, resisting, obstructing, opposing or endangering the officers involved.

Angel Moreno Jr. The Michigan Supreme Court dismissed all charges against him April 20, 2012, upholding the common-law right to resist illegal police conduct.

For a time, hearings on those charges were stayed by 36th District Court Judge Paula Humphries because a Michigan Supreme Court decision citing the statute involved, MCL 750.81(d), was pending. Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Edward Ewell overturned the stay, subjecting Godboldo to a grueling criminal trial in addition to the custody battle.

Ironically, the Michigan Supreme Court finally upheld “the common-law right to resist”
unlawful arrests, warrantless home invasions, and other unlawful conduct by the police, in a landmark 5-2 decision, People v. Moreno, on April 20, 2012. It overturned an earlier appeals court decision in People v. Ventura that claimed the statute outlawed resistance even to illegal police conduct.

Despite that fact, Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy has not withdrawn her appeal, filed months late, of Judge Bill’s decision dismissing the criminal charges. The Court of Appeals has not decided whether it will allow the appeal, but the case remains open on its docket.

To read lawsuit filed by David Robinson on behalf of Godboldo family, click on godboldo complaint.

The Justice4Maryanne Committee’s website is at http://www.justice4maryanne .

“Free Ariana NOW!” Petition on Change.org

http://www.change.org/petitions/free-ariana-now

FROM SHEILA CROWELL  

SHEILA CROWELL

Homeowner, resident, mother, advocate, community leader, a woman whom is afraid of nothing, “except being burned to death”!!!

July 9, 2012

To the City of Detroit Council Members, To All In Lansing Who Represent “OUR FAMILIES in the City of Detroit”:

IMPORTANT Please Read! Please Save our Fire Stations!!

I am writing to each of you and all that you know, asking/begging that you please “Stop the Closing of Our Firehouses.” Decisions such as these are not keeping our families safe in any manner. Without our fighters, our homes and our lives are in more danger everyday.

As many of you know I live in the 48210 Claytown Neighborhood, with 400 or more burned houses. Our hard working “Ladder 22” men run themselves back and forth, not only doing their very best to save our homes and lives, at the same time going to what other areas they are called to help put out another fire. Our firefighters are not a group that picks and chooses a house to save, they save all they can!!

I was at a rally on Friday to save Engine 33. This is the 48209 area, as I stood there chanting to save Engine 33, all I could think of was 48209 will become 48210 in no time at all. Meaning homes will burn one after another, lives will come to an end, many asking why would the City of Detroit make decisions to close a another Fire Station, again putting more lives in “DANGER?”

Think of it like this: How many of you are under stress because you can’t or will not do what is needed for the City of Detroit, so these decisions are “eating at you” day and night? Change places with our firefighters, you are doing your very best to do their jobs as a firefighter, you are so worn thin and under stress from fire stations begin closed one after another, you at that moment in time as a firefighter wasn’t thinking as a firefighter does with each call they make, not only did a building/home burn to the ground, a life/lives came to an end, and how many of our strong firefighters lives had been placed in more danger or died?

How many of the City Council members has ever gone to the families of a firefighter and had to tell them their “Husband, father, brother, sister, granddad” died in a fire saving others lives and homes? Think of it like this, you’re sitting around that table making more decisions and the City building is burning, who would come to your aid, knowing you were the ones to close the doors on the fire stations?

“The Firefighters” would be there to save your lives, not looking at you as a bad guy, taking your hand doing what ever they could to save your lives, think about that!! At the same time, one or two of our neighborhoods are going up in flames, will there be enough stations/firefighters to save everyone’s lives? Who do they have choose? How could you place that on another to have to make that decision??

“Please we are asking/begging to each of you, Stop Closing Our Fire Stations.

I can stand outside of my home with my hose in my hand screaming, crying, choking to death, while trying to spaying water from my hose pipe, but never could I replace a firefighter, “NEVER”…

I was told Ladder 22 is on a temporary days, did you forget the $22.3 million dollar school that was built “across the street from Ladder 22”. Children will fill that school this fall, their lives lay in your hands. Remember the school is just across the street; by the way the DPS doesn’t have its own Fire Department. Dingeman Park was set on fire by a M80 just a few weeks ago, who put the fire out that was heading for our homes on Cecil? No one but “Our Ladder 22”!!

As for you in Lansing:  By passing a bill that fireworks can be sold, brought, and set off, did you think before you held up your hands, saying yes to this bill? Without firefighters to put the fires out, what will happen to Detroit? Homes will go up, people will die, the City of Detroit doors will be closed for ever. I must ask, has a plan been set to get rid of the people in Detroit, no matter what the plans are for the people?

Bob Day (l) calls for end to dictatorship of the banks, who are behind demands that Corporation Counsel Krystal Crittendon end her legal fight against Detroit PA4 consent agreement.

Crittendon files for reconsideration of case vs. PA4 consent agreement

Supporters ask for turnout at City Council Tues. July 10  10 a.m.

By Diane Bukowski 

July 6, 2012 

DETROIT – The same day Detroit Corporation Counsel Krystal Crittendon filed a motion for reconsideration of her lawsuit asking to void the city’s Public Act 4 consent agreement, July 5, a group called “We the People for the People” filed a motion to intervene in her support. They are also asking Ingham County Circuit Court Judge William Collette to set aside his dismissal of Crittendon’s suit. Their motions are scheduled to be heard on Wed. Aug. 15 at 10 a.m. in Collette’s courtroom at the Ingham County Circuit Courthouse in Mason, Michigan.

Threats from Detroit Mayor Dave Bing, State Treasurer Andy Dillon, and Wall Street have deterred neither Crittendon nor “We the People.” These entities declared the people of Detroit would face dire consequences including withholding of state revenue-sharing funds if Crittendon exercised her constitutional right to participate in the judicial process.

Detroit Corporation Counsel Krystal Crittendon.

“Please be advised that I, as corporation counsel, stand by my decision to have the courts determine the validity of the (financial stability agreement) as a good faith performance of my obligation to my client, the City of Detroit,” Crittendon told the City Council in a letter explaining her action.

Supporters from “Free Detroit-No Consent” are calling on people to pack Council chambers Tues. July 10 at 10 a.m. to support Crittendon. Several Council members have said they do not support her appeal. It is possible that another attempt to have Council vote to remove her is in the offing.

In his ruling dismissing her lawsuit, Ingham County Circuit Court Judge William Collette said Crittendon did not have standing to file. He did not address newly-revised City Charter language making her office an independent entity with the right to take judicial action, nor Crittendon’s claim that the state owes Detroit over $307 million.

James Cole, Jr., Leonard Eston, Cornell Squires, Clifford Stafford, and Tyrone Travis dispute his determination in their filings. In addition to Crittendon as Corporation Counsel, they say that as city taxpayers they have firm standing to sue.

Cornell Squires, co-litigant and leader of “We the People for the People”

“The money involved belongs to the city and its people,” Squires told VOD.  “If we don’t get the money, it affects our service. We are the people suffering right now because of the consent agreement and because of Judge Collette’s ruling. Dave Bing isn’t going to represent us because he doesn’t have the guts, and he’s listening to the wrong attorneys. Crittendon was just doing her job following the Charter. What’s wrong with that?”

James Cole, Jr. who attended the hearing in front of Collette with a group from “Free Detroit, No Consent,” called Collette’s ruling “sua spontae.”

“That means he ruled without the real input of the complainants,” Cole explained. “It’s crazy that he pulled it off like that. It was plain error on his part.”

Cole said he wants to file a federal challenge to Collette’s ruling as well.

James Cole, Jr. (r) with Cindy Darrah and Sandra Hines after June 13 hearing in front of Judge William Collette.

The pleading filed by “We the People” says, “On June 13, 2012, the Michigan Court of Claims by Judge William Collette erroneously dismissed this Civil Action by rendering an “arbitrary” “capricious” “unfounded” “harsh” “untenable” judicial decision that was inconsistent and clearly contrary with “Fundamental Fairness;”  “Due Process of Law” and “Equal Protection of the Law.”

They cite  legal precedents from Michigan courts including Maldonado v. Ford Motor Co., Barnett v. Hidalgo, and Vicencio v. Ramirez.

Crittendon contends in her suit that the state owes Detroit over $307 million, which would wipe out the city’s current deficit, and eliminate 2,566 layoffs and massive service cutbacks if paid. Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder and Dillon have refused to acknowledge the debts.

Detroit COO Chris Brown, previously a DTE executive, consults with Atty. Michael McGee before Financial Advisory Board meeting June 28, 2012.

Bing engaged the law firm of Miller, Canfield, Paddock and Stone to argue against Crittendon’s suit before Collette. Attorney Michael McGee of that firm, who admitted he helped draft Public Act 4, argued the case for the consent agreement before City Council on behalf of the Mayor’s office.

Bing has announced that he will no longer use Crittendon or the Law Department to represent the city, despite Charter Section 7.5.209, which says the Corporation Counsel is the legal counsel for the City.

“By filing this motion of reconsideration, on the last possible day to appeal Judge William Collette’s previous ruling, she keeps the legal challenge of the FSA [Financial Stability Agreement, as the consent agreement is titled] alive and she keeps Detroit’s financing at risk, making it harder for us to stabilize the city,” Bing said in a statement.

Cecily McClellan (l), vice-president of APTE and now a leader of “Free Detroit-No Consent,” demonstrated with others against Mayor Dave Bing in 2010.

“Moreover, the corporation counsel’s lawsuit has already caused the city to pay higher interest rates on its borrowed money and damaged the city’s credit rating. It has caused our lenders to call in a portion of our short-term financing. And, it nearly caused the city to lose a $28-million revenue sharing payment this month, which was avoided only by the efforts of city Chief Financial Officer Jack Martin and the state Treasury Department.”

It was not Crittendon, however, but the three major credit ratings agencies, Standard and Poor’s, Fitch, and Moody’s, who downgraded Detroit’s bond ratings in the midst of the controversy.

Detroit attorney Bob Day earlier called such actions the “dictatorship of the banks,” since the banks finance the ratings agencies.

Students protest in Montreal.

“This battle is going on in Montreal, Greece, Spain, France and everywhere,” Day said at a rally June 9 calling for a moratorium on Detroit’s $12.4 billion debt to the banks.

“People are saying to hell with the banks and their austerity programs,” Day told marchers in downtown Detroit. “The banks set our communities up for disaster, and when it all fell down, they didn’t get hurt. They got bailed out by our tax dollars. Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of people are out of their homes, and the loss of tax revenues to our cities has brought in Public Act 4 and emergency managers, which guarantee that the banks will get paid first. This is nothing but a dictatorship of the banks.”

Moody’s explained its downgrade on June 14.

Greeks expressed mass anger after Moody’s downgraded their credit rating again citing a risk of default despite an earlier debt write-off deal.

“Moody’s Investors Service has downgraded the City of Detroit’s (MI) General Obligation Unlimited Tax (GOULT) and Certificates of Participation (COPs) ratings to B3 from B2 due to recent events that have highlighted risks associated with the city’s illiquid cash position and lack of a clear political consensus to successfully implement the city’s Financial Stability Agreement (FSA).Concurrently, Moody’s has downgraded the city’s General Obligation Limited Tax (GOLT) rating to Caa1 from B3. The GO, COPs and GOLT ratings remain on review for possible downgrade pending completion of the sale of the Michigan Finance Authority’s Local Government Loan Program Revenue Bonds, Series 2012B (Second Lien) and Series 2012C (Third Lien), along with the release of the escrowed proceeds from a private placement loan with Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BAML)(long term rated Baa1/ratings under review for possible downgrade).

DWSD water/sewage rates will rise as a result of Wall Street downgrade in credit rating.

The loans cited are NOT related to the $137 million short-term loan the Michigan Finance Authority issued to the city under terms of the consent agreement.

“Moody’s also downgraded the ratings for the Detroit Water and Sewage Enterprise Revenue debt to Baa2 (Senior Lien) and Baa3 (Second Lien) as the risk of a city bankruptcy filing has incrementally increased in light of persistent liquidity pressures at the city level and ongoing political instability,” Moody’s said. “ This rating action also applies to the Sewage Disposal System Revenue and Revenue Refunding Senior Lien Bonds, Series 2012A. Ratings for the Detroit Water and Sewage Enterprise Revenue Bonds remain under review for possible downgrade pending the completion of the above referenced Michigan Finance Authority sale along with the release of the escrowed funds from the private placement with BAML.”

In past years, bond ratings for the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (DWSD), which is currently being dismantled under U.S. District Court Judge Sean Cox’s   oversight, have ranged around AAA. It is likely Wall Street wants to sever the DWSD from city ownership.

To read “We the People” lawsuit, click on Crittendon intervenor filings. To contact “We the People for the People,” call Cornell Squires at 313-460-3175.

Detroit Corporation Counsel Krystal Crittendon speaks at NAACP meeting June 28, 2012.

By Diane Bukowski 

July 4, 2012

Breaking news: Three Detroit women, Yolanda King, Yvonne Ross, and Rose Roots, have filed a citizens’ lawsuit challenging the Detroit consent agreement. It  replicates the grounds in the lawsuit filed by Corporation Counsel Krystal Crittendon June 1 against the state, but City of Detroit officials are the defendants in this suit. It was filed in Wayne County Circuit Court July 3. It is to be heard in front of Judge Amy Hathaway on July 13. More on this from Voice of Detroit later.  

July 3, 2012

DETROIT – One strong, brilliant Black woman attorney has so far held off the administrations of Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder and Detroit Mayor Dave Bing, the state courts, the major media, and the banks and corporations who are dancing them on puppet strings in their pursuit of Detroit’s public income and resources.

Backed up by a half-dozen members of her family, Detroit Corporation Counsel Krystal Crittendon spoke at the NAACP general membership meeting June 28, which was held at Triumph Baptist Church.

State Treasurer Andy Dillon before the June 28. 2012 Financial Advisory Board meeting, held at WSU Law School. Dillon did not appear publicly at the meeting itself, but most of the meeting was held in closed session behind closed doors, with Attorney Michael McGee, co-auther of Public Act 4, also in attendance.

Wall Street had threatened to further downgrade the city’s bond ratings if she appealed Ingham County Circuit Judge William Collette’s dismissal of her lawsuit against the Detroit Public Act 4 consent agreement. State Treasurer Andy Dillon had threatened to withhold another revenue-sharing payment if she persisted.

At the time, the appeal or a motion for reconsideration was due by July 5. Crittendon did not reveal her office’s plans on the matter, but explained what has given her the strength to stand firm so far.

“I have had so much support expressed from people all over, people I don’t even know, emails and flowers,” she said. “My mother has heard from people she had not heard from for 40 years.”

One member of the audience called out, “Stand strong, sister,” as others encouraged her to appeal.

Crittendon explained the grounds for the lawsuit and the emptiness of the state’s threats.

“That bond deal goes through the Michigan Finance Authority (MFA), which is not the state of Michigan,” Crittendon said. “It’s an autonomous agency. The treasurer has only a statutory appointment as chair. It’s the treasurer, not me, who is threatening to withhold his signature from the documents.”

Crittendon explained the basis for her lawsuit, which contends that both state and city law forbid municipalities from contracting with entities in debt to them. So far, her office has identified at least $307 million the state owes to Detroit.

“Under the Home Rule City Act in the Michigan Constitution, it has been the case since 1909 that you cannot contract with anyone who is in debt to the city,” Crittendon said. “The City Charter didn’t contain a similar provision until 2012, under its current revision. Any contractor has to get a number of clearances from the city, from its Human Rights Department, its income and property tax divisions, and others before it is approved. That has always been the case.”

Crittendon said she had attended Charter Revision Commission meetings and argued against giving independent power to the Corporation Counsel and the Law Department, saying she did not feel it was necessary.

“But now, under Sections 2.113, relating to default, and 7.5-209, I am absolutely clear on what my responsibilities are under the Charter. The Charter also contains more stringent and enhanced definitions of what constitute violations of the Charter. It would be a Charter violation for the Corporation Counsel not to enforce the Charter.”

She cleared up a commonly-held misconception about the possible repeal of Public Act 4, the emergency manager act. Many believe that its predecessor Public Act 72 would be resurrected if PA4 is repealed.

But Crittendon said, “If PA4 is no longer the law, PA 72 would not come back.”

She said the Bing administration did not use the Corporation Counsel’s office in the process of drafting the PA4 consent agreement. That agreement gives broad powers to a nine-member Financial Advisory Board, a Chief Financial Officer, a Program Management Director, and the Michigan treasurer and governor which allow them to overrule decisions of elected city officials. The overseers must approve all bond and debt matters, determine whether the city has breached the consent agreement, and see to it that Appendix B of the agreement, which provides that collective bargaining will no longer be required after July 16, is enforced.

Attorney Michael McGee (center) consults with Detroit COO Chris Brown prior to Financial Advisory Board meeting 6/28/12. McGee and numerous others from the audience followed the FAB into their closed session, allegedly to discuss union collective bargaining agreements. The city has notified its unions that it does not plan to continue conditions of their current contracts after June 30 while bargaining, which is normally done. The PA 4 consent agreement calls for an end to any obligation on the part of the city to bargain after July 16. During conversation with VOD, Brown claimed VOD reports that McGee is the co-auther of Public Act 4 are “slanderous,” despite the fact that McGee admitted his role in drafting the agreement himself in a Michigan magazine article which VOD re-published earlier.

“I was asked by a City Council member to look at it over the course of a weekend,” Crittendon said. “I issued a very cursory opinion before the Council vote, but the document was turned back over to outside counsel [attorney Michael McGee, of Miller, Canfield, Paddock and Stone]. He should have looked at the City Charter, state law, federal law, but on April 4 the Council passed a resolution approving the agreement, and on April 11, the Governor put his seal on it.”

Crittendon said that afterwards, she had time to more fully review the legality of the agreement. She discovered not only the much disputed $224 million in revenue-sharing owed to Detroit since a 1998 agreement between former Mayor Dennis Archer and former Governor John Engler. She noted in a letter to Dillon April 11 that he had admitted the existence of that debt on the air.

“We discovered a lot of other unpaid bills owed by the state,” Crittendon said. “They included sewer water drainage bills from the state freeways, $347,000, and electric bills for traffic lights on state trunk lines owed to the Public Lighting Department. I issued another privileged and confidential document to the City Council in light of the newly discovered information, telling them it was my obligation to inform them of the debts. Our office did not immediately file a lawsuit, but the State of Michigan said it had no contracts in default.”

She said her office had followed all preliminary steps required of it to enforce the Charter, and was left with no other option than “judicial action” newly cited under the Charter.

Ingham County Circuit Court Judge William Collette at hearing on lawsuit June 13, 2012. He said his mind was made up to dismiss the suit from the beginning.

Crittendon said that Collette made no determination of the merits of the lawsuit before arbitrarily dismissing it, and did not consider the new charter provisions giving independent powers to the Corporation Counsel.

Crittendon said her office has now asked for and received a copy of the Miller, Cohen contract under which McGee was being paid, since the new Charter requires that the Corporation Counsel approve all contracts with outside Counsel. She said the contract, however, was approved by “a previous Corporation Counsel.”

Crittendon became Corporation Counsel under interim Mayor Kenneth Cockrel, Jr. in 2009. Previous Corporation Counsels under Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick were Valerie Colbert-Osamuede and John Johnson, Jr., who is now counsel for the Michigan NAACP. Johnson chaired the meeting.

Johnson earlier issued an opinion, which Crittendon noted in her advice to the City Council, that the $224 million state revenue-sharing debt to Detroit was not enforceable. Crittendon, however, disagreed in her opinion, noting Dillon had admitted its existence.

Crittendon said the best way for citizens to contest the agreement now is to file ethics charges against the city officials responsible for approving it. That includes Mayor Dave Bing, Deputy Mayor Kirk Lewis, COO Chris Brown, and the “Fatal Five” members of the City Council who voted for it.

To read Crittendon lawsuit, click on Crittendon Lawsuit 6 1 12.

Ethics Complaint form posted by Free Detroit No Consent:

To download a copy, click on Board-of-Ethics-Complaint_Form-201206c latest.

This is the most recent Free Detroit Ethics Complaint form, please distribute. Please note there is NO contact information on the form other than the Board of Ethics. Please instruct those receiving to contact 313-444-0061 or info@freedetroit.org to arrange turning their form in as a group.

Visit http://freedetroit.org and subscribe to email announcements of new posts using the box at top right. Rich media content will not come through those emails (video, audio, photos, etc).

Some related VOD articles:

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2012/05/28/detroiters-begin-ethics-complaint-campaign-against-bing-councils-fatal-five-lewis-and-brown-over-consent-agreement/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2012/06/21/showdown-community-supports-crittendon-bing-wants-council-to-remove-her-june-22/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2012/06/12/did-snyder-and-the-bing-big-5-manufacture-detroit-fiscal-crisis/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2012/06/10/threat-to-cut-detroit-funds-over-consent-deal-lawsuit-a-paper-tiger-detroiters-fight-back/

LET THE PEOPLE VOTE!

Published on Jun 29, 2012 by KennySnod

A No Struggle, No Development Production! By KennySnod *

Fighting The Attack On Democracy i.e., Emergency Managers! Protesters/Activists disrupt the order of the day by carrying out a march and sit-in inside the State of Michigan building in Detroit (Cadillac Place on W. Grand Blvd.) on June 26, 2012. They locked out the public out,  to stop and disrupt business as usual. They announced that continued civil disobedience protests will continue until the referendum against the “Dictator Law,” PA4, is on the November ballot.

A No Struggle, No Development Production! By Kenny Snodgrass, Activist, Photographer, Videographer, Author of From Victimization To Empowerment… www.trafford.com/07-0913 eBook available at www.ebookstore.sony.com

(VOD story coming shortly.)

Protesters disrupt Gov. Rick Snyder’s Speech To Detroit’s Council of Baptist Pastors at Bethel East

A No Struggle, No Development Production! By Kenny Snodgrass

The appearance by Gov. Rick Snyder at the Council of Baptist Pastors in Detroit was disrupted Tuesday, June 26, 2012 when several dozen protesters and activists disrupted the meeting with shouts and chants about the emergency manager law etc. “Are you going to make sure the repeal gets on the ballot?”

Later when Gov. Snyder was asked another question about the repeal, by Rev. Charles Williams II, which was considered another disruption, Snyder was whisked out of the Bethel Baptist Church by his security detail.

The meeting took place at Bethel East Church on Detroit’s east side, Rev.Michael Owens the pastor.

A No Struggle, No Development Production! By Kenny Snodgrass

Activist, Photographer, Videographer, Author of From Victimization To Empowerment… www.trafford.com/07-0913 eBook available at www.ebookstore.sony.com
YouTube: I have over 300 Video’s, over 94,600 hits averaging 3,000 a month on my YouTube channel @ www.YouTube.com/KennySnod

New Marcus Garvey Movement protests Snyder at Bethel East church June 26, 2012.

SNYDER RUNS FROM ANGRY DETROITERS 

Protesters pledge escalation of fightback 

By Diane Bukowski 

July 2, 2012 

Protesters said Snyder had “gall” to come to Bethel Baptist East on Detroit’s poor east side.

DETROIT – Opponents of Public Act 4 and other anti-Detroit legislation ran Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder out of the heart of the city’s east side June 24, chanting as he stood to speak, “Pay us our money!” They were referring to over $307 million in debt owed by the state to Detroit, cited in Corporation Counsel Krystal Crittendon’s June 1 lawsuit.

The Detroit Council of Baptist Pastors had invited Snyder to speak at Rev. Michael Owens’ Bethel Baptist Church East. Towards the end of the session, Rev. Charles Williams II of the National Action Network stood and loudly asked Snyder, “Are you going to honor the decision of 260,000 voters? Are you going to make sure Public Act 4 is on the ballot?”

Rev. Charles Williams II

PA4, passed in 2011 with Snyder’s full support, has so far disenfranchised over half of the state’s African-Americans. It has put in place emergency managers with unlimited powers, or draconian “consent agreements,” in Detroit, Benton Harbor, Pontiac, Flint, Inkster, Highland Park, Muskegon Heights, and other majority-Black cities.

Snyder looked around nervously and abruptly sat down after Rev. Williams’ question. Then Rev. Owens and Snyder’s security team rushed him out of the church, as a woman called out sarcastically, “What’s wrong?”

Gov. Rick “Sniper” Snyder

“I would have more respect for the governor if he had said ‘no I’m not going to let PA4 get on the ballot because I don’t believe in it,’ Rev. Williams said afterwards. “But he’s just going to go to running? This is not a game. People’s lives are on the line, justice and democracy are on the line. He answered nothing about what he’s going to do about the money the state owes the city. What about the amounts other than the $220 million [in revenue-sharing]?”

Williams added, “Snyder has a gun to Krystal Crittendon’s head telling her she will be fired for doing her job, but we’re planning an escalation of protests against him until number one, he vetoes the voter suppression bills and number two, he gets Public Act 4 on the ballot,” Williams said. “Why is he running from 260,000 signatures?”

He said it was likely that Snyder ventured into the poor neighborhood on Holcomb near Gratiot only because the Council of Baptist Pastors had promised him that all discourse would be polite.

Rev. Charles Williams leads NAN march against Snyder down Holcomb June 26, 2012

Two demonstrations, sponsored by the Detroit chapter of the National Action Network (NAN), and by the New Marcus Garvey Movement (NMGM), converged outside the church prior to the meeting.

Richard Fields and Elaine May on Gratiot before marching to church.

“We have no rights in this city,” said NAN protester Richard Fields. “Many folks have no homes and even no food. I don’t understand why they’re not helping our city. Detroit is a viable city, if you help Detroit, you help the state. The children have no hope. The schools are in bad shape. Why don’t they put money in the schools?”

Elaine Mays noted, “There is real unrest in our city among everyone.”

“I call him Governor Sniper because he’s got Detroit in the crosshairs,” said Pastor L.A. Porche of NMGM. “The people need support, not the politicians.”

Stephen Malik Shelton, who grew up on Detroit’s far southwest side, said, “I think  people’s outrage is triggered by his arrogance. It’s traditional for politicians to show up only when they want something. He wants support for the second bridge [across the Detroit River].  We already have one bridge, and the pollution from traffic there has never been addressed. When the Marathon Oil refinery got built, they promised us jobs, but those never materialized. Detroiters are beaten and downtrodden, and being pushed even further down, but we are getting ready for a fight-back.”

Marathon Oil promised jobs in exchange for tax abatements when it built this refinery in Detroit; no jobs have been produced.

Many NMGM protesters carried signs demanding “No Bridge Card, No Bridge,” referring to the tens of thousands of poor people in Michigan who have been cut off public assistance under Snyder’s administration.

“His policies in our District’s schools have stripped citizens of all their rights,” said Detroit School Board member Wanda Akilah Redmond. “If a parent is concerned about what is happening to their child in school, they have no one to go to except Emergency Manager Roy Roberts, because we, the board, have no power to do anything.”

Min. Malik Shabazz before meeting (r); radio talk show host Richard Hairston is behind him.

Minister Malik Shabazz, who led the NMGM march as well as the initial chants inside the church, said, “His policies of cutting women and children off assistance, his anti-union policies, forcing the consent agreement, which I call the ‘descent agreement’ on Detroit, and then threatening us with further consequences, are despicable.  He is anti-working class, anti-poor, and anti-urban. Now he comes here to the Black Baptist pastors trying to get their endorsement on his bridge, which will cost taxpayers billions.”

Shabazz said he no longer works with The Detroit 300, the “anti-crime” group which he, Raphael B. Johnson, and Angelo Henderson initially set up. Many Detroiters consider it a vigilante organization.  “They’ve lost their way,” he commented.