A constitutional amendment to protect a civil right is proposed

LANSING –The most popular thing that came from Wednesday’s pro-working family rally at the Capitol aimed, primarily, at the anti-Democratic Emergency Financial Managers (EFM) package of bills was the announcement that House and Senate Democrats plan to be introduce an amendment to the Michigan Constitution to guarantee the right of Michigan workers to collectively bargain.

Senate Democratic Leader Gretchen Whitmer, D - East Lansing, and House Democratic Leader Rick Hammel, D - Mt. Morris, made the announcement to more than 5,000 people who jammed the Capitol on Wednesday to voice their displeasure with the EFM bills that will give an appointed czar the power to suspend union contracts and the civil right of collective bargain and the ability to disincorporate or dissolve the municipal government.

“It’s time that politicians stop telling our working families what they want to hear, then pass bills that weaken their rights and threaten the wages and benefits of men and women who actually work for a living,” Whitmer. “This amendment would secure in Michigan’s Constitution the basic right for every individual to have a seat at the negotiating table. They say we’re not Wisconsin, well then let’s prove it.”

It was impossible to ignore the roar of the loud but peaceful crowd that spent the entire day in the Capitol on Wednesday, but Governor Rick Snyder, in his office just across the street from the Capitol, managed to do so. On Wednesday he signed the EFM bills into law.

Snyder has said he is not interested in busting unions, but his actions are saying otherwise. If he is not the Legislature sure is, and, that’s the only thing this Legislature has been doing since it convened in January.

A letter signed by the two Democratic leaders was delivered to Snyder’s office on Wednesday that thanked the Governor for his comments in support of collective bargaining in recent weeks and asked for his support on their effort. The letter stated, “Together, we can make it clear that developing a balanced budget can, and must, be done without sacrificing our state’s long held tradition of supporting our tremendous workforce.”

“They should not be using the excuse of balancing the budget to justify breaking their promise to the people who teach our kids and keep us safe,” Hammel said. “That approach will cost us jobs and worsen our economy, not save it.”

The resolution would require a two-thirds approval of both the House and Senate to be placed on the 2012 election ballot, but that appears very unlikely with the anti-worker bent of this current Legislature. It will take a petition drive, and it will require more than 322,000 signatures to place it on the ballot.

The middle class will make their voices heard in Lansing this week

It will be a busy place in Lansing for the next couple of days as people from all over the state are stepping up to voice their concerns over Republican policies that are taking the state back years, taking away their right to vote for their leaders and busts unions.

A group of community activists are organizing “A Storm the Capitol” rally beginning at 9 a.m. Tuesday at the Corner of Michigan Ave., and Capitol Ave. in Downtown Lansing. The Facebook page for the rally says it will run until 6 p.m. Wednesday, and it says many people are staying the night for an all-night vigil until the doors of the Capitol open in the morning.

The House is expected to take up the main bill in the anti-union and anti-Democratic Emergency Financial Managers (EFM) package of bills on Tuesday because the Senate approved a different version of House Bill 4214 last week. Many people want to voice their displeasure with that anti-freedom bill.

But those patriots will not be alone on Tuesday. The AARP is holding a “It’s Not Fair Rally” from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Tuesday on the Capitol steps and lawn to protest the Governor's plan to tax pensions. The AFL-CIO and Michigan League for Human Services will also be on hand on Tuesday to stand up for Michigan’s poor, middle class and elderly. They don’t have a lobbying firm.

One of the 40 anti-union and anti-middle class bills introduced so far in this legislative session will be considered, and the House Commerce Committee will hold a hearing on HB 4287 that will do away with the prevailing wage law. The hearing will start at 10:30 a.m. in 519 House Office Building, 121 N. Capitol. The meeting is open to the public.

On Wednesday beginning at noon on the Capitol steps the Michigan AFL-CIO affiliate unions and Working Michigan are holding a rally to stand up for Michigan’s middle class.

At 9 a.m. Wednesday in Room 519 of the House Office Building, 121 N. Capitol, the House Education Committee will take up HB 4306, a bill that forces local school boards to privatize services. All committee hearings are open to the public.

As always, a small contingent of teabaggers armed with video cameras will be there to try and provoke a confrontation. At a recent three-hour rally, a teabagger Republican and Grand Traverse County Commissioner managed to get 31 seconds of a confrontation on tape where a guy gave the teabagger the finger, which he promptly posted to a rightwing blog. They are trying, and failing, to paint these peaceful and energized working people as violent union “thugs,” so I expect them to be more and more desperate as public opinion continues to swing to the side of union workers.

Be careful, and the best thing to do is just walk away.

Rally on Tuesday to protest anti-worker and anti-voter bills

The Michigan AFL-CIO and the United Auto Workers of Michigan (UAW) are organizing a pro-worker rally in Lansing on Tuesday March 8 to peacefully protest the anti-union and anti-Democratic Emergency Financial Manager (EFM) package of bills.

The Senate is expected to take up Senate Bills 153-158 that will make it easier for financially troubled municipalities and school districts to be taken over by an emergency financial manager, and the bills give the EFM almost dictatorial like powers. The bills take the power and authority out of the hands of the people legally elected by the voters and places it in the hands of a person appointed by the governor and the Legislature, and it allows the EFM - which is why Republicans have placed the bills on the fast track - to terminate contracts negotiated with labor unions in good faith.

The package is moving at breakneck speed. Just two weeks ago the House approved House Bills 4214-4218 and 4246 along party lines, 62-47 with one Republican voting no on the House version of the bills. This appears to be a stealth way to accomplish the union busting that is going on in in Ohio and Wisconsin and end collective bargaining for public sector unions.

Gov. Rick Snyder’s budget proposal that raises taxes on the most vulnerable and shifts taxes from corporations to kids and seniors will also place more school districts and municipalities into financial trouble.

It also includes deep cuts to revenue sharing to cities, villages and towns, and it will trim the fund from nearly $300 million to $200 million. It will surely cause local governments to lay off police and firefighters, and it will mean more municipalities will need an EFM.

The budget also calls for cutting some $420 per-pupil in public education funding. That will devastate school districts, sending many into deficit districts, meaning they will need an EFM.

The rally will begin at 9 a.m. at the Capitol steps, and the Senate will meet to take up the bills at 10 a.m. The rally is expected to last until 1 p.m.

Former Michigan Supreme Court Justice ignores legal election with union busting decision

You had to know this was coming with the rash of Republican attempts at union busting, and yesterday new rightwing Department of Human Services director and former Michigan Supreme Court Justice Maura Corrigan announced the state will stop collecting union dues from 16,500 private day care providers and will no longer fund the agency in charge of their union.

Despite the fact that a majority of workers voted in a legal election and it was upheld in the courts, Corrigan did the bidding for the rightwing think tank the Mackinac Center.

In 2009 child care workers organized the Child Care Providers Together Michigan (CCPTM) union, a joint venture between United Auto Workers (UAW) and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME). The Michigan Employment Relations Commission (MERC) certified CCPTM as the sole bargaining unit for all home-based child care providers receiving reimbursement payments from the Michigan Child Development and Care Program.

The Mackinac Center, and their allies in the conservative media and in the Senate GOP caucus, thinks it’s somehow illegal for a group of workers to vote to form a union, and the Mackinac Center filed a lawsuit claiming that because not everybody voted, the election is somehow invalid. The Michigan Court of Appeals rejected that ridiculous claim, twice, so they turned to the Legislature where the anti-union Republicans were very receptive. Still, they failed there, so with the stroke of a pen Corrigan undid a legally sanctioned election and what she could not accomplish on the bench or in the Legislature.

I’m assuming the Mackinac Center, knowing they would never win in court, will drop their losing lawsuit, and it’s unclear if the union will file a lawsuit, hopefully they will. It’s nice to know that you can undo an election with a simple stroke of a pen, so I want to see the 2010 election in Michigan undone, too.

Republicans circumvent legal election to kill union and hurt kids

LANSING – Republicans cannot stop workers from organizing and improving their lot through the legal way with an election, so they went around the election Wednesday with approval of Senate Bill 1158 that provides the budget for the Department of Human Services

The Senate budget calls for de-funding the Home-Based Child Care Council and stop the collection of union dues. You will recall that last year child care workers organized the Child Care Providers Together Michigan (CCPTM) union, a joint venture between United Auto Workers (UAW) and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME). The Michigan Employment Relations Commission (MERC) certified CCPTM as the sole bargaining unit for all home-based child care providers receiving reimbursement payments from the Michigan Child Development and Care Program.

The Michigan Quality Community Care Council is a standalone public body created by inter-local agreement under the Urban Cooperation Act of 1967 charged with the mission of improving professional development opportunities for home based child care providers, but Republicans like the rightwing think tank Mackinac Center falsely claims it will strengthen the union.

Sen. Gilda Jacobs, D-Huntington Woods, offered one of the best defenses of the union on the Senate floor I have heard since this GOP attack began.

“I stand here today to be somewhat of a truth squad because I think it is important that what has been described as questionable and forced unionization of home-based child care workers is not that at all,” she said. “The fact of the matter is that the union was ratified through an election process that was entirely proper and legal. Ninety-eight percent of the workers who voted in the election voted in favor of unionization. At no point was the validity of that election challenged through the normal procedures provided by our labor laws.”

This is just one more GOP attempt to kill unions and make Michigan a so-called “Right to work state” when the fact is anyone can opt out of the union.

“In any event, no one is forcing workers who do not want to be part of the union to join,” Jacobs said. “Both Michigan and federal law prohibit compulsory union membership. Any employee who wishes can refrain from joining the union by paying a small representation fee.”

Sen. Ray Basham, D-Taylor, a retired Ford autoworker, also defended unions, saying unions are middle-income people and consumers, and when we lose union members the consumers in this country continue to decline.

“So unions have actually been very, very good for Michigan,” he said. “When we had more union people, we were actually above the national average when it came to income, consumers, and people with a good quality of life. I would take umbrage with the Senator from the 29th District when he starts to bash unions.”

The budget narrowly passed with a 20-18 with some Republicans – who usually vote in lockstep - crossing over to vote with the Democrats. The Governor had recommended 527 new child protective services workers to comply with the children's rights lawsuit settlement and the increased caseload, but the Senate approved just 151 new workers. The bill now goes to the House Appropriations Committee.

GOP sees black helicopters dropping fake petitions

Republicans have seen another black helicopter and discovered a conspiracy theory involving the teabaggers led by anti-union activtist and Republican House staffer Chet Zarko.

He’s making the claim, and most of Michigan’s rightwing blogs have picked up on it, that “Progressive Campaigns Inc. (PCI) has been hired to collect signatures to put on the ballot a "Tea Party" party.” He further claims that this alleged petition drive is funded by the Michigan Democratic Party, and then he lets out the big GOP boogieman, George Soros. Be afraid, be very afraid.

Soros should be a poster boy for what Republicans claim are their ideals; a man who pulled himself up by his bootstraps, but that is just another GOP talking point.

How does Mr. Zarko know about this alleged petition drive? Because he checked with his co-conspirator Wendy Day - who Zarko teamed up with to attack Howell’s teachers in May of 2007 - and the Howell school board member and head teabagger claims she knows nothing about the petition. Zarko claims Day “condemned this effort and stated it was an effort to dilute the impact of the current Tea Party - she argued this was evidence that forces opposing reform were taking the Tea Party seriously - so seriously that indeed they are trying to steal its trademark and hijack it.”

It’s trademark? Not only that proof, but Zarko” verified through technical means.”

Even if everything Zarko has written about this latest fairy tale is true, so what?

The hurdle for a minor political party, like the Green Party or the Libertarian Party, to get on the ballot here in Michigan is very high. They must first file as a new political party even if they have been around for many years. The party must collect petition signatures equal to 1 percent of the votes cast for the governor. That comes out to 38,013 signatures. If they are paying $1 per signature, as Zarko claims, that’s a lot of cash to be paying for no effect during the start of the campaign season.

Even if by some strange twist this alleged petition drive actually occurred, where are the candidates? Recruiting good Democratic candidates to run for office here in predominantly Republican Livingston County is tough because the odds are against them. How hard would it be to recruit a teabagger candidate with even higher odds?

To get on the ballot, the minor party must have ballot status in Michigan. Then, any candidate must receive nomination to the office they want to run for at the party’s nominating convention that must be held no later than August 3, 2010 to be on the November ballot. Does Zarko and the rightwing think that could really happen?

The right thing to do would be to form a third party, but the simple fact is that the teabagger "movement" is just the radical wing of the Republican Party that’s all ready so far right it’s almost off the tracks.

Teabaggers will never, ever be a third party no matter who pushes it. Even if Zarko’s fairy tale were true, would it be any worse than Republicans collecting signatures to put Green Party Presidential Ralph Nader on the ballot in 2000 and help George Bush become President?

Republicans and their allies continue to attack unions and the Democratic process

Why do Republicans hate the Democratic process and the working class so much?

Republicans can’t stop workers from legally joining a union by a majority vote, they can’t overturn it in court, so they are now trying the legislative route.

The rightwing, anti-union think tank the Mackinac Center and its newly formed Legal Foundation has been attacking the Child Care Providers Together Michigan union, a joint venture between United Auto Workers (UAW) and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME). The Mackinac Center, and their allies in the conservative media and in the Senate GOP caucus, think it’s somehow illegal for a group of workers to vote to form a union.

The Mackinac Center filed a lawsuit claming that because not everybody voted, the election is somehow invalid. That’s like saying elections are invalid simply because there is not a 100 percent turnout. The Michigan Court of Appeals rejected ridiculous claim, so while the case is under appeal, they turned to the Legislature where the anti-union Republicans were very receptive.

Sen. Mark Jansen, R-Grand Rapids, introduced Senate Bills 1178 and 1179 on Feb. 25, and they were referred to the Senate Families and Human Services Committee he chairs. SB 1178 would prohibit taking compulsory union dues from caregiver subsidies, and SB 1179 would prohibit the Michigan Employment Relations Commission (MERC) from recognizing a bargaining unit consisting of individuals who are not public employees. Sen. Nancy Cassis, R-Novi, introduced SB 1173 at the same time that almost mirrors SB 1179. That bill was co-sponsored by Sen. Valde Garcia, R-Howell.

Howell radio station WHMI carried a story on SB 1173 today with the headline, “Garcia Backs Legislation To Change Forced Unionization.” That’s like me saying I was forced to recognize George Bush as president even though I didn’t vote for him. A proper election was held to unionize, and the majority vote to unionize.

His co-sponsorship of SB 1173 is a little surprising when you consider he also co-sponsored SB 731 that would create the Michigan Quality Community Care Council. The Mackinac Center falsely claims it will strengthen the union. Among the things the bi-partisan bill would do is to form the Michigan Quality Community Care Council, and the council would be responsible for working to preserve consumer selection and self-direction of providers.

The fact is the unionization of home-based childcare workers reflects the new realities of the workplace. It stems from policy decisions made in the 1990s requiring persons receiving welfare to work or get work training. That meant their children needed care which helped lead to the growth of home-based care. But until the union was established, those workers had no voice is being able to express their concerns about the system and operations.

Republicans are against any thing that gives workers a voice.

Newspaper enables partisan attack on bipartisan bill

Although I didn’t think it was possible, the Livingston County Daily Press & Argus has veered even farther to the right and gotten even more anti-union.

Over the last month or so, they have championed the cause of the rightwing think tank the Mackinac Center and its newly formed Legal Foundation; running stories and an editorial bashing the Child Care Providers Together Michigan union, a joint venture between United Auto Workers (UAW) and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME). The paper and the Mackinac Center think it’s somehow illegal for a group of workers to vote to form a union.

As I have said on numerous occasions, there is nothing more Democratic in the workplace than a union, and the vote to form the union was 5,900 to 475. They are both, apparently, angry that the Michigan Court of Appeals has rejected their claim that because not everybody voted, the election is somehow invalid. Under their logic, only elections that have a 100 percent turnout should be certified.

Knowing how aggressively the newspaper’s management pursued any attempts at unionizing this paper like their fellow journalists were successfully able to do at the Observer and Eccentric part of the chain, this position is not at all surprising.

What’s really surprising is that the paper almost ignores what’s going on in Lansing, but it is all over any union-bashing story.

Now, the newspaper is again doing the bidding of the Mackinac Center and going after home health care workers who chose to unionize. The government saves millions of dollars keeping seniors out of expensive nursing homes and allowing them to spend their final days in their own homes, but they want to deny the people caring for them a decent wage and health benefits and training.

A story in Thursday’s edition featured Senate Bill 731 that would create the Michigan Quality Community Care Council. The Mackinac Center claims it will strengthen the union. That’s simply not true. The workers have already voted for a union, and the bill sets standards.

Among the things the bill would do is to form the Michigan Quality Community Care Council, and the council would be responsible for working to preserve consumer selection and self-direction of providers. According to the nonpartisan Senate Fiscal Agency, the council would also:

-- Provide support to providers through a variety of methods aimed at encouraging competence, achieving quality services for consumers, and improving provider retention through improved job satisfaction.
-- Protect the confidential status of information relating to consumers.
-- Assist consumers in deciding whom to employ to provide personal assistance services, how those services would be provided, and how long the employed provider would render them.
-- Develop recruitment and retention programs to expand the pool of available, qualified providers.
-- Provide or facilitate provider training and otherwise assist providers through the dissemination of information that assisted them to be successful in rendering personal assistance services to consumers.
-- Facilitate and coordinate advanced training for providers.

That sounds like pretty evil stuff.

The Senate votes on some 3,000 things a year, yet the paper is all over the anti-union stuff and ignores most of the rest. Why?

I have seen editorials in this newspaper on how the Legislature needs to stop partisan bickering and get things done and address the state's problems. SB 731 is one of those examples of bipartisanship. It is co-sponsored by both Republicans and Democrats. In fact, it’s con-sponsored by some of the most conservative and liberal members of the Senate.

It is sponsored by conservative Republican Sen. Jason Allen, R-Traverse City, the chair of the Committee on Senior Citizens and Veterans Affairs. It is co-sponsored by conservatives like Sen. Valde Garcia, R-Howell, and Sen. Bruce Patterson, R-Canton; as well as by some of the most liberal members of the Senate; like Sen. Gretchen Whitmer, D-East Lansing, and Sen. Gilda Jacobs, D-Huntington Woods.

Perhaps the funniest part of the article is where it claims “While these professionals are crucial, a deal through the state that unionized them — and a bill that would strengthen it — is creating ire among some taxpayers.”

Well, it turns out those taxpayers are the Mackinac Center and a teabagger group headed up by Wendy Day, a founder of the defunct anti-gay hate group known as LOVE (Livingston Organization for Values in Education) and a book-burner.

The teabagger group has a new name, calling itself “Common Sense in Government.” It follows the Bush Administration’s practice of calling something the exact opposite of what it real is, like the Clean Skies initiative or the Healthy Forests initiative.

The paper says the teabaggers are pushing robo-calls in the sponsors and co-sponsor's districts “urging constituents to protest the bill.” It’s unclear who is paying for those calls, but I’m sure it’s no grassroots effort.

GOP attack on police officers and firefighters continues

LANSING -- The Senate Republicans continue to target police officers and firefighters with their union-busting bills disguised as government reform at the second hearing of the newly-formed Senate Reform and Restructuring Committee on Wednesday.

The union-bashing and anti-public employee political theatre calls for constitutional amendments to be placed on the ballot in August to require government workers to take a 5 percent pay cut and pay 20 percent of their health insurance premiums, but Senate Bill 1072 that that would amend PA 312 of 1969 that allows compulsory arbitration of labor disputes for municipal police and fire departments because they cannot strike was again the focus of the hearing.

Last week the Michigan Municipal League (MML) that represents city and village officials testified, along with municipal officials from city council members to township board members, blaming PA 312 for layoffs and bankruptcies instead of falling property values and reduced revenue sharing. The MML not only wants to amend PA 312, they want to do away with it completely.

Wednesday police officers and firefighters got their turn, and they debunked the claims of the MML with actual facts. The union members were neutral on SB 1072, but they wanted to set the record straight on PA 312.

David Hiller, a national vice president of the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) and the director of public safety for Grosse Pointe Park, said PA 312 has been great for both sides. He said police and fire unions can only negotiate pay, benefits and working conditions, and for the first three years after PA 312 was enacted more than half of the cases in arbitration were for non-economic issues.

“Prior to PA 312, we had nothing,” he said. “It was either take it or leave it.”

He said arbitration was rarely used and is still rare, and the municipality wins almost 80 percent of the cases that go to arbitration. Hiller said of the more than 1,500 unions eligible for arbitration, from 1998-2008 an average of only 20 cases a year went to arbitration.

Hiller said why fix something that’s not broken, but he also said the unions were not against improving it.

“It eliminates strikes and impasses,” Hiller said. “It equalizes things on both sides of the table.”

Opponents of PA 312 claim the arbitrators are not allowed to look at a municipality’s ability to pay when rendering a decision. That’s simply not true; they are well aware of the finances, not only that, but both sides are allowed to submit any kind of evidence or documents to make their claim.

“It was not so many years ago that when times were good they (municipalities) did not want ability to pay to be considered at arbitration,” said Terrence Chesney, the Secretary-Treasurer of the Michigan Professional Fire Fighters Union.

Chesney said PA 312 is just being a scapegoat, and the number of arbitration cases prove that.

“It makes no sense to come running to the Legislature every year to say it needs changing,” he said. “I don’t buy into that, and the record shows that.”

Police and fire retirement expenses is levied as a special property tax in the City of Taylor, and many city officials have blamed PA 312 and arbitration for the high cost of pensions, but newly elected Mayor Jeff Lamarand, a former Council member, said the excessive generosity of the previous Mayor and not PA 312 was the cause. He was the only municipal official to not blame PA 312 for budget problems.

The committee took testimony of PA 312 for two hours, and they did not take a vote on any bills.

Anti-union FOIA editorial is bizarre

I didn’t think it was possible for the Livingston County Daily Press & Argus to veer even farther to the right, but their continued anti-union stance took them there.

After working there for six years, I was well aware of the corporations anti-union bent, but that was not reflected in their editorial opinions, until now. Their bizarre editorial today on the Michigan Court of Appeals decision on the case involving a Freedom of Information Request (FOIA) for some 5,500 emails sent and received on Howell Public School computers between members of the teacher’s union was what was really bizarre. The three-judge panel ruled on Jan. 27 that the emails were not public record and therefore not subject to public disclosure.

This case was launched because anti-union activitist Chet Zarko was looking for dirt to smear the union with. The paper’s position is that the judges were wrong, and that because the emails were “sent across a computer system bought and paid for by the Howell school district” they have no right to privacy. I don’t know if the Gannett corporate attorney wrote this editorial, but they should have sent a reporter to the hearing on Jan. 5 where oral arguments were taken. I went, and it would have made it so much more clear for them.

No one is saying, not even the three judges, that the employer - the HPS administration - can’t look at any and all emails sent and received, but they are not public record. They have nothing to do with the function of government, so why should they be public record? They do not affect the performance of a public body.

The editorial said, “If you want privacy while sending an e-mail, send it from your home computer.” There’s a slight problem with that position. If I send an email to my granddaughter’s teacher at Howell’s Northwest Elementary School about her grades, that’s public record under their argument.

Not only that, but under the school district’s position, even emails sent from and to a teacher’s personal lap top computer using email programs like Yahoo would be subject to FOIA if they used the district Wi-Fi. That’s new ground, but the paper thinks otherwise because the FOIA law was amended; most notably in 1996, when “lawmakers changed it to allow people to submit requests by "electronic mail."

Email use in 1996 was not even close to the widespread use it has today. In the old days, prior to 1996 at least, teachers had those old fashioned cubbyholes where written material was put in their mail boxes. Those were not public record, so why should emails be public record just because of the method of delivery?

Back in the spring of 2007, Zarko in cahoots with anti-union Howell school board member Wendy Day, filed a FOIA in a fishing expedition request for the emails of union leaders on their HPS account. Zarko alleges Howell Education (HEA) leaders have "conducted a large amount of union business on public time, including trying to retain MEA (Michigan Education Association) affiliated MESSA health-insurance, and using parent-teacher conferences to recruit parents (to) their side of a collective-bargaining debate.” Even though that was proven not to be the case, Zarko persisted in an effort just to find something embarrassing.

In October of 2008 Livingston County Circuit Court Judge Stanley Latreille determined that the e-mails written by union leaders on school computers are public record, and subject to disclosure. The HEA appealed to stop the disclosure because both the district and the union agreed that they had a “recognized right” to use the email system.

That case was appealed to the Michigan Court of Appeals, and oral briefs were taken by a three-judge panel at a hearing on Jan. 5. The court issued its ruling in favor of the union on Jan. 27, saying just because the 5,500 emails were captured by the school’s servers does not mean they are public record.

Zarko is appealing the decision to the Michigan Supreme Court bankrolled by rightwing anti-union National Right to Work Foundation. At the Jan. 5 hearing, the tax-payer financed HPS lawyers argued the case. It’s not clear if the school board and my taxes will continue to finance Zarko’s witch-hunt. But I did talk to school board member Debbi Drick on Friday, and although she said the board had not yet met to discuss it, she personally didn’t see a need to appeal.

In her opinion, the question has been answered.

Firing of HPS Superintendent just more controversy surrounding school district

HOWELL – The big news in Howell last week was the firing of Howell Public Schools Superintendent Theodore Gardella after just a year on the job by the school board at a rare Friday afternoon special meeting.

The surprise vote was 4-2 at a meeting called to address extremist rightwing trustee Wendy Day’s baseless allegations on her blog, but hassles with Gardella over the past year led the board to let him go. As a former reporter, anytime a Friday meeting is called my suspicions are raised, but with all the controversy surrounding the board since early June when Vicki Fyke, the co-founder with Day of the defunct anti-gay hate group known as the LOVE PAC - (Livingston Organization for Values in Education), circulated an e-mail saying Gardella would be fired there was no way the meeting would be a secret.

Apparently, Day was feeding info to Fyke gleaned from closed executive sessions called to discuss Gardella’s evaluation at his request, and it must have been clear the writing was on the wall. I have not heard one good word about Gardella from anyone but Day, and that makes him suspect in my book.

There has been lots of controversy surrounding Howell Schools in the last three years, but all of it can be traced back to Day’s arrival and that of the so-called “LOVE” group.

“LOVE” raised its ugly head back in the spring of 2006 in response to a diversity flag they mistakenly claim is a gay pride flag that they claim promotes and endorses homosexuality. Day was then elected to the board shortly after that, and she and LOVE immediately tried to impose their extremist agenda on the district.

In January 2007 Day tried to get a Bible course in the high school, and it would have been supplied by North Carolina-based National Council on Bible Curriculum in Public Schools - an affiliate of The American Family Association, the most well-known anti-gay hate group in America.

In the fall on 2006, Day, Fyke and her group began a book banning crusade that ended with an embarrassing FBI investigation and national embarrassment. The group then launched a successful smear campaign to oust long-time Superintendent Chuck Breiner, who spent 13 years here, nine as superintendent; he left in March 2008 with a very generous severance package.

Day is admittedly anti-public school, and she has made her dislike for teachers and unions very clear. She also makes some pretty outrageous claims on her blog, claiming, an “underground group of Howell business owners and political officials has been working to control this district all along. They have a vested interest in making sure there is a good contract for the Chamber regarding the Balloonfest and Homeshow.”

Although the chambers of commerce are traditionally extremely pro-Republican, I have to defend them. The Home Show is held at the high school in the spring, and it features local businesses that pay school taxes.

The Balloonfest, also put on by the chamber this past weekend, is held on the grounds of the high school, middle school and 9th grade campus. It normally draws a 100,000 people from all over the state to Howell, and it leaves a good impression and they spend money in local businesses.

So, we have book banning giving us a bad name, and the Balloonfeat giving Howell a positive reputation. Which one do you choose?

Now, apparently, there is a move to recall three of the four board members who voted to fire Day's superintendent. Why three and not all four is a little unclear, but it may have something to do with how the replacements are chosen.

Paperwork was filed with the county clerk to start the recall attempt of board President Edwin Literski, Vice President Jeannine Pratt and Trustee Debi Drick, but not Trustee Ann Routt, who also voted to fire Gardella.

I am not a fan of recalls, and they have been routinely abused to circumvent the normal election process; as is this misguided recall abuse. A recall against people for making a vote you disagree with is simply wrong. They should be reserved for the elected official doing something wrong, illegal or immoral; not for a vote you disagree with. That is what elections are for.

The solution is to not sign a petition if the recall language is approved, and to vote against Day’s opponent – not recall her – next year when her term is up. The board will run smoother, and we will have a board member who supports the district and wants to make it better. Day can go back to organizing her fake “tea parties.”

Anti-union ad prompts discussion of advertising polices for bloggers

Some small cracks have been revealed in Michigan’s strong progressive/liberal blogging community when the leading liberal blog, Michigan Liberal, ran an anti-union blog ad.

The ad takes you to an anti-union blog called “Labor Pains,” which is part of the larger anti-union group called “Union Facts.” The ad copy says, “It's no longer Unions vs. Management. Now it's Unions vs. Employees: Union "leaders" embezzle and waste dues dollars. Union "leaders" use members' money on their own political agenda. Union "leaders" are trying to suppress an employee's right to secret ballot elections. Read more...”

Aside from the operators of the Michigan Liberal getting some angry emails from readers and posters, Michael Huerta, a member of the United Auto Workers (UAW) from Perry who operates the blog FARLEFTFIELD, took the symbolic step of taking the link to Michigan Liberal off of his blogroll. He said with the attack on labor unions in Michigan with so-called right to work laws pending in the state Legislature and the UAW strike against General Motors running the ad is bad timing, at best.

“Obviously, reasonable minds can differ,” he said. “It just seems like you work so hard for something good, and you get stuff like that.”

Huerta said he has had contact with Eric Baerren at Michigan Liberal, who is acting as the blog’s quasi-managing editor, and although Huerta disagrees with the e reasoning for running the ad, he remains cordial and supportive of Michigan Liberal.

“I don’t want to get in a flap over this, and it’s hard to say anything bad about the site,” Huerta said. “Michigan Liberal is one of the best sources for organizing and finding out about events in the state.”

Baerren says he has gotten a few angry emails, but once he explained the ad policy people understood his position.

“Michigan Liberal is pro-labor; it has been pro-labor in the past, and it will be pro-labor in the future,” he said. “If the right to work proposal gets off the ground we will be fighting against it.”

Mainstream media outlets have dealt with the problem of running questionable ads and conflicts of interest by adopting a consistent policy and keeping the sales and editorial departments segregated and independent as possible. But with the new medium of blogs there come new problems, and accepting ads from political opponents is one of them. Most blogs are just platforms for people’s opinions, but because some of the more popular blogs have such high traffic counts, advertisers are turning to blogs to reach a younger, targeted audience. The problem can be especially acute when the blog is operated by just one person, or in the case of Michigan Liberal by a quasi-board of four people, as well as many contributing writers and diarists.

“It’s kind of a big tent when you are talking about progressives,” Baerren said. “Obviously, you are going to get a lot of differing opinions.”

Baerren said he has adopted the same basic policy for advertising used by Daily Kos and The Nation Magazine. The policy gives him the discretion to reject ads that are plainly false, obscene or libelous, or ads that come with an overt attempt to influence editorial content. The policy also says running an ad does not imply endorsement of the product or cause, but if an ad is rejected for content then it leads to the danger that an advertisement that does run has an implied endorsement.

“You don’t endorse advertising, but you can’t condemn advertising either,” Baerren said. “When you start vetting ads for content you can have problems.
“I think it’s a bad idea when you start to vet for content,” he said.

The ad comes from a type of syndicate called Blogads that bloggers with at least an average of 1,000 hits a day can subscribe to. An advertiser contracts with the company, and he can choose a blog based on the number of hits, the content of the blog and their target audience. Blogads sends the ad to the blog, and the operator can accept the ad, reject it or do nothing and in three days it runs automatically, all for a small fee. Baerren said there was plenty of internal debate before deciding to do nothing and allowing it to run. That gave him time to post an explanation on the reason for running the ad.

“I wanted the blog post to run before the ad ran,” he said. “Most of the comments we got from the post were that they understood once they understood why we did it.”

Michigan Liberal was started in March of 2005 by Matt Ferguson, a former radio reporter, a former Democratic candidate for the U.S. House from the 8th Congressional District and a political consultant. It quickly became the leading liberal blog, but Ferguson stepped away from daily operations and posting on the blog when he took a job with The State of Michigan following the November elections.

In addition to Baerren, the blog is now operated by co-owners Laura Packard and Jon Koller and outreach coordinator Julielyn Gibbons. Both Packard and Gibbons have worked very hard to establish a cohesive liberal “blogosphere” by organizing various meet-and-greets with bloggers and elected Democratic officials, introducing other bloggers to each other, encouraging bloggers to carry each other’s links, organizing a blogger picnic this past summer, organizing a bloggers caucus at the Michigan Democratic Party convention last winter and they put together a guide to blogging they make available to new liberal and progressive bloggers.

(For full disclosure, Kevin Shopshire is a former diarist on Michigan Liberal under the screen name kjbas58.)