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Chris Savage (aka Eclectablog) posted this on January 31st, 2012. 
New Highland Park schools Emergency Manager Jack Martin got right to work yesterday, his first day on the job. He closed Barber Focus School.
Parents and students of Highland Park schools learned Monday evening how the newly appointed emergency manager will change the troubled district, starting with a closure that will leave only two schools.
The moves follow a Highland Park school board member asking a judge Monday to void the recommendations of a state-led financial review team that resulted in the appointment of Jack Martin.
Martin began work Monday saying Barber Focus School for K-8 children would close in the coming week for the rest of the school year and students would move to Henry Ford Academy.
About 32 people, including school board members, met at Barber, where Martin and Superintendent Edith Hightower announced the changes.
Barber students will be shuttled every morning and afternoon to Ford, Hightower said. “It’s going to be fast and furious that we’re going to gather up things and move the kids.”
Barber has 278 students enrolled, and Ford has 222 students enrolled but both buildings have a capacity for 800 students, Hightower said.
Rainbow Push Detroit is responding to the closing by having a public meeting this evening. From their Facebook page:
We will be having a meeting tonight regarind the Highland Park EM announcing the closing of Barber Focus School. Come out TONIGHT, JANUARY 31, 2012 AT 6P TO GREATER ST. MATTHEW BAPTIST CHURCH, 396 LABELLE, HIGHLAND PARK, MI 48203. This meeting is for all parents and citizens.
In other Emergency Manager news, Flint Emergency Manager Michael Brown is having his first public meeting since he took over the city government.
Two days from now, Flint emergency manager Michael Brown will meet with the public in his first open forum since taking office Dec. 1.
Brown scheduled neighborhood meetings in each of the city’s nine wards over the next few weeks, and the first will be held at 6 p.m. Thursday at Freeman Elementary, 4001 Ogema Ave., in the city’s 9th Ward.
“It’s the first public meeting since he took office,” said city Council President Scott Kincaid, [...]
Chris Savage (aka Eclectablog) posted this on January 18th, 2012. When you put a single man in charge of the city of Flint, a non-elected financial guy with no accountablility to the local residents, answerable only the Governor, you’d probably want to choose someone who pays crazy close attention to detail, wouldn’t you? Someone who is truly gifted at dotting the the “I”s and crossing the “T”s?
Well, apparently that is not a job qualification for our Michigan Emergency Managers. Flint Emergency Manager Michael Brown released a 19-page “Financial and Operating Plan” this week. Right square in the middle of the document, is the date: January 15, 2013.
Yup, he got the date wrong. I thought maybe this was referring to the end date or something but, no, when you go to the next page, the date is correct. I could understand if it were 2011. It’s still January and plenty of us are still getting used to writing 2012. But 2013?
I haven’t gotten into the meat of the plan yet but, based on the front cover, I’m a bit worried.
Cross-posted from Eclectablog.
Chris Savage (aka Eclectablog) posted this on December 28th, 2011. One of the main points I have raised repeatedly since the passage of Michigan’s Emergency Manager law, Public Act 4, is that the imposition of an Emergency Manager (EM) does little, if anything, to solve the underlying problems that bring municipalities and school districts to the crisis point where an EM is deemed necessary.
With Joe Harris set to depart Benton Harbor sometime in the first few months of 2012, for example, what has he done that will prevent that town from simply returning to the same place it was when he entered the scene? The answer is, of course, little to nothing.
It is my contention that systemic problems plaguing Benton Harbor and other Michigan towns & school districts that are staring down the barrel of the elimination of local democracy are not solved by an EM. Widespread poverty, diminishing revenues both from a shrinking tax base and a Republican state budget that robbed them of revenue sharing and school fund monies, poor education and a lack of trained leaders coming up through the system all conspire to keep these towns and districts from extricating themselves from the problems they face.
It’s worth looking at some of the Michigan cities that have had EMs in the past. First, let’s take a look at Highland Park. Highland Park first had an EM appointed under Republican Governor John Engler in 2001. The first EM Arthur Blackwell was later replaced after it was discovered that he had been taking unauthorized payments for his services after publicly agreeing to an annual salary of $1. A jury determined this past summer that he would have to repay over a quarter million dollars in back pay he paid himself.
So, what has become of Highland Park since 2009? Well, sadly, it is back in the red again. In August of this year, DTE, the electricity supplier for Highland Park, took out 1,400 street lights because the city owed $4.5 million on its power bill. This is simply a symptom of a much greater problem: Highland Park is once again in debt. Soon after he was elected this past November but [...]
Chris Savage (aka Eclectablog) posted this on November 8th, 2011. While many of us expected this and knew it was coming, it’s still painful to see. Michigan Governor Rick Snyder says Flint is ready for an Emergency Manager.
Governor Rick Snyder says a financial emergency exists in Flint.
That determination could lead to the appointment of an emergency manager for the city.
“The State’s decision shows how serious our financial challenges are in the City of Flint,” Mayor Dayne Walling said in a statement. “Significant progress has been made to stabilize the City’s finances during a very difficult economy, but without shared sacrifice across the board the City has not been able to implement all of the necessary cost-savings. When some don’t share in the sacrifice, we are all forced to bear the burden. With the support of the people, I will continue serve the City of Flint.”
More from MLive:
A state review panel is recommending that an emergency financial manager take over the city of Flint.
The recommendation accompanies the review team’s report to Gov. Rick Snyder, which says a “local government financial emergency” exists in the city, and “no satisfactory plan exists to resolve the emergency.”
The review team declined to pursue the option of a “consent agreement” with local elected leaders to resolve the financial problems because “it would not afford an efficacious remedy to the financial emergency,” according to the team’s 10-page report.
Michigan Department of Treasury Spokesman Terry Stanton said Snyder concurred with the unanimous opinion by the financial review team.
The city has seven days to request a hearing in front of the governor or his designee, Stanton said.
You can read the review panel’s findings HERE (pdf).
Next up: Detroit?
Cross-posted from Eclectablog.
John Cherry posted this on July 3rd, 2008.
Video of the event is on YouTube.
About 50 energized Democrats joined Congressman Dale Kildee and I on the corner of Dort Highway and Davison Road this morning in Flint (click for a link to a story from WEYI about the event). We were just outside the rusting gate of the old AC Delco plant. Back in the fifties and sixties, during shift change, it was one of the busiest corners in Flint with thousands of workers streaming in and out of work.
Today, you are lucky to see anyone on the sidewalk outside the AC plant. What a surprise to Flint drivers to see signs of human life back at the corner, horns were beeping as Obama signs were lifted in salute. The occasion: Senator McCain's trip to Mexico to talk trade. Remember back, during the Michigan primary when Senator McCain told Michigan workers, "I have some bad news for you, there is going to be more job loss". Now we know why, Senator McCain has become Senator McSame.
Michigan has lost more than 400,000 manufacturing jobs over the past eight years due to the unfair trade policies of the Bush Administration. Michigan cannot afford four more years of shipping American jobs overseas. As Senator Jim Webb points out in his recent book, A Time to Fight, "Our current tax laws actually protect American corporations that move operations overseas, deferring taxes on any profits from these overseas operations unless the profits are brought back into the United States. This of course encourages American corporations to invest more heavily in additional overseas operations, further reducing opportunities for American workers."
This election is about more than just change, it is about survival of the American middle class. In my mind, patriotism is about saving the American Dream, and in that fight the only presidential candidate that I count on my side is Barack Obama. He will only support trade agreements that have strong labor and environmental standards. He will actually enforce existing trade agreements. He will help outsourced workers find new jobs, and we will provide retraining assistance before workers lose their jobs.
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