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

Russ Bellant speaking to City Council April 3, 2012

TESTIMONY BY RUSS BELLANT AT CITY COUNCIL APRIL 3, 2012

Russ Bellant is a long-time Detroit union and community activist.  He worked for the City of Detroit establishing skilled trades apprenticeship programs for city youth, and with the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 547, among other activities, He is the author of books including “Old Nazis, the New Right, and the Republican Party: Domestic fascist networks and their effect on U.S. cold war politics,”  “The Coors Connection: How Coors Family Philanthropy Undermines Democratic Pluralism,” and “The Religious Right in Michigan Politics” among many others.

Read four=part series by Russ Bellant on Detroit Public Schools takeover under Gov. Jennifer Granholm and Robert Bobb, presented to state legislature as they took testimony on proposed Public Act 4, at  http://voiceofdetroit.net/2011/03/10/robert-bobb-and-the-failure-of-p-a-72-2/ ; http://voiceofdetroit.net/2011/03/10/bobb-and-pa-72-failure/ ; http://voiceofdetroit.net/2011/03/10/bobb-part-three/; and http://voiceofdetroit.net/2011/03/10/bobb-part-four/ .

AFSCME Council 25 President Al Garrett threatens to shut the city down as union did for 20 days in 1986

By Diane Bukowski

April 4, 2012

DETROIT—Despite thundering threats by union officials and community members to “shut the city down,” and a scathing analysis by Detroit City Council’s Research and Analysis Division, the majority of council members today appeared hell-bent on voting for a Public Act 4 consent agreement, likely during a hearing scheduled for 10 a.m. April 3. 

Chief of Staff Kirk Lewis with attorney Michael McGee April 3, 2012

During the Council’s morning session, Mayor Dave Bing’s Chief of Staff Kirk Lewis and his attorney Michael McGee refused to present labor concession agreements signed by the administration and the city’s unions for council certification. The agreements were estimated to save the city up to $130 million. Lewis  said they preferred to wait until the passage of a Public Act 4 consent agreement, when the city could impose more cutbacks.

He appeared with attorney Michael McGee, of the law firm of Miller, Canfield, Paddock and Stone. According to their website, “Over the past 25 years, Michael P. McGee has had primary responsibility for general obligation and revenue bond issues amounting to more than $3.5 billion , , , Michael has served as bond counsel and underwriters’ counsel for hundreds of transactions in various areas including economic development, transit and transportation.”

Krystal Crittendon, head of Detroit Law Department

VOD has sent a Freedom of Information Act request to the City’s Law Department asking if McGee is being paid by the city, and in what amounts. Krystal Crittendon, head of the Law Department, expressed concerns about provisions in the consent agreement which were to be reviewed by Council later in the afternoon.

Council members JoAnn Watson, Kwame Kenyatta, Brenda Jones and Andre Spivey objected.

“This is an assault on the good faith collective bargaining process,” said Watson, who had planned to move for certification of the agreements. “There was a historical coming together of the unions and the city to save Detroit, and now because somebody from Lansing doesn’t like it, they are refusing to bring it to us.”

Councilwoman JoAnn Watson at meeting April 3, 2012

Michigan Governor Rick Snyder earlier threatened to appoint an emergency manager immediately if the union agreements were approved.

Watson initiated and has been a primary leader in the campaign to overturn Public Act 4, which the Democratic Caucus of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee has declared blatantly unconstitutional.

It usurps the powers of elected officials at virtually the whim of the governor and treasurer. Its primary goal is to ensure the payment of the city’s debt to Wall Street banks, according to noted labor historian Dr. Steve Babson, who spoke at the Council’s afternoon session, terming the agreement not only a takeover by the state, but by Wall Street.

Ernst & Young is a global firm; its Detroit headquarters rise imperiously over the city's Campus Martius Park.

Council member Spivey asked for Ernst & Young’s updated version of the city’s cash flow analysis, which Council requested Feb. 2, and also raised reports that the city has not yet deposited millions of dollars in receivables. He said Ernst & Young, which first claimed the city would run out of cash by April 1, was brought in by the state.  He also mentioned a March 8 memo from State Treasurer Andy Dillon commenting on the proposed union contracts.

“We won’t spend another dime negotiating more concessions at the table; we will let our contracts run until their expiration dates.” Al Garrett, President of Michigan Council 25 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees,” told Mayor Dave Bing’s chief of staff Kirk Lewis and the council. Bing has been hospitalized for surgery and expected to be out of commission for several weeks.

AFSCME worker on strike 1986; 7,000 members shut the city down for 20 days, defying a court order.

“The man is saying that Black folks who work for the City of Detroit will not have rights,” stormed Al Garrett, president of Michigan AFSCME Council 25. “Well, I’m saying that our 3,000 city workers who are left do have rights, and we will take this to the streets. You think we can’t, but I was President when we went out for 20 days in 1986. There is no coming back for more money.  Snyder is nothing but a bully who hasn’t brought anything to the table. The state is not offering you a dime. He is insulting you, saying you don’t have the mentality to run the city but they do.”

(Click on CITY SERVICES IN DETROIT SNARLED BY STRIKE NYT to read New York Times article on 1986 Detroit strike.)

The Coalition of City Unions told U.S. District Court Judge Arthur Tarnow that afternoon that the state had “tortiously” interfered in the bargaining process, but Tarnow denied their motion for a restraining order the following day.

Ingham County Circuit Court injunctions by two judges barring the Council from approving the consent agreement until a hearing, and barring the Financial Review Team from meeting to sign off on the pact, were overturned by the state Court of Appeals, which is still set to hear arguments on the matters. 

Financial Review Team meeting March 21 2012 Highland Park school board member Robert Davis, who has sued to charge violations of the Open Meetings Act

Lawsuits brought by Robert Davis and AFSCME represenatives said the state review team violated the Open Meetings Act..  A March 26 report issued by the team lists numerous private meetings. (Click on Detroit Review Team Report 3-26-12 (3) to read full report. A story on the team’s contentious March 26 meeting is upcoming.) 

  “In 1986, when I was President, we shut this city down for 20 days,” Garrett said. “Governor Rick Snyder is a bully who hasn’t brought any money to the table, and insults you by saying you don’t have the mentality to run the city but says they do.” 

AFSCME Council 25 is the largest union which is part of the Coalition of City Unions, representing over 5,000 non-uniformed city workers. 

Audience demands NO vote on PA 4 consent agreement

“Clearly the New York bankers are expecting their money,” Dan McNamara, president of the Detroit Firefighters Association, said. “For the first time, our members voted overwhelmingly for concessions, but the Treasurer has not approved them. Lansing has whittled down PERA (the Public Employee Relations Act). When we’re done, no one will have any rights. Our new leaders in the fire department have downgraded fire protection levels. We cannot stand for any more of this.” 

Detroit police, firefighters and other city workers demonstrated May 6, 2010 against $6B pension fund takeover

The proposed consent agreement brought to the council by Lewis that afternoon still maintains a provision that completely overrides PERA, clearing the way for a public workers’ strike, which PERA forbids. McNamara’s reference to the banks related to provisions in the consent agreement which make payment of the city’s debt its primary goal. 

Toni Adams, a senior community advocate, said an elderly woman died the morning of March 22 during a fire at a senior building. 

“If you take any more, more of our elderly will be dying,” she said. 

Valerie Burris

Long-time community activist Valerie Burris said, “The community will be behind the unions every step of the way. We will organize car pools to get people to work and have them pay the drivers the amount of bus fare. We will stop paying our property taxes and our water bills. If we have to, we will dig wells in our backyards.” 

Herman Dooha, the 89-year-old widower of Maryann Mahaffey, who presided over the City Council for several decades, said he was appalled and that his wife would have never agreed to the state’s proposal.

Council President Maryann Mahaffey

“This has never been a city where the council gave up our rights,” Dooha said. “The council is the voice of the people. The governor wants to put in power unelected officials to run our city.” 

Many Detroiters at the table criticized Councilwoman Saunteel Jenkins, who prominently displayed her time on Mahaffey’s staff in her election campaign literature. Jenkins has failed, however, to carry on Mahaffey’s legacy.

Among others speaking against the agreement at Council’s April 3 session was Edith Lee Payne, who told the Council they have an obligation under their oath of office to represent the interests of the people of Detroit. Payne, who marched with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. during the 1960’s, is one of the litigants in a state-wide lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Public Act 4.

Edith Lee Payne holds up City Council's oath of office

That lawsuit has been held up by the State Supreme Court, which refused to allow an Ingham County Circuit Court judge to hold an initial hearing on it. The state’s top court has since delayed its own consideration of the lawsuit indefinitely.

David Whitaker, director of the Council’s Research and Analysis Division (RAD), issued a report on the consent agreement dated April 2, which said, “The document under consideration is one of the most important government documents—perhaps the most important in the city’s history. The inadequate time to discuss, analyze and understand its full, detailed consequences looms over this entire discussion and its ultimate resolution.” 

The report says it would likely take two or more weeks to do so. Meanwhile, the State Board of Canvassers is examining a sample of 35,000 signatures from nearly 240,000 submitted by voters to conduct a referendum to repeal Public Act 4. Councilwoman Watson said they are expected to complete certification within the next two weeks. 

(Click on ConsentAgreement-RADreview4-2-12 to read full report from Council’s Research and Analysis Division.). 

In brief, the report says the proposed Consent Agreement, disingenuously called a “Financial Stability Agreement,” greatly compromises the powers of the city’s elected officials. 

“In the event disputes arise over execution of the FSA reform initiatives, City government officials’ ability to self-govern is by the terms of this agreement ceded to the Financial Advisory Board. Potential choices in opposition to those of the Program Management Director [PMD] would likely be defined as ‘Reform Default Condition.’” 

The report says the PMD “would have the ability, with Board approval, to design, develop, implement and execute the new reform operational structure of city government .  .  .  S/he could take control of disputed areas of policy and spending from the City, without the ability of the City to effectively oppose it.  .  . The terms of the document itself do not premise such a conditional right to control on any corresponding cash contribution to the City’s budget for services to Detroit residents.” 

McGee made clear to the Council that the governor wants the FSA to be considered a consent agreement under Public Act 4. He said the agreement still provides for an over-arching Financial Advisory Board and “a degree of state compulsion to achieve the Reform Program of restructuring City government,” as well as exempting the city from the provisions of PERA. 

He said the provision taking away Council control of contracts over $250,000 has been eliminated, and that the state and city will split the costs of salaries and expense for the FAB. 

The revised agreement takes out any reference to Public Act 7, the Urban/State Cooperation Act. That agreement requires a public hearing before any action is taken under it.

Whitaker said there is no state statutory authority for the establishment of the Financial Advisory Board, with its sweeping powers.

LIAR, LIAR PANTS ON FIRE! GOV. RICK SNYDER, TREAS. ANDY DILLON, DETROIT COO CHRIS BROWN

“Can SOME Black people have SOME courage to face the white man off?”

Councilwoman Watson calls new FSA “a takeover, a power grab”

Unions file suit to stop FSA; court hearing Mon. April 9, Judge Collette

 By Diane Bukowski
April 1, 2012 

BREAKING NEWS: COUNCIL MEMBERS PUGH, BROWN, JENKINS, TATE CALL SPECIAL SESSION MONDAY, APRIL 2 AT 1 P.M. TO CONSIDER APPROVAL OF FINANCIAL STABILITY AGREEMENT (click on CC special session 4 2 12 1 pm approving FSA) to view signed call.

Council to discuss union contract tentative agreements at 9 a.m. April 2.

Detroit COO Chris Brown, Deputy Mayor Kirk Lewis at Council table March 29, 2012

DETROIT – Michigan Governor Rick Snyder appears to have played a colossal April Fool’s Day joke on Detroit by having Deputy Mayor Kirk Lewis and Chief Operating Officer Chris Brown present to City Council a proposed “Fiscal Stability Agreement” (FSA) March 29. Many council members and citizens called it a dictatorship under another name. 

“They are just making Black people look stupid over and over again,” community activist Sandra Hines told the Council. “They have you looking stupid, begging for a little piece of meat. This needs to stop. It’s not about you. It’s about US and what will happen to us if you sign this agreement. Can SOME Black people have SOME courage to face the white man off?” 

Ironically, the chief presenter at the March 29 meeting was Chris Brown, a white former DTE and Singapore utilities executive. He is not Deputy Mayor and has no power to sign off any agreement for Mayor Dave Bing, who remained hospitalized.  Lewis, appearing disgusted, left halfway through the meeting. 

Morris Mays (center) protests PA 4 in Lansing April 13, 2011

“Ever since the privatization and regionalization stepped up by [former Gov.] Engler and [former Mayor] Archer, and the same thing with [former Mayor] Kilpatrick, this city’s been gong downhill,” said Morris Mays. “Because of you I can’t even go to Belle Isle without some ugly police car on the bridge. I’m from Montgomery, Alabama, the birthplace of the civil rights movement, and I know Black lapdogs when I see them.” 

The state is currently moving to take control of Belle Isle, ostensibly leaving it under City ownership, similar to takeovers of  Cobo Hall, the Detroit Zoo, the Detroit Institute of Arts, the city’s historical museum, Eastern Market and many other services.  It has illegally withheld funds from the city’s Department of Human Services since last October and wants to shut it down.

The FSA removes numerous powers of the Mayor and the City Council and transfers them to a nine-member appointed Financial Advisory Board which reports to the state treasurer and governor. It is to include plans not yet specified to drastically downsize and regionalize city assets and services. It expects the Council to approve those future as yet unknown actions by signing the FSA. 

It gives the FAB the power to abrogate union contracts and to violate state law, the Public Employee Relations Act, by refusing to bargain in good faith after June 30. (Click on CCFSA 3 29 12 to read entire agreement and print it out in PDF.)

Ed McNeil (r) with union leaders protest at Detroit News demanding pro-worker coverage

Ed McNeil, chief negotiator for the Coalition of City of Detroit Unions (CCDU) told VOD that the CCDU has filed a motion for an restraining order to prevent passage of the FSA, citing its unconstitutionality. A hearing is to be held Monday, April 9 at 9 a.m. before Ingham County Circuit Court Judge William Collette in Mason, Michigan.  Collette earlier held that state-appointed financial review teams must not meet secretly, but obey the Open Meetings Act. 

“This is nothing more than a Consent Agreement under Public Act 4, through the back door,” stormed Councilwoman JoAnn Watson. “Over 200,000 Michigan citizens waged a hard-fought campaign for their right to protection under our state and federal constitutions. The State Canvassers are currently reviewing a sample of 35,000 signatures and expect to report out in two weeks. The governor’s timetable is based on a fear of the referendum repeal of PA 4.” 

She noted that the FSA language allows it to outlive PA 4 if it is overturned. It says it can be terminated only when the city reports three years of no deficits, or Wall Street upgrades the city’s bond ratings to its highest levels, or State Treasurer Andy Dillon says so.  

Councilwoman JoAnn Watson at meeting March 29, 2012

On March 27, she said, “Where is the money that the state owes us–$220 million in revenue sharing funds, and another $400 million we lost from the Archer-Engler agreement preventing us from taxing non-residents who work here? Other financial review boards like that in New York City in the 1970’s have included billions of dollars in cash infusions from both the state and federal governments. The state has brought nothing to the table.”

She noted that Detroit Mayor Frank Murphy during the 1930’s Great Depression, when he was President of the National Conference of Mayors, called for cities to be allowed to declare moratoriums on their debt to the banks. She proposed that Council pass a resolution to that effect (which the conservative majority of the Council was clearly not going to do).  

On March 29, Attorney Jerome Goldberg of the Moratorium NOW! on Foreclosures, Evictions and Shut-offs Coalition pulled out the Financial Review Team’s March 26 report.  (Click on Detroit Review Team Report 3-26-12 (3) to read entire report.)

Atty. Jerome Goldberg at council table March 29, 2012

“This agreement is mandated by the same banks that essentially destroyed the tax base of our city through fraudulent, racist predatory lending and foreclosures,” Goldberg said. “They are now committing the same predatory lending practices on Detroit itself, and cities all over the country. They lure the city into swap agreements that they know will fail, amounting to $16.9 billion in debt and $4.9 billion in interest. PA 4 and this agreement are geared towards ensuring that the debt service to the banks is paid before all else.” 

He pointed to Harrisburg, capitol of Pennsylvania, which has just agreed to default on some of its bond payments to the banks so it can keep the city running. (See VOD story at http://voiceofdetroit.net/2012/03/28/harrisburg-pa-plans-default-on-bond-payments-municipal-defaults-on-rise/.)  

Bankole Thompson and Mildred Gaddis give Gov. Snyder a forum at WCCC March 27, 2012

During the week of March 25, Snyder appeared at a town hall meeting at Wayne County Community College sponsored by The Michigan Chronicle’s Bankole Thompson and Mildred Gaddis, and on a radio show with Frankie Darcell. In his bland, kindly-sounding voice, he claimed to be doing nothing more than “assisting” the city with its resource problems. 

He did use incendiary language, however, when he declared that Detroit, Flint, Saginaw, and Pontiac, the last three of which have been under EM control, have the highest crime rates in the state. He failed to note anything about the cause of crime.  

At the city council meeting Mar. 29, Council President Pro-Tem Gary Brown declared, “The city’s number one problem in crime,” while members of the audience called out instead for “Jobs, jobs.” 

Financial Review Team members Conrad Mallet, Jr. and Andy DIllon as they are chewed out by audience March 23

Snyder’s audience at WCCC was clearly hand-picked to prevent another virtual uprising like that at the March 26 meeting of the Financial Review Team. (See VOD story below.) The city’s daily media jumped on his proclamations to push the FSA. 

Prior to that, on March 27, State Treasurer Andy Dillon got the Council to vote for a $137 million state-backed loan, ostensibly with provisions that it would not be tied to any Fiscal Stability Agreement. HE LIED. 

“That tiebar is still in this document,” objected City Councilwoman Brenda Jones, who along with members JoAnn Watson and Gary Brown voted against the loan.   

Councilwoman Brenda Jones at table March 2, 2012

The document says in Sec. 2.5 (a), “The anticipated aggregate size of the refinancing(s) 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 [proposed in the FSA] and for City operating expense.” 

Both City Councilmen Kwame Kenyatta and Andre Spivey said Dillon told them March 23 that the money was NOT a loan, but a gift.   

Councilman Kwame Kenyata speaks at council meeting in 2010; both he and Councilwoman JoAnn Watson (at his right) denounced back-room meetings on PA4 deal in the past several weeks.

“One of problems is when we govern and conduct people’s business in back rooms,: Kenyatta said.  “When Mr. Dillon came to my office, he didn’t say it was a bond. The proposed agreement a fiscal stability agreement, not  a consent agreement. This is a debtor nation. The national debt is in the trillions, Michigan had a $17 billion debt. America and the western world are  just kicking the can down the road.” 

Council members Charles Pugh, Gary Brown, Kenneth Cockrel, Jr,  Saunteel Jenkins, James Tate and Andre Spivey appeared to be entertaining the notion of “tweaking” the proposed FSA with relation to specific language in it, instead of rejecting it outright as a power grab and a takeover.

Jenkins asked for the Law Department and the Council’s Research and Analysis Division to give the Council their written analyses of the FSA by Monday, April 2. Some claim that Snyder will appoint an Emergency Manager for Detroit under terms of PA4 by April 5. 

CALL COUNCIL: TELL THEM TO VOTE NO! SAVE OUR CITY! 

CHARLES PUGH 224.4510

GARY BROWN 224-2450

S. JENKINS 224-4248                     

ANDRE SPIVEY  224-4841

JAMES TATE       224-1027

 KEN COCKREL, JR  224-4505     KWAME KENYATTA 224-1198

 JOANN WATSON     224-4535     BRENDA JONES           224-1245

(To read chart below more easily, hit “View” on browser and use zoom to increase size.)

Stockton, CA group Brand New Legacy's 1999 album is apropos of the situation for the city's Black population

Posted: 02/29/12 02:37 AM ET | Updated: 02/29/12 08:42 AM ET

By Jim Christie

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb 28 (Reuters) – Stockton, California’s city council approved a plan late on Tuesday night for the city to skip some bond payments in an effort to restructure its precarious finances and avoid becoming the biggest U.S. city to file for bankruptcy.

Along with defaulting on about $2 million of debt payments through the end of its current fiscal year, the city located about 85 miles east of San Francisco will seek mediation with its major bond holders to try to get a break on its debt to help tackle a budget gap projected to range from $20 million to $38 million.

A state law approved after Vallejo, California’s 2008 bankruptcy requires negotiations in front of a mediator that could last up to 90 days with creditors, bond insurers, public employee unions and retired government employees before a local government can file for bankruptcy.

While Stockton officials say they hope to avert bankruptcy, the city of 292,000 people in California’s Central Valley has hired an attorney who represented much smaller Vallejo, which drew national attention to financial problems of local governments in the most populous U.S. state.

Foreclosed home in Stockton, CA

Stockton’s attorney, Marc Levinson, said mediation could keep the city from following in Vallejo’s footsteps and suffering the stigma of bankruptcy.

“This is really the city’s last and best chance to avoid a bankruptcy case,” Levinson said.

But Stockton residents who have seen hard times grip their city in recent years are bracing for the possibility it will land in bankruptcy court despite its financial restructuring plan.

“That’s the end of the plank – and we’re on that plank,” 68-year Stockton resident Rosalio Estrada told Reuters.

Stockton has long been a commercial hub for California’s rich agricultural industry and during the state’s recent housing boom the city became an affordable bedroom community for the San Francisco Bay area.

But the housing downturn devastated Stockton’s economy, sending local unemployment and foreclosure rates soaring and the city’s revenue tumbling, forcing local officials to slash spending and city payrolls. Continue reading →

Harrisburg, PA State Capitol building

 Bloomberg News 

By Romy Varghese –Mar 9, 2012 3:49 PM ETFri Mar 09 20:49:49 GMT 2012 

Harrisburg (9661MF), Pennsylvania’s insolvent capital, says it will miss general-obligation bond payments for the first time next week as its receiver seeks approval for a plan to sell assets.

The city, carrying a debt load of more than five times its general-fund budget, will miss $5.27 million in bond payments due March 15 on $51.5 million of bonds issued in 1997, according to a notice its receiver posted on the Electronic Municipal Market Access system, a database for filings by debt issuers.

Stockton, CA is south of Sacramento

The default is the latest for the $3.7 trillion municipal market, which has seen the number grow while remaining rare. The rate of U.S. municipal-bond defaults doubled to 5.5 a year in 2010 and 2011, from 2.7 in the previous 39 years, Moody’s Investors Service said this week in a report. Stockton,California, last month voted to default on some of its bonds.

“It’s a worrisome trend if it becomes more commonplace”for communities to expect bond insurers to pick up debt payments, said Alan Schankel, director of fixed-income research at Janney Montgomery Scott LLC in Philadelphia. Municipal issuers may become increasingly willing to default even if there is no insurance for bondholders, he said.

“If it’s OK to hurt the bond insurer, is it OK to hurt bond holders?” Schankel said.

Objections to Plan

Harrisburg Controller Dan Miller

The default decision was made as some city officials objected to a plan to sell assets and avoid a trip to bankruptcy court. State law bars the city from seeking Chapter 9 protection from creditors until July. A majority of the City Council sought unsuccessfully to make that move last year.

“It’s just an indication of how severe the problem is,” Dan Miller, the city controller and a supporter of seeking court protection, said by telephone. “Without a bankruptcy judge, we can’t get a solution.”

Ambac itself has declared bankruptcy

Ambac Assurance, a unit of New York-based Ambac Financial Group Inc. (ABKFQ), insures the city’s general-obligation debt.

“We are honoring and paying” valid claims, Michael Fitzgerald, an Ambac spokesman, said by e-mail. He said the company doesn’t comment on specific cases. (VOD: go to http://www.ambac.com/press/070611.html and http://www.businessinsider.com/end-game-ambac-5-year-cds-jumps-up-to-7458-basis-points-as-isda-rules-its-in-default-2010-3 to read about Ambac’s own problems.)

While Harrisburg in 2009 started skipping payments on debt related to an incinerator overhaul and expansion, it hasn’t defaulted on general-obligation bonds. The city’s fiscal crisis is driven by more than $300 million in debt from the project at the waste-to-energy plant, which doesn’t generate enough revenue to cover its costs.

Receiver Appointed

PA governor Tom Corbett

In December, David Unkovic was appointed as the city’s receiver, a first for the state. Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett, a Republican, had declared a fiscal emergency to ensure vital services, including making payroll and paying debt obligations, were continued.

“My first priority as receiver is to ensure that vital and necessary services such as police and fire are maintained,”Unkovic said today in a statement. “The city will not be making these payments to ensure sufficient cash flow so the citizens of Harrisburg continue to receive essential services.”

By defaulting, Harrisburg will be able to keep paying municipal workers about $1 million every two weeks, through the third quarter at least, Unkovic said by telephone. He declined to say if other bond obligations may be missed. The city’s debt service, including the March payments, totals almost $12 million this year, not including incinerator-related securities. Continue reading →

Free Davontae Rally set for Monday, April 23 at 8 a.m. Frank Murphy Hall

By Diane Bukowski

March 25, 2012

PLEASE sign the petition ……

http://www.change.org/petitions/new-trial-for-davontae-sanford?utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=share_petition

DETROIT – Supporters of Davontae Sanford, who was 14 when he was sentenced to 35 to 90 years in prison for the 2007 murders of four people, are coming from across the world to protest what they call an astounding miscarriage of justice. They will rally Monday, April 23, at 8 a.m. outside the Frank Murphy Hall of Justice at Gratiot and St. Antoine in downtown Detroit.

Davontae’s mother Taminko Sanford, with family and friends, rally outside Frank Murphy Hall June 29, 2010

The action is being called by the Coalition to Free the Wrongfully Convicted, Roberto Guzman told VOD.

“People are flying in from the United Kingdom and from down South, they are so upset,” he said. Davontae’s case is known world-wide particularly due to the efforts of Elish Delaproser of the United Kingdom, who has published numerous posts on his case on various websites.

“He’s not guilty, he didn’t do it,” self-admitted hit man Vincent Smothers told AP reporter Ed White in January. White’s story should have been considered a potential Pulitzer Prize-winning scoop by Detroit’s daily media, which never publlished it. Smothers confessed to police in 2008 that he and an accomplice committed the Runyon Street killings Davontae is serving time for.

Vincent Smothers

“There is no link between me and him,” Smothers told White during a visit at the Michigan Reformatory in Ionia.  “I never knew him. I’ll testify if possible and answer all questions truthfully. Anything I will say will be the truth, I don’t lie.”

Smothers himself is serving 50 to 100  years in prison for eight other murders, to which he confessed when he told police he killed the four people on Runyon Street.

He added, “I understand what prison life is like; it’s miserable. To be here and be innocent – I don’t know what it’s like. He’s a kid, and I hate for him to do the kind of time they’re giving him.”

Ironically, Smothers, 28, is being held in Level 4 at the Michigan Reformatory at Ionia, while Davontae, now 19, is being held in Level 5, the highest maximum security level, at the Ionia Maximum Correctional Facility.

To read the AP story, go to  http://voiceofdetroit.net/2012/02/07/ap-newsbreak-detroit-hit-man-says-davontae-sanford-is-innocent-will-testify/  or http://www.mlive.com/news/detroit/index.ssf/2012/01/hit_man_says_convicted_teen_da.html.

 Davontae’s mother Taminko Sanford confirmed just how miserable life in prison has been for her son, who the family calls “Man.”

“Davontae wrote me,” Ms. Sanford told VOD tearfully. “I called and talked to the counselor who just kept saying he broke the water sprinkler in his cell. I told her, what’s that got to do with taking his food, and his clothes and his money?”

Ms. Sanford said the letter from her son is dated January 13, but she just received it.

“Mama, I am writing to let you know that the only reason why I haven’t been calling you or nobody else is because I’ve been going through a whole lot with these officers,” Davontae wrote. “They’ve been messing over me, taking my food, my showers, and I was hogtied for days at a time. They’ve been harassing me every chance they get.”

Kevin DeMott is a mentally ill inmate with bipolar and personality disorders. Corrections officers at the Ionia Maximum Correctional Facility chained DeMott to his bed and secured a padded helmet to his head after he refused to stop banging his head against the wall, which is stained with blood. / Michigan Department of Corrections

He identified his torturers as Officers Tefft, Rutgers and Botta.

“They’ve been playing in my mail, throwing some of my letters away, and my clothes and my shoes and the money order that you sent me they threw away. Mama, I can’t take it no more. I have to get out of this unit because I can’t keep being around these officers. I need for you and everybody else to call up here every two days to check on me . . . . I can’t believe the judge denied my case. Stay in touch with my lawyer.”

Ms. Sanford said another prisoner locked up with Davontae called earlier to tell her that Davontae had been put in the worst “pod,” where guards regularly handcuff and beat prisoners. (Pods are usually four-prisoner units.) She said Davontae and other prisoners have told her that the guards have been racist and abusive for a long time.

Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Brian Sullivan and Tracy Sullivan

Davontae has been incarcerated now for five years, because Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Brian Sullivan and Prosecutor Kym Worthy have refused to acknowledge Smothers’ definitive confession as proof of Davontae’s innocence.

“ .  .  . the state can have no interest in the punishment of a person who is innocent in fact, even if the conviction is based on defendant’s plea.” Sullivan ironically said in a 29-page opinion on Feb. 28.

“Moreover, no consideration of any procedural burden should outweigh the purpose of the criminal law, that justice be done and truth ascertained. This proposition is so fundamental a principle to this . . . legal system that no society willing to call itself civilized should bar redress where a miscarriage of justice can be satisfactorily demonstrated through competent evidence.” Click on Davontae Sanford judge order to read entire ruling.

Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy

Sullivan then refused to let Davontae withdraw his guilty plea, which was based on a confession police obtained after interrogating him without the presence of his mother or an attorney, and despite Smothers’ confession.

Sullivan contended that when a defendant seeks to withdraw a guilty plea after sentencing, “Defendant bears the burden by clear and convincing evidence t0 demonstrate actual innocence.”

Sullivan said he based that statement on Michigan Court Rule 6.310 (C).

There is nothing in that rule that says a defendant must prove his innocence, a notion contrary to the whole of American jurisprudence.

It says, “Motion to Withdraw Plea After Sentence. The defendant may file a motion to withdraw the plea within 6 months after sentence. . . . If the trial court determines that there was an error in the plea proceeding that would entitle the defendant to have the plea set aside, the court must give the advice or make the inquiries necessary to rectify the error and then give the defendant the opportunity to elect to allow the plea and sentence to stand or to withdraw the plea. If the defendant elects to allow the plea and sentence to stand, the additional advice given and inquiries made become part of the plea proceeding for the purposes of further proceedings, including appeals.”

Davontae’s supporters pray for his freedom in June, 2010

Sullivan cited case law to support his stand that Davontae must prove his innocence. However, during two years of an evidentiary hearing which ended with Sullivan’s February opinion, he has refused to allow Smothers’ previous attorney to testify that he told her he committed the killings, and the prosecution has refused to grant Smothers’ immunity if he testified.

Sullivan issued a separate order barring Smothers from testifying, saying he’d been called twice before, but asserted his Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate himself.

Smothers’ statement to AP reporter White, however, was clear. He wants to testify without conditions, even if it means adding to his current sentence. He wants Davontae freed.

Former Detroit police homicide chief William Rice

Coverage of Sullivan’s Feb. 28 order in Detroit’s daily media again omitted any reference to that interview.

Sullivan also says in his opinion that testimony from an “alibi” witness for Davontae was “patently false.” That testimony came from former Detroit police homicide chief William Rice, who said Davontae was present with him and his mother’s aunt Cheryl Sanford during the time of the killings.

A police technician with sketchy credentials in cell tower location evidence said that Davontae could not have been with Rice at the time he said, because Rice was making cell phone calls showing he was elsewhere.

In February, Worthy charged Rice and Sanford with mortgage fraud connected to a property that was allegedly connected to drug trafficking, and with lying under oath during a federal bankruptcy proceeding.

“It’s clear retaliation,” Guzman said. “Those types of charges are usually brought in federal court.”

Sullivan made no reference to testimony from Detroit Police Department investigators Gerald Williams and Ira Todd, who helped take Smothers’ confession. They said that Smothers admitted to the Runyon Street killings and told them that Davontae was not involved. Even Smothers’ trial judge challenged the prosecution, asking why he had not been charged with those killings.

Ms. Sanford said she heard about Sullivan’s ruling through the media, and that it left her in shock. She said Davontae’s attorney Kim McGinnis, who has moved to New Mexico, had not contacted her. McGinnis told the Free Press that she plans to have Smothers testify at an appeals court hearing still to come for Davontae.

Maria Miller, spokesman for Worthy, told the Free Press that they were “very satisfied” with Sullivan’s ruling refusing to allow Davontae to withdraw his guilty plea.

Write to Davontae Sanford, #684070, at Ionia Maximum Correctional Facility, 1576 W. Bluewater Highway, Ionia, MI 48846.

CALL WARDEN JOHN PRELESNIK AT (616) 527-6331 TO EXPRESS CONCERN ABOUT DAVONTAE’S TREATMENT AND ASK FOR HIM TO BE TRANSFERRED OUT OF THE UNIT HE IS IN. 

To contact the Coalition to Free the Wrongfully Convicted, call 313-272-1406, or email Roberto Guzman at legal_begal01@sbcglobal.net . 

http://www.facebook.com/#!/free.davontae.sanford

http://freedavontaesanford-irishgreeneyes.blogspot.com/

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Advocates-for-Abandoned-Adolescents/196830696997682?sk=app_142371818162

Greg Thrasher last year at Lansing rally against Public Act 4

By Greg Thrasher, VOD Washington Bureau contributing editor

In America life for Black folks has always been fought with various degrees, realties of racism and oppression. The ebb and flow of contempt for our very essence and being has often been like the wind: sometimes the gust is strong sometimes it is mild. The one constant theme of life in America for Black folks is the reality of racism and all of its wicked incarnations.

In the post industrial era instead of the heavy gust of slavery, segregation, and the like for many Black folks in the nation what we confront now is the specter and culture of ‘negrophobia’. It is a a derivative pathology of racism not novel in substance just different in application and behavior. Often ‘negrophobia’ is a civil disdain cloaked in a non verbal activity or reactionary behavior. It has the distinct stench of racism but it lacks the venom and vulgar virulent demeanor of hard core bigotry.

In the gentile terrains of an office environment or the mild contours of an restaurant or even in a plaid elevator gathering the presence of ‘negrophobia’ is a reality that is far to often present in the space of Black folks and others( read whites and of late even other people of color). From the nostrils and vantage point of many Black folks often one feels that he or she is germ or some kind of disease that people seek to avoid or when they are in our orbit and presence. We have become in many circles an inconvenient truth.

Black fear

Yet also placed on this stage of “negrophobia” is the role of Black folks and how our behaviors and activities foster and give rise and in some circles validation to the pathogen of ‘negrophobia”. Far to often our ignorance and depravity lends itself to the introduction and application of angst and reactionary forces within white america. It is quite true that Black folks are underdeveloped and perfect props for the narrative of an empire in decline on the brink of anarchy.

Many in our community enjoy the role of being docile and losers. Far to many Black folks have abandoned our collective pride to chase the arrogance of selfishness and ego. In many venues of the Black community we donate our personhood with glee and bravado to be insulted and ridiculed. We sometimes write the scripts of ignorance and then we cast ourselves with a twisted sense of pride and glee.

Some of us understand and recognize and have no hesitation to acknowledge not only are we our own worst enemies but we are also eager in this role of self destruction and decadence. There is a hard core collection of Black folks who are predators and eternal miscreants and cultural deviants. This bandwidth of destructive Black folks loathe civility and they basked in dysfunction.

Of course the nation of oppression for centuries has created wounds and a fractured community often unable to heal itself . We have to often surrendered and retreated to the passion of defeat and despair. We have been willing props in the ‘negrophobia’ revival in our nation. Yet despite this truth for Black folks in America like the wind it can change and we can change with the wind at our back.

The interactive winds of ‘negrophobia’ don’t have to blow in our direction anymore.

Gregory Thrasher is a blogger and the director of Plane Ideas. You can reach him at planeidea@msn.com

Commentary

Attorney Jerry Goldberg speaks at City Council hearing March 13, 2012

By Attorney Jerry Goldberg (first speaker in video above)

March 21, 2012

DETROIT – On March 12, 2012, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder proposed a “consent agreement” between the state and the City of Detroit for oversight of the city’s finances in lieu of the state imposing an emergency manager over the city. This “consent agreement,” just like the Emergency Manager act, guarantees that the banks will have direct control over the city’s budget.

Article 11 of the consent agreement states: “This agreement shall remain in effect until (a) the earlier of (i) the end of the third consecutive fiscal years of the city in which . . . (ii) the city has achieved and maintained for at least two calendar years a credit rating by two or more nationally recognized securities rating agencies . . .on the City’s outstanding long-term unsubordinated debt in either of the two highest long-term rating categories of such rating agency.”

These “rating securities agencies,” who will make the determination on the city’s financial solvency, are for-profit corporations who earn their revenues through payments from the banks and financial institutions. By giving the financial institutions the ratings they want to hear, regardless of whether these ratings are justified, these agencies maximize their own revenues and profits.

Senate Report GS

A report from the United States Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, “Wall Street and the Financial Crisis,” dated April 13, 2011, documented how in their drive for profit in collusion with the banks, these agencies gave sub-prime and other exotic mortgage securities the highest ratings despite knowing they were fraudulently created and doomed to fail.

The Senate report noted how analyses from Moody’s and Standard and Poor’s, two of the largest rating agencies, continued to give sub-prime mortgages the highest AAA rating despite knowing “of increased credit risks due to mortgage fraud, low underwriting standards, and unsustainable housing price appreciation.”

The reason: “Competitive pressures, including the drive for market share and need to accommodate investment bankers bringing in business, affected the credit ratings issued by Moody’s and S&P.”

The city of Detroit was the hardest hit in the country by the predatory lending practices endorsed by these rating agencies, with approximately 85 percent of the city’s mortgage loans being sub-prime, leading to 150,000 foreclosures rom 2005-10, the loss of one-quarter of the city’s population and the leveling of the city’s tax base.

Video and editing by Erik William Shelley of march on Chase Bank 3/13 12

If the consent agreement is implemented, these ratings agencies will be in position to ensure that the same banks, which they collaborated with in destroying Detroit with their criminal foreclosures, continue to get first lien on the city’s tax dollars.

A 2011 Ernst & Young report on the city’s finances noted that for the current fiscal year the City will pay $226.3 million to the banks for debt service out of the general fund, and an additional $399.3 million in debt service from the water, transportation and parking departments. By holding the power to extend the consent agreement indefinitely, the ratings agencies can ensure that their sponsors, the criminal banks, get full payment on the debt service even if it means city services are destroyed, city workers are laid off, and the city’s assets are privatized.

 This is consistent with Public Act 4, the Emergency Manager Act, which guarantees the banks “payment in full of the scheduled debt service requirements on all bonds, notes and municipal securities.”

Rather than agree to the Governor’s consent agreement or an alternate agreement, or to the imposition of an emergency financial manager on behalf of the banks, Mayor Bing and the City Council should declare a moratorium or halt on all debt service payments to the banks. A suspension in debt service payments would immediately resolve the city’s fiscal crisis and allow for the restoration of city services and the recall of laid-off city workers. It would give time for the city to go after the banks to repay the billions they have stolen from the people through their fraudulent lending practices.

Former Detroit School Board member Marie Thornton tells State Treasurer Andy Dillon and review team they must not take away Detroiters' voting rights March 21, 2010

Residents blame “white supremacy” as state and city officials, appeals court  collude to disenfranchise residents and worsen living conditions

By Diane Bukowski 

March 25, 2o12

Marcher at MLK Day Rally outside Gov. Snyder's home says state trying to undo Emancipation Proclamation

DETROIT – Michigan Governor Rick Snyder, and State Treasurer Andy Dillon, in collusion with Detroit city officials, are racing to put the city under the direct control of Wall Street banks and disenfranchise its residents, before over 226,000 signatures for a referendum to repeal Public Act 4 are validated. The State Board of Canvassers is currently reviewing the petitions. 

An Appeals Court on March 24 overturned an earlier order by Ingham County Circuit Court Judge William Collette barring Snyder, Dillon, and the city’s state-appointed review team from approving any agreement on the city’s finances before a March 29 hearing. Robert Davis, who brought the suit, has said he and his attorney Andrew Paterson are filing an emergency appeal of the appeals court order.

The  review team will meet Mon. March 26 at 3 p.m. at Cadillac Place on W. Grand Blvd. and Second to meet Snyder’s self-proclaimed deadline for them to recommend whether he should appoint an emergency manager (EM) for the world’s largest majority-Black city outside of Africa. Mayor Dave Bing’s top staffers Kirk Lewis, Chris Brown and members of the city council met frantically during the weekend to draft a mutually agreeable consent agreement, one step short of an EM.

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder hugs Mayor Dave Bing as he presents Damon Keith award to him Feb. 14

Under PA 4, an emergency manager (EM) supplants elected officials and has virtually unlimited powers to override the City Charter, sell city assets, shut down departments, privatize services, bust unions, and even dis-incorporate and regionalize the city. 

Both Snyder’s proposed consent agreement (CA) and an alternate drafted by Bing’s staff and some council members  would last until at least two Wall Street bond rating agencies grade Detroit’s debt in one of their two highest levels. Both versions also state they would remain in place even if PA 4 is overturned, and bar city officials, unions and residents from taking any action, legal or otherwise, against the CA’s.

City Councilwoman JoAnn Watson at meeting March 20, 2012

“There is nothing to be gained by rushing forward to comply with Governor [Rick] Snyder’s timetable before the referendum process mandated by the citizens takes effect,” said Detroit City Councilwoman JoAnn Watson. Watson has repeatedly raised that the state owes Detroit over $500 million, including $220 million in revenue-sharing payments, with the remainder in taxes the state barred Detroit from collecting. 

Snyder refuses to pay despite the fact the state reported a $1 billion budget surplus this year. He claims it would only be a stopgap measure, although it would address Detroit’s current estimated deficit of $150 million. He said in a phone interview from Germany with Detroit’s Fox 2 News on March 21 that he is only trying to provide assistance to the city so that its residents get good services. 

Sandra Hines tells review team "THIS IS WAR!"

“This is war!” long-time community activist Sandra Hines told the state-appointed financial review team at its meeting March 21.  “We are not going to let you come in and take our city.  This whole process is built on racism. It’s white supremacy at its best. House Negroes still exist. You don’t live in Detroit, and all you want to do is close, shut down, take everything we have away, our city, our schools, our homes, our libraries!” 

A takeover of Detroit would mean that over 50 percent of Michigan’s African-American residents have been disenfranchised, since Public Act 4 has been applied almost exclusively to majority-Black cities in Michigan.  

“How can MY people agree to be part of a consent agreement that basically takes away our right to vote for public officials?” former Detroit school board member Marie Thornton asked at the meeting. “If you take any action, pray for me, because I will not be responsible for what I do.” 

In 2008, when Thornton was on the school board, she was the only member to vote against a consent agreement, then under PA 72. Only weeks after the agreement was signed, then Gov. Jennifer Granholm appointed an emergency manager.

Marie Thornton sitdown to protest Review Team, including (top, l to r), treasury official Brom Stibitz, New Detroit CEO Shirley Stancato with head bowed, Conrad Mallett, Jr., State Treasurer Andy Dillon, and treasury official Frederick Headen

Thornton then conducted a sit-down on the floor in protest, as other Detroiters in an audience of over 100 chanted, “No justice, no peace!” 

Despite repeated calls from the audience for the team to provide documentation supporting their declaration that Detroit is in a state of “severe financial distress,” the review team produced no report. They have never discussed particulars of Detroit finances during their public meetings. Dillon and his staff drafted Governor Snyder’s original consent proposal and then gave it to the team at its previous meeting.

At the behest of U.S. Representative John Conyers (D-Detroit), the Democratic caucus of the House Judiciary Committee released a report last month which found that Public Act 4 egregiously violates the national Voting Rights Act as well as other provisions of the U.S. Constitution. Click on Judiciary PA4 report to read full report. 

Meanwhile, Wall Street is putting the pressure on.  Moody’s Investor Services downgraded $2.5 billion of the Detroit’s outstanding debt two levels on March 20, making Detroit the lowest-rated large city in the U.S. Fitch Ratings followed suit March 22. Moody’s threatened the city with a $350 million termination payment, while Fitch has said the city must immediately pay $50 million. 

APTE city union VP Cecily McClellan calls on people to overturn Wall Street takeovers in Benton Harbor last year

Placing the city between a rock and a hard place, Fitch earlier said that many of Detroit’s loan agreements specify that the appointment of an emergency manager would trigger at least $400 million in immediate termination payments.

Ingham County Circuit Court Judge William Collette on March 21 barred the state and city from signing any agreement prior to a hearing in his court March 29 on a lawsuit filed by Highland Park school board member Robert Davis and his attorney Andrew Paterson. 

Collette was to determine whether Snyder, State Treasurer Andy Dillon and the state-appointed Detroit financial review team should be held in contempt of court for continuing to meet in private in violation of the State’s Open Meetings Act and a temporary injunction Collette issued Feb. 6, in response to a lawsuit filed by Highland Park school board member Robert Davis and his attorney Andrew Paterson. The state appeals court has now barred him from holding the hearing. 

Highland Park school board member and AFSCME rep Robert Davis

On the same day, Ingham County Circuit Court Judge Rosemarie Aquilina removed Flint, Michigan’s emergency manager and restored its mayor and city council, ruling that their review team also violated the Open Meetings Act. 

Flint, whose white emergency manager Michael Brown was just removed by Judge Aquilina, is 53.3 percent Black. The state has said it will also appeal Aquilina’s ruling. Earlier, Judge Collette removed Jack Martin as Highland Park schools CEO pursuant to a another lawsuit filed by school board member Robert Davis. That school board’s review team simply met once in public and re-installed him.

At a meeting of the City Council March 20, Cardinal Baye Landy of the city’s storied Shrine of the Black Madonna said, “Listen to the voice of the people. You know that with 226,000 signatures they have enough to repeal Public Act 4. Do not sign any consent agreement or compromise.” 

Cardinal Baye Landy of the Shrine of the Black Madonna tells City Council not to approve consent agreement; attorney Jerome Goldberg of Moratorium NOW! is at his right

With Christian Black Nationalist beliefs, the Shrine played a key role in Detroiters’ battles against racism during the 1960’s, and has since remained a force to be reckoned with. 

Despite Cardinal Landy’s plea, and Collette’s order, some members of Detroit’s City Council, including its President Charles Pugh and President Pro-Tem  Gary Brown, have been meeting secretly on an individual basis with members of Mayor Dave Bing’s staff and with state review team members to finalize an alternate consent agreement before March 26. 

Bing has released a proposal, which like Snyder’s proposed consent agreement, establishes a Financial Advisory Board (FAB) with essentially the same powers as an EM, which would not stand down until Wall Street gives the go-ahead. Click on Mayor Bing proposed CA.

Also click on http://voiceofdetroit.net/2012/03/15/snyderdillon-proposal-for-financial-advisory-board-fab-totally-unfab-seizure-of-power-say-detroiters/ to read earlier VOD story on Snyder’s proposed agreement. 

City Council President Charles Pugh defends negotiations with Mayor for alternate consent agreement March 20, 2012

Under both the Snyder and Bing agreements, the FAB would be composed of ten non-elected officials with years of complex experience in Wall Street financial transactions, restructuring and labor and pension matters. Their mission would be to “restructure” and downsize the city, with virtually dictatorial powers. The agreements both state they will remain in place even if Public Act 4 is overturned.

State Treasurer Andy Dillon received a third joint proposal allegedly authored by some City Council members in collusion with Bing, during the March 21 review team meeting. Council President Charles Pugh, and Bing staffers Chris Brown and Kirk Lewis were seen leaving the building just before the meeting. Dillon refused to release it.

“A consent agreement doesn’t just disenfranchise Detroit, it makes the banks the city’s decision making body,” Attorney Jerome Goldberg of the Coalition for a Moratorium NOW! on Foreclosures, Evictions and Shut-offs, told the Council March 21. (See column by Goldberg below.)

Homeowner Kyra Williams and her attorney Vanessa Fluker joined mass protest by Occupy Detroit and Moratorium NOW! to stop bank from foreclosing her home

“Wall Street ratings agencies are not objective,” Goldberg continued. “The U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations reported last year that they are financed by the same banks they rate. They get billions of dollars a year to issue positive ratings to those who finance them. These same banks have destroyed Detroit’s neighborhoods with massive foreclosures based on racist predatory lending. What right do they have to rate Detroit or tell us how to run our city?” 

The global accounting firm Ernst & Young met in an illegal closed session with the City Council last year to claim that the city will run out of money by next month.. Ernst & Young is being sued by the states of New York and New Jersey for misrepresenting the finances of Lehman Brothers before its collapse in 2008, causing the states themselves to lose millions. 

Massive march in Greece against IMF austerity measures last year

Councilwoman Watson  said May 21, “We need to enact a resolution to decrease the city’s debt payments drastically.”

After massive protests in Greece, banks there agreed to a 75 percent reduction in debt payments in exchange for some austerity measures. Snyder, Dillon, Bing and the City Council have not even attempted to negotiate with the banks to lower debt payments as Detroit Mayor Frank Murphy did during the 1930’s.

They have evidently ignored an announcement made by the Coalition of City of Detroit Unions at a press conference March 23 that city workers have agreed to concessions amounting to $130 million, nearly the entire current deficit. In exchange, city workers have received NO CONCESSIONS from the banks.

Rally in Sanford, Florida March 22 to demand justice in the murder of Trayvon Martin; Detroiters must similarly begin to mobilize en masse