In Case You Missed This... 'Michigan's Hostile Takeover'

[WillyT]

Michigan's Hostile Takeover
A new "emergency" law backed by right-wing think tanks is turning Michigan cities over to powerful managers who can sell off city hall, break union contracts, privatize services—and even fire elected officials.
By Paul Abowd, Center for Public Integrity | MoJo
Wed Feb. 15, 2012 3:00 AM PST

<snip>

When the city of Pontiac, Michigan, shut down its fire department last Christmas Eve, city councilman Kermit Williams learned about it in the morning paper. "Nobody reports to me anymore," Williams says. "It just gets reported in the press." This was just the latest in a series of radical changes in the city, where elected officials such as Williams have been replaced by a single person with unprecedented control over the city's operation and budget.



Gov. Rick Snyder put Louis Schimmel in charge of Pontiac last September, invoking Public Act 4, a recent law that lets the governor name appointees to take over financially troubled cities and enact drastic austerity measures. Under the law, passed last March, these emergency managers can nullify labor contracts, privatize public services, sell off city property, and even dismiss elected officials.

Schimmel got to work quickly, firing the city clerk, city attorney, and director of public works and outsourcing several city departments. City fire fighters were told that they would be fired if their department was not absorbed by Waterford Township's. Schimmel has proposed putting nearly every city property up for sale, including city hall, the police station, fire stations, water-pumping stations, the library, the golf course, and two cemeteries.

Williams and his six colleagues on city council have been stripped of their salary and official powers. "Nearly the whole city has been privatized," he laments.

<snip>

Much More: http://motherjones.com/politics/2012/02/michigan-emergency-manager-pontiac-detroit

[mikeysnot]

1. And the freepers will not see this as

A government takeover....

[Horse with no Name]

6. No...because from what I have seen

is that the towns that are being dissolved tend to be in traditionally Democratic areas. They are redistricting...by force.

[saras]

2. So these "emergency managers" have NO POWER TO FIX ANYTHING, but can sell stuff off?

Probably illegal enough that the state can get all their property back as stolen and knowingly received as stolen, as soon as they put this butthole somewhere strong enough to hold him.

NONE of those "austerity measures" fixes anything, even in the short term.

[neverforget]

3. How is this law constitutional? These unelected officials are dictators who have stripped the

elected officials of power. Where's the consent of the governed?

[jsmirman]

7. I would think State Constitutions/State Laws

govern this kind of situation, although I'm sure there's someone with a fuller understanding of this than I have. I do wonder if there's any clever legal way to take the thing federal, like a denial of due process to tax and then remove all say over services, etc., but my guess is that these are all state law questions. The question of how a person is governed within his or her own state, by state and local governments is for states to determine, by and large, I think, and is troubled by Federal law, the Constitution only if you can point to a specific right that you have as an American that is being denied. When it comes to matters of governance, I don't think you're likely to find federal grounds - I know part of the idea is the concept that if you don't like how a state has set its constitution/its laws, it's presumed you can move.

It is *wild* what is happening in Michigan, but I think they've got to revolt in that state. I would hope that there would be many people mobilized in Michigan for the next go round like never before.

[white_wolf]

9. I asked my political science professor about this last year.

He said while it certainly seems undemocratic it would probably be constitutional because cities are not sovereign entities, but creations of the State governments and can be dissolved by the State.

[jsmirman]

4. And the a-hole running this endorsed Mittens

that is definitely a pair who can take a long walk and go... you get the idea.

[Starry Messenger]

5. It's outright piracy.

It's like going back to the 1800's.

[sakabatou]

8. This is outrageous!

[annabanana]

10. Am I the only one who remembers the "Bust Out" of the sporting goods store

on the first or second season of The Sopranos? I swear to God that is EXACTLY what they are doing to America!..

[WillyT]

11. Kick !!!