Invoking the powers recently bestowed upon Michigan’s emergency financial managers by the Republican legislature, Joseph L. Harris, the Granholm-appointed emergency financial manager for Benton Harbor, yesterday dissolved all elected bodies within that city. (His official order can be seen below.) This, I believe, is the first instance of an emergency financial manager exercising the bold, anti-democratic new powers afforded by Governor Rick Snyder’s Emergency Financial Manager Act.

As I believe we’ve discussed here before, Michigan did have emergency financial managers prior to the Snyder administration. If I’m not mistaken, though, they generally served in an advisory role, assisting elected officials in failing communities as they went about trying to set financial matters right.* This, however, has changed under our new Governor, who proposed that emergency financial managers be given the unprecedented power to dissolve city councils, break union contracts, and otherwise place communities under what one Republican official has called “financial martial law.” (The Snyder legislation also lowers the bar considerably when it comes to selecting those communities to have emergency financial managers imposed on them.)

It’s almost certain that the new legislation will be challenged in the courts. For the time being, though, it’s the law of the land, and, unfortunately, we’re going to start seeing other communities being forced to disband their elected governments.

Here’s the “order” issued by Harris:





update: The Detroit News just posted a short article on this. Here’s a clip:

…”This is sad news for democracy in Michigan,” said Mark Gaffney, president of the Michigan AFL-CIO. “With the stripping of all power of duly elected officials in Benton Harbor… we can now see the true nature of the emergency manager system.” Benton Harbor has struggled with a controversial trash hauling contract, lawsuits related to the contract, new competition for water services and city officials who sometimes clashed to the point that meetings dragged on for hours, Joseph said. “I have seen for more than 30 years the mismanagement of funds and personnel in the city,” Joseph said. “Infighting has been going on for decades.” The new powers of emergency managers include setting aside collective bargaining. Harris’ order comes before two days of training for prospective emergency managers and turnaround experts is to be held next week. Harris, former chief financial officer for the city of Detroit, wasn’t available for comment late Friday night. Emergency managers are in place at Detroit Public Schools and in the cities of Benton Harbor, Ecorse and Pontiac.

As we’ve discussed in the past, according to reports, as many as 170 emergency financial managers may be trained and deployed over the next year.

update: I don’t know if there are legal challenges yet, but the ACLU is looking into it.

*As it turns out, I didn’t really appreciate the full scope of the EFM program prior to the Snyder administration. While appointed EFM’s under previous administrations couldn’t dissolve local elected bodies, they were already quite powerful, and didn’t, as I suggested, just serve in an advisory capacity. With more on that, I’d suggest that you read my friend Murph’s correction in the comments section. As he states, “Old-style EFMs had the ability to sell municipal assets, implement layoffs, amend the local budget without elected officials’ approval, hire people to fill vacant staff positions, create new positions and staff them, eliminate departments within the city government, contract with adjacent communities or private entities for services, etc.” (It should also be noted that, while these EFMs under Granholm did have significant power, there were, until recently, very few of them. We expect to see an incredible increase not only in number, but in terms of their reach under Snyder.)