Local People Debate Emergency Manager Issue

DETROIT (Talk Radio 1270) A measure to put a repeal of the controversial Emergency Manager law on the November ballot stalled when the state Board of Canvassers deadlocked along party lines -- Republicans opposing the repeal effort and Democrats supporting it.

Supporters got more than the required 200,000 signatures to get the measure on the ballot, but the size of the font on their ballot was called into question. They said it was the required 14-size typeface, while opponents argued that the font was too small. The board was unable to reach consensus.

Rev. David Bullock of Stand Up For Democracy, the group that created the initiative, visited the Charlie Langton talk Radio 1270 morning show to discuss the issue that's coming up more and more in metro Detroit as older communities with unfulfilled infrastructure needs and legacy costs struggle to make ends meet. The emergency manager law allows the state to appoint a financial manager to oversee a financially stressed community, laying off staff, combining departments, and avoiding union contracts if that's deemed necessary to balance the books.

"I'm mad, I can't believe that the Board of Canvassers would not let the people decide if they want emergency dictators in Michigan," Bullock said. "They're sent in by the governor to occupy cities and school districts."

Experts weighed in both sides of the font size debate during the hearing, some saying it was large enough and others saying it wasn't. "This is partisan politics at its best," Bullock said.

The public appears to be just as divided.

Caller Eric, who said he supports the emergency manager act, said, "Cities like Detroit, cities like Flint...The argument of democracy is a joke to me because they have such low voter turnout anyway."

Caller Matt in Shelby Township said, "My biggest thing about the emergency manager is how grossly misrepresentatve the arguments against it are... the emergency manager is in place so the cities don't go bankrupt ... If Detroit goes bankrupt if affects the whole region."

Responding, Bullock said, "This is not Russia, this is America, it's amazing to me how citizens of the United States of America ... where democracy is the order of the day ... That means one -- there's no connection between silencing elected officials, making their vote null and void, and fixing a financial crisis."

John from Chesterfield Township said, "Elected officials will not deal with any financial issues as long as their political career is on the line... It's all politics."

Bullock, and many others, believe the emergency manager law takes away the democratically protected right of people to have decisions carried out by the people they elect in their own community.

"Everyone in the Legislature was elected by the whole state," Langton said.

Weighing in to say he's against the emergency manager concept, Steve from Auburn Hills said, "What's happened is we've had an erosion of our nation for the last 50 years in the name of public policy. Our cities are in a mess today. What's happened in Detroit is people can't run their own lives, including City Countil. Some of them can't even make their house payments and they're trying to govern a city, and that (won't) cut it."