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

Rev. David Bullock speaks at right as Pastor Ed Rowe, Attorneys Julie Hurwitz and Butch Hollowell, and Rev. Wendell Anthony listen outside Detroit COA offices June 20, 2012

Motions for Appeals Court to order ballot placement filed today               (Links to all court actions at story conclusion) 

By Diane Bukowski 

June 20, 2012 

DETROIT – A broad coalition of community groups, churches and unions declared today that there will no longer be “business as usual” in Michigan unless the State Board of Canvassers places a referendum to repeal Public Act 4, known as the “Dictator Act” on the ballot during its meeting Tues. June 26.

Former Detroit school board member Marie Thornton holds Democracy Emergency sign as supporters listen to leaders against PA4 June 20 outside the Detroit office of the state Court of Appeals.

Backed by a hallway full of supporters, attorneys for Stand Up for Democracy filed two motions with the State Court of Appeals (COA) in Detroit’s Cadillac Building on W.Grand Blvd.

The motions ask that the COA give immediate effect to its June 8 order which the attorneys say mandates that the state’s people be allowed to vote on the PA 4 referendum in November.

“A quarter of a million voters signed this petition,” Attorney Melvin Butch Hollowell of the Detroitbranch of the NAACP said. “The Court of Appeals ordered that it should be on the ballot. Now, nearly a week later, there has been no movement to comply with the law.”

As major TV and print media covered the event, Hollowell said the coalition is already organizing alternate plans.

Atty. Melvin Butch Hollowell points out type size smaller than 14 pts. on petition accepted for state ballot.

“We have a full arsenal of options [if court action is not taken], including the right of appeal at both state and federal court levels, and direct action by the people. We intend for this t0 be a full court press.”

The state-wide coalition supporting Stand Up for Democracy has formed committees and is training some members in civil disobedience tactics, according to their literature.  Their D-Day for action is June 28, two days after the BOC meeting. Petition language must be ready for the ballot by Aug. 27.

Attorneys Hollowell, Herbert Sanders, Julie Hurwitz, William Goodman and John Philo signed the motions and accompanying briefs.

In their pleadings, they cite the June 8 decision of the Court of Appeals on a challenge to the referendum by Michigan Citizens for Fiscal Responsibility.

Atty. Hollowell files pleadings at COA as crowd of supporters watches.

“Defendants [Board of Canvassers] have a clear legal duty to certify the petition for the ballot because the petition has the requisite number of signatures and meets all other statutory requirements,” the COA ruled. “Under all of the circumstances presented here, the act of placing the petition on the ballot is ministerial . . . .we direct the Board [of Canvassers] to certify plaintiff’s petition for the ballot.”

The COA panel, however, still ruled that the print font size on the petitions was not legal, but declared it a minor matter. They stayed their order until all 28 Court of Appeals Judges could be polled to determine whether a special panel of seven judges should hear the case. On June 14, the Court of Appeals en banc ruled that it would not do so.

"Free Detroit-No Consent" members Valerie Glenn, Tyrone Travis and Sandra Hines were present in crowd of supporters.

Demonstrating with an outsize petition, Hollowell said the coalition’s attorneys have examined numerous petitions allowed on the ballot, and found that many of them did not comply with a “14 point” type font size. He said that in fact the PA 4 referendum petition does, according to an expert whose testimony the Board of Canvassers and the COA barred.

Public Act 4, passed in 2011, gives unelected “emergency managers” and s0-called “consent agreements” enforced by Wall Street dictatorial powers. It is rapidly dismantling the cities of Detroit, BentonHarbor, Pontiac, Flint,and Inkster, as well as school districts in Muskegon Heights and Highland Park, among other mainly majority-Black entities across the state. It has in effect disenfranchised over half ofMichigan’s African-American voters.

“Governor Snyder should not just be the governor of corporateMichigan,” Rev. David Bullock, director of the Detroit chapter of Rainbow PUSH, said.

Protest demanding moratorium on Detroit’s debt to the banks May 9, 2012.

“Detroit and Michigan represent a battleground for the soul of the nation. We will not stand by while they destroy democracy and lynch liberty. Some seek to take us back to the days of slavery, racism, and no unions, but we intend to move not onlyMichigan, but our whole country, forward. WE SAY NO!”

Gerald Thompson, President of AFSCME Local 1220, told VOD June 19, “The Detroit [PA4] consent agreement was an opportunity to continue to pay the banks at enormous interest rates and treat life-long Detroiters, poor and working people, as the problem, when in fact they are the solution. Instead of laying off 2566 city workers, why not renegotiate the bank debt? We continue to give Third World countries billions in assistance and then forgive their debt, but why can’t Detroit, a Third World city, be forgiven as well?”

The City of Detroit paid $596 million to the banks this year alone, with a total debt of $12.6 billion. Fitch Ratings downgraded Detroit’s debt to a “C,” the lowest rate possible and the lowest of any major city in the country. They did so simply becauseDetroit’s Corporation Counsel Krystal Crittendon challenged the consent agreement in the Ingham County Court of Claims.

Detroit Corporation Counsel Krystal Crittendon

On Friday, Detroit’s City Council is scheduled to meet in a closed session at 11 a.m. to hear Crittendon’s June 20 opinion on parts of the consent agreement that may survive even if Michigan voters void Public Act 4. She had warned the Council regarding that issue in an opinion issued April 1, but the Council’s “Fatal Five” members still voted for the agreement.

It is unclear whether Crittendon will appeal Ingham County Circuit Court Judge William Collette’s order dismissing the lawsuit, not on legal grounds, but on his personal opinion that the mayor, not the corporation counsel, is in charge regardless of Charter provisions.

(See upcoming VOD story on Mayor Dave Bing’s request for Crittendon’s resignation, which she refused, and subsequent support for her at community City Council meeting June 19.)

Click on the following links to read motions and briefs filed June 20.

EFM_Motion_to_Expedite_Consideration_FINAL_unsigned_20June2012

EFM_Brief_to_Expedite_FINAL_unsigned_20June2012

EFM Motion for Immediate Effect of Order_FINAL unsigned_20June2012

EFM Brief for Immediate Effect _FINAL_unsigned_20June2012

Click on the following links to read COA June 8 order and COA June 14 order.

http://coa.courts.mi.gov/documents/OPINIONS/FINAL/COA/20120608_C310047_106_310047.OPN.PDF

http://coa.courts.mi.gov/documents/COA/PUBLIC/ORDERS/2012/310047(110)_order.PDF

Aiyana Jones' grandmother Mertilla Jones holds her sleeping grandchildren after police assault; she was resting on the living room couch with them when police assaulted her home June 16, 2012.

By Diane Bukowski

June 16, 2012

DETROIT – On the night of a motion hearing in the case of Detroit police officer Joseph Weekley, who shot seven-year-old Aiyana Stanley-Jones to death two years ago during a violent raid, police in riot gear again invaded her family’s new home on Detroit’s side.

Rafael Jones, 14, shows where he defended his grandmother after police struck her in the face with a flashlight and called her sexist names.

Family members said they were struck, shoved and called racist and sexist names as police officers, some in plainclothes, forced their way into the home on Detroit’s far east side.

Five children were there at the time, including a one-month old baby, a two-year-old toddler, and a five-year old.

“I was just sitting here watching my grandson,” Mertilla Jones, Aiyana’s paternal grandmother said. “Four cop cars pulled up and then they were coming from all over. They tried to grab Bobbie (Aiyana’s cousin), but he came in the house and me and Lakiya and R. J. [Rafael Jones] went out on the porch. The Black cop hit me in the mouth with a flashlight, and pushed and shoved me.”

Bobbie Williams III said he had been outside sitting next to a small fire the family has been burning on the sidewalk to keep the mosquitoes away for some weeks. He said police officers had driven by before and said nothing. But this time, he said, one of the cops told him to put the fire out, saying, “What are you n—–s doing, trying to burn down the city?”

AIyana’s aunt LaKrystal Sanders shows camera phone which she used to film police assault on her family’s home June 16, 2012.

Bobbie said he complied and doused the fire with water but a white cop jumped out, calling to his sergeant to follow him, and pursued him anyway. Bobbie warned them he had a permit to carry a concealed weapon for self-defense, then retreated into the house.

Jones’ 14-year-old grandson Rafael went to the defense of his grandmother, he said.

“They hit my grandma in the mouth and the white cop called her a whore and slut, and when I said something to him, he tried to grab me off the porch, and he called me a little shit and a bastard.”

Rafael demonstrated exactly where he and his grandmother were standing on the porch. He said he was on the right of the steps while his grandmother was on the left (facing the house), when he went to her defense.

Meanwhile, Jones’ daughter LaKrystal Sanders videotaped the events on her camera.

Killer cop Joseph Weekley (l), Aiyana Stanley-Jones (r) and depiction of her killing after attorney Geoffrey Fieger obtained new autopsy results showing she was shot in the head, not the neck on May 16, 2010.

“I told them one of you cops just went to court today because he murdered my niece,” Sanders said. “I screamed that Aiyana Jones was murdered by the cops. I told them you better call your lawyers, because I’m recording you all. I told them I want your badge numbers after they hit my mother with the flashlight. They started backing off then.”

She said the cops were “pulling on their guns” as if about to shoot. She said the family was concerned about Bobbie and other young Black males in the house.

Detroit Gang Squad members in 2009; many have been cut since then due to complaints of excessive force.

Family members said a white female officer who knows the family finally told the cops to leave after at least ten minutes of terror, but the cops still kept shining lights into their faces and into the house, blinding them.

“The cops have known where we lived ever since we moved here,” Jones said. “They drive by here all the time shining their lights into the house.”

Family members said the officers were in blue-and-white marked cars, some of them in plainclothes and some in uniform. They said they appeared to be from the gang squad in the seventh precinct, riding four to a car.

Detroit Police Department Assistant Chief Ralph Godbee addresses the media about the shooting of Aiyana Stanley-Jones in 2010.

Jones said she had just been at the hospital a couple of days before; her health has been deteriorating since the day Aiyana was killed. The incident happened on the anniversary of her sister JoAnn Robinson’s death. Robinson was present in the room on May 16, 2010, when  the Detroit Police Special Response team, being filmed by A&E’s First 48 show, threw an incendiary grenade into the house and then shot Aiyana in the head.

Her health had also declined since that time.

Voice of Detroit contacted Mayor Dave Bing’s chief of communications Naomi Patton, who said she would “try” to get back with a response from his office. A message was left with the Police Department communications office for Chief of Police Ralph Godbee’s spokesperson Eren Stephens. A week later, neither has responded.

Family members said neither Bing nor Godbee has ever apologized to them in person for Aiyana’s death.

To watch LaKrystal Sanders’ video of the police raid, click on

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=2204236402984

Judge considers “flash-bang” demo to show Weekley’s “disorientation;”  defense and prosecution agree to delete parts of audio from video

By Diane Bukowski

June 16, 2012

Aiyana Stanley-Jones with baby brother before her death in 2010; she had six young brothers.

DETROIT – Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Cynthia Gray-Hathaway, Prosecutor Robert Moran, and Stephen Fishman, defense attorney for Detroit cop Joseph Weekley, who shot seven-year-old Aiyana Stanley-Jones to death two years ago in a violent raid. appeared to collude on Weekley’s behalf during motion hearings in the case June 15.

Weekley shot the child in the head, after a so-called “flash-bang” stun grenade was thrown through the window under which Aiyana and her grandmother were sleeping.

The diminutive Weekley, who appears no taller than five feet, faces involuntary manslaughter charges for negligently executing a search warrant, and perjury charges.

Aiyana Jones' father Charles Jones (r) is comforted by his aunt JoAnn Robinson May 16, 2010, the morning of her killing by Weekley; Ms. Robinson passed a year later. Hole from flash-bang grenade is to the left of Robinson's head; Charles Jones sits on bloody couch where his daughter died.

Gray Hathaway took “under advisement” the possibility of providing a real-life demonstration of the impact of the stun grenade on the individuals inside, including Weekley. She scheduled a “trial run” for judge and attorneys only on July 27 at 11 a.m. Press would not be permitted at the trial run, while it remains unclear whether press coverage will be allowed if the jury sees the demonstration.

“I ask the court to be able to allow the jury to experience the impact of a flash-bang [grenade],” Moran said. “The grand juror asked that this be done for him, to understand the effects of the device on people in the house as well as police officers in the home. He said it was ‘enlightening.’”

Moran said the device is intended to disorient people in the home.

Grand juror Wayne County Circuit Court Judge TImothy Kenny, a member of the right-wing Federalist Society.

Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Timothy Kenny was the grand juror who took secret testimony in the case.

Mertilla Jones, Aiyana’s grandmother who was sleeping on the couch below the window with Aiyana at the time, told VOD later that day that Weekley did not enter the home until after the grenade went off, so could not have been affected by it. She said it did not even stun her.

“I heard the flash bang hit the window, and a lot of light came through,” she said. “I hit the floor before it could hit me, but my grandbaby jerked when it hit her blanket and set it on fire. Weekley came in after that with his gun pointed down at her head. I told him, hold on, don’t shoot, that’s a seven-year-old baby girl, but he just went POW.”

Jones said she saw the look in his eyes as he shot Aiyana.

Detroit SRT cop Joseph Weekley, featured on A&E website nicknamed "Brain."

“He didn’t look shocked or stunned or even remorseful,” she said. “They came there to kill, not to arrest someone.”

Moran is also prosecuting Aiyana’s father Charles Jones on first-degree murder charges in a case that was the pretext for a Special Response Team assault on the Jones’ family’s home on Lillibridge May 16, 2010, It was filmed in the dead of night by a camera crew from A&E’s The First 48. Some have questioned whether this is a conflict of interest.

“My client is facing charges for being grossly negligent, but this didn’t have anything to do with him,” Fishman said.

P.O. Kata-Ante Taylor, who executed teen in front of Cantrell funeral home in 2008, carried Aiyana's body out of house; neither he nor anyone else on the SRT team or in police command has been charged in the child's death.

“He didn’t make the decision to have a camera following them, it was made by [then Police Chief] Warren Evans. He didn’t come up with the idea of let’s go out in the middle of the night and use a flash-bang grenade. He was not the person who threw the grenade. That person was inept. He was supposed to have thrown it earlier. I would hate to defend the department in a civil lawsuit on this case.”

Moran said Weekley and other SRT officers have been trained to operate properly while a stun grenade is going off, even nearby.

The Jones’ family’s attorney Geoffrey Fieger said in 2010 that a police car was outside their home during the day and could have arrested the person they had the warrant for, Chauncey Owens, peacefully when he exited the upper flat of the house during the day.

Fishman delayed asking for dismissal of the charges against Weekley, but indicated he would do so in future hearings. A trial date for Weekley was set for Oct. 22, 2012.

Moran and Fishman also agreed to delete certain audio potions of the two videotapes taken by the A & E crew when they are shown to the jury.

Fishman said afterwards there are dogs barking, and crying and wailing from the family on the tapes, but also comments from police officers. He said he could not see whether Weekley was already in the house by looking at the videos.

The case against Allison Howard, a producer for A&E, for committing perjury by claiming she did not show or provide copies of the videotapes to a third party, has been severed from Weekley’s case. She is expected to go to trial in December.

New information came to light during the hearing June 15 on Howard’s case.

Allison Howard at arraignment.

Howard’s defense attorney Robert Harrison said one witness who refused to testify against Howard spent three months in Wayne County jail on contempt of court charges before acquiescing. He said another witness was threatened with the same, and eventually agreed to comply.

Later, he named the two as John Cassar, who runs Italio Collision and Auto at 19049 W. Warren in Detroit, and Lee O’Brien. During the hearing, he implied that some of the witnesses may have criminal records related to “theft and dishonesty.”

“It was common knowledge that she [Howard] went out to a party going on in the Canton home of one of the witnesses that night, with a police officer friend, and that she sold a copy of the tape to a third individual for $2500,” Moran said. Harrison said afterwards that there was no party.

Judge Cynthia Gray Hathaway with husband Deputy Sheriff Dewayne Hayes

Gray Hathaway granted a joint motion made by Moran and Harrison for a “bill of particulars” detailing the exact elements of the charges brought against Weekley and Howard.

Jones family members later noted the dissimilar treatment of Weekley, who has been out on personal bond since his arraignment and was allowed to have his trial severed from Howard,” and that of her son Charles Jones and Chauncey Owens. The two face first-degree murder charges in the death of Je’Rean Blakely, 17, during a contentious incident two days before the police raid on the Jones house.

They are being held without bond in Wayne County Jail. Owens has been incarcerated there for two years, after making statements admitting to the killing, while Jones was arrested after an investigation that took more than a year and a half.

Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Richard Skutt, while barring the third-person testimony of jail-house snitch Jay Schlenkerman against Jones, did not sever the cases. Jones has said he had nothing to do with the Blake shooting, and did not provide Owens with the gun as contended by Schlenkerman. Owens refused to testify at his preliminary hearing and was held in contempt of court by 36th District Court Judge E. Lynise Bryant-Weekes.

Stephen Murphy of Standard and Poors and Joe O’Keefe of Fitch Ratings (center) lobbied for $1.5 billion pension bond deal at City Council table in 2004; with Detroit CFO Sean Werdlow at left; Deputy Mayor Anthony Adams at right; now Fitch has downgraded Detroit’s ratings once again over worries it will not pay; Wall Street as a whole engaged in maasive predatory lending to governments during that period, leading eventually to the historic collapse of 2008, signaled by the fall of Lehman Brothers

June 12, 2012 

(VOD: note the article below says the state as well as Detroit could have prevented downgrade; it was the state which threatened to withhold the money Detroit’s CFO Jack Martin was counting on to pay the bond debt, in violation of the Fiscal Stability Agreement.)

(Reuters) – Concerns that Detroit may miss a payment due Friday on its pension debt led Fitch Ratings to lower the city’s already junk-level ratings into the C category on Tuesday, denoting a higher chance of default.

Snyder and Bing are colluding to dismantle Detroit.

Fitch analyst Amy Laskey cited statements by Mayor Dave Bing that the city may not be able to make a payment on $1.5 billion of pension debt as it may run out of cash by Friday.

Michigan reached an agreement with Detroit in April to provide the city with some budget relief in exchange for more state oversight over the city’s finances.

But a lawsuit challenging the legality of that agreement has bottled up plans to raise $137 million through a debt sale to keep city operations going.

Detroiters demanded moratorium on debt to banks in march on May 9, 2012.

Michigan’s deputy treasurer said last week that the lawsuit needs to be withdrawn this week or the city will lose $82.5 million in state revenue-sharing payments. With the bond deal on hold, these payments would be diverted to pay off an interim debt issue placed privately in March.

On Monday, Bing sent a letter to Detroit Corporation Counsel Krystal Crittendon directing her to drop the lawsuit she filed earlier this month. The letter also said he is consulting with “outside legal experts in this matter in order to execute my duties.” Crittendon has not commented so far.

“All of the events in the last week point out the impressive challenges they face,” Laskey said.

Fitch said “there are actions available to both the city and the state of Michigan that would ensure the payment is made but that the current level of uncertainty so close to a bond repayment date is consistent with a higher probability of default than the prior B-category ratings implied.”

Crittendon’s complaint, which was filed against the state in Michigan’s Court of Claims, challenges the validity of the financial stability agreement on a claim that Michigan owes the city more than $230 million. A motion for an expedited hearing in the case is up before Judge William Collette on Wednesday, according to his office.

Ahead of signing the pact, the city and state agreed to a deal to provide some breathing room in Detroit’s budget by restructuring some outstanding debt to push $37 million in debt-service payments into the future.

The longer-term debt issue would also include $100 million of new bonds to fund the city’s fiscal 2012 and 2013 self-insurance payments.

The first step was an $80 million interim financing that was privately placed in March. The second step is issuing a longer-term bond issue later this month to raise $137 million and replace the interim debt.

But Tom Saxton, Michigan’s deputy treasurer, advised the city last week that the lawsuit was derailing issuance of the longer-term bonds and as a consequence $82.5 million in state revenue sharing due to Detroit between this month and December would instead be used to pay off the interim debt issue.

Fitch lowered the city’s unlimited tax general obligation rating on about $511 million of bonds to CCC from B and cut the rating on about $453 million of limited tax GO bonds to CC from B-minus.

The rating on Detroit’s pension obligation certificates of participation was downgraded to CC from B with a warning that the rating could fall to the lowest level of D if the city misses a debt service payment. The city’s GO bond ratings “will likely be adjusted to a level somewhat above D,” Fitch added.

The city has suffered a staggering population decline in recent years, causing its revenue base to shrink. Companies that once paid hefty taxes, including General Motors Co (GM.N), have reduced their presence in a city synonymous with the auto industry.

Naomi Patton, Bing’s spokeswoman, said earlier on Tuesday city officials were working to ensure money is available to make the $34.2 million debt service payment on the pension bonds.

As for the downgrade, Chris Brown, Detroit’s chief operating officer, said in a statement that the downgrade was not unexpected given the outstanding litigation.

“Ultimately, we are working to restore our financial reputation with the rating agencies by stabilizing the city’s finances,” Brown said.

Sara Wurfel, a spokeswoman for Governor Rick Snyder, said the lawsuit is creating uncertainty and delaying needed reforms.

“Governor Snyder and the state are continuing to stay focused on partnering with, and doing everything possible to work with the city to address its historic fiscal crisis, move forward and ensure Detroit succeeds,” Wurfel said.

In March, Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services downgraded Detroit’s GO rating to B with a negative outlook from BB, while Moody’s Investors Service dropped the rating to B2 from Ba3 and warned of a further downgrade.

There was no trading in the pension COPs in the U.S. municipal bond market, according to a Municipal Market Data analyst.

In the meantime, the situation led Detroit’s Water and Sewerage Department to postpone a $596 million sewer revenue bond issue that was slated to price this week, said Matt Schenk, the department’s chief operating officer.

“We want to get past the looming deadline on Friday,” he said, adding there was no firm date when the bonds, which are a separate credit from Detroit, will be priced. “There is some headline risk going on right now.”

(Reporting by Karen Pierog, additional reporting by Caryn Trokie in New York; Editing by Richard Chang and Carol Bishopric) 

Banner at Wisconsin protest.

Cindy Darrah, Sandra Hines, and James Cole Jr. express their opinion of Judge William Collette’s decision on the Ingham County Circuit Court steps June 13, 2012.

Supporters of Detroit Corporation Counsel say judge ignored “rule of law” 

By Diane Bukowski 

June 14, 2012 

Judge William Collette appears disgruntled from the beginning, as Asst. Corp. Counsel James Noseda presents his arguments June 13, 2012.

MASON, MI – “I never saw a situation like this before, where the Corporation Counsel operates independently of the Mayor and City Council,” Ingham County Circuit Court Judge William Collette said June 13 as he summarily dismissed Detroit Corporation Counsel Krystal Crittendon’s legal action against Detroit’s Public Act 4 consent agreement. 

Asst. Corp. Counsel James Noseda argues Charter is rule of law.

“This is such an obvious situation,” he continued. “I saw it from the moment it happened. People just need to learn to live with this and move this ahead. I don’t know how anybody else can sue the state. Dave Bing is the mayor and he has the authority.” 

Detroit’s Assistant Corporation Counsel James Noseda responded, “I object to having a motion for summary disposition decided this way, instead of on the rule of law.” 

Earlier, he argued that the newly revised City Charter gives Crittendon the authority to take independent judicial action, under various provisions of Section 7.5 Chapter 2 as follow

Sect. 7.5 209 (1)

 Atorneys for the state and for Mayor Bing argued that Crittendon had no authority to file suit on her own, based primarily on Section 7.5-203:

During his commentary, Collette referred to the fact that his rulings holding that Public Act 4 financial review teams should be open to the public have been overturned. His entire demeanor since those actions clearly had changed. 

He never addressed Corporation Counsel’s arguments expressed in the complaint for declaratory and injunctive relief.  

Corporation Counsel contended the agreement is void because the State of Michigan owes the City of Detroit at least $230.4 million in revenue-sharing funds, water and electric bills, and other outstanding invoices. Both state and city statutes bar contracts with entities in monetary default. 

Collette’s only reference to those contentions was to scoff at a bill for state employees; parking ticket included in the invoices. 

The state actually owes the City hundreds of millions more, due to the actions of Department of Human Services Director Maura Corrigan, who withheld federal funds  for Detroiters’ emergency needs from the city’s Human Services Department, Two lawsuits filed by city workers from APTE an AFSCME are pending regarding her actions and plans to close and privatize the departments of Detroit Health and Wellness Promotion and Workforce Development. 

On June 11, Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Wendy Baxter issued a temporary restraining order against the shutdowns of the three federally-funded departments. A hearing on that matter is to take place on Fri. June 22 in her court at the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center. 

A busload of Detroiters organized by Free Detroit-No Consent and the Rev. David Bullock traveled to the hearing to support Crittendon’s action. 

WWJ radio's Florence Walker interviews Rev. David Bullock after hearing.

Afterwards, Rev. Bullock denounced Collette’s ruling. 

“[Judge Collette] decided based on his opinion, not the rule of law,” Rev. Bullock told reporters. “Since the rule of law is no longer going to be respected in our courts, I hope that the people of Detroit and other cities affected by Public Act 4 like Benton Harbor, Pontiac and Flint do not decide to be lawless as well.” 

He predicted “a long hot summer.”  

The group remained defiant after the hearing, holding up their fists and waving placards on the court house steps. As they stepped off the bus in Detroit, they chanted, “Free Detroit-No Consent.” They also called on people to protest at Bank of America Fri. June 15 at 4 P.M (see announcement above.)

Part of Free Detroit-No Consent busload remained defiant on Ingham County Courthouse steps after hearing.

For the hearing, Bing again retained the law firm of Miller, Canfield, Paddock and Stone, represented this time by     Hogan. Their attorney Michael McGee, a co-author of Public Act 4 who continues to advise the Mayor and Council, hovered behind Hogan as he spoke to reporters. 

Bing’s attorney (side to camera) is interviewed as Michael McGee stands by; Rev. Bullock is at right.

Under terms of the Charter as cited above, their hiring should have been subject to Crittendon’s approval, as well as the consent agreement. Crittendon, as the attorney who officially represents the City of Detroit as a corporate entity, and its citizens, was completely kept out of the loop on those matters.

Contact information for                 Free Detroit-No Consent:

Call Free Detroit at 313-444-0061.  Website at http://www.freedetroit.org/.  Email info@freedetroit.org.

,MARCH FOR MORATORIUM ON DETROIT’S DEBT TO THE BANKS May 9, 2012

City officials including (l to r) CFO Jack Martin, COO Chris Brown, Mayor Dave Bing and Deputy Mayor Kirk Lewis listen intently as attorney Michael McGee, co-author of Public Act 4 and city/state/MFA advisor on $137 million loan, argues that Corporation Counsel Krystal Crittendon has no authority to sue on behalf of Detroit.

 $13 million paid out to vendors in one week despite alleged cash shortfall;  

Council stands up to Big 5 June 11, but to meet in closed sessions June 13

By Diane Bukowski 

June 12, 2012 

DETROIT – Did the City of Detroit’s new “Big Five” deliberately engineer a fiscal crisis to get Corporation Counsel Krystal Crittendon to “stand down” from  legal action challenging the validity of the June 4 Public Act 4 consent agreement?

So far, Crittendon has refused to back off, pending a hearing in the State’s Court of Claims before Ingham County Circuit Court Judge William Collette Wed. June 13, at 10 a.m.

Mayor Dave Bing demands Council stop Corporation Counsel legal action, in meeting June 11, 2012.

The Big Five took the stage at a joint meeting with City Council June 11. They are (in alphabetical order, not necessarily order of dominance), Mayor Dave Bing, Chief Operating Officer Chris Brown, Deputy Mayor Kirk Lewis, Chief Financial Officer Jack Martin, and last but by far not least, attorney Michael McGee, co-author of Public Act 4, as shown above.

“I demand that Corporation Counsel withdraw her lawsuit, and I demand that the City Council make the Corporation Counsel withdraw her lawsuit,” Bing stormed. Later he told the Council to vote to dismiss the lawsuit.

Councilman Kwame Kenyatta blasts Big 5 at Council meeting June 11, 2012.

“There is a $32 million bond payment on the pension obligation certificates due this Friday,” Chief Financial Officer Jack Martin, newly installed after joint approval by Michigan Governor Rick Snyder and Bing, said. “We were planning to make it based on $35 million in the escrow account from the state, but they will not advance it so long as the lawsuit is in place.”

In fact, the Fiscal Stablity [Consent] Agreement says the following about the loan.

“The anticipated aggregate size of the refinancing is approximately $137 million, of which approximately $33 million will be used to refinance existing debt, and approximately $104 million will be placed in an escrow account and used to pay for costs of the Reform Program and for City operating expenses.”

Attorney Jerome Goldberg said, “This is outrageous. Here we had city employees worried about whether they would be paid Friday, but the city was really worrying about paying off its POC debt.”

On June 12, City Council Fiscal Analyst Irvin Corley told Council that $13 million was mysteriously missing from the city’s cash flow forecast of May 24, which had the city in the black.

Corley told VOD later in the day that he has now discovered the $13 million was paid out to city vendors in just one week, money not included in the May 24 projection. Martin claimed June 11 that the city could “barely pay” its vendors and was not paying some.

Fiscal Analyst Irvin Corley at Council session March 29, 2012.

“The question I am asking the administration now is what prompted them to spend an additional $13 million in one week’s time on vendors?” Corley said.

Martin said June 11 that global accounting firm Ernst & Young generated the deficit figures.  The states of New York and New Jersey are suing Ernst & Young for cooking Lehman Brothers’ books before its historic collapse in 2008. Is this a repeat performance? Is this criminal malfeasance on the part of the Big 5?

Council President Charles Pugh confronted them immediately June 11, telling Bing that the city’s lawyer is Corporation Counsel Crittendon, not McGee, when Bing said he had taken McGee’s advice.

“The Corp Counsel says she has a charter-mandated responsibility to do what she is doing,” Pugh said. “We cannot interfere. You, Mayor Bing, and you Jack Martin, and you Chris Brown and you Kirk Lewis, the four of you should be able to negotiate with the state to preserve our fiduciary responsibility to the citizens.”

Free Detroit-No Consent members turned out in force at council meeting June 11.

Bing began, “The Charter . . . .” then paused and said “Mike would you explain?”

Council members Kwame Kenyatta and JoAnn Watson erupted in outrage.

Councilwoman JoAnn Watson says state is guilty of extortion at meeting June 11, 2012.

“I find it appalling that we would bring in an outside attorney in to interpret the Charter,” Kenyatta said. “On that bond, he represented the city, the state and the Michigan Finance Authority. He got paid three ways. He wrote Public Act 4 and then advised us on Public Act 4. The City should have demanded that the Governor not violate the state’s bullying law. Until the court says the consent agreement is invalid, we should tell the GOVERNOR to stand down. I support the Corporation Counsel—how are you going to demand that someone not follow the law?”

Watson followed.

“This amounts to not just bullying—it sounds like extortion,” she said. “The state should not be in the business of engaging in that kind of behavior. It is outrageous, particularly given that the consent agreement never had any money on the table in the first place. That $137 million was a loan, money our grandchildren will be paying back. It is outrageous to make the high-demanded and then have threats of dismissal of the Corporation Counsel running on the media this weekend.”

Corporation Counsel Krystal Crittendon warning Council against PA4 consent agreement March 29, 2012.

Remaining Council members, except for President Pro-Tem Gary Brown, agreed that they had no power over Crittendon and refused to take any action against her. Crittendon can only be dismissed by the Mayor and a supermajority of the Council.

Bing, appearing to be taken aback by the Council’s response, said he himself did not intend to fire her.

Councilwoman Saunteel Jenkins said the state could resolve Crittendon’s legal action by simply paying at least part of the debts it owes Detroit. She and several other Council members downplayed the $224 million in revenue-sharing that Crittendon raised.

However, her legal action is in the Court of Claims, the only entity with the authority to handle monetary claims against the state.  It will be up to Judge Collette to determine the  validity of the $224 million debt as well as the others Crittendon listed in her request for a declaratory judgment.

Ingham County Circuit Court Judge WIlliam Collette

Payment of those debts would eliminate the alleged necessity for the pending $250 million city budget cuts, 2566 lay-offs, and elimination of entire departments.

Crittendon’s challenge to the consent agreement is that the city, under both state and federal laws, cannot enter into a contract with any entity in default to it. The state would remain in default if Collette determines the $224 million is a valid debt.

Willie Mae Hampton tells Council to stand firm in support of Crittendon.

Detroit residents packed the meeting, many of them members of Free Detroit-No Consent. They waved “We do not consent” placards and spoke forcibly in favor of Crittendon. They pointed out that the newly revised Charter not only gives her the power to take legal action against violations of the Charter, but also assigns her the duty of approving all contracts, bond issues, and other matters.

They also said the Council should have listened to Crittendon, not McGee, and voted the consent agreement down in the first place, on June 4. Only Council members JoAnn Watson, Kwame Kenyatta, Brenda Jones and Andre Spivey voted NO.

Council Pres. PT Gary Brown was angry that he could not get Council to go forward with consent agreement June 12 by voting to Financial Advisory Board designees.

The situation, however, remains in flux. On June 12, the Council voted unanimously to hold two closed sessions June 13, one at 10:30 am and one at 2 pm. In the morning, the joint session will involve the Big 5, the Council and Crittendon, who evidently will not appear herself in Collette’s courtroom. In the afternoon, the Council will meet separately with Crittendon.

Brown moved unsuccessfully June 12 to vote that day to go forward with the terms of the consent agreement by appointing the Council’s two designees to the Financial Advisory Board. He said the legal dispute will not be resolved immediately.

Councilman Kenneth Cockrel, Jr. said he agreed with Brown. Jenkins said they could hold an adjourned session June 14 to deal with a possible vote on the matter.

APTE President Dempsey Addison during first Occupy Detroit march in 2011.

During public comments June 12, Dempsey Addison, president of the Association of Professional and Technical Employees (APTE), asked Council not to allow the dismantling and privatization of the federally-funded departments of Human Services, Health and Wellness Promotion, and Workforce Development. She said hundreds of lay-offs are scheduled to begin shortly.

“If the city is broke, why are we giving away hundreds of millions in federal grants?” she asked.

The Council voted unanimously June 1 only to temporarily fund the three departments while privatization progresses. They put the finishing touch on the budget June 12 by voting to approve the last outstanding item involving property taxes.

 Below:

City Council, Mayor & Consent Crisis! – – 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 285 community videos and over 93,000 Hits
on my YouTube channel at www.YouTube.com/KennySnod .

 Detroiters mobilize to resist:                                                                                            

• Mon. June 11, 8 AM—City Council and Mayor meet to discuss threat; be there early
• Wed. June 13, 8 AM–Busloads leave to attend lawsuit hearing in Mason 

Analysis–by Diane Bukowski 

June 10, 2012 

Detroit Corporation Counsel Krystal Crittendon

DETROIT – Detroit is not in danger of going broke or otherwise facing disaster if Corporation Counsel Krystal Crittendon maintains her lawsuit, which asks to void the treacherous Public Act 4 consent agreement between city and state officials. 

State Treasurer Andy Dillon, Deputy Treasurer Thomas Saxton,  and/or U.S. Bank are threatening to withhold $80 million from the city if the lawsuit not withdrawn.On Monday, June 11 at 8 a.m, Detroit Mayor Dave Bing and the City Council will meet in public session to discuss the threat. 

Today, the Detroit Free Press called the lawsuit “suicidal defiance.” It told the city to “swallow its pride.” 

Protesters, including Wayne Bernard at front, occupy Cadillac Place lobby as Court of Appeals hears case PA4 referendum; the COA has now delayed its ruling, likely until it is too late to put it on the Nov. ballot.

This is a declaration that Detroiters HAVE NO RIGHT TO RESIST the fascist control of the state and banks like U.S. Bank. 

Judges across the country have found U.S. Bank guilty of foreclosure fraud. The national Fair Housing Alliance filed a federal complaint April 12 claiming it discriminates against “communities of color” by letting foreclosed properties there go to rack and ruin while maintaining those in white neighborhoods. 

What’s next—public whippings and lynchings of those who have defied the slavemasters to stand up for the constitutional and human rights of Detroiters? 

Charter Commissioner Attorney Rosemary Robinson at City Council June 5, 2012

“This is unconscionable,” former Charter Commissioner and long-time attorney Rosemary Robinson said. “I urge Attorney Crittendon to advance her defense of the people of Detroit by standing firm and allowing no coercion by the state.  She is doing the right thing for the people she represents. The Council effectively destroyed representative government in this city and gave away the city’s assets. We are organized and being awakened. WE DO NOT CONSENT!” 

Robinson is a member of “Free Detroit-No Consent,” which plans to take busloads to Mason, Michigan Wed. June 13 for the first hearing on the lawsuit before Ingham County Circuit Court Judge William Collette. The buses will leave from Bethany Baptist Church at 15122 W. Chicago, east of Greenfield, at 8 a.m. 

The consent agreement, whose actual language the corporate media has deliberately chosen to ignore, says the following regarding the threatened funds, which are part of a state loan, not a gift, to the city. 

Detroit CFO Jack Martin, in his previous incarnation as emergency manager, tells Highland Park residents why their school district must be destroyed by

“The anticipated aggregate size of the refinancing is approximately $137 million, of which approximately $33 million will be used to refinance existing debt, and approximately $104 million will be placed in an escrow account and used to pay for costs of the Reform Program and for City operating expenses.” 

The costs of the “Reform Program” are those imposed by the consent agreement. They include the salaries of a chief financial officer, program manager, nine-member Financial Advisory Board and their staff, as well as staff hired to carry out the down-sizing and eventual obliteration of Detroit. 

Councilwoman JoAnn Watson with Mayor Dave Bing at her right, UAW President Bob King to his right, during Dec. 1, 2011 press conference denouncing state takeover of Detroit.

Chief Financial Officer Jack Martin, appointed under the consent agreement with the joint approval of Mayor Dave Bing and Governor Rick Snyder, makes $220,000. It was Martin who declared the city will run out of money by the end of this week, but somehow will still make payroll. 

He’s clearly concerned that HE will not get paid. 

If the “escrow account” is intended to finance Detroit’s “operating expenses,” why does the city’s 2012-13 budget slash $250 million from city services? That includes the lay-offs of 2566 city workers, most of them residents and taxpayers in Detroit, and the dismantling of departments primarily funded by the federal government. 

Tyrone Travis speaks against consent agreement at City Council April 4, with Sandra Hines and Morris Mays at his right

“We’re in a fight against violent people, because you are bringing death to our community,” Free Detroit member Tyrone Travis told the City Council June 5 during a session packed with angry residents, where a letter in support of Crittendon’s lawsuit was presented to Council. 

The private sector is drooling at the mouth, waiting to snatch up hundreds of millions in  grants for health care, job placement, prevention of foreclosures, evictions, and utilities shut-offs, day care, emergency food and clothing, home weatherization, and education under the Head Start program. 

Linda Willis at protest to demand moratorium on Detroit's debt to the banks May 17, 2012.

It is certain that those funds, under private control, will disappear down the same rathole where $23.7 trillion in taxpayer bail-outs of the banks went. 

U.S. Bank is a subsidiary of US Bancorp, which has $341 billion in assets, making it one of the country’s top five banks. U.S. Bank has had control of Detroit’s purse strings since at least 2009. It makes a tidy profit in fees by acting as trustee over all city income from state revenue-sharing funds and casino taxes, to ensure that the city pays off its $12.6 billion debt to the banks on a regular basis. 

US Bancorp also profited handsomely from the 2008 taxpayer bail-out of the banks. On the brink of failure, it got $6.6 billion in funds from the TARP program, along with unknown amounts given secretly to the banks under other programs. It re-paid the $6.6 billion in 2009, but raked in $334.2 million in profits off the deal. Revived by the bail-out, it has since continued to announce record profits. 

Those profits have come at a hefty cost to poor communities nationwide. 

Abaned home on Pierce in Detroit; previous occupants grew rose bushes there.

On April 17. 2012, the National Fair Housing Alliance NFHA) announced that it had filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)  against US Bancorp. 

“Today, the National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA) and four of its member organizations announced a federal housing discrimination complaint against U.S. Bancorp and U.S. Bank National Bank Association,” NFHA said in a press release. “This complaint. . .is the result of an undercover investigation of U.S. Bank’s properties that found that its foreclosed properties in White areas are much better maintained and marketed than its properties in African-American and Latino neighborhoods.” 

Shanna Smith, NFHA President and CEO, said in the release, “Our findings underscore the obvious: properties that are poorly maintained not only lose value but have a higher likelihood of selling to an investor, rather than to a family. U.S. Bank is making it harder for the market to come back in communities of color.” 

Protester at demonstation against Detroit debt to banks May 17, 2012

Gail Williams, Executive Director of Metro Fair Housing Services, Inc. in Atlanta, GA said, “Without routine maintenance, these properties have become an eyesore for Atlanta’s neighborhoods and should be an embarrassment for U.S. Bank. Atlanta’s neighborhoods are being victimized over and over again by the Big Banks; first with predatory loans, then denying loan modifications, through the foreclosure crisis, and now with poorly maintained REO [real-estate owned] properties.” 

Judges have also found US Bancorp guilty of foreclosure fraud in several high-profile cases. In a 2011 ruling on the Ibanez case, the Supreme Court of Massachusetts held that U.S. Bank had not proven it had the right to foreclose on a homeowner , since it didn’t have title to the property. 

An article in FireDogLake, (link below), summarized the ruling.

Ad in wake of exposure of foreclosure fraud in Massachusetts Ibanez case

“In a major ruling in the Massachusetts Supreme Court today, US Bank and Wells Fargo lost the “Ibanez case,” meaning that they don’t have standing to foreclose due to improper mortgage assignment. The ruling is likely to send shock waves through the entire judicial system, and seriously raise the stakes on foreclosure fraud. Bank stocks are plummeting at this hour.”

Earlier, in 2011, a Florida case, U.S. Bank v Ernest Harpster, a judge ruled that “fraud” was involved in another U.S. Bank foreclosure case.

The Wall Street Journal Law Blog said, “U.S. Bank v Ernest Harpster was dismissed last month by Judge Lynn Tepper of Pasco County after she found that an “assignment of mortgage” filed in the case, which was meant to show how U.S. Bank obtained ownership of the mortgage, was false. . . .Thus the bank couldn’t show it owned the property before the foreclosure suit was filed, the judge found. The Law Offices of David J. Stern, which represented the bank, prepared the document. The document was ‘fraudulently backdated, in a purposeful, intentional effort to mislead,’ Judge Tepper ruled.”

Occupy Vermont demands jail for banksters

The Wall Street Journal article and others related to these cases and others indicates that such mortgage foreclosure fraud remains rampant throughout the U.S., even after the 2008 taxpayer bail-out of the banks.

U.S. Bank (US Bancorp) and its minions in state government are now threatening foreclosure of the entire city of Detroit. Detroiters must rise up to put a stop to these criminal practices and demand lengthy terms in prison for the guilty parties.

Buses to hearing in Mason, MI to leave from Bethany Baptist Church at 15122 W. Chicago (e. of Greenfield), Wed. April 13, 2012 at 8 a.m. Be there 7:30 am. Call Free Detroit at 313-444-0061 to register.

Free Detroit website at http://www.freedetroit.org/,  Email  info@freedetroit.org. 

Fair Housing Organizations File Discrimination Complaint Against US Bank

2012-04-17 US Bank HUD Complaint

http://news.firedoglake.com/2011/01/07/ma-supreme-court-deals-banks-a-major-blow-on-foreclosure-fraud-in-the-ibanez-case/ 

http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2010/04/19/judge-finds-fraud-in-foreclosure-mess/

Thousands of protesters from metro Detroit swamped motorists going into Troy fundraiser for Scott Walker April 17, 2012

 The triumphalism is more a manifestation of conservatives’ wishful thinking than a reflection of any objective reality.  

AlterNet / ByJoshua Holland

 June 6, 2012 |

 On Tuesday, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker held onto his job with a typical Republican campaign built on trickery, wildly dishonest messaging and a massive budget courtesy of a handful of ideologically like-minded sugar daddies from out-of-state (according to Mother Jones, about two-thirds of Walker’s donations came from outside the Badger State, compared with just around a quarter of his opponent’s).

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker

In the aftermath of the vote, conservatives, proving typically magnanimous in victory, spun the results like a top. They claimed the outcome spelled doom for Obama this fall, marked the death of the labor movement and was a pure reflection of voters’ love for Scott Walker’s economy-crushing austerity policies.

“This is what democracy looks like,” Lieutenant Governor Rebecca Kleefisch crowed after hanging on to her job. “Public sector unions are over,” rejoiced libertarian blogger Radley Balko on Twitter. The Breitbart kids, furthering a standard-issue conservative lie about unions, happily reported that, “Walker won 36% of Wisconsin’s union households, which isn’t surprising, considering how workers reacted when emancipated from forced dues.” (By law, nobody can be forced to pay union dues – workers in union shops can only be compelled to pay the direct costs of representing them.)

Wisconsin protesters

We shouldn’t kid ourselves; it was obviously a serious defeat for the progressive movement. Yet the triumphalism is more a manifestation of conservatives’ wishful thinking than a reflection of objective reality. Here are eight reasons why.

1. Wisconsinites Just Didn’t Like the Idea of Recalling a Sitting Governor

An honest reading of the published exit poll leads to an important conclusion about Walker’s victory that has little to do with unions, Walker’s policies, the economy or any of the other factors that have pundits’ tongues wagging.

Fully 70 percent of those voters polled believed that recall elections are either never appropriate (10 percent) or are only appropriate in the case of official misconduct (60 percent).

The governor won 72 percent of this group. And it’s worth noting that a third of those voters who said “official misconduct” is a good reason to recall a governor voted to oust Walker, who has seen six of his staffers charged with 15 felonies in the “John Doe” probe.

While Walker himself has not yet been charged, reports suggest that the investigation is circling closer to him. Over the past seven weeks, he transferred $160,000 from his campaign funds to a legal defense fund, according to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. In a recent interview with AlterNet, John Nichols, associate editor of the Madison Capitol Times, noted that the governor “is now represented by four separate law firms, including two of the top criminal defense law firms. These aren’t firms that deal with election law; these are firms that deal with major crimes.” He survived the recall, but his problems are by no means over. Continue reading →