Tag: mayor

Aside from the EFM and Bankruptcy taking away the fun of being mayor of Hiroshima North, the election's write in results are worth a guffaw. Mike Dugeon, a last minute write-in candidate for Mayor who was supposed to take away a number of votes through confusion from Mike Duggan got no more than the number of votes in his immediate family. The voting result:

Detroit Mayor
Write In: Mike Duggan     44,395     45%
Benny Napoleon             28,352     29%
Write-In (other)    5,916     5%
Krystal Crittendon     5,295     5%
Lisa Howze             4,581     3%
Tom Barrow          3,690     2%
John Olumba          1,327     1%
Fred Durhal Jr.     841     1%
Willie Lipscomb Jr.     303     1%
Angelo Scott Brown     182     1%
Herman Griffin     165     1%
Sigmunt Szczepkowski Jr.     146     1%
Mark Murphy     142     1%
Jean Vortkamp     138     1%
John Telford     110     1%
D'Artagnan Collier     91     1%
Write In: Mike Dugeon     17     1%

A few days ago Dugeon was carjacked.

Now, we have another charter that has beached, this time in the city of Detroit with a spinoff in the Ingham County Circuit Court.  It's the Detroit City Charter, but this time, instead of the hapless Gilligan, we have Krystal Crittendon.  Like the original series, this comedy seems destined to be with us for awhile.

You know the story by now.  In a nutshell, the city and the state of Michigan signed a consent agreement in an 11th hour effort to avoid an emergency financial manager.  As its implementation neared, Crittendon, the city's chief lawyer, filed a lawsuit in the Ingham County Circuit Court, claiming that the agreement is unenforceable because the city Charter prohibits agreements between the city and any entity that owes the city money.  Crittendon alleges that, because the state owes the city money for past revenue sharing and other items, the agreement cannot be enforced.  In response, the state is threatening to withhold $80 million in revenue sharing, which will send the city spiraling into insolvency.

It's important to note that neither the city council nor the mayor authorized or directed Crittendon to file this lawsuit.  She filed on her own, claiming that the city Charter imposes on her not only the responsibility, but the obligation to do so.  This line -- that the Charter gives her not just the authority to file but makes her file -- has been repeated in the press, but is it true?

"Is there more to this strategy? Or is our best hope for change based on the martyrdom of political kamikazes?

"Won't matter in a couple years anyhow".

Looking back at the question again, I decided it warranted a better reply.  First of all, the sender is a very good conservative ally, and secondly, is likely to ascend to higher office in the foreseeable future.  

I felt he needed a better explanation.

And so we focus on sunshine and rainbows.  Like, for instance, this week the big-shot politicians in Lansing will start figuring out how to spend $625 million of our grandkids money to repair those potholes that put such a serious crimp in yesterday's trip to church.  

Yeah, yeah, spending our grandkids money might not make the most economic sense but c'mon, nobody likes pot holes!  Plus, they're spending so much to make these road repairs, if push comes to shove they can actually fill each pot hole with stacks of twenty dollar bills.  So that's a win-win.

Good news... good news... Monica Conyers arch-enemy on the Detroit City Council is going to run for Mayor of Detroit this August.  Good old Kwame Kenyatta.  (Apparently rumors of the man's impending cancer-related death were greatly exaggerated by the Council President.)  

That's... something.  But even better, according to the Detroit News, he's one of more than 50 (FIFTY) some odd candidates whose names might appear on the ballot.  

And by "might appear" I mean over 50 have already grabbed the paperwork to file.  Not rumors, not speculation... 50+ are already starting the legal process.  Guess how many are going to wind up filing as Republicans.  Go ahead... guess.

Talk about a crowded field.  Somebody should work up some brackets and we could run those elections NCAA Tournament style, then instead of cutting down the nets, the ultimate winner could take the first shift re-roofing Cobo Hall with city cash since they refuse to take any money from the state.  Oh, wait, they don't have any cash to stop the leaks... shoot.

But, seriously, in happier news, big ups to the Michigan State Spartans and the University of Michigan Wolverines men's basketball teams on their selection to the NCAA tournament beginning this Thursday!  Start working on those faux-coughs and sniffles around the office today or tomorrow, gentlemen, because come 11:30AM-ish on the 19th we're in for four days of pure, unadulterated madness.

This is Michigan's first trip to the tournament in a decade and Maize and Blue fans are pretty geeked today.  They should be extra excited about their first round draw, too, matching up against a tough but beatable Clemson team.  At that point you're only a sterling game away from the Sweet 16.  

And the Spartans?  A well deserved 2.  Casa De Leeuw will undoubtedly have competing brackets this year with some picking the Green and White to win the whole thing and others playing the homer-role and picking those guys from Ann Arbor to run the table.  Silly Wolverine fans.

That said, it should give me a clear path to the family pick-em championship and THAT, my friends, is good news.