Fast Tracking of DWSD into a Metropolitan Areas Metropolitan Authority?

Detroit's Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr is interested in fast-tracking legislation to establish a metropolitan authority which would absorb Detroit Water & Sewage Department. The passage of legislation during December's flurry of 435 bills signed into law in Michigan included the Metropolitan Areas Metropolitan Authority Act.

Opposition is to be expected to moving DWSD to a metropolitan authority according to Shannon Price, chairman of the Wayne County Commission's Water Board Task Force.

Interest in buying the treatment plant from a third party is likely to be high, he said. Wayne County is facing its own financial problems outside Detroit. The threat of an emergency manager coming into the county looms, and its general fund debt was recently measured at $210 million.

But any attempt at selling the treatment plant would be met with swift legal opposition, said Dan Paletko, Dearborn Heights mayor and chairman of the committee that oversees the plant — the Downriver Joint Management Committee.

Wayne County owns the land, but Paletko said the 13 communities have some ownership claims, having made some $300 million in improvements to the plant over the years.

--- From The Detroit News

Endurance Finally Heard

Opinion by Stephen Boyle

photo: Stephen Boyle

The last meeting of City Council of the Whole on November 20, 2012 was full of drama and required fortitude. Over 3 hours of public comments lead the meeting. The meeting room was full of concerned people, the overflow room was full, and the hallway with the elevators was full as well. It was full enough that people were arriving, looking at the situation and turning away or leaving after waiting an hour or two.

The Erma Henderson Auditorium has been used in the past both for the meeting itself (although very rarely recently), and as an overflow area with a screen and audio from inside the meeting room. This time however the room had been booked for the Zoning Board of Appeals, and for a Michigan Adoptive Services event. These were held back to back through the entire morning.

Personally I traveled by bus to the meeting and arrived shortly after 10 am and mingled in the line of those waiting to be heard. I didn't have the equipment I was to use prepared, coming in with a cell phone with a 10% battery charge was my biggest concern. When I can I open up a live video stream of what is happening through the Occupy Detroit channel so those not present can watch from my perspective. There is an official feed from City Council meetings, but it sometimes isn't running at crucial times so it is good to document when possible. I knew with the low battery and situations of the day I'd have problems all day and never catch up with a good charge of the battery.

PMD Kriss Andrews steering the "Reform Agenda"
left in disgust as Council
voted 8-1 to dismiss Miller Canfield contract

Cecily distributed pins the day before and at the meeting to wear as visual protest to some of the critical issues brought to the meeting:

• No EMA - a management consulting group is working through the Root Cause Committee and targeting the elimination of 80% of Detroit Waste and Sewage Department.
• No Miller Canfield - the Milestone Agreement is calling for Miller Canfield to be legal counsel to the Reform Agenda put forward through the Consent Agreement. Free Detroit No Consent has taken the stance that agreement is void based on position of Detroit's Corporation Counsel Krystal Crittendon. We also feel there is a problem when the law firm has written Public Act 4, litigated the law in the courts, and is sought to replace the City Corporation Counsel. 
• No Ernst & Young - the Milestone Agreement requires a process flow consulting firm. Ernst & Young has been used by city administration in preferred manner during the Consent Agreement. It is believed that more options with an open bid contract would be a smarter direction and to reduce preference for existing providers if in fact a Reform Agenda is truly intended. {correction: the vote was YES}

As I saw people with pins leaving the meeting I asked them if we could circulate those pins into the room on people who had not yet spoke. There were some sad faces, but they knew the fight and allowed the pins to go in with new people. This is how people work on a unified fight offering the best to a WE conversation.

Honor Our Vote

The people of Michigan demanded justice by repealing Public Act 4 on November 6 

We told Governor Snyder that it was wrong to oppress local government through the Emergency Manager Law. That includes the Emergency Financial Manager Law which proceeded and was repealed March 16, 2011 to make way for Public Act 4.

Attorney General Bill Schuette delivered an opinion August 6, 2012 on the interpretation of how the repeals would be handled. However the people's opinion is not being considered by government, a government that was NOT set to rule OVER the people, but FOR the people. We will not rest until government sets justice straight by the desired will of the people. Tyrannical government was fought over 200 years ago - a "tea party" was held by revolutionaries to protest taxation without representation.

These repealed laws no longer have standing over the people. Reference Michigan Compiled Law section 8.4:

Effect of Repeal of Repealing Statute.
Whenever a statute, or any part thereof shall be repealed by a subsequent statute, such statute, or any part thereof, so repealed, shall not be revived by the repeal of such subsequent repealing statute. 

This week the people begin moving your asserted government within our local jurisdictions OUT. We celebrate Veterans Day by honoring their fight for our rights. The rights of the people to be heard and demand justice through legislature and courts that listen to the people.

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2012 

On-air shows will have rallying calls to the public to join the actions coming up this week.

10:00 am Detroit Public Schools Emergency Manager Roy Roberts is served notice to quit. By noon we begin moving him out of the Fisher Building office.

Noon Rally at Fisher Building and in New Center Commons to evict Roy Roberts from Detroit Public Schools.

2:00 pm Financial Advisory Board meeting for the City of Detroit is being held one mile south at McGregor Conference Center on Wayne State University Campus, near the Law Library on Ferry Mall. We will march in solidarity from New Center to this meeting and serve notice to the FAB and others appointed through the Consent Agreement which has been protested by the people and was found in fault by Corporation Counsel.

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2012

9:00 am Detroit City Council Public Hearing on EMA Consulting Services Contract held at Coleman A Young Municipal Center, 2 Woodward Ave, Room 1340, Detroit - EMA is evaluating and restructuring Detroit Water & Sewage Dept (DWSD) to eliminate 80% of workforce.

9:00 am Cullor Family Court Date in 36th District Court - Judge Patricia Jefferson, 421 Madison, Room 432, Detroit - Eviction defense

10:00 am Detroit City Council session of the Whole held at Coleman A Young Municipal Center, 2 Woodward Ave, Room 1340, Detroit - rally in advance at the Spirit of Detroit. {agenda | new business | supporting documents}

11:00 am Bus to Lansing leaves from Northwest Activity Center

1:00 pm The public attends HR 6004 session regarding Legitimacy of EAA School District. Session to be held in the Anderson Building, 124 North Capitol Ave, Lansing 48909.

6:00 pm Detroit School Board Meeting at Detroit Public Library Main Branch, 5201 Woodward Ave, Detroit

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2012 

10:00 am Elected School Board lawsuit in 36th District Court before Judge Ronald Giles, 421 Madison, Detroit - the creation of EAA was a move to destroy the school board.

10:00 am City Council Internal Operations Standing Committee held at Coleman A Young Municipal Building, 2 Woodward Ave, Room 1340, Detroit

1:00 pm City Council Budget Fnance and Audit Standing Committee held at Coleman A Young Municipal Building, 2 Woodward Ave, Room 1340, Detroit

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2012 

8:45 am Detroit Police, Fire Board with Paramount Homeowners defense in 36th Circuit Court before Judge Ronald Giles

There are MANY actions happening this week. We are suggesting the best way to keep abreast of what is happening to join the text messaging cell for Free Detroit.

Join The Text Message Cell

Compose a text message addressed to the number 23559 

The contents of the message is join @honormivote

You can get a list of commands by sending the message CMD or HELP

There is a web interface as well - you need to request a password by sending the command PASSWORD. Then visit the site at http://cel.ly with that password to access your profile and the cells you have joined through your phone. 

Taste The Dirty Water

Time To Give Management A Taste Of What's Coming

AFSCME reports there will be a picket held at 9300 Jefferson Ave, outside the Water Treatment Plant. They are urging workers from around the city to join them TODAY from 3:30pm to 5:00pm. According to the Local 207 Organizer from July 19 (see below | click to download/print) the city has crossed the line into Union Busting and it is time to organize in protest.

In negotiations on Tuesday July 17, DWSD Management presented us with a new “offer” on our contract. The outrageous details are below. Management is also threatening to impose on DWSD the same non-union, Jim Crow conditions which Bing and Snyder are imposing on the rest of city workers.

The Contract They Want Us to Accept (Offered to AFSCME on Tuesday July 17, 2012)

• 10% Base Rate Pay Cut
• PENSIONS: If hired after July 1, 2012, Defined Contribution Pension will replace the current Defined Benefit Pension. If hired before July 1, 2012, must switch to inferior DC Pension or pay 5% of base wages to stay in DB pension. Multiplier reduced to 1.5% for everyone. Annual 2.25% escalator on pensions would be eliminated
• All past practices would be eliminated
• Probation for new hires or during promotions changed from 3 months to 12 months
• Union would have to withdraw pending legal action against Judge Cox’s anti-union order
• Time limit to file grievances reduced from 20 days to 5 days
• Puts us under the City-State Consent Agreement (no obligation to bargain with unions)
• Gives mayor’s appointees control of our Pension Board
• Overtime to be assigned to those judged by Management as “most qualified”
• No limits on contracting out
• Discipline stays on your record for 36 months (currently 14), except for “workplace violence, sexual harassment, theft or willful destruction of Department property, or being under the influence”, which will stay on your record for 60 months!

There are many more protests coming as these terms of employment were not altered following state law which requires collective bargaining. The city will stand behind the faulty Consent Agreement and the language which knocks down PARA. However collective bargaining sits in many more sections of State Law. This sure sound like the realization that the fascist State of Michigan has grabbed the City of Detroit. Some are fighting back, hopefully more will wake up and rise up.

AFSCME is reminding everyone able to make the trip to Lansing tomorrow - Wednesday July 25 to be at the bus departure locations BEFORE 7am when the buses leave.