Tagged: emergency manager

Flint’s emergency manager is filling out his team to run the city.   

Flint emergency manager Michael Brown announced today he’s hiring three experienced administrators to take over key positions.  

Jerry Ambrose has been the city of Lansing’s finance director for the past six years. He’ll oversee Flint’s Finance, Budget and Treasury Departments.   

Howard Croft is coming over from the private sector. The CEO of Mid-Michigan Solar will be Flint’s new Director of Infrastructure and Development. Croft will oversee Flint’s city parks, water and sewer, as well as Community and Economic Development.  

Gary Bates has previously worked as Flint’s Labor Relations director. He’s been hired to fill that job temporarily.   

Emergency manager Michael Brown has laid off about a dozen top city officials since taking office two weeks ago. He’s charged with solving Flint’s ‘financial emergency’…which includes closing a multi-million dollar budget deficit. 

Detroit leaders are working to come up with cuts that will put the city on a stable financial path, but they don't think a 30 percent cut to their own budget is the right way to go.

Michigan Radio's Sarah Hulett reported on Gary Brown's austerity proposal last week. From Hulett's report:

The Detroit City Council’s budget is more than $13 million, and includes perks like city-issued cars and cell phones for council members.

Gary Brown is the Council President Pro Tem. He says like other city employees, he only pays ten percent of his health care costs. Brown’s proposal calls for upping that employee contribution to 30 percent. He says that’s a change the entire city workforce needs to accept.

"And the message, if we don’t show leadership on this issue, is that we’re asking our employees to do something we’re not willing to do," Brown said.

Brown made a similar proposal last month that went nowhere. This time he’s introduced a resolution that will get an up-or-down vote next week.

The Detroit News reports Brown's proposal has been rejected:

Critics of a law that puts managers in charge of distressed Michigan cities say they will march to the home of Gov. Rick Snyder.

A coalition of pastors and civil rights activists says the law seems to target black communities. The march is expected to include a protest at Snyder's home in Superior Township, east of Ann Arbor.

Organizers say it will be on Jan. 16, the public holiday honoring Martin Luther King Jr.

Emergency managers are in place in Benton Harbor, Pontiac, Flint and Detroit schools. Detroit's finances are also under scrutiny, the first step to a manager possibly being appointed at city hall.

The Snyder administration says race isn't a factor. It says it's simply assigning managers to cities that have poor finances.

A divided Flint School Board narrowly approved a state mandated deficit elimination plan last night.   

The board first deadlocked whether to approve the $3.7 million deficit elimination plan. After being told the district would potentially lose some pending state funding, the board revoted on the plan and passed it.  

Linda Thompson is Flint’s school superintendent. She said the plan should help the district avoid falling under the oversight of a state appointed emergency manager. Maybe.   

A leader of an effort to overturn the state’s emergency manager law says the petition drive is invigorated by news that legislative leaders are working on a back-up plan in the event the law is halted.

Brandon Jessup with Michigan Forward said he expects that halt will happen.

“I’m predicting success based on the amount of support we’ve received from across the state. Not just Detroit, but places like Traverse City, Cheboygan County, Grand Rapids, Benton Harbor – clearly – Pontiac, Saginaw, all across the state,” said Jessup.

Jessup said it’s good that lawmakers are revisiting the issue, but they need to do more.

“I’m glad to see the Legislature start to do something, but they haven’t invited the community to come to the table to help draft the legislation, so once again this is another near-sighted attempt," he said. "Not really to solve the solution, to be a solution to the problem, but to thwart our attempts at democracy.”

Opponents say the emergency manager law gives too much authority to state-appointed officials, and robs people of the right to select their local elected leaders.

Benton Harbor, Pontiac, Ecorse, Flint and the Detroit Public Schools are all run by emergency managers.

Update 11:36 a.m. The Muskegon Heights School Board plans to take the unusual step of asking for a state takeover. And they say they want Marios Demetriou, a Deputy Superintendent at the Muskegon Area Intermediate School District, to be the person who servers as their emergency manager. 

The school district has a deficit of around $9 million, and it’s growing. The board blames rising expenses, funding reductions, declining enrollment, and soaring health care costs as reasons for its problems. The Muskegon Heights Superintendent, Dana Bryant, has decided to "give up his job" to "help with financial relief efforts." He'll retire at the end of the year.

The Muskegon Area Intermediate School District Superintendent, Dave Sipka, will act as interim Superintendent for Muskegon Heights in the meantime. If one is appointed, an emergency manager could change or end union contracts to reduce the district’s deficit.

Doug Pratt, with the Michigan Education Association, said employees in Muskegon Heights have made sacrifices, and more concessions are not the answer. “The issue really is the fundamental lack of adequate funding from Lansing, especially when you look at the most recent cut of a billion dollars from public education that the legislature enacted earlier this year,” said Pratt.

Even though they’re asking for one, an emergency appointment wouldn’t come right away. A financial review would have to be performed before an EM is appointed. The Michigan Department of Education says they have not received the official request from the Muskegon Heights School Board yet, but they’ve been notified the request is coming. Michigan Department of Education spokeswoman Jan Ellis said the state has had “great concern over the financial stability of Muskegon Heights for quite some time.” She said the Muskegon Heights deficit has grown from $800,000 to around $9 million in the last 5 years. “Their ability to repay that debt or balance their budget becomes harder and harder, just like it would with everyone’s personal budget, if they got further and further in debt,” said Ellis.

The Muskegon Heights School Board has asked for an emergency manager to run the school district.

Thursday, December 8, 11:36 p.m.

In a statement, Muskegon School Board President Avery Burrel said,

"This is the first step in a long process of rebuilding our district's operational future. With the loss of Dr. Bryant's leadership, and the load of debt we are under, my fellow board members and I felt we must set aside our personal pride and ask the State and MAISD for help. Our children are counting on us to do so, and the future of our district depends on our actions today."

9:49 a.m.

Most school districts or cities work to avoid an emergency manager appointment, but the Muskegon Heights school board is practically begging for an emergency manager.

The Muskegon Chronicle reports the school board owes more than $900,000 to the state retirement system.

From the Muskegon Chronicle:

The school board in a surprising move Wednesday voted to ask that Marios Demetriou, the deputy superintendent for the Muskegon Area Intermediate School District, be appointed the district's emergency financial manager.

It also eliminated the superintendent's position, accepting the Dec. 31 retirement of Superintendent Dana Bryant, who in a statement said that considering all the other job losses in the district “I need to be man enough to give up my own job to help with the financial reform efforts.”

There are five emergency mangers operating in the state today.

With other school districts and cities in financial distress, more are likely to be appointed.