The article says its information came - from an "unidentified

The state I live in (new Republican Governor) just passed this legislation - giving Governor total power

Again...the article says this is on the basis - of "unidentified informant"

I live in Michigan and this is happening here right now. - CVmt

Article I read said the emergency manager - who made decision

he was - icedT

Robert Bobb was appointed by Gov. Granholm (democrat) to fix the Detroit schools. He is highly respected and really brought a lot of corruption to light.

http://detroitk12.org/admin/finance/manager/bio/Robert C. Bobb Biography


Robert C. Bobb has served as Emergency Financial Manager of the 87,000-student Detroit Public Schools since March 2, 2009. A one-year appointment by Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm was extended through March 1, 2011 in October 2009.

Mr. Bobb assembled a team of national turnaround experts to address the district’s legacy deficit which was projected to peak at $305.8 million by June 2009, and to create for the school district a Master Education Plan for 21st Century Teaching and Learning; plans for Safe and Secure Learning Environments; Facilities; and Parent and Community Involvement; as well as a Master Long-term Financial Plan. Immediate establishment of an Office of the Inspector General (OIG) began a path to eliminate waste, fraud and abuse, and creation of an internal Office of Internal Audit assured that internal controls are in place. The OIG efforts resulted in 218 cases opened from 281 tips received, referral of 15 cases to federal and state prosecutors, four criminal prosecutions, 19 disciplinary hearings, termination of 9 employees, and identification of 17 computer theft suspects. Detroit Public Schools also addressed 89 percent of the previous problematic audit findings. Academic restructuring resulted in new assignments for 37 of the district's principals, nonrenewal of contracts for 44 others, and restructuring of 40 Detroit Public Schools including 22 of the district’s high schools. Nineteen of 42 high schools opened in Fall 2009 with new principals.

At DPS, Mr. Bobb’s efforts have resulted in successful passage, by a 61-39 percent margin, of a $500.5 million bond issue for use of Federal stimulus funds to build and/or modernize 18 schools, an enrollment drive that exceeded budgeted projections by some 900 students, creation of Emergency Student Achievement Summer School Academies serving 34,000 children and retaining $30.5 million in Federal Title funds, restoring the Detroit Public Schools Foundation, and ratification of a new reform contract with the teachers union. Recently a pledge to have all Detroit children reading at grade level in third grade by 2015 resulted in the launch of the DPS Reading Corps, which has since attracted more than 4,750 volunteers from more than 130 jurisdictions who have pledged 545,000+ hours of service to district pre-kindergarten students in one year.

Mr. Bobb holds more than 30 years executive management experience in both the private and public sectors. He is the owner, President and CEO of the LAPA Group, LLC, a multi-faceted private/public sector consulting firm. He was elected city-wide as the President of the Washington, DC Board of Education in November 2006. Mr. Bobb is the former City Administrator and Deputy Mayor for Washington, D.C. and served as the District of Columbia’s Homeland Security Advisor. He managed a workforce of approximately 20,000 employees and an annual budget of $8 billion dollars. He served as the City Manager of Oakland, California and Executive Director of the Oakland Redevelopment Agency, City Manager of Richmond, Virginia, City Manager of Santa Ana, California, and City Manager of Kalamazoo, Michigan. Mr. Bobb holds the distinction of having served on a continuous basis as the longest tenured African-American City Manager/City Administrator in the nation. He is an expert on the issues facing urban government in the realms of education, economic development, community and neighborhood development, municipal budgeting and finances, contract negotiations, public/private partnerships of sports franchises, libraries and recreation facilities, and social problems such as crime and grime.

In his first year in Detroit, Mr. Bobb was named the Champion for Children by the Michigan Association of School Administrators, a statewide association which represents the superintendents and first-line administrators of Michigan’s local and intermediate school districts. He was recognized as the Michigan Newsmaker of the Year by WXYZ-TV, and along with Mayor Dave Bing as Newsmakers of the Year by Crain’s Detroit Business. Mr. Bobb served as the January 2010 Commencement Speaker at Walsh College which bestowed upon him the Honorary Doctor of Laws degree. The Detroit Turnaround story has been covered nationally by Time magazine, the Wall Street Journal, CNN, the Associated Press, and Education Week.

His career recognitions include the prestigious International City/County Management Association’s (ICMA) L. P. Cookingham Award for Career Development and four ICMA Innovation Awards. Mr. Bobb also earned the National Forum for Black Public Administrator’s (NFBPA) Marks of Excellence Award and is a former President of the NFBPA. By proclamation, former California Governor Gray Davis declared April 11, 2001, “Robert C. Bobb Day” in that state. In September 1993, City & State Magazine, a periodical for city and state government officials, named Robert Bobb as the “Most Valuable Public Official” among professional managers of the country’s local governments.

An avid sportsman, he is also an ardent supporter and patron of the arts, and a pro-active champion for civil rights. Mr. Bobb finds time in his busy schedule to mentor urban youth and young professionals, and is a volunteer in the DPS Reading Corps. Under his direction, several successful outreach programs were designed and administered to foster urban youth in civic responsibility, educational achievement, and competitiveness in the employment market. Notably, more than 19 of Mr. Bobb’s former assistants have advanced to make their own contribution as city managers, county executives, public safety directors, head of a public utility, deputy mayor and assistant city managers.

Robert C. Bobb earned a Bachelor of Arts in political science from Grambling State University in Grambling, Louisiana and a Master of Science in Business from Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Michigan. He also completed the certificate program for Senior Executives in State and Local Governments from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, where he served as a member of the Executive Alumni Council.

Mr. Bobb is a Fellow of the 2005 Broad Foundation Urban Schools Superintendents Academy, Founding President of the City of Oakland, California African American Chamber of Commerce, Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration, member of the ICMA, Fellow of the Thomas Jefferson Program in Public Policy at the College of William & Mary, and former member of the Board of Visitors of the Virginia Military Institute.

me too - icedT

I live in Michigan too and remember when the cities of Hamtramck and Ecorse were taken over by emergency financial managers as far back as 1986.  This really isn\'t a new thing.

Emergency Financial Manager to Help Hamtramck Balance the Books

By David Bardallis | March 9, 2001

After teetering on the brink of insolvency, the Detroit-area city of Hamtramck is on its way back to financial health and stability following the state\'s appointment of privatization expert Louis Schimmel as the city\'s emergency financial manager.

Schimmel is recently retired from the Municipal Advisory Council of Michigan, a nonprofit statistical clearing house for investment bankers throughout the United States who underwrite and/or invest in Michigan municipal bond issues. He had planned to spend his retirement building houses in and around his home of Waterford Township, but state officials had other ideas.

Gov. John Engler and a five-member state review panel selected Schimmel in November 2000 to help the cash-strapped city of Hamtramck erase its enormous $2.4 million debt. Mayor Gary Zych had requested state help after failing to gain economic concessions from the city employees\' union, some members of which balked at performing such basic services as garbage collection.

In early December, Schimmel got to work by immediately shaving 30 non-essential city jobs from the budget, saving the small community $600,000. More changes designed to make the city solvent again include the reduction of frivolous city employee benefits, such as \"accumulated time off.\" Accumulated time off allows workers to be paid for unused time off at the end of their careers. This policy has cost the city a fortune because accumulated time off is paid based on an employee\'s final salary rate, which is almost certain to be higher than the salary rate at which the unused time was originally accrued.

Schimmel is currently attempting to gain the right to contract out for garbage collection, street and water system maintenance, and sewer services in the Department of Public Works. He may also sell city-owned property such as Hamtramck City Hall and the current police headquarters as well as \"lay off\" one of the two local judges. He recently received permission from the Wayne County Commission to negotiate with the Wayne County Sheriff\'s Department over inter-governmental contracting for services. Ultimately, he may replace Hamtramck\'s city police force with Wayne County officers, and halve the cost of paying for police protection in the process.

Union opposition to Schimmel\'s efforts has delayed these changes because, under state law, an emergency financial manager may only renegotiate contracts instead of setting them aside entirely. Consequently, Schimmel and the city employees\' union appear to be at an impasse on several negotiation fronts. For instance, Schimmel wants to privatize 100 percent of the city\'s Department of Public Works (DPW), but the union representing DPW workers is only willing to part with half.

Schimmel did have words of praise for the city\'s fire department, though. He reports that the fire department is comprised of \"a very thoughtful group of people who work hard and want to do what is right for the city.\"

This is not the first time Schimmel has applied his expertise to a distressed municipality. In 1986, the state appointed him receiver of the bankrupt city of Ecorse, which was saddled with a $6 million debt. By 1990, Schimmel had largely solved the problem and stepped down as receiver, continuing to watch over Ecorse\'s finances until the city made its last loan repayment to the state in August 1999.

\"Much of the deficit was eliminated by the privatization of nearly all city services,\" Schimmel explained in the spring 1996 issue of Michigan Privatization Report. Within weeks of taking over Ecorse\'s financial matters, Schimmel transferred responsibility for such services as trash collection and snowplowing from government to private service providers, reaping tremendous savings and reversing Ecorse\'s financial decline.

\"Schimmel is credited with making the tough decisions that helped turn the city [of Ecorse] around,\" a recent Detroit Free Press article concluded. Schimmel\'s background in municipal finance, including his service on numerous boards and committees, and his experience with successful privatization, will certainly serve Hamtramck well as it struggles to get back on its financial feet.

http://www.mackinac.org/3356

And then there was the City of Ecorse in 2009:

Published: Friday, September 25, 2009

ECORSE — City officials plan to fight Gov. Jennifer Granholm’s decision on Friday that an emergency financial manager would be appointed to run the city.

City Attorney Sequara Henry said the city officially filed its objection Tuesday, asking for an administrative hearing to be held before a manager is put in place.

The hearing will take place at 10 a.m. Oct. 13 at the Richard H. Austin Building in Lansing. State Treasurer Robert Kleine will preside.

If Granholm still decides that a financial manager is needed after the hearing, the city could appeal her decision to Wayne County Circuit Court.

If a manager is appointed, it would be up to a separate state entity — the Local Emergency Financial Assistance Loan Board — to select who gets the job.

Auditors said Ecorse, one of Downriver’s smallest cities of about 11,000 residents, could end this fiscal year with a deficit as high as $8.8 million unless drastic action is taken.

If an emergency financial manager is brought in, it will be the second time in two decades that the city had to be rescued from millions of dollars in debt.

Ecorse became the first municipality in the state to be put under the control of a court-ordered receiver when the city nearly went bankrupt in 1986.

http://www.thenewsherald.com/articles/2009/09/25/news/doc4ab99d9b17146468909487.txt

Recall process underway for Snyder - Walker recall coming. nm

Great. Obama's is coming too, in 2012. - And hopefully several

good luck with that/nm - nm