Mich. Mayor Blacklists Those Who Sued City

[Rose Siding]

FLINT, Mich. -- Mayor Don Williamson is taking a novel tack in fighting lawsuits -- he's withholding city business from anyone who has sued Flint within the past five years.
...
"Who in the world would want to do business if you're sued by 'em?" Williamson said.

But Greg Gibbs, chairman of the Greater Flint branch of the American Civil Liberties Union, said he would go to federal court to have the policy declared unconstitutional.
...
Williamson has issued unusual directives before. Last year, an executive order barred city workers from having non-work-related reading material on city property during their work hours.

He later relaxed the ban to allow newspapers during employee breaks after police temporarily detained a newspaper carrier trying to deliver subscriptions to City Hall.

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-suing-flint,0,279882.story?coll=sns-ap-nationworld-headlines

[murray hill farm]

1. I was born in Detroit..and lived in Grand Rapids and then Marquette

as an adult. Have not lived there..anywhere in Michigan for over 20 years, but sometimes I think...especially when i read something like this..than god i escaped...ha! Now, Michigan is a very beautiful state..especially in the northern parts of the state, but sometimes I wonder if all that winter darkness and frigid air..or even the water...just messes with the mind over many years of living there.

[Hollowkatt]

2. I've been in Grand Rapids for 27 years

and we're not all insane, I think. :D

[murray hill farm]

3. hahahaha

well..u are in the south..ha...might get more pronounced as u head to the northern reaches!

[JNelson6563]

6. Northerner here

I like to think I'm sane. The natural beauty all around me helps.

Julie

[murray hill farm]

7. Maybe being a Democrat helps to stay sane..hehe

I am just blathering on here..ha...i love michigan!

[JNelson6563]

9. Yes, northern Republicans are insane

No doubt about it. :toast:

[noonwitch]

4. You guys in GR finally got sane and voted for a democratic mayor!

That is a major achievement in the land of the dutch reformed and (SC)AMWAY.

I grew up in GR (EKHS class of 82), have lived in K-zoo, Mt. Clemens, Detroit and Warren. Michigan is my home and I wouldn't live anywhere else. I like living in a place where there is a lake within a short drive, a big city or two, and some of the most beautiful landscapes to explore just a couple of hours north of the big cities.

That Flint mayor is nuts, but most of the rest of us are pretty sane. Come visit in the summer, and come to Detroit/Oakland County in August for the Woodward Dream Cruise.

[5thGenDemocrat]

5. Don Williamson is an interesting character

He's very rich (he owns one of the largest Buick dealerships in the country, though it's listed in his wife's name, a la "Patsy Lou Williamson Buick/GMC") and a few other local businesses as well.
I think he sincerely cares about Flint -- there's no reason someone would take on that mayoral job otherwise. The city is in horrible financial shape and Don has other ways of exercising his ego (everyone over here in the Saginaw Valley knows who he is and have since even before he became mayor in the last election).
Because of budgetary constraints, Williamson paid for a city-wide cleanup (labor, dumpsters, trucks, dump fees -- all of it) out of his own pocket. He is a bit eccentric, as the snips above indicate, but I like him. He kind of reminds you of a cranky, rich, but kindly uncle.
Flint could do (and has done) a lot worse.
John
Lives 35 miles north in Saginaw. Is in no position to cast stones.

[Redstone]

8. He may "sincerely care about Flint"

but he's not doing the city any favors by acting like a lunatic.

He REALLY thought he could get away with telling people they couldn't bring a newspaper or a book to work to read at lunchtime? That's just bizarre. And what the hell did he think he was going to accomplish with that rule, anyway?

Redstone

[5thGenDemocrat]

10. Well, it's hard for me to refute what you said

He may have acted like a lunatic in this particular case -- but, believe me, the city itself is Bedlam.
The state had to take over the city's finances two or three years ago (first time that had happened in Michigan since the Depression), the previous mayor (IMHO) was a crook so twisted they'll bury him with a corkscrew and, in short, Flint is exhibit "A" for what has gone wrong with America's cities.
The jobs are gone (unemployment runs around 20 percent), the city school system is a failure (dropout rate runs around 40 percent) and the town itself looks like Atlanta, circa 1864 -- only with more burned-out buildings.
For further reference, see Michael Moore's "Roger and Me." Flint was a bad joke long before Don Williamson ever got involved.
Yes, Williamson overreacted re: the ban on newspapers and magazines. But the reason he did so was because Flint city government and its employees looked at governance and their roles in it as one big taxpayer-funded gravy train. Maybe (hell, definitely) Williamson overstepped his authority, but he rescinded that particular order a day or two later and no real harm was done.
The problem with Flint isn't Williamson. The problem is a crappy city council running an even crappier city. I doubt Williamson, for all his good intentions and all his money, will be able to straighten that cesspool out. I wish him the best -- but, if he was to get fed up with the situation and tell the city of Flint to go directly to hell (if it isn't there already), no one in these here parts would blame him in the slightest.
I think he's pushing pork up Parnassus. I think he's putting lipstick on a pig and I think he's spraying perfume on a turd. His attempt to regulate reading matter at City Hall is, believe me, the very least of it.
Jesus Himself couldn't straighten Flint out, so I give kudos to Mayor Williamson for his efforts to do so, however hopeless.
Even that great paragon of liberal virtue, Michael Moore (who is actually from the lily-white exurb of Davison, not Flint), got the hell out of there. (Yeah, yeah, he maintains a voting address in the area -- but no one's seen him in the neighborhood since...oh, about the time "Roger and Me" was released). I won't fault Williamson just because his businesses won't allow him to do the same. While I believe he's fighting a losing battle, at least he's fighting it as best he can.
John
Who, just coincidentally, has to go to Flint later today and is in no way looking forward to it. That's a shame, really.