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

Ethics Board, Corporation Counsel have enhanced powers under revised City Charter

By Diane Bukowski

March 25, 2012 

DETROIT – In the wake of revelations that City of Detroit Corporation Counsel Krystal Crittendon advised Mayor Dave Bing and the City Council against signing the “Consent Financial Stability Agreement” (CFSA), Detroiters have begun filing ethics complaints against the Bing, the Council’s “Fatal Five,” Deputy Mayor Kirk Lewis, and COO Chris Brown. 

COO Chris Brown, Mayor Dave Bing, Deputy Mayor Kirk Lewis

The “Fatal Five” are Council President Charles Pugh, President Pro-Tem Gary Brown, and members Saunteel Jenkins, James Tate and Kenneth Cockrel, Jr. They voted on April 4 for the CFSA on the advice of Deputy Mayor Kirk Lewis and attorney Michael McGee, a co-author of Public Act 4, from which the FSA derived.

Phyllis "Chris" Griffiths confronts Council during Sept. 13, 2011 session.

They ignored Crittendon’s advice. New language in the Revised City Charter, Sec. 7.5-209, gives the Corporation Counsel for the first time the power to enforce the charter and remedy violations through “all reasonable actions up to and including . . . judicial action.”

The complaint campaign was begun by a newly formed organization, “Free Detroit.” 

Several of the five complaints filed so far cite the eight officials for violating state and city laws  which say that the city cannot contract with anyone who has defaulted on debts to the city. 

“Based on Michigan Compiled Law 117.5 (a) (f), the City of Detroit, its executive branch departments and legislative branch agencies, is prohibited from making a contract with, or giving an official position to, one who is in default to the city,” says Phyllis Griffiths’ complaint, filed May 22. 

APTE VP Cecily McClellan at Charter Revision Commission meeting Aug. 10, 2010.

Crittendon told State Treasurer Andy Dillon in a letter May 11 that the agreement is null and void because the state has not paid outstanding debts to the city, including $224 million in revenue sharing payments, and a $4.75 million water bill. She is scheduled to hold a “conference call” with State Treasurer Andy Dillon and State Attorney General Bill Schuette next week, a step required prior to taking court action. 

Other complaints cite violations of state and city laws that Crittendon listef in an opinion dated April 1, given to the Mayor’s Office and Council three days before the Council’s vote. 

Cecily McClellan, Vice-President of the Association of Professional and Technical Employees (APTE), cited some of those provisions in her complaint, also filed May 22. 

“.  .  .  . the Consent Financial Stability Agreement relinquished control of City of Detroit finances to the State of Michigan via a Chief Financial Officer, Program Management Director, and nine non-elected and potentially non-Detroit residents. The Detroit City Council does not have the authority to delegate the power of their elected positions to a non-elected body and cause increased financial harm to the city . . . ,” McClellan wrote. 

Attorney Michael McGee, co-author of Public Act 4, and Deputy Mayor Kirk Lewis at Council table.

Her complaint says the eight officials violated state law by approving “unfunded mandates” included in the CFSA, that the CFSA exceeds the “police powers” of the Council, and that there is no legal ground to put a Financial Advisory Board in charge of approving union contracts. 

Crittendon’s April 1 opinion also said there is no statutory authority to establish a Financial Advisory Board period. 

State Treasurer Andy Dillon during FInancial Review Team meeting March 26, confronted by a chanting crowd.

“The five City Council members, Mayor and appointed officials listed above have engaged in willful misconduct, willful or gross neglect of duty, and other misfeasance or malfeasance,” McClellan wrote. “The elected officials of the City of Detroit should forfeit their positions and all appointed officers should be dismissed.”

McClellan also noted that Pugh, Tate and Cockrel, Jr. negotiated terms of the deal secretly with State Treasurer Andy Dillon, although they were not delegated by Council to do so. Lewis named the three during a Council meeting April 2. 

The Revised City Charter’s Ethics Section 2-107(B) newly lists six grounds for mandatory forfeiture of office.  It says, “The office of an elective city officer shall be forfeited for the following: a. Lacks at any time any qualifications required by law or by section 2-101 of this Charter; b. Plead to, or is convicted of, a felony while holding the office; c. Engages in official misconduct; d. Willful or gross neglect of duty; e. Corrupt conduct in office; or f. Any other misfeasance or malfeasance.” 

The Board of Ethics meets in the First National Building, where the City's Law offices are located.

If, after investigation, the Ethics Board finds officials guilty of the complaints brought against the, it can issue a “public admonishments,” recommend disciplinary action against non-elected employees, recommend that the City Council initiate removal or forfeiture [of office] proceedings against elected or appointed officials, impose financial administrative sanctions, or have the City’s Law Department (which is headed by the Corporation Counsel), initiate prosecution of the individual(s) involved. 

According to the city’s website, the Ethics Board is comprised of Executive Director Deborah J. Gaskin, Chairperson James W. Heath, Esq., Vice-Chairperson Hon. Harold Hood, and members Dr. Marsha Foster Boyd, Beth Greenberg Morrow, Esq. and Alicia J. Skillman, Esq. 

 They are not allowed to discuss pending complaints, without the presence of the party being charged. 

Hon.Harold Hood

Gaskin, a criminal defense attorney who has practiced law since 1973, was one of the attorneys who represented Charles Beckham and Darralyn Bowers against 1983 federal complaints involving contract-peddling in the water department, during Mayor Coleman A. Young’s administration.  At the time, many felt the investigation’s real target was Young.

James W. Heath is a Wayne County Assistant Prosecuting Attorney in the Public Integrity Section.  The Hon. Harold Hood retired as Chief Judge Pro Tem from the Michigan Court of Appeals after serving in both Recorders and Wayne County Circuit Courts. He currently works with the National Consortium on Racial and Ethnic Fairness in the Courts. 

Alicia J. Skillman, Esq.

Dr. Marsha Foster Boyd is President of the Ecumenical Theological Seminary and a board member of ARISE Detroit. Beth Greenberg Morrow is a criminal defense attorney, a deputy defender at the Legal Aid and Defender Association (LADA), and a research attorney with the State Appellate Defenders’ Office. 

Alicia J. Skillman is Director of LADA’s Fair Housing division, and Executive Director of the Triangle Foundation. 

• To read complaints (with addresses and phones redacted), click on Ethics complaints 2)
• To download a copy of the Ethics Board complaint form, click on  Board of Ethics Complaint_Form_042007 .
• To go to City of Detroit’s Ethics Board page, click on http://www.detroitmi.gov/Departments/BoardofEthics/tabid/73/Default.aspx.
• To read City Charter ethics provisions, click on  Revised City Charter with ethics provisions highlighted.
• To read Crittendon’s May 11 letter, click on Crittendon letter 5 11 12.
• To read Crittendon’s April 1 opinion, click on  Crittendon opinion 4 1 12,

For more information on “Free Detroit” and the complaints campaign, call 313-444-0061.

By Kathy Matheson

Bloomberg News                                                                                                                              May 23, 2012

PHILADELPHIA — Thousands of demonstrators statewide took to the streets Wednesday to protest education cuts they say have decimated school districts across Pennsylvania, and they called for lawmakers to reject further reductions Gov. Tom Corbett proposes for next year.

Philly protesters May 23, 2012

A total of 25 people were arrested during massive demonstrations in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh as they blocked traffic downtown in both cities, police said. Hundreds more demonstrated at the Capitol in Harrisburg, and organizers said similar rallies were scheduled in cities including Doylestown, Hollidaysburg, Bethlehem, Hazleton, and Greensburg.

“We’re demanding that education funding be restored and that they take back this plan to privatize Philadelphia schools, stop threatening to lay off thousands of workers and instead sit down with parents, sit down with workers, sit down with elected officials and figure out a plan that saves our schools,” said Gabe Morgan, Pennsylvania director of the Service Employees International Union chapter 32BJ, which organized the rally in Philadelphia.

PA governor Tom Corbett

Public school instruction and operations this fiscal year, Corbett’s first budget year, shrank by about $860 million, or more than 10 percent. His $27.1 billion budget plan for the fiscal year beginning July 1 would hold most public school aid relatively flat, but eliminate a $100 million grant that helps underwrite full-day kindergarten.

A $27.7 billion budget proposal that passed the Senate earlier this month would add $50 million for the grant program, plus another $50 million for distressed school districts. Corbett spokesman Kevin Harley on Wednesday attributed this year’s funding losses to the end of federal stimulus money, and noted that about 40 percent of the state’s general budget is devoted to education.

“Pennsylvania taxpayers now pay more toward basic education than at any time in the state’s history,” Harley said in a statement.

Children marched with their parents and teachers

About 200 protesters marched to the governor’s office in Pittsburgh. Eleven people were charged with obstructing traffic, according to police spokeswoman Diane Richard. In Philadelphia, hundreds of protesters from SEIU 32BJ and several other district unions — plus concerned parents and community members — marched about a mile up Broad Street from City Hall to school district headquarters where they chanted, “Shame on you!”

The district suffered through more than $700 million in cuts this year, and is considering a radical overhaul that would close 40 buildings, cut hundreds of administrative jobs and allow outside companies to manage “networks” of schools.

Philly protest May 23 2012

SEIU 32BJ represents about 3,000 bus drivers, custodians and others in the school district. Most members have received layoff notices as the district seeks to negotiate $50 million in union givebacks to help balance next year’s $218 million deficit.

Protester Melanie Sullivan, who said she spent 15 years working on Philadelphia school buses and 10 years helping special education students, is among those receiving a layoff notice.

“And for 25 years of doing a good job to get a layoff letter, I don’t quite understand that. Just to get cheaper workers?” Sullivan said. “I’d like to know are you worried about the cost … or are you worried about the children? I feel as though the children should come first.”

Morgan, the state 32BJ director, and five other union members — including local president George Ricchezza — were among 14 people arrested peacefully as the group marched back to City Hall from district headquarters. A police spokeswoman could not immediately confirm the charges.

Follow Kathy Matheson at http://www.twitter.com/kmatheson.

 Associated Press writers Marc Levy in Harrisburg and Joe Mandak in Pittsburgh contributed to this report.

Drones will be authorized to use weapons against U.S. citizens at home.

Critics warn military industrial complex pushing US “willy-nilly toward an era of aerial surveillance”

Steve Watson

Infowars.com
February 8, 2012

A bill passed in by Congress this week paves the way for the use of surveillance drones in US skies. The FAA predicts that by 2020 there could be up to 30,000 drones in operation.

Once signed by president Obama, the FAA Reauthorization Act allows for the FAA to permit the use of drones and develop regulations for testing and licensing by 2015.

The bill will exponentially speed up and streamline the process by which the FAA authorizes the use of drones by federal, state and local police and other government agencies. Currently, the FAA issues a certificate on a case by case basis.

The legislation represents the result of a huge push by the military industrial complex to open up US skies to what will become a multi-million dollar business.

The American Civil Liberties Union warned Monday that the legislation could severely undermine Americans’ privacy.

“Unfortunately, nothing in the bill would address the very serious privacy issues raised by drone aircraft,” Jay Stanley of the ACLU said. “This bill would push the nation willy-nilly toward an era of aerial surveillance without any steps to protect the traditional privacy that Americans have always enjoyed and expected.”

 “We don’t want to wonder, every time we step out our front door, whether some eye in the sky is watching our every move.” the ACLU statement reads.

“The bottom line is: domestic drones are potentially extremely powerful surveillance tools, and that power — like all government power — needs to be subject to checks and balances,” Stanley concluded. “We hope that Congress will carefully consider the privacy implications that this technology can lead to.”

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) re-iterated those privacy concerns, noting that the bill has “implications for surveillance by government agencies.”

The EFF is suing the FAA to obtain records of which agencies were granted certificates to operate drones in the past year, following a refusal by the federal agency to disclose which agencies have the certificates and for what purpose.

Other privacy advocates also share concern over the legislation.

“Currently, the only barrier to the routine use of drones for persistent surveillance are the procedural requirements imposed by the FAA for the issuance of certificates,” said Amie Stepanovich, national security counsel for the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC).

——————————————————————

Steve Watson is the London based writer and editor for Alex Jones’ Infowars.net, and Prisonplanet.com. He has a Masters Degree in International Relations from the School of Politics at The University of Nottingham in England.

By Greg Thrasher                                                                                                VOD Washington Bureau 

May 24, 2012

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Our country spends billions of dollars on the purchase of weapons and hi tech security devices under the premise of national defense and the protection and safety of the home land. Retired generals leave our armed forces to peddle their services to defense contractors in the weapons industry.

America not only arms itself  but our nation is also the number one arms dealer and weapons supplier in the world. We have more weapons of mass destruction than any other nation on the globe. America is indeed a profitable merchant in the market of warfare products.

CREECH AIR FORCE BASE, Nev. -- An MQ-1 Predator takes off.

Last week this escalation in military purchases and devices came to the our homeland, not to protect us from our external foes but to assist and augment the armory of our local police departments.

The Federal Aviation Administration loosened the restrictions on local police departments’ surveillance of us to allow them to use Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, also commonly known as DRONES. Our nation’s high court, the Supreme Court, has even ruled that warrantless surveillance by manned aircraft is not unconstitutional and does not violate the 4th Amendment of our federal constitution.

Linwood Avenue Detroit: Not 1967, but 2010, part of a police army that descended on the home of a lone mother and child, Maryanne and Ariana Godboldo, as she stood her ground to keep courts and police from illegally seizing her child.

In far too many powerful public and private circles  there are advocates focused on  introducing the military into our cities and other  venues. We now face the specter of entire cities being profiled by the usage of military-designed DRONES. Local municipalities, already burdened by fiscal deficits and lousy revenues, are actually spending huge outlays of their budgets in the purchase of these hi tech anti- freedom profile driven devices.

Where is the outrage from our public officials, activist groups and even police unions over these invasive surveillance and anti -privacy domestic military machines in our nation’s urban airspace??

Detroit FBI chief (center) with Police Chief Ralph Godbee at right announce joint federal, state, county and city :"war on crime" in Feb. 2012.;

One of the real dark potentials of these DRONES is not only their ugly invasion and violation of privacy rights, but these DRONES also have the capacity to be lethal and deadly. The applications and operational features of DRONES are truly unimaginable. The growing militarization of our local law enforcement departments is not to be excused by fictional claims of terrorism and excessive urban crimes . We must reject and defeat the myths about crime and anarchy in our cities. We must defuse and deflate the notions that our cities are cesspools of violence and crime.

The proliferation of the myth of crime and the profiling of entire bandwidths of people based upon their hue and types of clothing is dangerous. Such a public policy creates a fertile soil for the introduction of military devices like DRONES into our domestic venues. DRONES are part of the arsenal of gadgets and devices which destroy the freedoms of all Americans. We must reject all kinds of devices and gadgets which at the end of the day are WMD’s on American xoil.

Contact Greg Thrasher at planeidea@msn.com,

The UIN IPTV and streaming movie Network is handling the live worldwide Pay Per View broadcast of the Detroit Harmonie Park electronic music festival. It will be held this Memorial Day weekend, Friday the 25th to Monday the 28th. The free outdoor performances will be held at Harmonie Park. The Carr Center is the location for indoor parties and seminars on electronic music.

The best local and international DJ’s and performers including Claus Bochas of Germany, Uchikawa from Japan, Jeff Woodward of the UK, Twist and more than 100 hundred others. If you cannot be there, go to www.uinmovies.com and click on the DMMF poster to register for the Pay Per View broadcast. Bill Foster runs the Carr Center, and previously  owned and operated the Serengeti Nightclub. Angelo Thompson is the festival organizer and one of the founders of this genre of music. Join us in Detroit , the birthplace of techno music. For information on the live Pay Per View, call Tim at 313 285 9910. Bill Foster can be reached at 313-715-0170 and Angelo Thompson at 313-544-8866.

(VOD note: the Movement Electronic Festival being held at Hart Plaza the same weekend is charging $45.00 a day, or $80.00 for a three-day weekend pass, despite multiple major corporate sponsorships. It was originally known as the Detroit Electronic Musical Festival world-wide,  acknowledging Detroit as the birthplace of techno music, and it was originally free. To honor the original spirit of Detroit techno, patronize the free mini-festival at Harmonie Park or buy a pay-per-view ticket for only $5.00. Proceeds of the pay-per-view will help fund detiptv programming. Look for interviews with the mini-festival’s sponsors upcoming on VOD.)

Deetroit Corporation Counsel Krystal Crittendon (center) advises Council as Council members JoAnn Watson (r) and Kwame Kenyatta (l) listen April 3, 2012

 Corporation Counsel Krystal Crittendon, City Council members in stand-off with State Treasurer Andy Dillon

Protesters pack Cadillac Place May 17, rally in lobby as appeals hearing on PA4 referendum takes place  

By Diane Bukowski 

May 22, 2012 

DETROIT – City of Detroit Corporation Counsel Krystal Crittendon is expected to seek a judge’s decision this week on whether the “Financial Stability Agreement” (FSA)  with the state, approved by City Council April 4,  is “void and unenforceable as a matter of law,” as she told State Treasurer Andy Dillon in a letter May 11.  

State Treasurer Andy Dillon, frantic during Detroit Financial Review Team meeting March 26, 2012, as audience rose up and drowned out proceedings.

Crittendon said state debts to Detroit including a $4.75 million water bill and $224 million in revenue sharing prevent the city from entering into any contract with state government until the debts are paid, under terms of state law and the City Charter. She also said her office is “in the process of gathering information relative to other outstanding debts.” (Click on Crittendon letter 5 11 12  to read entire letter.) 

Officials told the City Council of the likely lawsuit today. As a result, the Council voted to postpone further action under the FSA, including Council’s two appointments to the nine member Financial Advisory Board established by the consent deal, until the matter is resolved. 

Councilwoman JoAnn Watson said Crittendon “has provided an opinion that the consent deal is null and void and it doesn’t exist. There’s nothing to vote on.” Watson, along with Council members Kwame Kenyatta, Brenda Jones, and Andre Spivey, voted against the FSA after dozens of Detroiters vehemently opposed it at Council meetings. 

Gary Brown on WJR with right-wing commentator Frank Beckmann

The Council tabled a motion by Council President Pro-Tem Gary Brown, an adamant supporter of the FSA,  to vote on the 2012-13 city budget under terms of the FSA until Thursday. Earlier, the city and state missed a deadline for appointing a Program Management Director required under the FSA because Bing would not agree to Snyder’s choice. 

Crittendon may be taking swift action because Dillon in his May 16 response to her letter threatened to withhold Detroit’s revenue sharing funds, disapprove credit requests, call in city debts to the state, go to court, and/or appoint an emergency financial manager, if city officials fail to comply with the FSA. Those actions are cited as possible “default cures” in the FSA.

Michigan owes Detroit

“It naturally remains our intent to move forward in resolving the City’s severe financial problems under the terms of the FSA. To be clear, the State is not in default to the City,” Dillon said. (Click on Dillon response to Crittendon letter 5 16 12 to read entire letter.) 

Dillon disputed the water debt, claiming there are ongoing “administrative proceedings on the debt, in  Deborah Gillis v. Detroit Water and Sewerage Department. He also denied the state’s $224 million revenue sharing debt to the city, claims of which arose from an agreement between then Governor John Engler and then Mayor Dennis Archer in 1998.  

Crittendon noted in her letter that Dillon had admitted the revenue-sharing debt on the Mildred Gaddis show on WCHB. 

Dillon said the Mayor of Detroit and the City Council voluntarily agreed to the FSA. But but now that Bing is back to work after several months of illness, he has expressed at least partial agreement with Crittendon’s letter. 

Michael McGee (center) advises Kirk Lewis (r) and Council on consent agreement, although he co-authored Public Act 4

His stance raises questions regarding the authority of “Deputy Mayor” Kirk Lewis and Chief Operating Officer Chris Brown to negotiate the FSA in his stead. Councilwoman JoAnn Watson had asked the Council to wait until the elected Mayor was back to work before voting on the consent agreement. 

Instead of using Crittendon for advice, who represents both the Mayor and Council under provisions of the new City Charter, Lewis brought Attorney Michael McGee, a co-author of Public Act 4, to the Council table to tout the FSA. His actions may constitute at the very least a conflict of interest and ethics violations. (Click on VOD article with quotes from McGee at http://voiceofdetroit.net/2012/04/10/bing-lewis-advisor-mcgee-helped-draft-pa4/.) 

Additionally, Council members Charles Pugh, James Tate and Kenneth Cockrel, Jr. met in Lansing with Dillon and other state officials on the FSA, although they were admittedly not designated by the Council to do so, opening them up to charges of ethics violations as well. 

Crittendon’s letter created a storm of controversy in the daily media, which campaigned relentlessly for the FSA.  The Detroit News’ Nolan Finley wrote that Snyder should go ahead and appoint an EM for Detroit. (Click on http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20120520/OPINION03/205200307#ixzz1vdAqQD2N) 

Nolan Finley addressing his constituency

“Snyder must be thinking that he should have ignored the howling and wailing from City Hall and a few community malcontents and just appointed an emergency manager,” Finley, noted for his thinly-veiled hatred of Black Detroit, said. “Had he done so, the process of saving Detroit would be well under way.”

On another front, Detroiters are awaiting an Appeals Court ruling on whether a referendum repealing Public Act 4, also known as “The Dictator Act,” can appear on Michigan’s November ballot.   

Crittendon warned Council prior to its vote April 4 that most of the Financial Stability [consent] Agreement derives from language in Public Act 4, not other Acts the state cited, including Public Act 7. She said any action under the FSA would be frozen once PA 4 goes on the ballot, and that the Council could be subjecting itself to legal action for violating numerous provisions of the City Charter if PA 4 is overturned. But the “Fatal Five” on Council ignored her advice and listened instead to McGee.

Protesters outside Cadillac Place during Appeals Court hearing May 17, 2012

Crittendon also said there is no statutory authority under PA 4 or any other law to allow for the appointment of a “Financial Advisory Board” with dictatorial controls over city officials. 

Protesters rally inside Cadillac Place during appeals hearing on PA4 referendum

“Malcontent” opponents of Public Act 4 showed up en masse at Cadillac Place Thurs. May 19 for a State Court of Appeals hearing on an emergency request by Stand Up for Democracy to put the referendum to repeal the Act on the November ballot, in the wake of the State Board of Canvassers’ failure to do so. Despite the fact that they validated over 203,000 petition signatures, far more than the 161,000 required, the Republican canvassers said the font size on the petition was too small. 

They refused to let an expert who said the text complied with legal requirements testify, and the Court of Appeals panel refused to allow his testimony in at their hearing since it was not part of the original proceedings. The panel is composed of Judges Kurtis Wilder (an Engler appointee in 1998), Michael J. Riordan (a Snyder appointee in 2012), and Kirsten Frank Kelly, was elected to the bench in 2000.

Protesters inside Cadillac Place May 17, 2012

Protesters  packed the court and overflowed into the street level lobby, where they conducted an angry march for over an hour, chanting loudly. 

“The PA4 Detroit consent agreement isn’t going to fix one streetlight in the city, prevent one crime, get any trash picked up, provide any health or human services, house one family, or provide lower water bills,” said one protester, challenging Finley’s assertion that the FSA will solve the city’s crisis. “The only people who will benefit are the rich criminals at the top.” 

Edith Payne shows PA 4 petition with legal size text

Edith Payne, who marched with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and is a litigant in a statewide lawsuit against Public Act 4, said, “We’re going to have to do the same things we did in the 1960’s. We’ll have to march and engage in civil disobedience. We didn’t have the right to vote then, and now they’re taking it away again, disenfranchising us and robbing us of all our civil rights and human rights. In this lobby, you see people of all races, colors and religions. We are all under the same assault and we are all uniting together. 

Pat Driscoll, a member of United Steelworkers Local 1299, and of Occupy Detroit, said, “I’m here to put the people before the banks. They are denying people in Michigan the right to vote so they can pay the cities’ debt to the banks, while they blame the unions and refuse to provide services.” 

Many autoworkers from Local 600 participated in the protest. 

One, who identified himself as Kirk, said, “Get rid of the Governor and all his cronies. I’m tired of big business trying to rule over us. The middle class built this country, not the politicians. We expect them to act in our best interests, but there is clearly corruption in Lansing.” 

Rev. Edward Pinkney with UAW Local 600 protesters May 17, 2012

Rev. Edward Pinkney, of the Black Autonomy Network of Community Organizations   (BANCO), in Benton Harbor, said, “Victory belongs to the people. I’m looking forward to a positive decision from the Appeals Court. Democracy will come back not only to Benton Harbor but to the City of Detroit. If the people would have stood up everywhere when they attacked Benton Harbor, we would not be here today. But this is an opportunity for us to start over.”

Meanwhile, the State Court of Appeals today overturned lower court rulings that State Financial Review Teams in Detroit and Flint are “public bodies” subject to the Open Meetings Act, in  lawsuits filed by Robert Davis and AFSCME Council  25’s Ed McNeil.

(Click on COA Davis McNeil 5 21 12 to read decision.)

Below is Free Press video of demo inside Cadillac Place May 17, 2012 

Al Phillips, President of AFSCME Local 457, at right, talks to reporter during Health Department locals 457 and 273’s participation in national march against the first war on Iraq in 1991.

BATTLE TO MAINTAIN PUBLIC HEALTH CARE TOOK THE LIVES OF MANY UNION OFFICIALS FROM DETROIT GENERAL HOSPITAL, HEALTH DEPT.

By Diane Bukowski

May 19, 2012

DETROIT  — Detroit Department of Health and Wellness Promotion Director Loretta V. Davis told VOD to email her so she could send documents allegedly proving the state established Detroit’s health department in 1978, as she contended at the City Council hearing May 16.. She said they were part of  the Michigan Public Health Code, but could not cite a section. To date she has not responded to VOD’s email, sent the same day as the hearing.

Detroit Receiving Hospital, later renamed Detroit General Hospital, circa 1933; in 1949 Detroiters voted to put it under the control of the Detroit Health Department.

In fact, Detroit’s Health Department has had a long and prominent history as an independent city-operated entity since 1825. The Common Council, as it was then known, appointed three doctors to look after the health of the city’s poor residents in 1827, according to an article in the July, 1955 issue of the American Journal of Public Health.

The article’s authors, Joseph G. Molner, M.D., MPH, and Vlado A. Getting, M.D., Dr. PH, mention no state government role in their article at all.  According to the 1918 City Charter, Detroit’s Mayor appointed the four member Board of Health, which operated the Health Department. (Click on Detroit Health Department history for full article.)

The authors detail the founding of Detroit Receiving Hospital in 1913, and its subsequent transfer to the Detroit Health Department in 1949.

“In 1913 the city determined it would furnish more hospital space for its sick poor and under the Board of Poor Commissioners constructed the first unit of the Detroit Receiving Hospital. The City Physician’s Office became attached to the Receiving Hospital. In 1948 the Welfare Department, which operated the Receiving Hospital, was severely criticized and as a result of the vote of the citizens the 538-bed Receiving Hospital, its branch, the Redford Receiving Hospital, containing a 48-bed emergency unit, and the City Physician’s Office were transferred to the Health Department. Since 1949, therefore, all city operated medical hospital facilities in Detroit have been administered by the Health Department.”

Entrance to Maybury Sanitorium; many have questioned its role in randomly interning poor Blacks in Detroit as suspected TB carriers.

Redford Receiving Hospital. Photo Sept. 1929

By 1953, the article’s authors say, the  Department operated Receiving Hospital, Herman Keifer Hospital, Maybury Sanitorium (for tuberculosis patients), a Redford Emergency Branch, the City Physician’s Service which provided 36,007 home visits that year, five district health centers which provided well-child care among other services, school dental clinics, and the Central Office X-Ray Clinic. (See photos at left.)

Health and Hospitals were divided into two departments under the City Charter of 1974, the year Detroit’s first Black Mayor, Coleman A. Young, took office. Detroit Receiving Hospital was by then known as Detroit General Hospital. Eventually, many Black doctors, nurses and other workers were employed at DGH, the Health Department, and other city departments.

This reporter began 20 years of work at the Detroit Health  Department in 1974.

She was first at Gratiot Health Center (now demolished), next at Bruce Douglas Health Center, (then at 6500 McGraw, now privatized under the Detroit Community Health Connection) and then at Herman Kiefer Health Complex in the community nursing division (which employed Vernice Davis Anthony and Jean Chabut) and the TB clinic (both divisions now defunct).

She was an elected official of AFSCME Local 457 for most of that time.

This reporter now takes up the history of the Health Department subsequent to 1974 from her own knowledge. At that time, Local 457 represented workers at bot

Detroit’s first Black Mayor, Coleman A. Young after election in 1973.

h the Health Department on Taylor and Detroit General Hospital on St. Antoine in downtown Detroit. The Local had over 1200 members.

In 1976, a drive to turn Detroit General Hospital over to the private, then non-profit Detroit Medical Center began. Detroit was the first major city to be hit with such a proposal. Many other large cities including New York and Chicago still have their public hospitals and health departments, despite cutbacks.

From 1977-1980, Local 457 President Hazel Edwards led a city-wide campaign to “Save Detroit General Hospital,” which included a coalition with UAW Local 3, representing Dodge Main plant workers. The corporate drive to shut Detroit’s auto plants in the wake of militant organizing by their Black workers had also begun.

Hazel Edwards, President AFSCME Local 457

Dodge Main workers joined DGH workers to save their city

Organizers warned that if Detroit General Hospital was privatized, and Dodge Main shut down, a wave of privatization and plant closings would end up destroying Detroit, since jobs for public employees and auto workers were the mainstay of the economy. They also presented the first real opportunity for Black Detroiters to have unionized jobs with decent wages and benefits.

Everything that was then predicted has since come to pass.

As part of the campaign, The Concerned Citizens for Detroit General Hospital, also headed by President Edwards, undertook a massive petition drive to have the people of Detroit vote on whether their only remaining public hospital should be privatized. Tens of thousands of signatures were gathered and turned in to then City Clerk James Bradley, enough to put the question on the ballot.

The late Erma Henderson, Pres. Detroit City Council

However, a court later ruled that “budgetary matters” could not be put on the ballot. A footnote to that effect continues in the current City Charter.

Detroit’s City Council had the final say-so on the privatization of DGH. After a night-long sit-in in City Council chambers, during which DGH workers and others were arrested, the Council voted for the move. Only then Council President Erma Henderson and Council Member Ken Cockrel, SENIOR voted NO.

When the DMC took DGH over, it busted the union. It was four years before AFSCME Council 25 was able to organize workers there again, at lower wages and benefits. President Edwards, a beautiful and brilliant union leader and negotiator, suffered a stroke in 1981 and was severely disabled from then until her death in a nursing home in 1993.

Her successor at Local 457, Dorothy Worthy, died of cancer as she neglected her doctor’s appointments while the Local continued to fight ongoing privatization at the Health Department itself. Private agencies including the Southeast Michigan Health Association (SEMHA), and substance abuse programs set up shop in the city-owned Herman Kiefer Health Complex, city jobs were contracted to private workers with no pensions attached,  and the Department became a shell of its former self.

Worthy was succeeded by Anita Hicks, who led a campaign to organize Community Nutrition Workers, whose privately contracted jobs were previously those of Community Health Assistants. Acting Director George Gaines fired all the CNW’s, but their jobs were later won back after militant protests outside Herman Kiefer.

Local 457 union officials Helen Webb, Alvin Jones, Diane Bukowski and Laurie Walker in 1993; even then the Local was raising the demand to make the banks and corporations pay; Photo by Local 457 President Al Phillips

Local 457 President Al Phillips succeeded Hicks, taking on an uphill battle to stop the erosion of city workers’ jobs and rights. He was a co-founder of the Detroit Coalition to Stop Privatization and Save Our city in 1992, which united all 17 city locals and the community in a battle for Detroit. During its candidate hearings, the Coalition got promises from nearly all the mayoral and council candidates that they would not privatize city services and jobs.

Detroit Mayor Dennis Archer with wife Judge Trudy Duncombe Archer, anticipating a future of privatization.

AFSCME Council 25 endorsed Mayor Dennis Archer based in part on those promises. But after months spent following up on Archer’s promises in the Health Department, meeting with City Council, Labor Relations, the Health Department Director, and others to demand the return of city jobs and services there, President Phillips died of a massive heart attack on April 16, 1994.

It later turned out that Archer, who spoke at Phillips’ funeral, was already in the process of transferring control of the Department’s health clinics to private agencies, among other actions.

As the proposal for the Institute for Population Health shows, the problem with health services in Detroit is not control by the city of Detroit, which now spends little on those services.

Since the privatization of Detroit General Hospital, now called Detroit Receiving under the for-profit DMC owned by Vanguard and a Wall Street hedge fund, the problem has always been the insatiable greed of the private corporations, insurance companies, and banks to maximize their profits on the back of the poor. Public health and hospitals, which are a human right, should be owned and run by the people and their elected representatives, not for profit.

New York City still maintains its public hospitals and centers, even after cutbacks

DHWP Director Loretta Davis (center) speaks at Council May 16, 2012 as Deputy Director Betsy Pash (left) listens; the two have incorporated the “Institute for Population Health”

 Council, unions object to plan engineered by Engler, Snyder appointees

By Diane Bukowski

May 19, 2012

DETROIT – The fall-out from the Detroit consent agreement with the state continued May 17 as Loretta V. Davis, Director of the Department of Health and Wellness Promotion (DHWP), told City Council she wants to strip DHWP of its entire $54.3 million in federal and state grant funding and $10.2 million in fee revenues, lay off 400 workers, and bust the union. 

Herman Kiefer Health Complex on Taylor at Lodge Freeway

Davis’ plan gives all grant funds and revenues to a private “Institute for Population Health” (IPH).  The department only gets $5 million a year from the city’s general fund, which Mayor Dave Bing zeroed out in his budget plan. The plan also says that the current DHWP headquarters at Herman Kiefer Health Complex on Taylor is “no longer sustainable,” although the city recently spent millions to renovate it. 

Such institutes have not developed a way to determine whether they positively influence public health in 50 years of existence, according to an article published by the Michigan Public Health Institute. Davis said the state has already approved the plan, but Council members contended that their approval is necessary for the plan to take effect. 

(Click on DWHP IHP for seven page document Davis presented to Council outlining her plans.)

“NOTHING BUT UNION-BUSTING” 

AFSCME Local 457 President Laurie Walker

“We provide services to 300,000 clients annually,” Laurie Walker, President of AFSCME Health Department Local 457 told the Council. “We enjoy our positions and care about the people. We live in the city, own homes here, and pay taxes. Last year, two city workers on my block were laid off and now their homes are vacant. I will have to consider moving as well even though I love this city. I believe the Institute is nothing but union-busting.” 

The Department currently provides Maternal and Infant Health Programs, in a city where the 2009 infant mortality rate was 14.8 per 1,000, more than double the national average of 6.3 per 1,000. It provides WIC (a federal food program for women, infants and children), immunizations, lead screening, vision and hearing testing, family planning, and substance abuse treatment among other services. Its vital records division and adult and pediatric dental clinics are self-sustaining through fees. 

Herman Kiefer Family Health Center has cut adult medicine services already.

DHWP has already shut down its adult medical services at the Herman Kiefer Health Clinic and Grace Ross Health Center, Walker told VOD earlier. She told the Council that Davis met with DWHP workers May 16 to inform them they would be laid-off, and that they could apply for 250 non-union jobs at the new Institute 

Scicilla Hunt, President of AFSCME Local 273, representing nurses, Greg Murray, President of the Society of Accountants, Analysts and Appraisers (SAAA), and DeAngelo Malcolm, AFSCME Council 25 staff representative, also blasted the plan at the hearing. 

DAVIS PREVIOUSLY WORKED AT WAYNE COUNTY HEALTH DEPT. 

Davis began work as the city’s DHWP director Sept. 2011. She was Health Officer for the Wayne County Department of Health beginning in 2007, a fact that has been kept under wraps in daily media reports. Wayne County government under Robert Ficano has been wracked with scandals and is under investigation by the FBI. 

Child serviced by Detroit Department of Health and Wellness Promotion/Photo from website

Davis  and Deputy Director Betsy Pash, who was previously Administrative Deputy Director for the Michigan Department of Community Health under Governor Rick Snyder, incorporated the “Institute for Population Health” as a non-profit with the state May 2,  according to state records.The IRS has not yet approved it for non-profit status. 

Davis said the IPH already has officers, a board of directors, a budget, and a “draft plan” approved by the state. Despite its new-born status, Davis claimed the Institute would be functioning by Oct. 1 after lay-offs on June 28 and September 28. 

“The Institute for Population Health would contract directly with the state of Michigan,” Davis said. “Protection of the public’s health is the state’s responsibility, which it has decided to delegate to local health departments, in 1978 to the Detroit health department. The Institute will sustain itself through grant funding and collection of revenues and fees. A draft plan has been approved by the State of Michigan, a diverse board has been created, by-laws have been approved, and a budget has been developed. We are working with [attorney] Floyd Allen who is acting pro bono.” 

She added that the Animal Control Center (ACC) currently run by DWHP would be transferred to the Police Department. Fiscal Analysis Director Irving Corley, however, said no funds to run the ACC have been included in that department’s budget. Councilman Brown, a former police officer, said the division was transferred out of the Police Department years ago because many police tend only to shoot dogs. 

COUNCIL MEMBERS SAY THEY WERE NOT CONSULTED, MUST APPROVE PLAN 

Councilwoman JoAnn Watson questions Davis' authority to establish IPH at May 16, 2012 hearing

“The Council has not even acted on the budget yet,” Councilwoman JoAnn Watson objected after Walker spoke, “The Department staff is not in charge. The Council has not voted to contract with this Institute.” 

She noted that the proposal violates the Successor Clause of union contracts, which provide that employees in Departments that are shutting down be transferred to any successor entity. She asked why the IPH incorporators had not approached the Detroit Wayne County Health Authority, already in existence, instead if they wanted an alternate organization. 

“The Mayor proposes, the Council disposes,” commented Councilman Kwame Kenyatta. 

Even Council members Gary Brown, Saunteel Jenkins, and Kenneth Cockrel, Jr. who voted for the consent agreement, challenged Davis’ authority to found the institute and transfer funding and services without Council consent. 

David Whitaker, Director of the Council’s Research and Analysis Division, confirmed that the plan cannot be carried forward without Council approval. The Council eventually voted to move the matter to Executive Session. 

THE PLAYERS 

Along with Davis, originally from the Wayne County Health Department, and Pash, from the Michigan Department of Community Health, players behind the scenes have questionable ties. 

DMC General Counsel Floyd Allen (right) with officials including Vanguard's Trip Pilgrim and DMC CEO Mike Duggan at center, during meeting prior to Vanguard takeover of DMC

Floyd Allen and his law firm acted as the agent for the IPH in its incorporation papers. , Allen is also General Counsel for the Detroit Medical Center, whose services are provided through the for-profit Vanguard Health Systems, based in Tennessee and 70 percent owned by the Blackstone Group, one of the world’s largest private equity (hedge fund) firms. 

Jean Chabut, currently Deputy Director of the Michigan Department of Community Health under Governor Rick Snyder and Director Maura Corrigan, as well as CEO of the Michigan Public Health Institute (MPHI), also supports the plan.  Chabut and Vernice Anthony Davis, quoted in Detroit Free Press articles lauding the plan, both previously worked at the Detroit Health Department in executive positions. 

2011-2012 MPHI Board of Directors (l to r backs row) Jeffrey R. Taylor, Jennifer Jordan, Michael R. Rip, James Giordano, Dean Smith, Melanie Brim; (l to r front row) Dawn Misra, Allen Goodman, Jean Chabut, Dele Davies; not pictured Not Pictured: Daniel Hale, Adnan Hammad, Mary Kushion, Sarah Mayberry, Phyllis Meadows, Bradley Patterson.

Chabut’s participation is noteworthy because of her role with the MPHI. 

According to “Public Health Institutes: The Michigan Experience,” by Kevin Piggot, MD, MPH, there are currently 32 Public Health Institutes in the National Network of Public Health Institutes. He said they function as “intermediaries, honest brokers, and shuttle diplomats,” but does not note that they provide direct service to the public.  They receive funding from private foundations, federal and state grants, and health insurance companies. 

He notes, however, that “Ultimately the success of the PHI’s may be reasonably expected to translate into improved population health. The evidence for such, however is lacking as was pointed out by the MPHI in 1999, ‘there has been no effort to quantify the impact of public health institutes on the public’s health within their states.” 

No such methodology has been developed to date, he says.  (Click on MPHI doc to read entire article.)

MPHI’s 2010 tax filing with the IRS indicates that it raked in $37.5 million from “program service revenue,” with a paltry $46,709 from “contributions and grants.”

However, it states that its reason for non-profit status is that it “normally receives a substantial part of its support from a governmental unit or from the general public.” According to a separate attachment, most of its revenue appears to have come from providing “technical assistance” to various agencies.  (Click on MPHI Form 990 2010 to read entire filing.)

Vernice Davis Anthony ironically stands at Workers' Memorial in Hart Plaza in Free Press photo with puff piece written by Freep reporter Pat Anstett.

IPH consultant Vernice Davis-Anthony was Director of the Michigan Department of Public Health under Governor John Engler. She retired as CEO of the corporate-affiliated Greater Detroit Area Health Council in Dec. 2011 and also serves on the Wayne County Airport Authority. 

 “Initial funding for the MPHI [founded in 1988] was secured by Vernice Anthony Davis, [then] Board President and State Director of MDPH, from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation,”says Piggott.  Detroit Free Press medical writer Pat Anstett extensively quoted Anthony Davis in her first article on the IPH (click on Detroit proposal calls for transforming health department into an institute ). Anstett said she had already obtained the document given to Council May 17, likely from Anthony Davis. Anstett wrote a puff piece on her when she was president of the Greater Detroit Health Action Council (click on Vernice Davis Anthony Eleanor Josaitis Unsung Hero Award Anstett article,  ). 

Anstett made no attempt to contact Health Department union representatives or workers in her initial articles on the IPH for the other side of the story. Although Free Press writers Matt Helms and Suzette Hackney attended the Council session on the Health Department, the Free Press has not yet published any article by them.

See VOD story on true Health Department history below.

People v. Moreno will have widespread effect, likely impact Godboldo case

 By Diane Bukowski 

May 18, 2012 

Attorney Craig Haehnel

DETROIT – In a landmark 5-2 decision April 20, the Michigan Supreme Court upheld the “common-law” right to resist unlawful arrests, warrantless home invasions, and other unlawful conduct by the police. 

“This ruling is extremely precedent-setting,” Craig Haehnel, attorney for Angel Moreno, Jr., said. “I think it puts curbs on the police. The Court of Appeals had ruled that you essentially have no right to self-defense against police officers. You just can’t have a free society where you cannot resist illegal conduct by the police. It takes you to nothing but a police state.” 

Mr. Moreno, Jr. of Holland, Michigan, now 22, was charged in Dec. 2008 with violating a widely used state statute for physically resisting an attempt by two Holland police officers, Troy DeWys and Matthew Hamberg, to shove their way into his home.The officers claimed they wanted to “secure the premises” while they got a warrant. 

Angel Moreno, Jr.

Both the trial and appeals courts held that the officers’ entry was illegal but still upheld the charges against Mr. Moreno, Jr. 

The statute involved, MCL 750.81d, says in part, “. . . .an individual who assaults, batters, wounds, resists, obstructs, opposes or endangers a person who the individual knows or has reason to know is performing his or her duties”  is guilty of a two-year felony. It adds additional prison time if the person in question is injured. 

“While the Legislature has the authority to modify the common law, it must do so by speaking in ‘no uncertain terms,’” Justice Diane Hathaway, writing for the majority, said. “Neither the language of MCL 750.81d nor the legislative history of this statute indicates with certainty that the Legislature intended to abrogate the common-law right to resist unlawful arrests or other invasions of private rights. We cannot presume that the Legislature intended to abrogate this right. 

Michigan Supreme Court Justice Diane Hathaway

“Therefore, we overrule People v Ventura, 262 Mich App 370; 686 NW2d 748 (2004), to the extent that it held that the Legislature affirmatively chose to modify the traditional common-law rule that a person may resist an unlawful arrest. Because the Court of Appeals in this case relied on Ventura and extended its holding to the context of illegal entries of the home, we reverse the judgment of the Court of Appeals and remand this matter to the trial court. On remand, we instruct the trial court to grant defendant’s motion to quash the charges on the basis of its ruling that the officers’ conduct was unlawful.” (Click on People v Moreno MSC opinion to read entire ruling.)

Mr. Haehnel said, “I’ve been outraged ever since the Ventura decision came down. Under its logic, Rodney King and Malice Green could have been charged with resisting and obstructing for defending themselves.” 

Malice Green, beaten to death in 1992 by cops Nevers and Budzyn

In the 1991 King case, Los Angeles police were captured on videotape severely beating Mr. King. An all-white jury’s acquittal of the officers ignited a national storm of protest. Detroit police officers Larry Nevers and Walter Budzyn beat laid-off steelworker Malice Green to death in 1992. An all-Black jury convicted them of second-degree murder, a verdict that was overturned on appeal. Michigan legislators then abolished Detroit’s Recorder’s Court, whose judges and juries were required to be residents of majority-Black Detroit. 

Mr. Haehnel said the People v. Moreno decision, along with the overturn of Ventura, is retroactive and will affect many cases across Michigan. 

“I have two cases pending now that Moreno relates to,” he noted. “In one, the videotape of the whole thing going down shows quite clearly the police didn’t have reason to arrest my client. They told him to get out of his home. He had been the victim of an assault, but they arrested him instead.” 

Attorney Racine Miller

Mr. Haehnel and Attorney Racine Miller, who researched the case for an amicus brief filed by the 2,000 member Michigan Association for Justice, agreed that a key point in oral arguments was a question Justice Michael F. Cavanagh put to Ottawa County Assistant Prosecutor Gregory Babbitt. 

Justice Cavanagh asked whether a woman could be charged under Ventura for resisting a male officer who searched her by putting his hands down her underwear. Mr. Babbitt said technically she could be. 

Justice Marilyn Kelly said that the woman’s only recourse under the Ventura interpretation of the statute would be to sue the officer, and noted that the average citizen cannot always afford to sue.

Cops Michael Parish and Michael Osman

(VOD: In fact, Detroit police officers Michael Parish and Michael Osman   already carried out rapes of Black males on the streets of Detroit in 2006 by pulling their pants down and penetrating them under the guise of drug searches, according to numerous complainants and witnesses. The two are still on the force. Byron Ogletree was acquitted of numerous charges brought after he resisted a similar attack by the pair that year.)

 Justice Robert Young told Mr. Babbitt, “You don’t win unless you can persuade us that the statute he was charged with abrogates the common law rule.” Young nevertheless voted to dissent from the majority decision, along with Justice Robert Markman. 

Justice Stephen Markman

In their dissenting opinion, Justice Markman wrote, “. . . the Legislature clearly excluded consideration of the lawfulness of the police officer’s conduct as a relevant element in forcibly resisting an officer as long as the police officer was ‘performing his or her duties,’ and it did so ‘in no uncertain terms.’” 

They also said the right to resist unlawful conduct by the police is “outmoded in today’s modern society.” 

Neither Attorney Babbitt nor anyone from the Ottawa County Prosecutor’s office was available for comment on Moreno. 

Maryanne Godboldo speaks at church rally after her release

Ms. Miller said she believes the Moreno decision will impact ongoing criminal proceedings in another prominent case, that of Maryanne Godboldo. In March, 20l1, Godboldo stood off an army of police equipped with helicopters, tanks and assault weapons to prevent them from entering her home to take her 13-year-old daughter.. The police said they had a “court order” initiated by the state’s Child Protective Services authorizing them to take the child. 

When Godboldo emerged at the end of the stand-off, they charged her under MCL750.81d as well as other statutes including gun charges, claiming she fired a gun inside the house during the stand-off. 

Both 36^th District Court Judge Ronald Giles and Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Gregory Bill dismissed all charges against Ms. Godboldo after her attorneys demonstrated that the court order was illegal. It had been rubber-stamped with Family Court Chief Judge Leslie Kim Smith’s signature by a probation officer unauthorized to remove children from their home, without any judicial review. 

A major issue in the case was that CPS worker Mia Wenk, not licensed in any medical profession, had decided the child should be put back on a dangerous psychotropic drug, Risperdal. Ms. Godboldo had earlier authorized administration of the drug only with the written provision that she could take her off it at any time. 

Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy

Judges Giles and Bill also concluded that the prosecution did not provide sufficient evidence on the gun charges. 

Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy has sought leave to appeal, over one month late. 

“The Supreme Court ruling in Moreno shot the appeal out of the water,” Attorney Miller said. “Ms. Godboldo had a right to resist the police entry into her home. The only way the prosecutor can continue is to come up with new charges not involving that statute or Ventura.” 

Michigan Supreme Court Chief Justice Robert Young

The daily media in Michigan has given scant coverage to the Moreno decision, choosing instead to focus on Chief Justice Young’s subsequent attack on Justice Hathaway, the author of the decision. He has alleged she entered into improper real estate deals involving short sales. 

Attorney Miller said she believes Young’s attack on Hathaway is nothing but retaliation for the Moreno decision.