Recall Efforts Continue For Both Snyder and His EFM Law

Haven’t signed a Recall Snyder petition yet? Grand Rapids residents have three chances in September to do so before the deadline at the end of the month. There will be a petition signing station set up at the Fulton Street Farmers’ Market on Labor Day—Monday, September 5—from 7AM to 6PM. The Farmer’s Market is at 1147 Fulton St. SE.

The Recall Snyder group will also be there on Saturday, September 10 and Saturday, September 17 —same place, same times.

Meanwhile, you may get an anonymous phone call telling you that if you sign a Recall Snyder petition, your identity will be stolen. This is just one of the efforts by state conservatives to derail the drive in its final month.

To get the recall on the ballot, 807,000 verified signatures of registered voters need to be handed in. The effort fell short on August 5, the original deadline to make the November ballot. Only 300,000 signatures had been collected. Regrouping, the campaign set its sights on a February ballot. The new deadline is September 29.

The Recall Snyder campaign plans a major push over the Labor Day weekend. Counter measures are being deployed. The Battle Creek Enquirer published information on August 24 that state voters are receiving untraceable telephone calls that say that signing a Recall Snyder petition will lead to identify theft. In Saugatuck, City officials have told canvassers that they can stand on public sidewalks to collect signatures…but they are forbidden to speak to anyone to tell them about the recall effort. The ACLU filed a lawsuit over this fiat.

Many Michigan newspapers have remained silent on Recall Snyder petition drive, giving it little play in their pages. The Grand Rapids Press’s articles have been mainly anti-recall, such as a slavishly supportive commentary about Snyder from the head of the Michigan Association of Realtors and the president of the Michigan Chamber of Commerce. No hidden agenda there.

In the meantime, your best bet to get updated information is the Recall Snyder Facebook page.

As for the recall attempt for Public Act 4 (Snyder’s Emergency Financial Manager law), GRIID was informed by Michigan Forward that after this past weekend’s petition drives, the group is within 30,000 signatures of its goal. The allied activist groups collecting signatures (they were here on Saturday, August 27) may reach their goal to freeze use of Public Act 4 just in time to save Flint, which has been placed under preliminary financial review.

This review has been ordered even though the City of Flint reduced its deficit from $14 million to $2 million with this year’s budget agreement. As in Detroit, it’s Flint’s mayor who is campaigning for the all-powerful EFM position, and he attended Emergency Financial Manager training earlier this year.

The training sessions are run by Treasury Secretary Andy Dillon at Michigan State University to sell-out crowds. You can see the agenda for one session here.  Note that a large part of the program involves hiring “professional support”—contractors—and also trains future EFMs on how they can avoid personal liability or indemnity for acts they commit such as breaking legal contracts.

September’s training session will include the hilariously titled special session, “How to Communicate Bad News.” The cost of the workshop ranges from $199 to $315 (charges for entry to the lavish reception, the group golf tournament, and the hotel room are extra). In the case of Flint’s mayor, the costs for the workshop were apparently passed onto the citizens of Flint.

As soon as the petition signatures are submitted and validated to recall Public Act 4, Snyder’s version of the EFM law will be suspended until the election.

Copyrighted image used by permission from Linda R. Robinson

Snyder/Dillon photo from Voice of Detroit http://voiceofdetroit.net/