Duggan Defunded the City Charter Commission When it Didn't Go His Way
The City of Detroit's Charter, or "constitution" is currently under revision as legally mandated, and won't be open for revision again for another 16 years. There has been quite a bit of contention over this current revision. The 2018 election of the current charter revision commissioners was also contentious. There is a faction of commissioners representing "majority Detroit" (that is, *black* Detroit), and the rest of the commission is alleged to have been stacked with Dugganite loyalists (just as was done with the Historic District Commission in his first term), in order to make it a "rubber-stamp committee" for Duggan and his corporate interests.
The Duggan machine has been vying for control over the nature of the charter revisions, but there has been strong resistance from a few commissioners who have vocally opposed that pressure (mainly JoAnna Underwood, Vice Chair Nicole Small, and Barbara Wynder). Because of his displeasure with how the Charter Revision Commission has been working out, Mayor Duggan effectively defunded the body when he pressured City Council to reduce its budget by 72% (other city departments took budget cuts of single-digit percentages during the same period). The move was a deliberate effort to scuttle the commission, and sabotage their work on the charter. Allegedly his goal is to get things positioned so that the City Attorney—a Duggan appointee—can unilaterally rewrite the charter via a legal loophole, rather than the duly elected charter revision commissioners who We the People put there to do the job.
Considering how the Duggan administration has steered Detroit City government down the path of oligarchy and economic apartheid (that is, the "Two Detroits") since the "bankruptcy," this charter revision is our last best chance to bring the city's destiny back under the control of the people, rather than that of corporate interests (Ilitch, Gilbert, Amazon, etc).
A formal letter was sent to Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel on the issue of defunding the charter commission, but she is one of Duggan's old buddies from the Wayne County Prosecutor's office back in the 1990s-2000s, so she won't do much.
The Duggan machine has been vying for control over the nature of the charter revisions, but there has been strong resistance from a few commissioners who have vocally opposed that pressure (mainly JoAnna Underwood, Vice Chair Nicole Small, and Barbara Wynder). Because of his displeasure with how the Charter Revision Commission has been working out, Mayor Duggan effectively defunded the body when he pressured City Council to reduce its budget by 72% (other city departments took budget cuts of single-digit percentages during the same period). The move was a deliberate effort to scuttle the commission, and sabotage their work on the charter. Allegedly his goal is to get things positioned so that the City Attorney—a Duggan appointee—can unilaterally rewrite the charter via a legal loophole, rather than the duly elected charter revision commissioners who We the People put there to do the job.
This information comes directly from Commissioner Underwood, as broadcast on 910AM.
Considering how the Duggan administration has steered Detroit City government down the path of oligarchy and economic apartheid (that is, the "Two Detroits") since the "bankruptcy," this charter revision is our last best chance to bring the city's destiny back under the control of the people, rather than that of corporate interests (Ilitch, Gilbert, Amazon, etc).
A formal letter was sent to Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel on the issue of defunding the charter commission, but she is one of Duggan's old buddies from the Wayne County Prosecutor's office back in the 1990s-2000s, so she won't do much.
