schimmel, l

<p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.prwatch.org/news/2016/03/13064/flint-casualty-right-wing-government-experiment">https://www.prwatch.org/news/2016/03/13064/flint-casualty-right-wing-government-experiment</a></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">arn p</font></p><h1 class="page__title title" id="page-title" style="line-height: 1.4em; margin: 10px 0px 10px 10px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Flint Is a Casualty in the Right Wing's War on Local Democracy</font></h1><article class="node-13064 node node-news-article view-mode-full clearfix" style="padding: 0px 17.5938px 17.5938px;"><header><p class="submitted" style="margin: 1.5em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Submitted by&nbsp;<a href="https://www.prwatch.org/users/35501/arn-pearson" title="View user profile." class="username" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Arn Pearson</a>&nbsp;on&nbsp;<time pubdate="" datetime="2016-03-31T06:04:56-05:00">March 31,</time></font></p></header></article><p style="margin: 1.5em 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This month's hearing in Congress about the crisis in Flint, Michigan shed more heat than light on the decisions that poisoned the water more than 100,000 residents rely on to drink and bathe, including nearly 30,000 children and teens. Democrats focused their ire on Governor Rick Snyder, while Republicans predictably tried to deflect blame onto the Environmental Protection Agency as part of their long-standing campaign to eliminate the agency responsible for regulating polluters.</font></p><p style="margin: 1.5em 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But two Members of Congress honed in on the real culprit in the debacle: Governor Snyder's "emergency manager" law that stripped Flint of any local democratic control and put its fate in the hands of unaccountable executives hand-picked by Snyder.</font></p><p style="margin: 1.5em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">"Did that emergency management system fail under your leadership in this matter?" asked Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-NJ), demanding a yes or no response from Snyder.</font></p><p style="margin: 1.5em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">"That would be a fair conclusion," Snyder eventually conceded.</font></p><p style="margin: 1.5em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">"This is a failure of a philosophy of governance you advocated," said Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA). "A city in America... is on its knees because of your emergency manager's decision to save $4 million. And now it's going to cost a lot more to clean up."</font></p><p style="margin: 1.5em 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Is this really happening in the world's leading republic?</font></p><h2 style="line-height: 2em; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Funding the War on Local Democracy</font></h2><p style="margin: 1.5em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Governor Snyder's controversial emergency manager law is a cornerstone of the&nbsp;<b>Right Wing's war on labor and local democracy in Michigan,</b>&nbsp;which has been orchestrated by a network of "think tanks" and committees backed by the billionaire DeVos family, the Michigan Chamber of Commerce, the Kochs, and other politicos.</font></p><p style="margin: 1.5em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Thanks to record spending by outside groups in 2010 and $6 million of Snyder's own fortune, the Republican Party in Michigan joined 11 other states in capturing the governor's mansion from the Democrats and flipped the Michigan House, giving the party a lock on political power for the first time since 2002.</font></p><p style="margin: 1.5em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The&nbsp;</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Republican Governors Association Michigan 2010 PAC&nbsp;</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">dominated the playing field to become the "largest political action committee in the history of Michigan politics,</span></b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">" according to the&nbsp;</span><a href="http://mcfn.org/pdfs/reports/MCFN2010_CitGuide.pdf" target="blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none;">Michigan Campaign Finance Network</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">.</span></font></p><p style="margin: 1.5em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Through an elaborate shell game, 98 percent of the $8.4 million raised and spent by the RGA MI 2010 PAC came from outside Michigan, while Michigan donors gave the national Republican Governors Association (RGA) $8.6 million, including $5.4 million from the state Chamber of Commerce.</font></p><p style="margin: 1.5em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The RGA MI 2010 PAC then contributed $5.3 million to the state Republican Party, and sent off $3 million to back Rick Perry's bid for a third term as governor of Texas, while the national RGA spent $3.6 million on sham issue ads attacking Snyder's Democratic opponent. Still with me?</font></p><p style="margin: 1.5em 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">All in all, the RGA raised and redistributed $114 million to PACs in at least 15 states, helping to elect a&nbsp;<a href="http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/01/republican-governors-association-perry-michigan" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">slate of right-wing governors</a>, including Wisconsin's Scott Walker, who moved quickly to attack public sector unions.</font></p><p style="margin: 1.5em 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Right-wing billionaires and their corporations played a big role in raising all that money. Records on Open Secrets show that the&nbsp;<b>DeVos family, Amway, and its parent company, Alticor, pumped $1.9 million into the RGA's 2010 political operation.</b></font></p><p style="margin: 1.5em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">David Koch personally gave $1 million, while his brother William chipped in $100,000 and Koch Industries another $50,000. The Kochs have since become RGA's #1 source of cash, bankrolling the RGA to the tune of $5.3 million during the 2014 election cycle.</font></p><p style="margin: 1.5em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Paul Singer also ponied up $1.4 million. Casino magnate Sheldon Adelson gave a million that year, and News America, a subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. that owns the pro-Republican outlet Fox News, sprung another $1.3 million.</font></p><h2 style="line-height: 2em; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">DeVos Dynasty Targets Michigan</font></h2><p style="margin: 1.5em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Although Snyder—a business executive and venture capitalist—campaigned as a moderate Republican who promised to run the state like a business and create jobs, the deep pockets driving the Republican surge had more ambitious ideas.</font></p><p style="margin: 1.5em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Their goals: break the unions, scrap public sector labor contracts, and privatize government services.</font></p><p style="margin: 1.5em 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Dick DeVos, son of billionaire businessman and Amway co-founder Richard DeVos, took a first crack at this agenda when he spent $35 million of the family fortune to run for governor in 2006. He lost badly, but he didn't let up.</font></p><p style="margin: 1.5em 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In 2009, DeVos helped his close ally, Ron Weiser, get elected as chair of the Michigan Republican Party, where he was able to coordinate the party's 2010 landslide victory. By 2014, political observers were calling the DeVos family Michigan's "<a href="http://www.mlive.com/lansing-news/index.ssf/2015/10/report_devos_family_michigans.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">most potent interest group</a>," and their spending on in-state candidates and political committees had increased to $4.9 million.</font></p><p style="margin: 1.5em 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">After Snyder's election, DeVos-backed groups like the Mackinac Center for Public Policy were poised to help move his legislative agenda forward.</font></p><p style="margin: 1.5em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Launched in 1987, the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Mackinac_Center_for_Public_Policy" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Mackinac Center</a>&nbsp;is one of the nation's largest state-based, right-wing pressure groups promoting "free market," pro-business policies. It is an active member of the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Portal:State_Policy_Network" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">State Policy Network</a>&nbsp;(SPN) and the&nbsp;<a href="http://www.alecexposed.org/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">American Legislative Exchange Council</a>&nbsp;(ALEC), two important cogs in the Koch machine.</font></p><p style="margin: 1.5em 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Mackinac has long been one of the key groups leading the Michigan charge for the big ticket items on DeVos' right-wing wish list, including breaking the back of organized labor.</font></p><p style="margin: 1.5em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Ronald Reagan may have&nbsp;<a href="https://reaganlibrary.archives.gov/archives/reference/9.1.80.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">once said</a>, "[w]here free unions and collective bargaining are forbidden, freedom is lost," but that's just crazy-liberal talk as far as the Mackinac Center is concerned.</font></p><p style="margin: 1.5em 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As a&nbsp;<a href="http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/02/michigan-emergency-manager-pontiac-detroit" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Mackinac staffer</a>&nbsp;told a state legislator in 2011: "<b>Our goal is [to] outlaw government collective bargaining in Michigan."</b></font></p><p style="margin: 1.5em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>Mackinac's activities have been fueled by DeVos as well as money from the Koch network of billionaires.</b>&nbsp;Between 2010 and 2012, the Mackinac Center received $1.5 million from the DonorsTrust and Donors Capital Fund, preferred investment vehicles of the Koch donor network, and four DeVos foundations kicked in another $560,000 between 1998 and 2011.</font></p><p style="margin: 1.5em 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">However, those totals public do not reveal how much billionaire cash Mackinac has received through checks from personal trust accounts or from corporations, which are not publicly reported.</font></p><h2 style="line-height: 2em; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Mackinac at the Root of Sweeping Emergency Manager Powers</font></h2><p style="margin: 1.5em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Once sworn in, Snyder wasted no time in making one of the most audacious power grabs in the country.</font></p><p style="margin: 1.5em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">On March 16, 2011, while thousands protested outside, he signed Public Act 4 into law, giving him the ability to take near-total control over financially struggling municipalities through appointed "emergency managers."</font></p><p style="margin: 1.5em 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Few could have been more pleased than the DeVos family and their confederates at the Mackinac Center.</font></p><p style="margin: 1.5em 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The provision for emergency financial managers dates back to a 1988 Michigan law, but those managers wielded limited power.</font></p><p style="margin: 1.5em 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Mackinac's Louis Schimmel called for loosening limits and expanding managers' powers as early as 2005, and the group reprinted his article in January 2011. They argued that: "The state's policy prescription for fiscally floundering cities should be to appoint[] far more powerful emergency financial managers than they have in the past."</font></p><p style="margin: 1.5em 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Mackinac pressed for sweeping authority for emergency managers to assume the powers of elected city councils and mayors, break union contracts, and revise municipal charters, while getting legal immunity from any liability for the results of their actions.</font></p><p style="margin: 1.5em 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Snyder's emergency manager law included all four of those changes, and the Mackinac bunch patted themselves on the back while singing the law's praises.</font></p><p style="margin: 1.5em 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Concerned citizens and critics, however, denounced it as&nbsp;<b>"financial martial law."</b></font></p><p style="margin: 1.5em 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Other cities around the country have had emergency managers, including New York City in the 1970s, but their powers were limited to financial matters.</font></p><p style="margin: 1.5em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The Snyder-Mackinac approach to the law was dramatically, exponentially different. It gave unelected and unaccountable managers chosen by the governor near total control over all city decisions—including things like where a city gets its water.</font></p><h2 style="line-height: 2em; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Snyder's First Emergency "Tyrant"? A Mackinac Guy</font></h2><p style="margin: 1.5em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Snyder chose the architect of the expanded emergency powers—Mackinac's Louis Schimmel</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">—to be the first person he appointed as an emergency manager, installing him as the potentate for Pontiac, Schimmel's home town.</span></font></p><p style="margin: 1.5em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Within months, Schimmel had fired key city officials and privatized the entire public works department. The Pontiac City Council still held their weekly meetings, packed with angry citizens, but they had no authority to make any decisions.</font></p><p style="margin: 1.5em 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">When asked by a local radio station if the emergency manager law made him a dictator,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/02/michigan-emergency-manager-pontiac-detroit" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Schimmel replied</a>: "I guess I'm the tyrant in Pontiac then, if that's the way it is."</font></p><p style="margin: 1.5em 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Schimmel didn't get any argument from state court judge Rae Lee Chabot, who reversed the manager's action to cut Pontiac's pension board in half, a decision that ignored the legal requirements of Michigan's Open Meetings Act.</font></p><p style="margin: 1.5em 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"[I]t looks like a dictatorship,"&nbsp;<a href="http://michiganradio.org/post/judge-rules-against-pontiac-emergency-manager-pensions#stream/0" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Chabot said</a>.</font></p><h2 style="line-height: 2em; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">State-Controlled Pontiac Outsources Water to Indicted Corporation</font></h2><p style="margin: 1.5em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Shortly before Schimmel took control of Pontiac using the law he helped create, his predecessor as emergency manager of Pontiac, Michael Stampfler, flexed his muscles under Snyder's new law and&nbsp;</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">outsourced the city's water treatment to United Water Services.</span></font></p><p style="margin: 1.5em 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Watchdog Chris Savage&nbsp;<a href="http://www.eclectablog.com/2011/06/breaking-michigan-efm-outsources-water.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">broke the story</a>&nbsp;on Eclectablog.</font></p><p style="margin: 1.5em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">"This is big news," he wrote, because the giant for-profit water company had just been indicted by a federal grand jury in 2010 on 26 felony counts of conspiracy and Clean Water Act violations for its mishandling of water services in Gary, Indiana. (The company's workers have since been acquitted of criminal charges in the Gary case, but United Water paid $645,000 in civil fines under a consent agreement in 2014.)</font></p><p style="margin: 1.5em 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Schimmel completed the outsourcing process in November 2011 by firing key public works employees and turning full control over to United Water.</font></p><p style="margin: 1.5em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Before long, consumer complaints over water quality, outages, and sewer backups started piling up. It took nearly three years before Oakland County, where Pontiac is situated, announced that it was taking over operations.</font></p><p style="margin: 1.5em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">All the warning signs were there for Flint.</font></p><p style="margin: 1.5em 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Savage&nbsp;<a href="http://www.eclectablog.com/2011/06/breaking-michigan-efm-outsources-water.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">summed up</a>&nbsp;the problem well:</font></p><blockquote sites="sites" all="all" themes="themes" prw="prw" images="images" blue-quote-mark.png="blue-quote-mark.png" px="px" no-repeat="no-repeat" scroll="scroll" rgb="rgb" font-style="font-style" italic="italic" padding="padding" style="margin: 10px 0px; background-image: url(" background-position="background-position" initial="initial" background-size="background-size" background-repeat="background-repeat" background-attachment="background-attachment" background-origin="background-origin" background-clip="background-clip"><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Emergency Financial Managers are generally good at what they do. They are typically trained as accountants and business optimizers. They know how to trim and cut and lean out organizations to squeeze every last drop of profits out of them. Unfortunately for the residents of Michigan, things like parks, public safety and the protection of natural resources don't produce profits and generally are presented as 'costs'…When we begin to put a price tag on the very things that make our cities, society and state good, safe, livable and lovable, while putting CPA-like EFMs in charge, you can expect that these things will suffer in order to save money, even if it puts our citizens at risk."</font></p></blockquote><h2 style="line-height: 2em; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Democracy? What Democracy?</font></h2><p style="margin: 1.5em 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Citizens and public employees in Michigan were not having it.</font></p><p style="margin: 1.5em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Following extensive protests, opponents sprang into action and quickly gathered more than 200,000 signatures to qualify a voter initiative, Proposal 1, for the November 2012 ballot to repeal Snyder's expanded emergency manager law.</font></p><p style="margin: 1.5em 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Stand Up for Democracy, the ballot committee backing Proposal 1, received 91 percent of its funding from the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (<b>AFSCME)</b>&nbsp;Michigan Council 25, according to the&nbsp;<a href="http://mcfn.org/pdfs/reports/MCFN_2012_Cit_Guide_final_rev..pdf" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Michigan Campaign Finance Network</a>.</font></p><p style="margin: 1.5em 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Opposition to Proposal 1 was led by Bob LaBrant, Senior Counsel at the Sterling Corporation, a leading Republican PR firm,</b>&nbsp;and the former director of political and legal campaigns at the Michigan Chamber of Commerce for 34 years. LaBrant's ballot committee, called Citizens for Fiscal Responsibility, focused its strategy on a court fight to bump Proposal 1 off the ballot. That effort ultimately failed, and the group spent little on campaigning against the measure.</font></p><p style="margin: 1.5em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">On November 6, 2012, 53 percent of Michigan's voters cast ballots to repeal Snyder's emergency manager law. But that didn't stop Governor Snyder and his backers.</font></p><p style="margin: 1.5em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Barely one month later, Snyder pushed a slightly revised bill through the lame duck legislature and restored the sweeping powers of his emergency managers.</font></p><p style="margin: 1.5em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Only this time, he&nbsp;<a href="http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2012/12/13/1169517/-Michigan-House-passes-new-version-of-emergency-law-repealed-by-voters" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">added an appropriation</a>&nbsp;which, under Michigan law, prevents it from being subject to referendum. Check and mate.</font></p><p style="margin: 1.5em 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Kevyn Orr, who later became emergency manager for Detroit,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.eclectablog.com/2013/07/kevyn-orr-michigans-em-law-is-a-clear-end-around-the-prior-initiative-that-was-rejected-by-the-voters-in-november.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">sent an email</a>&nbsp;to the Detroit Free Press saying, "Michigan's EM law is a clear end-around the prior initiative that was rejected by the voters in November. ...[A]though the new law provides the thin veneer of a revision it is essentially a redo of the prior rejected law."</font></p><p style="margin: 1.5em 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The new law did contain what critics call a "<a href="http://www.eclectablog.com/2013/02/a-comprehensive-look-at-michigans-newest-emergency-manager-law-now-with-stability-choice.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">choose your poison</a>" provision, allowing municipalities to choose between an emergency manager, bankruptcy, arbitration, or a consent agreement.</font></p><p style="margin: 1.5em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Not on the table for cash-strapped cities reeling from the collapse of the auto industry and the impact of free trade agreements: any state largesse like the&nbsp;<b><a href="http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2011/05/13/173952/michigan-tax-cuts/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">86 percent corporate income tax cut</a>&nbsp;that Snyder handed Michigan businesses in 2011, worth an estimated $1.7 billion per year.</b></font></p><p style="margin: 1.5em 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The resurrection of Snyder's emergency manager law wasn't even the most dramatic thing to happen in the 2012 lame duck session.</font></p><p style="margin: 1.5em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">According to&nbsp;<em>Mother Jones</em>,&nbsp;<b>DeVos and his close allies—who led a $23.2 million campaign to defeat another voter initiative, Proposal 2, aimed at enshrining collective bargaining in the state constitution—had&nbsp;<a href="http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/01/devos-michigan-labor-politics-gop" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">devised a plan</a>&nbsp;to ram through "right-to-work" legislation before anyone knew what hit them.</b></font></p><p style="margin: 1.5em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>They pitched the plan to legislative leaders&nbsp;</b>and a Snyder aide on November 20, and by early December unleashed an ad campaign using a new group, the Michigan Freedom Fund, closely tied to Dick DeVos.</font></p><p style="margin: 1.5em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>Snyder surprised the public by calling the measure to a vote on December 6, and five days later the birthplace of modern industrial unions became a "right-to-work" state.</b></font></p><p style="margin: 1.5em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The following May, at the State Policy Network's&nbsp;<a href="http://www.michigancapitolconfidential.com/19187" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">annual meeting</a>&nbsp;in Oklahoma City, Dick DeVos and the Mackinac Center were recognized for their leadership in the legislative fight to win passage of the "right-to-work" law in Michigan. As reported by&nbsp;<a href="https://www.prwatch.org/news/2013/12/12325/state-policy-network-stealth-network-dramatically-influencing-state-law" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">PR Watch</a>, Dick's wife Betsy DeVos personally presented SPN's highest award to Mackinac's president, Joseph Lehman.</font></p><p style="margin: 1.5em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Mackinac's blog noted that it had been pushing for "right-to-work" since 1990 and had posted more than 500 "articles, blog posts, special essays and news [clips] generated by Mackinac Center analysts" backing the legislation.</font></p><p style="margin: 1.5em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The victory didn't come cheap.</font></p><p style="margin: 1.5em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The big players of Michigan's right wing had&nbsp;<a href="http://mcfn.org/press.php?prId=172" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">spent millions</a>&nbsp;to defeat Proposal 2, an attempt to protect union rights in the state.</font></p><p style="margin: 1.5em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">That funding included $9.2 million from the Michigan Chamber of Commerce, $5.5 million from the Michigan Alliance for Business Growth, $2 million from the DeVos family, and $2 million from Sheldon and Miriam Adelson.</font></p><p style="margin: 1.5em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The Michigan Freedom Fund spent&nbsp;<a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/dec/9/michigans-governor-sides-with-right-to-work/?page=all" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">another $1 million</a>&nbsp;on the post-election ad campaign leading up to legislature's adoption of the "right-to-work" law.</font></p><p style="margin: 1.5em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The Mackinac Center had an annual budget of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Mackinac_Center_for_Public_Policy" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">$4.4 million</a>&nbsp;as of 2012. Aside from checks to groups that do not disclose their major donors, the DeVos family spent more than&nbsp;<a href="http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/01/devos-michigan-labor-politics-gop" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">$44 million</a>&nbsp;in publicly reported funding on the Republican Party, party committees, and candidates in Michigan between 1997 and 2013.</font></p><h2 style="line-height: 2em; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Expanded Emergency Management Comes to Flint</font></h2><p style="margin: 1.5em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Plagued by the loss of 90 percent of its industrial workforce, disinvestment, and depopulation, Flint was facing a severe financial crisis by the time Governor Snyder took office.</font></p><div class="clearfix"><p style="margin: 1.5em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Since then, Snyder has appointed&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_emergency_in_Michigan#List_of_emergency_managers" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">four emergency managers</a>&nbsp;to seize control of the city's assets and run Flint's local affairs.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 1.5em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Flint voters elected a new mayor on November 8, 2011, but a state review panel declared a "local government financial emergency" the same day, and Snyder had installed his&nbsp;<b>first emergency manager, Michael Brown</b>, by December 1.</font></p><p style="margin: 1.5em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The next day, Brown dismissed more than half a dozen key city administrators and Flint's elected officials had their pay and benefits removed.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 1.5em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In January 2012, angry Flint residents joined a protest near Governor Snyder's home. AFSCME filed suit and managed to get a restraining order on Brown, but Brown was back by April in time to unveil his budget, which included cuts in nearly every department and a tax hike.</font></p><p style="margin: 1.5em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Jack McHugh at Mackinac claimed in a March 2012 column that municipal budget problems were a "cancerous fiscal malpractice," and he argued that Snyder's emergency manager expansion provided the "rigorous 'chemotherapy'" needed "to sustain the necessary functions of tapped-out school districts and local governments."</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 1.5em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In Flint's case, the cure turned out to be worse than the disease.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 1.5em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Frustrated with expensive water service from Detroit and frequent rate increases, Flint and surrounding Genesee County had joined nearby cities in 2010 to form the new Karegnondi Water Authority.<b>&nbsp;The plan was to obtain water directly from Lake Huron</b>&nbsp;once a new pipeline was complete. (That is now projected to be June 2016.)</font></p><p style="margin: 1.5em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The Flint City Council voted for the new water source in March 2013, albeit symbolically as it had no power, and the emergency manager and state treasurer approved a plan to switch water supplies a few weeks later.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 1.5em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">That's when the trouble started.</font></p><h2 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 2em; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"Flint Residents Can Taste History"</font></h2><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2011/11/pontiac_mich_can_a_technocrat_succeed_where_democracy_failed.html">http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2011/11/pontiac_mich_can_a_technocrat_succeed_where_democracy_failed.html</a></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">-=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/02/michigan-emergency-manager-pontiac-detroit/">https://www.<b>motherjones</b>.com/politics/<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">2012</span>/02/michigan-emergency-manager-pontiac-detroit/</a></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">u</font><span style="font-family: Calluna, serif; font-size: 19px; box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">pdates, 4/26/12:</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family: Calluna, serif; font-size: 19px;">&nbsp;The Michigan Board of State Canvassers has</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family: Calluna, serif; font-size: 19px;">&nbsp;</span><a target="blank" href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/26/michigan-emergency-manager-law-petitions-not-certified_n_1455184.html" style="font-family: Calluna, serif; font-size: 19px; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">rejected the more than 200,000 signatures</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family: Calluna, serif; font-size: 19px;">&nbsp;</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family: Calluna, serif; font-size: 19px;">collected in support of holding a referendum on the state’s emergency manager law. The board’s two Republican members said the petitions used the</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family: Calluna, serif; font-size: 19px;">&nbsp;</span><a target="blank" href="http://eclectablog.com/2012/04/breaking-mich-board-of-state-canvassers-emergency-mgr-law-petitions-are-not-valid.html" style="font-family: Calluna, serif; font-size: 19px; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">incorrect font size</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family: Calluna, serif; font-size: 19px;">.</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family: Calluna, serif; font-size: 19px;">
</span></div><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; font-family: Calluna, serif; font-size: 19px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Updates, 3/30/12:</span>&nbsp;A judge recently&nbsp;<a href="http://www.iwatchnews.org/2012/03/29/8547/state-takeover-michigan-cities-slowed-courts" target="blank" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">ordered Flint’s emergency manager to step aside</a>, finding that he had been appointed without adequate public input. A week later, an appeals court temporarily reversed the decision and put him back in charge while the case is being heard. Governor Rick Snyder has&nbsp;<a href="http://www.freep.com/article/20120330/NEWS01/203300446/State-pitches-new-plan-Detroit-to-keep-leaders-unions-to-face-more-cuts?odyssey=tab%7Cmostpopular%7Ctext%7CFRONTPAGE" target="blank" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">asked Detroit to sign an agreement</a>&nbsp;in which it would renegotiate union contracts and outsource city work in exchange for not receiving an emergency manager. In February, a statewide coalition opposed to the emergency-manager law, submitted signatures to&nbsp;<a href="http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20120301/POLITICS02/203010394/Emergency-manager-opponents-submit-signatures-effort-overturn-law?odyssey=mod%7Cnewswell%7Ctext%7CFRONTPAGE%7Cs" target="blank" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">put it up for referendum</a>. If the state validates the signatures in early May, the law will be suspended until voters decide its fate in November.</p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; font-family: Calluna, serif; font-size: 19px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>When the city of Pontiac, Michigan, shut down its fire department last Christmas Eve, city councilman Kermit Williams learned about it in the morning paper. “Nobody reports to me anymore,</b>” Williams says. “It just gets reported in the press.” <b>This was just the latest in a series of radical changes in the city, where elected officials such as Williams have been replaced by a single person with unprecedented control over the city’s operation and budget.</b></p><div class="incontent-promo" id="incontent_promo_1" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: rgb(242, 243, 239); position: relative; left: -358.156px; height: auto; width: 100vw; margin-bottom: 1rem; clear: both; font-family: Calluna, serif; font-size: 19px;"><section id="mj-incontent-ad-widget-4" class="widget mj-incontent-ad-widget" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><div class="incontent-ad-container" style="box-sizing: inherit; max-width: 1300px; margin: 0px auto; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px;" /></section></div><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; font-family: Calluna, serif; font-size: 19px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Gov. Rick Snyder put Louis Schimmel in charge of Pontiac last September, invoking&nbsp;<a target="blank" href="http://www.legislature.mi.gov/documents/2011-2012/publicact/htm/2011-PA-0004.htm" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url("");" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">Public Act 4</a>, a recent law that lets the governor name appointees to take over financially troubled cities and enact drastic austerity measures. Under the law,&nbsp;<a target="blank" href="http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/03/michigan-snyder-mackinac-center" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url("");" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">passed last March</a>, these emergency managers can nullify labor contracts, privatize public services, sell off city property, and even dismiss elected officials.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; font-family: Calluna, serif; font-size: 19px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Schimmel got to work quickly, firing the city clerk, city attorney, and director of public works and outsourcing several city departments. City fire fighters were told that they would be fired if their department was not absorbed by Waterford Township’s. Schimmel has proposed putting nearly every city property up for sale, including city hall, the police station, fire stations, water-pumping stations, the library, the golf course, and two cemeteries.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; font-family: Calluna, serif; font-size: 19px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Williams and his six colleagues on city council have been stripped of their salary and official powers. “Nearly the whole city has been privatized,” he laments.</b></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; font-family: Calluna, serif; font-size: 19px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Michigan’s emergency-manager law is the centerpiece of the fiscal program enacted by state Republicans after they took over the Legislature and governor’s mansion in early 2011.</b> The law’s supporters say it allows for a more efficient and nimble response to the budget crisis confronting local governments in the wake of the housing crash and near collapse of the auto industry. Critics are seeking to block and repeal what they call an illegal power grab meant to usurp local governments and break up public-sector unions.</p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; font-family: Calluna, serif; font-size: 19px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">"We haven’t seen anything this severe anywhere else in the country,” says Charles Monaco, a spokesman for the&nbsp;<a href="http://www.progressivestates.org/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">Progressive States Network</a>, a New York-based advocacy group. “There’s been nothing in other states where a budget measure overturns the democratic vote.” Williams says emergency managers are able to enact draconian policies that would cost most city officials their jobs: “They couldn’t get elected if they tried.”</p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; font-family: Calluna, serif; font-size: 19px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Benton Harbor, Ecorse, and Flint are also currently under emergency management. In Flint, the emergency manager has promised to restructure collective bargaining agreements with the city’s police and firefighters unions. </b>Benton Harbor’s emergency manager banned elected officials from appearing at city meetings without his consent. Detroit, which is facing a $197 million budget shortfall, could be next:</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> Mayor Dave Bing has proposed laying off 1,000 city workers and wrung concessions from public-sector unions in hopes of preventing Gov. Snyder from appointing an emergency manager.</span></p><div class="pullquote-left" style="box-sizing: inherit; position: relative; width: 273px; margin: 0.75rem 2rem 1.25rem 0px; padding: 1rem 0px 0px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; border-top: 12px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 1.3; letter-spacing: -1px; float: left;"><font size="4" style="" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Asked if the emergency-manager law hands power over to a “</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">dictator,” Schimmel sighed, “I guess I’m the tyrant in Pontiac, then, if that’s the way it is.”</span></font></div><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; font-family: Calluna, serif; font-size: 19px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Schimmel has pursued the most aggressive turnaround plan in the state. He says he’s simply doing what elected officials have been unable to do: execute a plan for balancing the city’s books quickly and efficiently. He’s not there yet: The city of 60,000 is projecting a $7 million deficit for 2012. “One thing we can’t do is print money,” Schimmel says. “We’re always chasing the dropping knife, fixing something here and losing revenue somewhere else.”</p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; font-family: Calluna, serif; font-size: 19px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>With an indefinite term and a city salary of $150,000, Schimmel doesn’t answer to anyone but the governor</b>, at whose pleasure he serves. The city council can no longer make decisions but still calls meetings, which are routinely packed with angry residents.&nbsp;<a href="http://www.mlive.com/news/detroit/index.ssf/2011/11/pontiac_emergency_manager_lou_1.html" target="blank" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">Asked by radio station WJR</a>&nbsp;if the emergency-manager law hands power over to a “dictator,” Schimmel sighed, “I guess I’m the tyrant in Pontiac, then, if that’s the way it is.”</p><div class="incontent-promo" id="incontent_promo_3" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: rgb(242, 243, 239); position: relative; left: -358.156px; height: auto; width: 100vw; margin-bottom: 1rem; clear: both; font-family: Calluna, serif; font-size: 19px;"><section id="mj-incontent-ad-widget-11" class="widget mj-incontent-ad-widget" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><div class="incontent-ad-container" style="box-sizing: inherit; max-width: 1300px; margin: 0px auto; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px;" /></section></div><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; font-family: Calluna, serif; font-size: 19px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Emergency managers aren’t new in Michigan, which has been in dire financial straits for decades. Public Act 4 (officially titled the Local Government and School District Fiscal Accountability Act) beefed up a 1990 law </b>that brought in state-appointed managers to several cities in the 2000s, without much success at stemming the flow of population, jobs, and tax revenue. Pontiac has been under some form of state-appointed management since 2009. Schimmel’s predecessor laid off dozens of police officers, hired the county sheriff to patrol the city, and dismissed Mayor Leon Jukowski (whom Schimmel has rehired as a staffer paid $50,000)<a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/02/michigan-emergency-manager-pontiac-detroit/#correction" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">*</a>. During that time, Pontiac’s credit rating had dropped from B to triple-C. “They aren’t creating revenue,” Williams says of the managers. “You can’t just cut your way out of a deficit.”</p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; font-family: Calluna, serif; font-size: 19px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Pontiac is not Schimmel’s first clean-up job. In 2000, he was named the emergency manager of Hamtramck, where he served for six years. In 1986, a judge appointed him to oversee Ecorse’s finances after the city landed in state receivership; he stepped in and privatized city services. Today, the city is back in debt, and back under state management. Schimmel concedes that the privatization strategy can backfire, but he blames inept local government. “If you don’t have an overseer of the contractor, privatization can be much more expensive than in-house services,” he explains.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; font-family: Calluna, serif; font-size: 19px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Schimmel is also a former adjunct scholar and director of municipal finance at the&nbsp;<a href="http://www.mackinac.org/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">Mackinac Center for Public Policy</a>, a free-market think tank that shares his enthusiasm for privatizing public services. The center has received funding from the foundations of conservative billionaire&nbsp;<a href="http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/09/exclusive-audio-koch-brothers-seminar-tapes" target="blank" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">Charles Koch</a>, the Walton family, and&nbsp;<a href="http://motherjones.com/mojo/2011/09/koch-brothers-million-dollar-donor-club" target="blank" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">Dick DeVos</a>, the former CEO of Amway who ran as a Michigan Republican gubernatorial candidate in 2006.</b></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; font-family: Calluna, serif; font-size: 19px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span class="inline inline-right" style="box-sizing: inherit; padding-top: 0.5rem; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem 1rem; float: right; display: block !important; width: 650px;"><span class="caption" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 0.8125rem; line-height: 1.3; font-family: Mallory, sans-serif; width: 248px;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">[pix Pontiac, Michigan emergency manager Louis Schimmel&nbsp;</span>City of Pontiac</span></span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; font-family: Calluna, serif; font-size: 19px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In 2005, Mackinac published an&nbsp;<a href="http://www.mackinac.org/7451" target="blank" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url("");" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">essay by Schimmel</a>&nbsp;that called on Michigan’s Legislature to give emergency managers the power to impose contract changes on public-employee unions and “replace and take on the powers of the governing body.” When Republicans gained control over Lansing in 2010, Mackinac reprinted Schimmel’s article. Last March,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.mackinac.org/14756" target="blank" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url("");" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">the center celebrated</a>&nbsp;when the Legislature implemented its prescriptions in Public Act 4.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; font-family: Calluna, serif; font-size: 19px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">the Mackinac Center claims that Michigan could&nbsp;<a href="http://www.mackinac.org/14521" target="blank" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">save $5.7 billion annually</a>&nbsp;if public employees’ benefits were comparable to those of private-sector workers. Public-employee unions say cuts to public-sector jobs have only worsened the state’s economic woes with foreclosures and intensified reliance on state aid programs in cities like Flint, where the jobless rate was 17.5 percent at the end of 2011. “It’s an acceleration of the downward spiral,” says Brit Satchwell, president of the&nbsp;<a href="http://www.a2ea.org/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">Ann Arbor Education Association</a>, a teachers’ union. “Our goal is [to] outlaw government collective bargaining in Michigan,”&nbsp;<a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/74052346/Mackinac-Center-Emails%20" target="blank" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">wrote Mackinac’s legislative analyst</a>&nbsp;in an email to a Republican state representative last summer. (The message was obtained by the liberal think tank Progress Michigan.)</p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; font-family: Calluna, serif; font-size: 19px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>The Mackinac Center is a member of the&nbsp;<a href="http://www.alec.org/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">American Legislative Exchange Council</a>,</b> a clearinghouse for pro-business state legislation. (Its model bills have been linked to&nbsp;<a href="http://www.npr.org/2010/10/28/130833741/prison-economics-help-drive-ariz-immigration-law" target="blank" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">Arizona’s anti-immigration law</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="http://www.prwatch.org/news/2011/07/10880/alec-bills-wisconsin" target="blank" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">Wisconsin and Ohio’s collective bargaining bans</a>.) James Hohman, the center’s assistant director of fiscal policy, was one of 40 private-sector representatives at an ALEC conference in December 2010 where,&nbsp;<a href="https://dbapress.com/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">according to minutes</a>&nbsp;from the closed-door meeting, participants hammered out model legislation that would align public- and private-sector pay and restructure state pensions. (Jonathan Williams, ALEC’s tax and fiscal policy director, did not respond to requests for comment.)</p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; font-family: Calluna, serif; font-size: 19px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Foundations affiliated with the Koch brothers have funded ALEC’s reports on state fiscal policy. The&nbsp;<em style="box-sizing: inherit;">State Budget Reform Toolkit</em>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Rich States, Poor States</em>&nbsp;both echo elements of Michigan’s emergency-manager law</b>, encouraging state legislators to target public employees and identify privatization opportunities. The most recent&nbsp;<a href="http://www.alec.org/publications/state-budget-reform-toolkit/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px"><em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Toolkit</em>&nbsp;report</a>&nbsp;recommends that states create a “centralized, independent, decision-making body to manage privatization and government efficiency initiatives.” Michigan’s law grants far more sweeping powers to one appointee.</p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; font-family: Calluna, serif; font-size: 19px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Nearly one year after the passage of the emergency-manager law, its opponents are rallying to blunt its impact. The&nbsp;<a href="http://american%20federation%20of%20state%2C%20county%20and%20municipal%20employees/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url("");" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees</a>&nbsp;and the Detroit-based nonprofit&nbsp;<a href="http://michiganforward.org/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url("");" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">Michigan Forward</a>&nbsp;announced they’ve collected more than the required 160,000 signatures necessary to put the law up for referendum in November; they plan to deliver the signatures to the state on February 29.</span></p><div class="incontent-promo" id="incontent_promo_5" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: rgb(242, 243, 239); position: relative; left: -358.156px; height: auto; width: 100vw; margin-bottom: 1rem; clear: both; font-family: Calluna, serif; font-size: 19px;"><section id="mj-incontent-ad-widget-10" class="widget mj-incontent-ad-widget" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><div class="incontent-ad-container" style="box-sizing: inherit; max-width: 1300px; margin: 0px auto; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px;" /></section></div><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; font-family: Calluna, serif; font-size: 19px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Democratic Rep. John Conyers has called on the Department of Justice to&nbsp;<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/02/john-conyers-attorney-general-emergency-manager_n_1125224.html" target="blank" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url("");" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">review the law</a>&nbsp;in light of the Voting Rights Act and the contract clause of the Constitution. As the state treasurer’s office began a review of Detroit’s finances to determine whether the city is eligible for an emergency manager, Democratic Sens. Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow asked Gov. Snyder&nbsp;<a href="http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20111217/POLITICS02/112170354" target="blank" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url("");" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">not to name any more emergency managers</a>.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; font-family: Calluna, serif; font-size: 19px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The Detroit-based Sugar Law Center for Economic and Social Justice&nbsp;<a href="http://www.sugarlaw.org/democracy-emergency/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">has filed a lawsuit</a>&nbsp;to block the law, claiming it violates the state constitution, including the home rule provision that defines residents’ rights to elect a local government. Tova Perlmutter, the law center’s director, says the suit isn’t just about Michigan: “If we win this case, it will give other state legislatures pause before pursuing similar laws.”</p><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">access 1/21</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.mackinac.org/bio.aspx?ID=139">https://www.mackinac.org/bio.aspx?ID=139</a></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">louis H. Schimmel Jr. is a former adjunct scholar at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy and a former member of the Center's Board of Scholars. Schimmel was director of municipal finance at the Mackinac Center from 2006 to 2009. He is an entrepreneur and former emergency financial manager for the city of Hamtramck.</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Schimmel was appointed receiver for the debt-ridden city of Ecorse, Mich., by the Wayne County Michigan Judicial Circuit Court on Dec. 3, 1986. He served as receiver for 3 years and 9 months, eliminating the city's $6 million deficit by negotiating unique union contracts and privatizing nearly all of the city’s services. In 1990, Schimmel received the Outstanding Service and Leadership in the Public Sector award from the <b>Michigan Chamber of Commerce.</b></font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>On August 1, 1992, Michigan Gov. John Engler appointed Schimmel to the Michigan Public-Private Partnership Commission. The commission submitted an extensive report to the governor for improving service delivery and increasing efficiency in state government.</b></font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Schimmel’s vast background in municipal finance includes working as executive director of the nonprofit <b>Municipal Advisory Council of Michigan, a statistical clearinghouse for U.S. investment bankers who underwrite or invest in Michigan municipal bond issues.</b> Schimmel frequently speaks and writes on municipal finance matters, advises state and local officials on the marketing of municipal bond issues and consults with municipalities on reducing their operating costs. He is recognized in the municipal bond industry as an authority on the creditworthiness of Michigan municipal debt issues.</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Schimmel is a past president of the Bond Club of Detroit</b>. He served on the board of directors and executive committee of the Pontiac State Bank from 1972 to 1988, and he was instrumental in the sale of Pontiac State Bank to the National Bank of Detroit. Schimmel was also on the Waterford School Board for eight years, serving two years as board president.</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Schimmel has been featured in newspapers and magazines, including&nbsp;<em>The Wall Street Journal</em>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<em>The Detroit News</em>, for his success in eliminating the city of Ecorse's deficit. Schimmel is a graduate of Michigan State University and resides in Waterford, Mich.</font></p></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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padding: 0px; list-style: none; cursor: pointer; user-select: none;"><a class="fl" href="https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:dBsz5ujAVDEJ:https://www.mackinac.org/bio.aspx%3FID%3D139+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search%3Fq%3Dcache:dBsz5ujAVDEJ:https://www.mackinac.org/bio.aspx%253FID%253D139%2B%26cd%3D1%26hl%3Den%26ct%3Dclnk%26gl%3Dus&ved=2ahUKEwj2r4XSuqHuAhUNCawKHc4MDhcQIDAAegQIAxAH" style="text-decoration-line: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1); display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;" /></li><li class="action-menu-item" role="menuitem" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; list-style: none; cursor: pointer; user-select: none;"><a class="fl" href="https://www.google.com/search?q=related:https://www.mackinac.org/bio.aspx%3FID%3D139+louis+schimmel+michigan+pontiac+water+mackinac+emergency&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj2r4XSuqHuAhUNCawKHc4MDhcQHzAAegQIAxAI" style="text-decoration-line: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1); display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;" /></li></ol></div></div></div></div><div class="IsZvec" style="max-width: 48em; line-height: 1.58;"><a class="fl" href="https://www.google.com/search?q=related:https://www.mackinac.org/bio.aspx%3FID%3D139+louis+schimmel+michigan+pontiac+water+mackinac+emergency&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj2r4XSuqHuAhUNCawKHc4MDhcQHzAAegQIAxAI" style="text-decoration-line: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1); display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;"><span class="aCOpRe" style="line-height: 1.58; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Louis</span>&nbsp;H.&nbsp;<span style="font-weight: bold;">Schimmel</span>&nbsp;Jr. is a former adjunct scholar at the&nbsp;<span style="font-weight: bold;">Mackinac</span>&nbsp;Center for Public ... He is an entrepreneur and former&nbsp;<span style="font-weight: bold;">emergency</span>&nbsp;financial manager for the city of ... of Ecorse, Mich., by the Wayne County&nbsp;<span style="font-weight: bold;">Michigan</span>&nbsp;Judicial Circuit Court on Dec. ... instrumental in the sale of&nbsp;<span style="font-weight: bold;">Pontiac</span>&nbsp;State Bank to the National Bank of Detroit.</font></span></a><div class="TXwUJf" style=""><a class="fl" href="https://www.google.com/search?q=related:https://www.mackinac.org/bio.aspx%3FID%3D139+louis+schimmel+michigan+pontiac+water+mackinac+emergency&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj2r4XSuqHuAhUNCawKHc4MDhcQHzAAegQIAxAI" style="text-decoration-line: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1); display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Missing:&nbsp;<s>water</s>&nbsp;‎| Must include:&nbsp;</font></a><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a class="fl" href="https://www.google.com/search?q=louis+schimmel+michigan+pontiac+%22water%22+mackinac+emergency&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj2r4XSuqHuAhUNCawKHc4MDhcQ5t4CMAB6BAgDEAo" style="text-decoration-line: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1);">water</a></font></div></div></div></div><div class="g" style="width: 600px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 30px; line-height: 1.2; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="tF2Cxc" data-hveid="CAEQAA" data-ved="2ahUKEwj2r4XSuqHuAhUNCawKHc4MDhcQFSgAMAF6BAgBEAA" style="position: relative;"><div class="yuRUbf" style="line-height: 1.58;"><a href="https://www.eclectablog.com/tag/louis-schimmel" data-ved="2ahUKEwj2r4XSuqHuAhUNCawKHc4MDhcQFjABegQIARAC" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.eclectablog.com/tag/louis-schimmel&ved=2ahUKEwj2r4XSuqHuAhUNCawKHc4MDhcQFjABegQIARAC" style="text-decoration-line: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">
</font></a><h3 class="LC20lb DKV0Md" style="font-weight: normal; margin: 0px 0px 3px; padding: 5px 0px 0px; display: inline-block; line-height: 1.3;"><a href="https://www.eclectablog.com/tag/louis-schimmel" data-ved="2ahUKEwj2r4XSuqHuAhUNCawKHc4MDhcQFjABegQIARAC" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.eclectablog.com/tag/louis-schimmel&ved=2ahUKEwj2r4XSuqHuAhUNCawKHc4MDhcQFjABegQIARAC" style="text-decoration-line: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Louis Schimmel | Eclectablog</font></a></h3><div class="TbwUpd NJjxre" style="display: inline-block; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-top: 1px; text-size-adjust: none; position: absolute; left: 0px; top: 0px;"><cite class="iUh30 Zu0yb qLRx3b tjvcx" style="font-style: normal; padding-top: 1px; line-height: 1.3;">www.eclectablog.com<span class="dyjrff qzEoUe" style="">&nbsp;› tag › louis-schimmel</span></cite></div><div class="B6fmyf" style="position: absolute; top: 0px; 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padding: 0px; list-style: none; cursor: pointer; user-select: none;"><a class="fl" href="https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:0EdXgC9LFyoJ:https://www.eclectablog.com/tag/louis-schimmel+&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search%3Fq%3Dcache:0EdXgC9LFyoJ:https://www.eclectablog.com/tag/louis-schimmel%2B%26cd%3D2%26hl%3Den%26ct%3Dclnk%26gl%3Dus&ved=2ahUKEwj2r4XSuqHuAhUNCawKHc4MDhcQIDABegQIARAJ" style="text-decoration-line: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1); display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;" /></li></ol></div></div></div></div><div class="IsZvec" style="max-width: 48em; line-height: 1.58;"><a class="fl" href="https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:0EdXgC9LFyoJ:https://www.eclectablog.com/tag/louis-schimmel+&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search%3Fq%3Dcache:0EdXgC9LFyoJ:https://www.eclectablog.com/tag/louis-schimmel%2B%26cd%3D2%26hl%3Den%26ct%3Dclnk%26gl%3Dus&ved=2ahUKEwj2r4XSuqHuAhUNCawKHc4MDhcQIDABegQIARAJ" style="text-decoration-line: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1); display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;"><span class="aCOpRe" style="line-height: 1.58; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Back in December,&nbsp;<span style="font-weight: bold;">Pontiac Emergency</span>&nbsp;Manager Lou Schimmel unilaterally decided to ... and fair piece about&nbsp;<span style="font-weight: bold;">Michigan's Emergency</span>&nbsp;Manager crisis at Governing.com. ... Michael Stampfler signed a five-year contract with United&nbsp;<span style="font-weight: bold;">Water</span>&nbsp;to run their ... Mgr, privatization “expert” & former&nbsp;<span style="font-weight: bold;">Mackinac</span>&nbsp;Center staffer&nbsp;<span style="font-weight: bold;">Louis Schimmel</span>.</font></span></a></div></div></div><div class="g" style="width: 600px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 30px; line-height: 1.2; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="tF2Cxc" data-hveid="CAIQAA" data-ved="2ahUKEwj2r4XSuqHuAhUNCawKHc4MDhcQFSgAMAJ6BAgCEAA" style="position: relative;"><div class="yuRUbf" style="line-height: 1.58;"><a href="https://www.eclectablog.com/2011/09/pontiac-gets-new-emergency-manager.html" data-ved="2ahUKEwj2r4XSuqHuAhUNCawKHc4MDhcQFjACegQIAhAC" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.eclectablog.com/2011/09/pontiac-gets-new-emergency-manager.html&ved=2ahUKEwj2r4XSuqHuAhUNCawKHc4MDhcQFjACegQIAhAC" style="text-decoration-line: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">
</font></a><h3 class="LC20lb DKV0Md" style="font-weight: normal; margin: 0px 0px 3px; padding: 5px 0px 0px; display: inline-block; line-height: 1.3;"><a href="https://www.eclectablog.com/2011/09/pontiac-gets-new-emergency-manager.html" data-ved="2ahUKEwj2r4XSuqHuAhUNCawKHc4MDhcQFjACegQIAhAC" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.eclectablog.com/2011/09/pontiac-gets-new-emergency-manager.html&ved=2ahUKEwj2r4XSuqHuAhUNCawKHc4MDhcQFjACegQIAhAC" style="text-decoration-line: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Pontiac gets a new Emergency Mgr, privatization "expert" & former ...</font></a></h3><div class="TbwUpd NJjxre" style="display: inline-block; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-top: 1px; text-size-adjust: none; position: absolute; left: 0px; top: 0px;"><cite class="iUh30 Zu0yb qLRx3b tjvcx" style="font-style: normal; padding-top: 1px; line-height: 1.3;">www.eclectablog.com<span class="dyjrff qzEoUe" style="">&nbsp;› 2011/09 › pontiac-gets-new-e...</span></cite></div><div class="B6fmyf" style="position: absolute; top: 0px; height: 0px; visibility: hidden; white-space: nowrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><div class="TbwUpd" style="display: inline-block; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-top: 1px; text-size-adjust: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><cite class="iUh30 Zu0yb qLRx3b tjvcx" style="font-style: normal; padding-top: 1px; line-height: 1.3;"><span class="dyjrff qzEoUe" style="" /></cite></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div class="eFM0qc" style="display: inline-block; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-top: 1px; padding-left: 2px; visibility: visible;"><div jscontroller="hiU8Ie" class="action-menu" style="display: inline; margin: 1px 3px 0px; position: relative; user-select: none; vertical-align: middle;"><a class="GHDvEf" href="https://www.google.com/search?q=louis+schimmel+michigan+pntiac+water+mackinack+emergency&oq=louis+schimmel+michigan+pntiac+water+mackinack+emergency&aqs=chrome..69i57.15839j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#" id="am-b2" aria-label="Result Options" aria-expanded="false" aria-haspopup="true" role="button" jsaction="PZcoEd;keydown:wU6FVd;keypress:uWmNaf" data-ved="2ahUKEwj2r4XSuqHuAhUNCawKHc4MDhcQ7B0wAnoECAIQBw" style="text-decoration-line: none; 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padding: 0px; list-style: none; cursor: pointer; user-select: none;"><a class="fl" href="https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:n_laxGoBiOEJ:https://www.eclectablog.com/2011/09/pontiac-gets-new-emergency-manager.html+&cd=3&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search%3Fq%3Dcache:n_laxGoBiOEJ:https://www.eclectablog.com/2011/09/pontiac-gets-new-emergency-manager.html%2B%26cd%3D3%26hl%3Den%26ct%3Dclnk%26gl%3Dus&ved=2ahUKEwj2r4XSuqHuAhUNCawKHc4MDhcQIDACegQIAhAJ" style="text-decoration-line: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1); display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;" /></li></ol></div></div></div></div><div class="IsZvec" style="max-width: 48em; line-height: 1.58;"><a class="fl" href="https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:n_laxGoBiOEJ:https://www.eclectablog.com/2011/09/pontiac-gets-new-emergency-manager.html+&cd=3&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search%3Fq%3Dcache:n_laxGoBiOEJ:https://www.eclectablog.com/2011/09/pontiac-gets-new-emergency-manager.html%2B%26cd%3D3%26hl%3Den%26ct%3Dclnk%26gl%3Dus&ved=2ahUKEwj2r4XSuqHuAhUNCawKHc4MDhcQIDACegQIAhAJ" style="text-decoration-line: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1); display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;"><span class="aCOpRe" style="line-height: 1.58; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Pontiac</span>&nbsp;gets a new&nbsp;<span style="font-weight: bold;">Emergency</span>&nbsp;Mgr, privatization “expert” & former&nbsp;<span style="font-weight: bold;">Mackinac</span>&nbsp;Center ... of Michael Stampfler as&nbsp;<span style="font-weight: bold;">Pontiac's Emergency</span>&nbsp;Manager,&nbsp;<span style="font-weight: bold;">Louis</span>&nbsp;Schmimmel was ... Earlier this year, I broke the story that Stampfler had hired United&nbsp;<span style="font-weight: bold;">Water</span>&nbsp;to run ... As Eartha Jane Melzer reports reports at&nbsp;<span style="font-weight: bold;">Michigan</span>&nbsp;Messenger,&nbsp;<span style="font-weight: bold;">Schimmel</span>&nbsp;is&nbsp;...</font></span></a></div></div></div><div class="g" style="width: 600px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 30px; line-height: 1.2; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="tF2Cxc" data-hveid="CAYQAA" data-ved="2ahUKEwj2r4XSuqHuAhUNCawKHc4MDhcQFSgAMAN6BAgGEAA" style="position: relative;"><div class="yuRUbf" style="line-height: 1.58;"><a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/02/michigan-emergency-manager-pontiac-detroit/" data-ved="2ahUKEwj2r4XSuqHuAhUNCawKHc4MDhcQFjADegQIBhAC" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/02/michigan-emergency-manager-pontiac-detroit/&ved=2ahUKEwj2r4XSuqHuAhUNCawKHc4MDhcQFjADegQIBhAC" style="text-decoration-line: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">
</font></a><h3 class="LC20lb DKV0Md" style="font-weight: normal; margin: 0px 0px 3px; padding: 5px 0px 0px; display: inline-block; line-height: 1.3;"><a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/02/michigan-emergency-manager-pontiac-detroit/" data-ved="2ahUKEwj2r4XSuqHuAhUNCawKHc4MDhcQFjADegQIBhAC" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/02/michigan-emergency-manager-pontiac-detroit/&ved=2ahUKEwj2r4XSuqHuAhUNCawKHc4MDhcQFjADegQIBhAC" style="text-decoration-line: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Michigan's Hostile Takeover – Mother Jones</font></a></h3><div class="TbwUpd NJjxre" style="display: inline-block; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-top: 1px; text-size-adjust: none; position: absolute; left: 0px; top: 0px;"><cite class="iUh30 Zu0yb qLRx3b tjvcx" style="font-style: normal; padding-top: 1px; line-height: 1.3;">www.motherjones.com<span class="dyjrff qzEoUe" style="">&nbsp;› politics › 2012/02 › michigan...</span></cite></div><div class="B6fmyf" style="position: absolute; top: 0px; height: 0px; visibility: hidden; white-space: nowrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><div class="TbwUpd" style="display: inline-block; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-top: 1px; text-size-adjust: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><cite class="iUh30 Zu0yb qLRx3b tjvcx" style="font-style: normal; padding-top: 1px; line-height: 1.3;"><span class="dyjrff qzEoUe" style="" /></cite></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div class="eFM0qc" style="display: inline-block; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-top: 1px; padding-left: 2px; visibility: visible;"><div jscontroller="hiU8Ie" class="action-menu" style="display: inline; margin: 1px 3px 0px; position: relative; user-select: none; vertical-align: middle;"><a class="GHDvEf" href="https://www.google.com/search?q=louis+schimmel+michigan+pntiac+water+mackinack+emergency&oq=louis+schimmel+michigan+pntiac+water+mackinack+emergency&aqs=chrome..69i57.15839j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#" id="am-b3" aria-label="Result Options" aria-expanded="false" aria-haspopup="true" role="button" jsaction="PZcoEd;keydown:wU6FVd;keypress:uWmNaf" data-ved="2ahUKEwj2r4XSuqHuAhUNCawKHc4MDhcQ7B0wA3oECAYQBQ" style="text-decoration-line: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1); display: inline-block; height: 12px; margin-top: 1px; user-select: none; width: 13px;"><span class="mn-dwn-arw" style="border-color: rgb(112, 117, 122) transparent; border-style: solid; border-width: 5px 4px 0px; width: 0px; height: 0px; margin-left: 3px; top: 7.5px; margin-top: -3px; position: absolute; left: 0px;" /></a><ol class="action-menu-panel" role="menu" tabindex="-1" jsaction="keydown:Xiq7wd;mouseover:pKPowd;mouseout:O9bKS" data-ved="2ahUKEwj2r4XSuqHuAhUNCawKHc4MDhcQqR8wA3oECAYQBg" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: absolute; left: 0px; top: 12px; visibility: hidden; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; border: 1px solid rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2); z-index: 3; transition: opacity 0.218s ease 0s; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2) 0px 2px 4px;"><li class="action-menu-item" role="menuitem" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; list-style: none; cursor: pointer; user-select: none;"><a class="fl" href="https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:A-3_PW2tjxoJ:https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/02/michigan-emergency-manager-pontiac-detroit/+&cd=4&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search%3Fq%3Dcache:A-3_PW2tjxoJ:https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/02/michigan-emergency-manager-pontiac-detroit/%2B%26cd%3D4%26hl%3Den%26ct%3Dclnk%26gl%3Dus&ved=2ahUKEwj2r4XSuqHuAhUNCawKHc4MDhcQIDADegQIBhAH" style="text-decoration-line: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1); display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;" /></li></ol></div></div></div></div><div class="IsZvec" style="max-width: 48em; line-height: 1.58;"><a class="fl" href="https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:A-3_PW2tjxoJ:https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/02/michigan-emergency-manager-pontiac-detroit/+&cd=4&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search%3Fq%3Dcache:A-3_PW2tjxoJ:https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/02/michigan-emergency-manager-pontiac-detroit/%2B%26cd%3D4%26hl%3Den%26ct%3Dclnk%26gl%3Dus&ved=2ahUKEwj2r4XSuqHuAhUNCawKHc4MDhcQIDADegQIBhAH" style="text-decoration-line: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1); display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;"><span class="aCOpRe" style="line-height: 1.58; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="f" style="line-height: 1.58;">Feb 15, 2012 —&nbsp;</span>A new “<span style="font-weight: bold;">emergency</span>” law backed by right-wing think tanks is turning&nbsp;<span style="font-weight: bold;">Michigan</span>&nbsp;... the police station, fire stations,&nbsp;<span style="font-weight: bold;">water</span>-pumping stations, the library, the golf ...&nbsp;<span style="font-weight: bold;">Pontiac</span>,&nbsp;<span style="font-weight: bold;">Michigan emergency</span>&nbsp;manager&nbsp;<span style="font-weight: bold;">Louis Schimmel</span>&nbsp;City of&nbsp;<span style="font-weight: bold;">Pontiac</span>. In 2005,&nbsp;<span style="font-weight: bold;">Mackinac</span>&nbsp;published an essay by Schimmel that called on&nbsp;<span style="font-weight: bold;">Michigan's</span>&nbsp;...</font></span></a></div></div></div><div class="g" style="width: 600px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 30px; line-height: 1.2; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="tF2Cxc" data-hveid="CAQQAA" data-ved="2ahUKEwj2r4XSuqHuAhUNCawKHc4MDhcQFSgAMAR6BAgEEAA" style="position: relative;"><div class="yuRUbf" style="line-height: 1.58;"><a href="https://reason.org/commentary/pontiac-contract-city-schimmel/" data-ved="2ahUKEwj2r4XSuqHuAhUNCawKHc4MDhcQFjAEegQIBBAC" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://reason.org/commentary/pontiac-contract-city-schimmel/&ved=2ahUKEwj2r4XSuqHuAhUNCawKHc4MDhcQFjAEegQIBBAC" style="text-decoration-line: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">
</font></a><h3 class="LC20lb DKV0Md" style="font-weight: normal; margin: 0px 0px 3px; padding: 5px 0px 0px; display: inline-block; line-height: 1.3;"><a href="https://reason.org/commentary/pontiac-contract-city-schimmel/" data-ved="2ahUKEwj2r4XSuqHuAhUNCawKHc4MDhcQFjAEegQIBBAC" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://reason.org/commentary/pontiac-contract-city-schimmel/&ved=2ahUKEwj2r4XSuqHuAhUNCawKHc4MDhcQFjAEegQIBBAC" style="text-decoration-line: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">From Traditional to Contract City: Navigating Financial ...</font></a></h3><div class="TbwUpd NJjxre" style="display: inline-block; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-top: 1px; text-size-adjust: none; position: absolute; left: 0px; top: 0px;"><cite class="iUh30 Zu0yb qLRx3b tjvcx" style="font-style: normal; padding-top: 1px; line-height: 1.3;">reason.org<span class="dyjrff qzEoUe" style="">&nbsp;› pontiac-contract-city-schimmel</span></cite></div><div class="B6fmyf" style="position: absolute; top: 0px; height: 0px; visibility: hidden; white-space: nowrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><div class="TbwUpd" style="display: inline-block; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-top: 1px; text-size-adjust: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><cite class="iUh30 Zu0yb qLRx3b tjvcx" style="font-style: normal; padding-top: 1px; line-height: 1.3;"><span class="dyjrff qzEoUe" style="" /></cite></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div class="eFM0qc" style="display: inline-block; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-top: 1px; padding-left: 2px; visibility: visible;"><div jscontroller="hiU8Ie" class="action-menu" style="display: inline; margin: 1px 3px 0px; position: relative; user-select: none; vertical-align: middle;"><a class="GHDvEf" href="https://www.google.com/search?q=louis+schimmel+michigan+pntiac+water+mackinack+emergency&oq=louis+schimmel+michigan+pntiac+water+mackinack+emergency&aqs=chrome..69i57.15839j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#" id="am-b4" aria-label="Result Options" aria-expanded="false" aria-haspopup="true" role="button" jsaction="PZcoEd;keydown:wU6FVd;keypress:uWmNaf" data-ved="2ahUKEwj2r4XSuqHuAhUNCawKHc4MDhcQ7B0wBHoECAQQBQ" style="text-decoration-line: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1); display: inline-block; height: 12px; margin-top: 1px; user-select: none; width: 13px;"><span class="mn-dwn-arw" style="border-color: rgb(112, 117, 122) transparent; border-style: solid; border-width: 5px 4px 0px; width: 0px; height: 0px; margin-left: 3px; top: 7.5px; margin-top: -3px; position: absolute; left: 0px;" /></a><ol class="action-menu-panel" role="menu" tabindex="-1" jsaction="keydown:Xiq7wd;mouseover:pKPowd;mouseout:O9bKS" data-ved="2ahUKEwj2r4XSuqHuAhUNCawKHc4MDhcQqR8wBHoECAQQBg" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: absolute; left: 0px; top: 12px; visibility: hidden; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; border: 1px solid rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2); z-index: 3; transition: opacity 0.218s ease 0s; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2) 0px 2px 4px;"><li class="action-menu-item" role="menuitem" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; list-style: none; cursor: pointer; user-select: none;"><a class="fl" href="https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:aTzfywMMjqcJ:https://reason.org/commentary/pontiac-contract-city-schimmel/+&cd=5&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search%3Fq%3Dcache:aTzfywMMjqcJ:https://reason.org/commentary/pontiac-contract-city-schimmel/%2B%26cd%3D5%26hl%3Den%26ct%3Dclnk%26gl%3Dus&ved=2ahUKEwj2r4XSuqHuAhUNCawKHc4MDhcQIDAEegQIBBAH" style="text-decoration-line: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1); display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;" /></li></ol></div></div></div></div><div class="IsZvec" style="max-width: 48em; line-height: 1.58;"><a class="fl" href="https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:aTzfywMMjqcJ:https://reason.org/commentary/pontiac-contract-city-schimmel/+&cd=5&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search%3Fq%3Dcache:aTzfywMMjqcJ:https://reason.org/commentary/pontiac-contract-city-schimmel/%2B%26cd%3D5%26hl%3Den%26ct%3Dclnk%26gl%3Dus&ved=2ahUKEwj2r4XSuqHuAhUNCawKHc4MDhcQIDAEegQIBBAH" style="text-decoration-line: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1); display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;"><span class="aCOpRe" style="line-height: 1.58; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="f" style="line-height: 1.58;">Mar 25, 2014 —&nbsp;</span><span style="font-weight: bold;">Louis Schimmel</span>, former&nbsp;<span style="font-weight: bold;">Emergency</span>&nbsp;Manager,&nbsp;<span style="font-weight: bold;">Pontiac</span>,&nbsp;<span style="font-weight: bold;">Michigan</span>: ... Michael LaFaive,&nbsp;<span style="font-weight: bold;">Mackinac</span>&nbsp;Center for Public Policy: Private sector firms ... 911 dispatch,&nbsp;<span style="font-weight: bold;">water</span>&nbsp;and wastewater operations, and animal control services.</font></span></a></div></div></div><div class="g" style="width: 600px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 30px; line-height: 1.2; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="tF2Cxc" data-hveid="CAUQAA" data-ved="2ahUKEwj2r4XSuqHuAhUNCawKHc4MDhcQFSgAMAV6BAgFEAA" style="position: relative;"><div class="yuRUbf" style="line-height: 1.58;"><a href="https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2013/06/17/pont-j17.html" data-ved="2ahUKEwj2r4XSuqHuAhUNCawKHc4MDhcQFjAFegQIBRAC" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2013/06/17/pont-j17.html&ved=2ahUKEwj2r4XSuqHuAhUNCawKHc4MDhcQFjAFegQIBRAC" style="text-decoration-line: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">
</font></a><h3 class="LC20lb DKV0Md" style="font-weight: normal; margin: 0px 0px 3px; padding: 5px 0px 0px; display: inline-block; line-height: 1.3;"><a href="https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2013/06/17/pont-j17.html" data-ved="2ahUKEwj2r4XSuqHuAhUNCawKHc4MDhcQFjAFegQIBRAC" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2013/06/17/pont-j17.html&ved=2ahUKEwj2r4XSuqHuAhUNCawKHc4MDhcQFjAFegQIBRAC" style="text-decoration-line: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">The dismantling of Pontiac, Michigan - World Socialist Web Site</font></a></h3><div class="TbwUpd NJjxre" style="display: inline-block; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-top: 1px; text-size-adjust: none; position: absolute; left: 0px; top: 0px;"><cite class="iUh30 Zu0yb qLRx3b tjvcx" style="font-style: normal; padding-top: 1px; line-height: 1.3;">www.wsws.org<span class="dyjrff qzEoUe" style="">&nbsp;› articles › 2013/06/17 › pont-j17</span></cite></div><div class="B6fmyf" style="position: absolute; top: 0px; height: 0px; visibility: hidden; white-space: nowrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><div class="TbwUpd" style="display: inline-block; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-top: 1px; text-size-adjust: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><cite class="iUh30 Zu0yb qLRx3b tjvcx" style="font-style: normal; padding-top: 1px; line-height: 1.3;"><span class="dyjrff qzEoUe" style="" /></cite></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div class="eFM0qc" style="display: inline-block; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-top: 1px; padding-left: 2px; visibility: visible;"><div jscontroller="hiU8Ie" class="action-menu" style="display: inline; margin: 1px 3px 0px; position: relative; user-select: none; vertical-align: middle;"><a class="GHDvEf" href="https://www.google.com/search?q=louis+schimmel+michigan+pntiac+water+mackinack+emergency&oq=louis+schimmel+michigan+pntiac+water+mackinack+emergency&aqs=chrome..69i57.15839j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#" id="am-b5" aria-label="Result Options" aria-expanded="false" aria-haspopup="true" role="button" jsaction="PZcoEd;keydown:wU6FVd;keypress:uWmNaf" data-ved="2ahUKEwj2r4XSuqHuAhUNCawKHc4MDhcQ7B0wBXoECAUQBQ" style="text-decoration-line: none; 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padding: 0px; list-style: none; cursor: pointer; user-select: none;"><a class="fl" href="https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:f-hPU9xjEWgJ:https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2013/06/17/pont-j17.html+&cd=6&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search%3Fq%3Dcache:f-hPU9xjEWgJ:https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2013/06/17/pont-j17.html%2B%26cd%3D6%26hl%3Den%26ct%3Dclnk%26gl%3Dus&ved=2ahUKEwj2r4XSuqHuAhUNCawKHc4MDhcQIDAFegQIBRAH" style="text-decoration-line: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1); display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;" /></li><li class="action-menu-item" role="menuitem" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; list-style: none; cursor: pointer; user-select: none;"><a class="fl" href="https://www.google.com/search?q=related:https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2013/06/17/pont-j17.html+louis+schimmel+michigan+pontiac+water+mackinac+emergency&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj2r4XSuqHuAhUNCawKHc4MDhcQHzAFegQIBRAI" style="text-decoration-line: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1); display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;" /></li></ol></div></div></div></div><div class="IsZvec" style="max-width: 48em; line-height: 1.58;"><a class="fl" href="https://www.google.com/search?q=related:https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2013/06/17/pont-j17.html+louis+schimmel+michigan+pontiac+water+mackinac+emergency&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj2r4XSuqHuAhUNCawKHc4MDhcQHzAFegQIBRAI" style="text-decoration-line: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1); display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;"><span class="aCOpRe" style="line-height: 1.58; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="f" style="line-height: 1.58;">Jun 17, 2013 —&nbsp;</span>Of 21&nbsp;<span style="font-weight: bold;">Michigan</span>&nbsp;cities under&nbsp;<span style="font-weight: bold;">emergency</span>&nbsp;managers, none has yet faced as drastic ... The city no longer issues building permits or carries out&nbsp;<span style="font-weight: bold;">water</span>&nbsp;and sewer ... Republican Governor Rick Snyder appointed&nbsp;<span style="font-weight: bold;">Louis Schimmel</span>&nbsp;in 2011. ... Schimmel went to work for the&nbsp;<span style="font-weight: bold;">Mackinac</span>&nbsp;Center, serving as its director of&nbsp;...</font></span></a></div></div></div><a class="fl" href="https://www.google.com/search?q=related:https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2013/06/17/pont-j17.html+louis+schimmel+michigan+pontiac+water+mackinac+emergency&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj2r4XSuqHuAhUNCawKHc4MDhcQHzAFegQIBRAI" style="text-decoration-line: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1); display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span id="fld" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /></font></a><div class="g" style="width: 600px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 30px; line-height: 1.2; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a class="fl" href="https://www.google.com/search?q=related:https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2013/06/17/pont-j17.html+louis+schimmel+michigan+pontiac+water+mackinac+emergency&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj2r4XSuqHuAhUNCawKHc4MDhcQHzAFegQIBRAI" style="text-decoration-line: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1); display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;" /><div class="tF2Cxc" data-hveid="CAgQAA" data-ved="2ahUKEwj2r4XSuqHuAhUNCawKHc4MDhcQFSgAMAZ6BAgIEAA" style="position: relative;"><a class="fl" href="https://www.google.com/search?q=related:https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2013/06/17/pont-j17.html+louis+schimmel+michigan+pontiac+water+mackinac+emergency&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj2r4XSuqHuAhUNCawKHc4MDhcQHzAFegQIBRAI" style="text-decoration-line: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1); display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;" /><a class="fl" href="https://www.google.com/search?q=related:https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2013/06/17/pont-j17.html+louis+schimmel+michigan+pontiac+water+mackinac+emergency&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj2r4XSuqHuAhUNCawKHc4MDhcQHzAFegQIBRAI" style="text-decoration-line: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1); display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;" /><a class="fl" href="https://www.google.com/search?q=related:https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2013/06/17/pont-j17.html+louis+schimmel+michigan+pontiac+water+mackinac+emergency&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj2r4XSuqHuAhUNCawKHc4MDhcQHzAFegQIBRAI" style="text-decoration-line: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1); display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;" /><a class="fl" href="https://www.google.com/search?q=related:https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2013/06/17/pont-j17.html+louis+schimmel+michigan+pontiac+water+mackinac+emergency&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj2r4XSuqHuAhUNCawKHc4MDhcQHzAFegQIBRAI" style="text-decoration-line: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1); display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;" /><div class="yuRUbf" style="line-height: 1.58;"><a class="fl" href="https://www.google.com/search?q=related:https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2013/06/17/pont-j17.html+louis+schimmel+michigan+pontiac+water+mackinac+emergency&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj2r4XSuqHuAhUNCawKHc4MDhcQHzAFegQIBRAI" style="text-decoration-line: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1); display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;" /><a class="fl" href="https://www.google.com/search?q=related:https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2013/06/17/pont-j17.html+louis+schimmel+michigan+pontiac+water+mackinac+emergency&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj2r4XSuqHuAhUNCawKHc4MDhcQHzAFegQIBRAI" style="text-decoration-line: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1); display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;" /><a class="fl" href="https://www.google.com/search?q=related:https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2013/06/17/pont-j17.html+louis+schimmel+michigan+pontiac+water+mackinac+emergency&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj2r4XSuqHuAhUNCawKHc4MDhcQHzAFegQIBRAI" style="text-decoration-line: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1); display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;" /><a class="fl" href="https://www.google.com/search?q=related:https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2013/06/17/pont-j17.html+louis+schimmel+michigan+pontiac+water+mackinac+emergency&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj2r4XSuqHuAhUNCawKHc4MDhcQHzAFegQIBRAI" style="text-decoration-line: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1); display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/former-pontiac-emergency-manager-louis-h-schimmel-returns-to-municipal-financial-consultants-incorporated-as-vice-chairman-271695481.html" data-ved="2ahUKEwj2r4XSuqHuAhUNCawKHc4MDhcQFjAGegQICBAC" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/former-pontiac-emergency-manager-louis-h-schimmel-returns-to-municipal-financial-consultants-incorporated-as-vice-chairman-271695481.html&ved=2ahUKEwj2r4XSuqHuAhUNCawKHc4MDhcQFjAGegQICBAC" style="text-decoration-line: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">
</font></a><h3 class="LC20lb DKV0Md" style="font-weight: normal; margin: 0px 0px 3px; padding: 5px 0px 0px; display: inline-block; line-height: 1.3;"><a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/former-pontiac-emergency-manager-louis-h-schimmel-returns-to-municipal-financial-consultants-incorporated-as-vice-chairman-271695481.html" data-ved="2ahUKEwj2r4XSuqHuAhUNCawKHc4MDhcQFjAGegQICBAC" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/former-pontiac-emergency-manager-louis-h-schimmel-returns-to-municipal-financial-consultants-incorporated-as-vice-chairman-271695481.html&ved=2ahUKEwj2r4XSuqHuAhUNCawKHc4MDhcQFjAGegQICBAC" style="text-decoration-line: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Former Pontiac Emergency Manager Louis H. Schimmel ...</font></a></h3><div class="TbwUpd NJjxre" style="display: inline-block; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-top: 1px; text-size-adjust: none; position: absolute; left: 0px; top: 0px;"><cite class="iUh30 Zu0yb qLRx3b tjvcx" style="font-style: normal; padding-top: 1px; line-height: 1.3;">www.prnewswire.com<span class="dyjrff qzEoUe" style="">&nbsp;› news-releases › former-pontiac...</span></cite></div><div class="B6fmyf" style="position: absolute; top: 0px; height: 0px; visibility: hidden; white-space: nowrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><div class="TbwUpd" style="display: inline-block; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-top: 1px; text-size-adjust: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><cite class="iUh30 Zu0yb qLRx3b tjvcx" style="font-style: normal; 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overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="f" style="line-height: 1.58;">Aug 18, 2014 —&nbsp;</span><span style="font-weight: bold;">Schimmel</span>&nbsp;retired as the Executive Director of the Municipal Advisory Council of&nbsp;<span style="font-weight: bold;">Michigan</span>&nbsp;(MAC), a statistical clearing house for investment&nbsp;...</font></span></a><div class="TXwUJf" style=""><a class="fl" href="https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:iHAlWK7XdpMJ:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/former-pontiac-emergency-manager-louis-h-schimmel-returns-to-municipal-financial-consultants-incorporated-as-vice-chairman-271695481.html+&cd=7&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search%3Fq%3Dcache:iHAlWK7XdpMJ:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/former-pontiac-emergency-manager-louis-h-schimmel-returns-to-municipal-financial-consultants-incorporated-as-vice-chairman-271695481.html%2B%26cd%3D7%26hl%3Den%26ct%3Dclnk%26gl%3Dus&ved=2ahUKEwj2r4XSuqHuAhUNCawKHc4MDhcQIDAGegQICBAH" style="text-decoration-line: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1); display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Missing:&nbsp;<s>mackinac</s>&nbsp;‎| Must include:&nbsp;</font></a><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a class="fl" href="https://www.google.com/search?q=louis+schimmel+michigan+pontiac+water+%22mackinac%22+emergency&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj2r4XSuqHuAhUNCawKHc4MDhcQ5t4CMAZ6BAgIEAo" style="text-decoration-line: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1);">mackinac</a></font></div></div></div></div><div class="g" style="width: 600px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 30px; line-height: 1.2; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="tF2Cxc" data-hveid="CAsQAA" data-ved="2ahUKEwj2r4XSuqHuAhUNCawKHc4MDhcQFSgAMAd6BAgLEAA" style="position: relative;"><div class="yuRUbf" style="line-height: 1.58;"><a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/26383395" data-ved="2ahUKEwj2r4XSuqHuAhUNCawKHc4MDhcQFjAHegQICxAC" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/26383395&ved=2ahUKEwj2r4XSuqHuAhUNCawKHc4MDhcQFjAHegQICxAC" style="text-decoration-line: none; 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</font></a><h3 class="LC20lb DKV0Md" style="font-weight: normal; margin: 0px 0px 3px; padding: 5px 0px 0px; display: inline-block; line-height: 1.3;"><a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/26383395" data-ved="2ahUKEwj2r4XSuqHuAhUNCawKHc4MDhcQFjAHegQICxAC" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/26383395&ved=2ahUKEwj2r4XSuqHuAhUNCawKHc4MDhcQFjAHegQICxAC" style="text-decoration-line: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">emergency financial management in small michigan ... - jstor</font></a></h3><div class="TbwUpd NJjxre" style="display: inline-block; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-top: 1px; text-size-adjust: none; position: absolute; left: 0px; top: 0px;"><cite class="iUh30 Zu0yb qLRx3b tjvcx" style="font-style: normal; padding-top: 1px; line-height: 1.3;">www.jstor.org<span class="dyjrff qzEoUe" style="">&nbsp;› stable</span></cite></div><div class="B6fmyf" style="position: absolute; top: 0px; height: 0px; visibility: hidden; white-space: nowrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><div class="TbwUpd" style="display: inline-block; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-top: 1px; text-size-adjust: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><cite class="iUh30 Zu0yb qLRx3b tjvcx" style="font-style: normal; padding-top: 1px; line-height: 1.3;"><span class="dyjrff qzEoUe" style="" /></cite></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div class="eFM0qc" style="display: inline-block; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-top: 1px; padding-left: 2px; visibility: visible;"><div class="IsZvec" style="max-width: 48em; line-height: 1.58;"><span class="aCOpRe" style="line-height: 1.58; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Louis</span>&nbsp;H.&nbsp;<span style="font-weight: bold;">Schimmel</span>&nbsp;and Cathy Square serving as EFMs, respectively. As a native of&nbsp;<span style="font-weight: bold;">Pontiac</span>,&nbsp;<span style="font-weight: bold;">Michigan</span>, and a graduate of the&nbsp;<span style="font-weight: bold;">Michigan</span>&nbsp;State University,&nbsp;...</font></span><div class="fG8Fp uo4vr" style="line-height: 1.58;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">by AF CLARK&nbsp;· ‎2017&nbsp;· ‎<a class="fl" href="https://scholar.google.com/scholar?um=1&ie=UTF-8&lr&cites=14188307958716589123" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://scholar.google.com/scholar%3Fum%3D1%26ie%3DUTF-8%26lr%26cites%3D14188307958716589123&ved=2ahUKEwj2r4XSuqHuAhUNCawKHc4MDhcQzgIwB3oECAsQBg" style="text-decoration-line: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1);">Cited by 10</a>&nbsp;· ‎<a class="fl" href="https://scholar.google.com/scholar?um=1&ie=UTF-8&lr&q=related:Q2QmY-r-5sRoPM:scholar.google.com/" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://scholar.google.com/scholar%3Fum%3D1%26ie%3DUTF-8%26lr%26q%3Drelated:Q2QmY-r-5sRoPM:scholar.google.com/&ved=2ahUKEwj2r4XSuqHuAhUNCawKHc4MDhcQzwIwB3oECAsQBw" style="text-decoration-line: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1);">Related articles</a></font></div></div></div></div><div class="g" style="width: 600px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 30px; line-height: 1.2; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="tF2Cxc" data-hveid="CAkQAA" data-ved="2ahUKEwj2r4XSuqHuAhUNCawKHc4MDhcQFSgAMAh6BAgJEAA" style="position: relative;"><div class="yuRUbf" style="line-height: 1.58;"><a href="https://www.mlive.com/news/detroit/2011/09/louis_bud_schimmel_named_new_p.html" data-ved="2ahUKEwj2r4XSuqHuAhUNCawKHc4MDhcQFjAIegQICRAC" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.mlive.com/news/detroit/2011/09/louis_bud_schimmel_named_new_p.html&ved=2ahUKEwj2r4XSuqHuAhUNCawKHc4MDhcQFjAIegQICRAC" style="text-decoration-line: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">
</font></a><h3 class="LC20lb DKV0Md" style="font-weight: normal; margin: 0px 0px 3px; padding: 5px 0px 0px; display: inline-block; line-height: 1.3;"><a href="https://www.mlive.com/news/detroit/2011/09/louis_bud_schimmel_named_new_p.html" data-ved="2ahUKEwj2r4XSuqHuAhUNCawKHc4MDhcQFjAIegQICRAC" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.mlive.com/news/detroit/2011/09/louis_bud_schimmel_named_new_p.html&ved=2ahUKEwj2r4XSuqHuAhUNCawKHc4MDhcQFjAIegQICRAC" style="text-decoration-line: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Louis Schimmel in, Michael Stampfler out as Pontiac ...</font></a></h3><div class="TbwUpd NJjxre" style="display: inline-block; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-top: 1px; text-size-adjust: none; position: absolute; left: 0px; top: 0px;"><cite class="iUh30 Zu0yb qLRx3b tjvcx" style="font-style: normal; padding-top: 1px; line-height: 1.3;">www.mlive.com<span class="dyjrff qzEoUe" style="">&nbsp;› louis_bud_schimmel_named_new_p</span></cite></div><div class="B6fmyf" style="position: absolute; top: 0px; height: 0px; visibility: hidden; white-space: nowrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><div class="TbwUpd" style="display: inline-block; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-top: 1px; text-size-adjust: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><cite class="iUh30 Zu0yb qLRx3b tjvcx" style="font-style: normal; padding-top: 1px; line-height: 1.3;"><span class="dyjrff qzEoUe" style="" /></cite></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div class="eFM0qc" style="display: inline-block; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-top: 1px; padding-left: 2px; visibility: visible;"><div jscontroller="hiU8Ie" class="action-menu" style="display: inline; margin: 1px 3px 0px; position: relative; user-select: none; vertical-align: middle;"><a class="GHDvEf" href="https://www.google.com/search?q=louis+schimmel+michigan+pntiac+water+mackinack+emergency&oq=louis+schimmel+michigan+pntiac+water+mackinack+emergency&aqs=chrome..69i57.15839j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#" id="am-b8" aria-label="Result Options" aria-expanded="false" aria-haspopup="true" role="button" jsaction="PZcoEd;keydown:wU6FVd;keypress:uWmNaf" data-ved="2ahUKEwj2r4XSuqHuAhUNCawKHc4MDhcQ7B0wCHoECAkQBQ" style="text-decoration-line: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1); display: inline-block; height: 12px; margin-top: 1px; user-select: none; width: 13px;"><span class="mn-dwn-arw" style="border-color: rgb(112, 117, 122) transparent; border-style: solid; border-width: 5px 4px 0px; width: 0px; height: 0px; margin-left: 3px; top: 7.5px; margin-top: -3px; position: absolute; left: 0px;" /></a><ol class="action-menu-panel" role="menu" tabindex="-1" jsaction="keydown:Xiq7wd;mouseover:pKPowd;mouseout:O9bKS" data-ved="2ahUKEwj2r4XSuqHuAhUNCawKHc4MDhcQqR8wCHoECAkQBg" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: absolute; left: 0px; top: 12px; visibility: hidden; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; border: 1px solid rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2); z-index: 3; transition: opacity 0.218s ease 0s; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2) 0px 2px 4px;"><li class="action-menu-item" role="menuitem" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; list-style: none; cursor: pointer; user-select: none;"><a class="fl" href="https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:nAEH4ywf-GQJ:https://www.mlive.com/news/detroit/2011/09/louis_bud_schimmel_named_new_p.html+&cd=9&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search%3Fq%3Dcache:nAEH4ywf-GQJ:https://www.mlive.com/news/detroit/2011/09/louis_bud_schimmel_named_new_p.html%2B%26cd%3D9%26hl%3Den%26ct%3Dclnk%26gl%3Dus&ved=2ahUKEwj2r4XSuqHuAhUNCawKHc4MDhcQIDAIegQICRAH" style="text-decoration-line: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1); display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;" /></li></ol></div></div></div></div><div class="IsZvec" style="max-width: 48em; line-height: 1.58;"><a class="fl" href="https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:nAEH4ywf-GQJ:https://www.mlive.com/news/detroit/2011/09/louis_bud_schimmel_named_new_p.html+&cd=9&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search%3Fq%3Dcache:nAEH4ywf-GQJ:https://www.mlive.com/news/detroit/2011/09/louis_bud_schimmel_named_new_p.html%2B%26cd%3D9%26hl%3Den%26ct%3Dclnk%26gl%3Dus&ved=2ahUKEwj2r4XSuqHuAhUNCawKHc4MDhcQIDAIegQICRAH" style="text-decoration-line: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1); display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;"><span class="aCOpRe" style="line-height: 1.58; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="f" style="line-height: 1.58;">Sep 9, 2011 —&nbsp;</span><span style="font-weight: bold;">Louis Schimmel</span>&nbsp;in, Michael Stampfler out as&nbsp;<span style="font-weight: bold;">Pontiac emergency</span>&nbsp;manager ... previously worked at the&nbsp;<span style="font-weight: bold;">Mackinac</span>&nbsp;Center for Public Policy, where he wrote ... about&nbsp;<span style="font-weight: bold;">Michigan's emergency</span>&nbsp;manager law and the city of&nbsp;<span style="font-weight: bold;">Pontiac</span>.</font></span></a><div class="TXwUJf" style=""><a class="fl" href="https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:nAEH4ywf-GQJ:https://www.mlive.com/news/detroit/2011/09/louis_bud_schimmel_named_new_p.html+&cd=9&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search%3Fq%3Dcache:nAEH4ywf-GQJ:https://www.mlive.com/news/detroit/2011/09/louis_bud_schimmel_named_new_p.html%2B%26cd%3D9%26hl%3Den%26ct%3Dclnk%26gl%3Dus&ved=2ahUKEwj2r4XSuqHuAhUNCawKHc4MDhcQIDAIegQICRAH" style="text-decoration-line: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1); display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Missing:&nbsp;<s>water</s>&nbsp;‎| Must include:&nbsp;</font></a><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a class="fl" href="https://www.google.com/search?q=louis+schimmel+michigan+pontiac+%22water%22+mackinac+emergency&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj2r4XSuqHuAhUNCawKHc4MDhcQ5t4CMAh6BAgJEAo" style="text-decoration-line: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1);">water</a></font></div></div></div></div><div class="g" style="width: 600px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 30px; line-height: 1.2; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="tF2Cxc" data-hveid="CAoQAA" data-ved="2ahUKEwj2r4XSuqHuAhUNCawKHc4MDhcQFSgAMAl6BAgKEAA" style="position: relative;"><div class="yuRUbf" style="line-height: 1.58;"><a href="https://publicintegrity.org/politics/michigans-budget-crisis-puts-democracy-on-the-chopping-block/" data-ved="2ahUKEwj2r4XSuqHuAhUNCawKHc4MDhcQFjAJegQIChAC" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://publicintegrity.org/politics/michigans-budget-crisis-puts-democracy-on-the-chopping-block/&ved=2ahUKEwj2r4XSuqHuAhUNCawKHc4MDhcQFjAJegQIChAC" style="text-decoration-line: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">
</font></a><h3 class="LC20lb DKV0Md" style="font-weight: normal; margin: 0px 0px 3px; padding: 5px 0px 0px; display: inline-block; line-height: 1.3;"><a href="https://publicintegrity.org/politics/michigans-budget-crisis-puts-democracy-on-the-chopping-block/" data-ved="2ahUKEwj2r4XSuqHuAhUNCawKHc4MDhcQFjAJegQIChAC" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://publicintegrity.org/politics/michigans-budget-crisis-puts-democracy-on-the-chopping-block/&ved=2ahUKEwj2r4XSuqHuAhUNCawKHc4MDhcQFjAJegQIChAC" style="text-decoration-line: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Michigan's budget crisis puts democracy on the chopping block</font></a></h3><div class="TbwUpd NJjxre" style="display: inline-block; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-top: 1px; text-size-adjust: none; position: absolute; left: 0px; top: 0px;"><cite class="iUh30 Zu0yb qLRx3b tjvcx" style="font-style: normal; padding-top: 1px; line-height: 1.3;">publicintegrity.org<span class="dyjrff qzEoUe" style="">&nbsp;› politics › michigans-budget-crisis-...</span></cite></div><div class="B6fmyf" style="position: absolute; top: 0px; height: 0px; visibility: hidden; white-space: nowrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><div class="TbwUpd" style="display: inline-block; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-top: 1px; text-size-adjust: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><cite class="iUh30 Zu0yb qLRx3b tjvcx" style="font-style: normal; padding-top: 1px; line-height: 1.3;"><span class="dyjrff qzEoUe" style="" /></cite></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div class="eFM0qc" style="display: inline-block; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-top: 1px; padding-left: 2px; visibility: visible;"><div jscontroller="hiU8Ie" class="action-menu" style="display: inline; margin: 1px 3px 0px; position: relative; user-select: none; vertical-align: middle;"><a class="GHDvEf" href="https://www.google.com/search?q=louis+schimmel+michigan+pntiac+water+mackinack+emergency&oq=louis+schimmel+michigan+pntiac+water+mackinack+emergency&aqs=chrome..69i57.15839j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#" id="am-b9" aria-label="Result Options" aria-expanded="false" aria-haspopup="true" role="button" jsaction="PZcoEd;keydown:wU6FVd;keypress:uWmNaf" data-ved="2ahUKEwj2r4XSuqHuAhUNCawKHc4MDhcQ7B0wCXoECAoQBQ" style="text-decoration-line: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1); display: inline-block; height: 12px; margin-top: 1px; user-select: none; width: 13px;"><span class="mn-dwn-arw" style="border-color: rgb(112, 117, 122) transparent; border-style: solid; border-width: 5px 4px 0px; width: 0px; height: 0px; margin-left: 3px; top: 7.5px; margin-top: -3px; position: absolute; left: 0px;" /></a><ol class="action-menu-panel" role="menu" tabindex="-1" jsaction="keydown:Xiq7wd;mouseover:pKPowd;mouseout:O9bKS" data-ved="2ahUKEwj2r4XSuqHuAhUNCawKHc4MDhcQqR8wCXoECAoQBg" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: absolute; left: 0px; top: 12px; visibility: hidden; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; border: 1px solid rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2); z-index: 3; transition: opacity 0.218s ease 0s; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2) 0px 2px 4px;"><li class="action-menu-item" role="menuitem" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; list-style: none; cursor: pointer; user-select: none;"><a class="fl" href="https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:j7DYwDwAyWEJ:https://publicintegrity.org/politics/michigans-budget-crisis-puts-democracy-on-the-chopping-block/+&cd=10&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search%3Fq%3Dcache:j7DYwDwAyWEJ:https://publicintegrity.org/politics/michigans-budget-crisis-puts-democracy-on-the-chopping-block/%2B%26cd%3D10%26hl%3Den%26ct%3Dclnk%26gl%3Dus&ved=2ahUKEwj2r4XSuqHuAhUNCawKHc4MDhcQIDAJegQIChAH" style="text-decoration-line: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1); display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;" /></li></ol></div></div></div></div><div class="IsZvec" style="max-width: 48em; line-height: 1.58;"><a class="fl" href="https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:j7DYwDwAyWEJ:https://publicintegrity.org/politics/michigans-budget-crisis-puts-democracy-on-the-chopping-block/+&cd=10&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search%3Fq%3Dcache:j7DYwDwAyWEJ:https://publicintegrity.org/politics/michigans-budget-crisis-puts-democracy-on-the-chopping-block/%2B%26cd%3D10%26hl%3Den%26ct%3Dclnk%26gl%3Dus&ved=2ahUKEwj2r4XSuqHuAhUNCawKHc4MDhcQIDAJegQIChAH" style="text-decoration-line: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1); display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;"><span class="aCOpRe" style="line-height: 1.58; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="f" style="line-height: 1.58;">Feb 15, 2012 —&nbsp;</span><span style="font-weight: bold;">Pontiac's Emergency</span>&nbsp;Manager&nbsp;<span style="font-weight: bold;">Louis Schimmel</span>&nbsp;privatized city hall, hiring Mayor ... In 2005,&nbsp;<span style="font-weight: bold;">Mackinac</span>&nbsp;published Schimmel's essay calling on&nbsp;<span style="font-weight: bold;">Michigan's</span>&nbsp;... like&nbsp;<span style="font-weight: bold;">water</span>&nbsp;systems, hospitals, and utilities and slash corporate taxes.</font></span></a></div></div></div></div><div><a class="fl" href="https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:j7DYwDwAyWEJ:https://publicintegrity.org/politics/michigans-budget-crisis-puts-democracy-on-the-chopping-block/+&cd=10&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search%3Fq%3Dcache:j7DYwDwAyWEJ:https://publicintegrity.org/politics/michigans-budget-crisis-puts-democracy-on-the-chopping-block/%2B%26cd%3D10%26hl%3Den%26ct%3Dclnk%26gl%3Dus&ved=2ahUKEwj2r4XSuqHuAhUNCawKHc4MDhcQIDAJegQIChAH" style="text-decoration-line: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1); display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></a></div><div><a class="fl" href="https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:j7DYwDwAyWEJ:https://publicintegrity.org/politics/michigans-budget-crisis-puts-democracy-on-the-chopping-block/+&cd=10&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search%3Fq%3Dcache:j7DYwDwAyWEJ:https://publicintegrity.org/politics/michigans-budget-crisis-puts-democracy-on-the-chopping-block/%2B%26cd%3D10%26hl%3Den%26ct%3Dclnk%26gl%3Dus&ved=2ahUKEwj2r4XSuqHuAhUNCawKHc4MDhcQIDAJegQIChAH" style="text-decoration-line: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1); display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">==</font></a></div></div></div></div></div>