As you remember, I have been following the travails of Robert Bobb, the Detroit Public Schools Emergency manager especially with his dealings with the obstructionist, to say the least, elected Detroit School Board.
I have been demanding, from the state that the emergency manager be given specific authority over elected agencies like the Detroit School Board, so he can carry out his mandate to fix the school system without any interference by, in this case, the school board.
The Emergency manager law has been reworked to add what I have been asking for and most in the state support the needed changes but some are saying it goes too far and may interfere with the democratic process since the manager would not only have jurisdiction over and above “elected” officials but (if I understand this correctly) to dismiss any elected official or elected body that is deemed incompetent in maintaining the financial integrity of the institution (school system) in question.
I can see where people may have a problem with that provision but as in the case of Detroit, people there were shown to elect incompetent and corrupt individuals as a matter of course and in my mind, could not be counted on to elect competent officials.
Is this stepping on people’s rights under a democracy? Yes it is but if taxpayers in the state have to bail out institutions and cities because of their financial incompetence, some democratic principles may and should be suspended strictly for practical reasons; it makes NO sense to keep individuals in charge that were responsible for the financial calamity the institution found itself in, in the first place.
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