Not all conflicts of interest are created equal

The continuing saga of the desperate attempt to derail putting the repeal of Public Act 4 — Michigan’s Emergency Manager law — on the November ballot continues with a piece published on the Michigan Radio website titled “Ballot box politics: Conflicts of interest for Michigan’s Board of State Canvassers”.

As I wrote about earlier this week, one of the members of the Michigan Board of State Canvassers (BSC), the group that will decide on the challenge to the petitions collected by Stand up for Democracy, is Jeff Timmer. Timmer works for a company that is intimately tied to the effort to defeat the repeal. His company, Sterling Corporation, is one and the same as the group “Citizens for Fiscal Responsibility” that is challenging the 226,000+ signatures because they font size of the heading is 12 rather than 14. Note that the printer’s affidavit certifies that the font is the correct size.

Like I said: desperate…

[More after the jump]

Conflict of interest much? As I have been reporting on (HERE and HERE), the effort to repeal Public Act 4 — Michigan’s Emergency Manager law — is being challenged by a group called Citizens for Fiscal Responsibility. The group is asking elections officials — the Board of State Canvassers — to throw out all of the petitions because the heading […]

Desperation is SUCH an ugly thing

Yesterday I reported that a group known as Citizens for Fiscal Responsibility is challenging the petitions for the repeal effort against Public Act 4 — Michigan’s odious Emergency Manager law. The basis of their complaint is that the font size of part of the petitions is too small.

It turns out that there is some case history on this very topic in Michigan…

FONT SIZE???! [NOTE: This post has been updated HERE.] In a clear act of desperation, a group opposing the repeal of Public Act 4 — Michigan’s Emergency Manager law — are challenging the petitions because they say the font size is too small. [O]pponents of the referendum drive say they’ve found what they’re calling a “fatal error” on the petitions. […]

It’s much, much worse in Michigan than we even realized

Last night, Rachel Maddow broke a huge story that has been happening since Republicans took over in Michigan in 2011 and has gone completely under the radar. Since January 2011, 566 bills have been signed into law. Of those, 546 of them, 96.5% were passed under “immediate effect”. Here’s the video from last night’s show that will blow your mind. Pay particular attention to around 12:30 where they show it in action. It’s astonishing.

This is new in Michigan governance. This is not the way that Michigan was set up. This is not the way it was supposed to be…Michigan Republicans are using what is supposed to be an emergency provision for everything, even for the most contentious and partisan and divisive things that they want to do…

Public Act 4 no longer in play in Detroit

Detroit’s financial review team was given the okay to meet yesterday morning by the Michigan Court of Appeals, clearing the way for them to vote to approve the consent agreement between the city and the state in the afternoon. And, last night, the Detroit City Council followed suit in a 5-4 split decision, agreeing to the consent agreement, actually called the “Financial Stability Agreement”, which gives city leaders some measure of control, including choosing some of the members of the financial advisory board… (more after the jump)

Yes, it’s still the law In what appears to be a never-ending saga of a ham-handed, clumsy implementation of a constitutionally-questionable law, the Snyder administration has finally won a court battle which put Flint Mayor Dayne Walling out of a job (again) and Emergency Manager Michael Brown back in (again). This and the continuing battles in Detroit and elsewhere to […]

Second time’s a charm Michigan Rising has risen like a phoenix from the ashes of the first attempt to recall Michigan Governor Rick Snyder and is giving it a second try. Last week, they submitted petition language in Washtenaw County. They had no trouble getting their language approved last year so there is little reason to believe they will have […]

Stop Public Act 4! The Michigan Secretary of State’s (SOS) office has confirmed that the Stand Up for Democracy coalition has turned in 24,151 valid sheets containing 225,885 signatures, exceeding the 161,305 needed to put the law on hold and the referendum on November 2012 ballot. [NOTE: this does NOT mean the signatures themselves have been validated, just that they […]

What the good judge giveth, the Appeals Court taketh away

On March 20th, Ingham County Circuit Court Judge Rosemarie Aquilina sent Flint Emergency Manager Michael Brown packing as she overturned the work of the review team that put him in place. Once again it was for violations of Michigan’s Open Meeting Act.

I characterized that decision as “for now” and I was, not surprisingly, right. Yesterday, the Court of Appeals overturned her ruling and Brown is back in while the state appeals the decision.

In a comprehensive and sternly-worded letter to Governor Rick Snyder (pdf), Congressmen John Conyers, Jr., Hansen Clarke, and Gary Peters are asking for some answers regarding his administration’s proposed Detroit Consent Agreement. The letter focuses on seven key areas: Failure of State to Provide Any Financial AssistanceGovernor Snyder is asked to explain why, unlike in other struggling cities across the […]