A lot of eyes, punctuated with raised eyebrows, turned to Michigan when the state passed a law that gives emergency managers appointed by the state unprecedented authority over vulnerable communities and school districts. One of the communities is the small town that neighbors the one I grew up in, our supposed 'twin city.' Another is the school district of my adopted city. Unsurprisingly, the law was challenged by a lawsuit. Surprisingly -- to me, anyway -- Governor Rick Snyder is trying to move the lawsuit straight to the Michigan Supreme Court, bypassing the circuit and appeals court process. I wrote about the story in an article published today with The American Prospect. An excerpt:
Michigan’s emergency-manager law, enacted this spring, gives state appointees unprecedented power over local governments and school districts, including the power to strip elected officials of their authority and to amend and discard union contracts. Poor communities, then, are subject to an unelected person’s near-total authority on how they should manage their affairs, creating an exception to democratic systems of checks-and-balances and nullifying the effect of citizen voting. It is unsurprising that communities assigned emergency managers are largely African-American. The Sugar Law Center for Economic and Social Justice in Detroit challenged the new law in circuit court in June, but Governor Rick Snyder asked this month for the case to be fast-tracked to the state’s Supreme Court—which leans strongly conservative—bypassing the circuit- and appeals-court process.
... The Sugar Law Center is representing a group of 28 citizen plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed in Ingham County Circuit Court that challenges the law’s constitutionality. “We’re conditioning the ability to elect local government on financial matters,” says legal director John Philo.
I will add that I genuinely think Snyder is not malicious. I think he's a private-sector businessman who has never held elected office before, and he simply does not seem to understand the way public systems and accountability need to work. A lot of his business expertise is a boon for Michigan, but this is a case where it's given him misguided expectations.
Another bit of nuance to note here, that I didn't have room for in the article:
The importance of this case is in preserving and supporting sustainable democratic systems and processes. In particular instances, the story can get more complicated. In the case of Detroit Public Schools, which is under emergency management, much was made nationally about the overtaking of a democratically-elected school board to shove reform down the throats of the city. It would be a mistake to overstate how the school board has represented "the people" -- typically, people are running opposed in elections where precious few voters show up. And the fact is, corruption and mismanagement has been rampant through the school district, to an absolutely astonishing degree; whether it was intentional or not, the school board was not effectively responding. Particularly the first emergency manager, Robert Bobb, made serious and essential strides that I simply don't see being done in any other way. So, the point is: I don't want to see this story simplified. Emergency managers can, and have done, very good work. The elected officials they basically overrule are not always a reasonable representation of the people they are supposed to serve. Nonetheless, it is difficult for me to see how this new law can be anything but a drastic over-reach of responsible democratic systems. Transparency and accountability should be actions, not ideals, especially when trying to support struggling communities.
Excellent piece! PLEASE keep us posted as this goes on.
Posted by: Justinwedes | August 31, 2011 at 01:38 PM