AFSCME and other unions and community groups rally in Lansing April 13 against takeovers; coalition is now planning legal action against PA 4

By Diane Bukowski

DETROIT – Detroit’s two pension systems filed a motion for “declaratory and injunctive” relief against Public Act 4, better known as the Dictator Act, on April 18 in federal district court.  The motion says there are sufficient grounds to believe that the city of Detroit will soon be subject to action under PA4.

A coalition of unions and community organizations, which initiated the historic “We are the People” rally in Lansing April 13,  also expects to file suit against the Act, according to its representatives.

Detroit City Councilwoman JoAnn Watson on capitol steps April 13

“We are about education, litigation and agitation,” said Detroit City Councilwoman JoAnn Watson, who co-chaired a special meeting of the coalition April 20, with AFSCME International Representative Herbert Sanders. Watson compared their contemplated lawsuit to Brown v. the Board of Education, which was supported by the massive civil rights movement prior to the U.S. Supreme Court’s historic decision to desegregate public schools.

Sanders said the coalition’s attorneys have been meeting “for a couple of months” to devise appropriate strategies for the court action.

The pension systems’ lawsuit, filed by three attorneys from Clark Hill, PLLC, asks the federal court to declare PA 4 unconstitutional and bar its implementation. It says the Act “impermissibly” overrides the City Charter and collective bargaining agreements, and disenfranchises citizens and members of the city’s General and Police and Fire Retirement systems. It also says it violates Internal Revenue Service provisions. (Click on Pension lawsuit v Act 4 Michiganemergencyofficerchallenge to read entire lawsuit.)

Detroit police, firefighters and other city workers demonstrate May 6, 2010 against $6 B pension heist

It specifically asks the court to declare one section of PA 4 that relates to pension funds and retirement systems unconstitutional.

It says, “Section19(1)(m) of the Act – the gravamen of this action – provides that an emergency manager may, under certain circumstances: (a) remove any serving trustee of a local pension board for any reason or no reason at all; (b) arguably replace the serving trustees and assume and exercise the authority and fiduciary responsibilities of a local pension board as sole trustee of the pension fund for any reason or no reason at all; and (c) arguably require the municipal government to participate in, and transfer the assets of the local retirement system to, some other retirement system for any reason or no reason at all. MCL § 141.1519(1)(m).”

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (r) appoints former Democratic House Speaker Andy Dillon as State Treasurer

Defendants in the suit are Michigan Governor Rick Snyder and State Treasurer Andy Dillon, who has been training individuals to possibly take over as Emergency Managers in more than 45 Michigan municipalities and school districts.

The suit raises claims that Detroit Mayor Dave Bing and Michigan Governor Rick Snyder have been meeting secretly to target the retirement systems.

Bing presents proposed budget to City Council last month

In this year’s budget address, says the suit, “. . . the Mayor used the Act and the potential appointment of an emergency manager for the City of Detroit as justification to demand significant concessions from Plaintiffs, and indicated that Governor Snyder and his administration knew of and supported the Mayor’s proposals and plan.”

Bing has submitted a proposed budget for this year which defaults on the city’s obligations to pay into the systems, and cuts retiree pay-outs and benefits unilaterally.

Benton Harbor rally against EM Joe Harris, Snyder et al. April 27

Benton Harbor’s EM, Joe Harris, also told Fox 2 News April 25 that Snyder and Bing were meeting secretly “to work out some type of agreement where there is a Memorandum of Understanding where the mayor will get support by the state to help him accomplish his goals.”  (http://voiceofdetroit.net/?p=6939)

Bing earlier campaigned for the pension systems, worth $6 billion, to be turned over to the Lansing-based Michigan Employees Retirement System while Jennifer Granholm was still Governor.

Gary Brown on WJR with Frank Beckmann

The suit also says the City Council is considering the approval of a “consent agreement” with Dillon that could also abrogate provisions of union contracts, the charter, and affect the pension systems.

It notes, “On April 18, 2011, Detroit City Council President Pro Tem Gary Brown appeared on WJR radio and indicated his support for a consent agreement between the City of Detroit and the State Treasurer, intimating that discussions or negotiations of such an agreement by the City of Detroit and the Governor and/or State Treasurer already have occurred.”

Former School Board Pres. Carla Scott also signed a "Consent Agreement" before state/Bobb takeover

The Detroit Board of Education reached a “consent agreement” with the state in 2008, but that did not stave off Granholm’s appointment of Robert Bobb as emergency financial manager. Detroit School Board member Marie Thornton was the sole no vote on the consent agreement.

Chris White of The Coalition to Restore Hope to DPS said at the time that “[Board President Carla]Scott continues to push an agenda that includes a state takeover of the school district. This is a spiritual battle we’re in against outside interests. The education of our children and those yet to be born is something we can’t negotiate on.”

PA 4 “arbitrarily” sets an 80 percent funding level as a trigger for a pension system takeover, according to the suit. Detroit’s two systems have consistently been funded at or close to 100 percent over the past decades.

Former Detroit CFO Sean Werdlow with Standard and Poor's rep Stephen Murphy at Council in 2005

A portion of PA 4 directly targets Detroit, says the suit, since it says the “net value of pension bonds or evidence of indebtedness” shall not be used in determining funding levels.

In 2005, the City of Detroit, under former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, issued $1.44 billion in “pension obligation certificates,” or bonds, which it later used in part to meet its employer contribution requirements to the pension system.

The retirement systems hotly contested the risky borrowing at the time. The City Council narrowly voted to approve it after Wall Street executives from Standard and Poors and Fitch came to the table. They said they would lower the city’s bond ratings unless it either agreed to borrow the money or laid off thousands of workers. (Go to Pension bond stories MC   to read stories by this reporter and former Michigan Citizen reporter Bankole Thompson on the deal.)

Agnes Hitchcock of Call 'em Out in Feb. 2010

In a comment that accurately portended the future, Agnes Hitchcock of the Call ‘em Out Coalition said, “The state took over the schools to control a $1.5 billion construction bond proposal. Now it looks like we’re telling them that the city is a good thing to take over as well.”

Later that year, despite the Council’s vote to approve the bonds and Kilpatrick’s lay-offs of 1400 city workers, S & P downgraded the city’s bond ratings to BBB-, one step above junk level, anyway.

In 2008, the City narrowly avoided defaulting on the bonds and subsequent state receivership by agreeing to have proceeds from casino taxes go directly to a bank trustee so he could chop off the portion owed on the bonds before handing over the rest to the city. (Read VOD article “How the Banks Destroyed Detroit: at http://voiceofdetroit.net/?p=6196 .)

According to the U.S. federal courts website, a judge has not yet been assigned to hear the lawsuit. Actions so far have involved service of the lawsuit by the plaintiffs on the defendants, and the appointment of an attorney to represent the defendants.

The labor/community coalition against PA 4 meets every Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. at AFSCME Council 25, 600 W. Lafayette at Third. The meetings are open to the concerned public.

Click on http://voiceofdetroit.net/?p=6582 “Young mother describes occupation of Catherine Ferguson Academy,” to read about this historic takeover by young women.

DPS teacher Christal Bonner (center) joins parents and students at Finney High Apr. 28 to protest school closings, lay-offs

 Huffington Post

By Simone Landon

simone.landon@huffingtonpost.com

When districtwide layoff notices hit every one of Detroit Public Schools’ 5,466 unionized employees late last week, an American Federation of Teachers spokeswoman called the move the largest “one fell swoop” firing of teachers in union memory.

More broadly troubling to teachers and education-reform observers, however, was DPS Emergency Financial Manager Robert Bobb’s concurrent announcement that he plans to unilaterally modify the Detroit Federation of Teachers’ collective bargaining agreement, the first test of a sweeping new state law.

Ricktator Snyder

“I fully intend to use the authority that was granted under Public Act 4,” Bobb said in his Thursday statement. DPS spokesman Steve Wasko said Bobb has not yet “come to any conclusion about any specific changes to the contract,” but made the announcement because it would be “prudent” to inform teachers of possible changes to their contract.

Charter school CEO Doug Ross, Skillman CEO Carol Goss, and ally Rob Bobb

Bobb’s legal right to abrogate the district’s contract with the union may be the nation’s most extreme example of an administrator’s power over teachers. But education experts say Public Act 4 has come to represent more than the contract between Detroit and its teachers — it’s an example of the increasingly polarized state of education reform nationwide.

Attacks on public workers’ collective bargaining rights have made headlines across the country, but perhaps nowhere has the issue been so hotly contested as when it comes to the rights of public school teachers. With school districts throughout the United States millions of dollars in debt, fights over teacher seniority are taking place alongside pushes to shift public money toward charter schools. Mayoral control, meanwhile, has pulled authority away from school boards in some districts, and lawmakers are seeking to mandate changes from statehouses and the judiciary.

THE SENIORITY FIGHT

DPS teachers took part in massive labor rally against PA 4 in Lansing, MI April 13

Detroit’s layoffs are not unprecedented, but they could signal a new trend toward mass layoffs for large school districts unsure of their finances but required by state laws to notify teachers of potential dismissals. 2011 is the first year to see entire districts fired.

In 2010, tiny Central Falls, R.I., made headlines when Rhode Island’s education commissioner, Deborah Gist, announced that the entire teaching staff of the town’s high school would be laid off and asked to reapply for their jobs under new evaluation models.

But schoolwide layoffs have spread across districts, and dozens of pink slips have multiplied into thousands. Two months before Bobb’s announcement in Detroit, Providence, R.I. public schools officials said they would send a termination letter to each of the city’s 1,926 teachers. Providence Mayor Angel Taveras also slated four elementary schools for closure.

Providence RI teachers protest firings

In addition to the across-the-board firings, the Providence announcement was noteworthy for its distinction between laying off and fully terminating the district’s teaching staff. Layoffs offer some rights to teachers, meaning a financial obligation that the mayor said the city and its $110 million budget deficit — including $28 million short from schools — couldn’t afford. Continue reading →

FROM HTTP://PEOPLEBEFOREBANKS.ORG

Gail McNeil was featured on Fox News2 after she testified in favor of the moratorium on foreclosures. A former auto worker, who took a buyout from Ford, McNeil, says the news report, is “one of tens of thousands of homeowners in Wayne County alone caught up in the foreclosure crisis.

“She says she did everything she could to save her house.”

“‘Relentlessly, I think I’ve explored every avenue possibly given,’ said McNeil.

“Before leaving town, McNeil shared her story with members of the Wayne County Commission, who are considering the Homeowner Protection and Neighborhood Preservation Act. The initiative, introduced by Commissioner Martha Scott, calls for a one year moratorium on sheriff’s foreclosure sales and an investigation into the financial practices of banks… the hope is this will eventually end up on the ballot.

“Meanwhile, McNeil says she hopes to return to Detroit someday, and she hopes this effort will help other people in the future.”

–Local Fox 2 News, April 7, 2011

Wayne County Considering Sheriff’s Foreclosure Sale Moratorium: MyFoxDETROIT.com

Commissioner Martha Scott introduced bill

Vanessa Fluker with supporters April 29

FLUKER HEARING POSTPONED UNTIL MAY 13

Jerry Goldberg (l), attorney for Vanessa Fluker (center), Bev Lumley (r) and small portion of supporters who packed Chief Judge Virgil Smith’s courtroom April 29 to support Fluker, who has been santioned by Judge Robert Colombo; the hearing was postponed to May 13 after Smith said he had been on vacation and didn’t have time to read briefs. Goldberg, Fluker, and others are with Moratorium NOW! coalition and helped bring resolution on sheriff’s foreclosures to Wayne County Commission. Go to VOD story to read about Fluker’s case at http://voiceofdetroit.net/?p=6035.

HEARING IN CASE OF 14-YEAR-OLD CHILD FALSELY CONVICTED OF MURDERS ANOTHER MAN HAS CONFESSED TO.

TUESDAY, MAY 10, 9 A.M. TO 12 NOON

FRANK MURPHY HALL, St. Antoine at Gratiot (courtroom to be announced)

Click on  FREE DAVONTAE SANFORD Voice of Detroit to read and/or print out the shocking story of this young man, who has been held in prison by Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy for four years, despite the fact that another man confessed to the crime, a hit killing of four people that happened when Davontae was 14.

Davontae's mother Taminko with his brothers, sisters and supporters outside Frank Murphy Hall June 29, 2010

Most reent post  on Davontae’s Facebook page (see link below), from Taminko Sanford, Davontae’s mother (as Mother’s Day approaches);

 

Taminko Gods’Still Blessing Sanford

i miss u so much,when i seen u wednesday tears came to my eye,u have became away from home,seen so much,heard so many lies fortold on u,missin holidays together,missin hearing ur voice,but reguardless of what,my heart holds a place for u that no one can feel,ma ma luvs u man,am prayin for u.

Davontae’s Facebook page at  http://www.facebook.com/event.php eid=135209816510145#!/free.davontae.sanford.

Maryanne Godboldo wants her child back in her arms NOW!

Please Join us this Wednesday May 4th 2010 at 3pm – Juvenile Court 

1025 E Warren Detroit Mich 48207 

Judge Lynn Pierce’s Court Room 2B 

Please Begin Calling Judge Lynn Pierce on Monday asking her to release Ariana IMMEDIATELY!

(313) 833-0165

~Justice for Maryanne Godboldo Action Committee

Saif al-Arab Gadhafi

Sunday, May 01, 2011

The youngest son of Muammar Gaddafi was killed in a NATO airstrike on a house where the Libyan leader and his famliy were staying at the time, a government spokesman said Sunday.
The raid resulted in the deaths of Saif al-Arab Gaddafi, 29, the youngest son of Gaddafi, and three of Gaddafi’s grandchildren, spokesman Mossa Ibrahim told a press conference.
The Libyan leader himself and his wife, who were in the house at the time, were in good health, while some other people were injured in the attack, Ibrahim said.

This was a direct act to assassinate the Libyan leader, a violation of international law which has no legal or political justifications, he said.

Home of Saif al-Arab Gadhafi after NATO/US attack

After the raid which took place around 8:00 p.m. local time (1800 GMT) Saturday, Ibrahim took a group of journalists to the site of of the house, that is located in a residential area in western Tripoli.
Hit by three missiles, the three-storey building was partially destroyed, with roofs completely caved in some portions, leaving mangled rods of reinforcing steel hanging down among splintered chunks of concrete.

While two of the missiles had exploded, the third was seen lying in one of the rooms of the building.

Libyans support Gadhafi in protest outside hotel housing foreign journalists

After the airstrike, large numbers of Libyans took to the streets, protesting the NATO strikes against civilians and expressing their support to Gaddafi’s family.
Prior to the raid, Gaddafi floated on Saturday a proposal for a cease-fire and negotiations in a televised speech while asserting that he won’t leave the country.
He said all parties concerned should follow the truce, and the NATO forces must stop their attacks.
Gaddafi ruled out the possibility he will quit and leave Libya, which he has been ruling over the past 41 years.
Since March 19, the Western powers have been launching attacks from the air and sea on Gaddafi’s forces after the UN Security Council passed a resolution imposing a no-fly zone over Libya and authorizing “all necessary measures” to protect civilians in Libya.

Gadhafi Offers Truce as NATO Strikes Tripoli

 

Libyan leader with baby daughter Hanna Gadhafi, killed in U.S. air strike in 1986

 

Bombs hit government buildings during Libyan leader’s speech

By the Associated Press 

 Posted Apr 30, 2011 6:27 AM CDT

(AP) – Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi called for a ceasefire and negotiations with NATO powers in a live speech on state TV early Saturday, just as NATO bombs struck a government complex in the Libyan capital. The targeted compound included the state television building and a Libyan official alleged the strikes were meant to kill Gadhafi. However, the TV building was not damaged and Gadhafi spoke from an undisclosed location.

In the rambling pre-dawn speech, Gadhafi appeared both subdued and defiant, repeatedly pausing as he flipped through handwritten notes. “The door to peace is open,” he said. “You are the aggressors. We will negotiate with you. Come, France, Italy, UK, America, come, we will negotiate with you. Why are you attacking us?” He said Libyans have the right to choose their own political system, but not under the threat of NATO bombings. Rebel leaders say they won’t lay down their arms until Gadhafi and his sons step aside.

 

 

 

Saif al-Arab Gaddafi, the youngest son of embattled Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, and three of Gaddafi’s grandsons have been killed in a NATO airstrike.

Sunday, May 1, 2011

Libyans supporting Gadhafi in earlier rally

“The house of Saif al-Arab Gaddafi was attacked tonight with full power. The leader with his wife was there in the house with other friends and relatives,” Libyan government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim told reporters at press conference in Tripoli early on Sunday morning, AFP reported.

“The attack resulted in the martyrdom of Saif al-Arab, 29 years old, and three of the leader’s grandchildren,” Ibrahim said.

“The leader himself is in good health; he wasn’t harmed. His wife is also in good health; she wasn’t harmed, (but) other people were injured,” he added.

“This was a direct operation to assassinate the leader of this country,” he stated.

Gadhafi's compound in Tripoli after earlier bombing

In the attacks, three massive explosions ripped through Gaddafi’s headquarters in Tripoli on Saturday evening.

Volleys of anti-aircraft fire rang out following the first two strikes on Bab al-Aziziya. The aerial attacks were followed by a third from the same direction, AFP reported.

The strikes came after the Libyan government accused NATO of bombing a center for physically challenged children in Tripoli earlier on Saturday.

Meanwhile, 13 powerful explosions rocked the Libyan port city of Misratah late on Saturday as NATO warplanes struck targets in the opposition-held city.

Earlier in the day, Gaddafi said he would not step down, but he was ready for a ceasefire and negotiations, provided that NATO halted its airstrikes.

Rejecting his offer, NATO announced that it would only consider a ceasefire after Gaddafi forces stop attacking civilians.

The opposition has also dismissed Gaddafi’s ceasefire proposal, saying he has no part to play in the country’s future.

And despite Gaddafi’s calls for a ceasefire, regime forces later rained mortar shells and rockets on Misratah, killing at least 15 people, including a nine-year-old boy.

The regime is trying to block access to Misratah by sea and has threatened to target any ships that enter the port city.

MP/AGB/HGL

Iran has cast doubt on the US bombardment of Libya, saying Washington seeks to take control of Libya’s oil reserves and other natural resources rather than helping its people.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast says possession of Libya's oil wells behind NATO/US war

“We have doubt about the US and NATO purpose behind conducting a military operation against Libya. It seems that they intend to (take control of) Libya’s oil wells and maintain deals of their oil companies rather than helping the Libyan people,” IRNA quoted Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast as speaking to reporters in the Cuban capital, Havana, on Saturday.

He added that the US explicitly supported the ousted dictators in Tunisia and Egypt till the last minute “but it changed its stance immediately after the collapse of the two dictatorships by their people.”

The Iranian spokesman strongly questioned the US military intervention in internal affairs of other countries and the fate of people in the Middle East and North Africa.

A protester holds a placard during a rally against the bombing of Libya, in Belgrade, Serbia, Sunday, March 27, 2011. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)

His remarks come as the United States on Wednesday permitted oil deals with Libyan Transitional National Council.

The order, issued by the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, will remove legal difficulties pertaining to the ownership of Libya’s oil for potential buyers.

Mehmanparast further described as “politically-motivated” Washington’s claims about human rights, saying, “The US has not yet been able to give explanation to world nations about its inhumane attitude and torture in Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib prisons.”

Libyan oil is reason for US/NATO war

“How is it possible that US officials and the media express concern about human rights conditions in certain countries but turn a blind eye toward the fate of people in Bahrain and Yemen?”

The Iranian spokesperson reiterated that the United States is “the biggest violator of human rights in the world.”

Mehmanparast also touched upon the “best” level of political relations between Tehran and Havana and envisaged a bright future in Iran’s cooperation with Latin America countries.

He pointed out that Iran has the know-how to explore and exploit oil and gas and expressed the country’s readiness to transfer its experience to Cuba.

The Iranian spokesperson also met with Cuban Deputy Foreign Minister Marcos Rodriguez Costa on Thursday in Havana, where the two officials criticized the United States for its “double-standard” approach toward the crises in the Middle East and North Africa.

AS/AGB/SF/HRF

UPDATE: Go to

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/british-italian-embassies-attacked-in-tripoli-following-nato-airstrike-that-kills-gaddafi-son-grandchildren/2011/05/01/AFVqZjTF_story.html

to read story about burning of U.S., British and Italian embassies in Libya in response to the killings of Gadhafi’s family members. The article says the attack on Gadhafi’s son’s house killed a 6-month-old granddaughter, a 2-year-old grandson and a 2-year-old granddaughter, as well as a friend of Saif al-Arab Gadhafi.

Libyans protest deadly attack on Gadhafi's family while burning U.S. flag