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State & County Civic & Political Matters |
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Members of the Michigan House
and Senate Additional Annual Expense Allowance: $12,000 Supplements are paid to the following 12 legislative officers:
In more than 30 states, the position of state legislator is a part-time job with a salary of $30,000 or less. Texas -- the second most populous state and second largest geographically -- pays lawmakers $7,200 per year. Some pay much less: New Hampshire legislators are paid a salary of $200 for a two-year term of office; Alabama pays $10 per day; and New Mexico offers no salary at all -- just expenses.
Better government through community
conversations? "I'm a Democrat, but I have to say we need more positive thinking political leaders like Brooks Patterson."
A glass of wine
mentioned in a serious forum re Michigan's need for creating "a
shared public agenda for a new About 15 women and 5 men, most of them in the education community, spent a couple of hours in a community conversation arranged by "Michigan's Defining Moment" (MDM), a multi-year project set up by the Ann Arbor-based Center for Michigan, whose literature describes the group as a "think-and-do" tank. This Royal Oak session was held at Oakland Schools Technical campus on Delemere, still known popularly as SEOVEC. Each participant pressed buttons on a control which anonymously registered their votes, and the 20 attendees chose K-12 education from among a dozen or more suggested topics as what they wanted to explore. The majority were in favor of finding some new way to support education; they no longer want to depend on the ups and downs to which the current taxing structure exposes schools. A minority of three countered that education must first be reformed structurally, by reducing the number of school districts throughout the state, for example. One woman voiced concern that union control over teachers and districts may be an obstacle. All of the discussion was civil -- more than civil, it was friendly -- as the group also touched on such matters as composting, mass transit, health care, segregation, term limits, partisanship.
Established a couple
of years ago, MDM published an interim report
in May 2008 which One finds it difficult to understand why the community conversations continue, except perhaps simply to increase the body count, for nothing discussed in the Royal Oak session will add any new thinking to the existing tabulations. Even if the political intention behind the project is to generate more citizen involvement during the 2010 election, partisan or not, there certainly is enough information gathered about what the electorate is thinking. [See] Wouldn't it be more effective, this far along, to conduct workshops about such practical matters as how to get the attention of officials, how to generate letters the editor will publish, how to offer testimony/comment at meetings of city, county, and state bodies, about the value of raising issues within our service clubs and church groups, how to get involved in an issue-related campaign? -- April 2009
March 2009 Ferndale is caught up in the troubles associated with moving South Oakland Shelter's administrative/counseling office into one of its residential neighborhoods from Royal Oak. The usual concerns about inserting undesirable people of one sort or another into an area where they might harm kids and lower property values have been expressed. Ferndale City Council, wisely, is seeking legal advice before making a decision, having learned from Royal Oak's losing experience trying to prevent Michigan Easter Seals from moving in from Oak Park. § The City of Rochester's Downtown Development Authority is catching flack for sending nine people to a conference in Chicago. The DDA's president bristled at the mayor' suggestion that the trip is a "junket." The president used his group's recognition by American Main Street as one justification for the trip. Then there is some fussing and fuming about the wisdom of this or that DDA project. It would seem that DDA/City Hall tensions are generic and go beyond any one city's boundaries. February 2009 § One of the nuggets I've gleaned from several radio sources is that Michigan Sen. Debbie Stabenow, who has been in the aggressive forefront of the campaign to reinstate the Fairness Doctrine, is married to Tom Athans, who works extensively with left-wing radio organizations and was once the executive vice-president of Air America, the liberal radio syndicate that, despite massive publicity from major media, has failed miserably to win a national audience. Stabenow's outrageous conflict of interest has of course been largely ignored by the prestige press, which should have been demanding that she recuse herself from all political involvement with this issue. -- Camille Paglia
5 Townships consider joint waste hauling
In charges against school district -- Claiming that the school district's school of choice policies discriminate against Detroit students, BAMN is publicly "protesting" such businesses as Como's Restaurant and Western Market for failing to support the group's efforts, according to a report in The Mirror. Earlier
Stop blaming Granholm At the Library Forum As one editorial writer for left-of-center The New Republic wrote, "I have not yet been asked for my vote by a candidate who represents the entirety of my convictions." Said another way, unless one is a single-issue voter, the choice has to be made either by party or by persona. The first hour of this 2-hour forum was with candidates for County Commissioner. The second hour was with candidates for State Representative. County Commissioner The candidates' answers to questions from the audience pretty much reflected the themes they submitted for the Voter Guide published by the League of Women Voters Oakland Area, fiscal responsibility being the dominant theme as they agreed and disagreed about everything from mass transit to urban sprawl and from water fees to health care. They differed more in demeanor: Chamberlain, running for her first public office, overcame her initial nervousness while reading her opening statement and became direct and forceful answering questions. Woodward, drawing on his experience as an incumbent, was confident with a tendency to dwell in details. He and Jean agreed with each other several times, disagreed on two or three matters. McGillivray's tone was remarkably tentative for one who has been councilman and mayor of Madison Heights, but his command of substance came through anyway. All three candidates seem to agree that South Oakland County remains relatively neglected by Pontiac-based government. While answering questions, Chamberlain and McGillivray many times gave brief answers, once or twice a simple yes or no. Woodward used up his entire minute every time. Woodward is chairman of the Oakland County Democratic Party. During the switch in forums, he encountered former Royal Oak Mayor Dennis Cowan, who is Chairman of the Oakland County Republican Party. The two party chairmen rushed off together to plot something sinister. Michigan State Representative (District 26) On substance: Donigan hit hard on establishing a "world class public transportation system." Goodman sees the need for "creating good-paying jobs," largely by reducing taxes. Young was not reluctant to say "no" several times, in keeping with his libertarian principle of "good, but small" government. As is true for the candidates for county commissioner, their philosophical premises are described in the LWVOA Voter Guide. The audience perked up when the candidates were asked a triple question -- about abortion, stem cell amendment, and legalizing medical marijuana. Goodman and Young are pro-life, anti-stem cell amendment, and pro-legalizing medical marijuana. Donigan is pro-choice, pro-stem cell amendment, and pro-legalizing medical marijuana. Incumbent Donigan's opening statement was strong, and her replies to questions were assertive. Twice she answered a question before it had been completely voiced by the forum moderator. Goodman exhibited the tentativeness of a newcomer while reading his opening statement, but he was quietly confident in answering questions, even when once or twice his answer was that he didn't have an answer. Young was emotional both in his opening statement and in his replies. He was gut-level demonstrative, whether his answer was affirmative, negative, or agnostic. The League of Women Voters moderators/timers were Huntington Woods resident Judy Bateman and Royal Oak resident Jerry Burden. The forums were videoed and can be seen on the respective WOW community channels in Royal Oak and Madison Heights, as well as on the Library website. -- Oct 2008
Way to go, Gilda! Bad Move For this November's election, the Michigan Republican Party may be making a similar error. I'm looking at a direct mail piece from the Republican Party with a picture of the Democrat candidate for U.S. Representative and his name prominent on the obverse side. On the reverse side I see his name in the biggest type, in red. It is common knowledge that anyone not already politically decided glances at such direct mail and tosses it. Here, that glance provides name recognition for the opposition. One has to stop and read the piece to pick up on the political message. Bad move. -- FJV: Oct 2006 Michigan takes a step toward no-reason absentee voting Although 26 states already permit no-reason absentee voting, opponents of the concept cite occasional fraud as a reason to reject it. In Colorado, for example, 122 voters cast absentee ballots, then voted again on Election Day during a statewide election. (From memory, VersagiVoice thinks that one state in the Pacific Northwest conducts all its voting by mail, a process which would guard against double-voting.) Voice wonders whether, even without prior State action, cities can establish universal mail-voting for local elections, a practice we have already suggested for public school-related issues. 07 April 2005 § Independence Township is considering replacing its township supervisor with a hired township manager. Proponents of the move claim that hiring a manager will provide professionalism. Opponents counter that if the elected supervisor's performance is found lacking, the voters can replace him. § Clawson's City Council is noodling about allowing video gambling machines at businesses and private clubs. Ignoring the stark hypocrisy of banning private gambling in a state which collects millions of dollars through state-sponsored gambling, the city's Puritans see a "statewide gambling problem."
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Michigan moves toward absentee voting
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Michigan"? Not out of place at all. That remark and the comment by
the self-described Democrat were made during a discussion about how
difficult it is to change local mindsets when attempting to develop or implement
goals for the region, for the state.
lays out in broad terms its mission and goals.
Nancy Short, Outreach Coordinator for the parent group, gets an
"A" for facilitating the Royal Oak conversation through sometimes touchy
dialogue and making sure everyone who wanted to speak, did. Short
mentioned that as many at 10,000 people have so far participated in
these community conversations. The 2008 report tabulates the range
of topics brought up and the frequency of mentions. So we learn that
45% want to eliminate term limits, and 63% want to increase
entrepreneurialism, and the like.