Reasons to Elect George Cushingberry Jr. as President of Detroit City Council on January 6th, 2015

By The Friends of George Cushingberry


    If George Cushingberry is fortunate enough to be elected as president of City Council by his peers, the following steps will be taken, upon agreement with fellow Council Members, Mayor Duggan and, the will of the people. 

1.     Will Create a Committee on Appropriations that will be responsible for accountability  and transparency of the City of Detroit Finances.

a.       Development of a real time display of the City’s balance sheet on the website.

b.      Garbage Truck Tracking(GPS) iPhone app for City Residents who stay at home and want to know if the truck has passed their home or not.

2.     Will look into alternative ways to finance the City’s debts using sound fiscal management theory and methods. Mr. Cushingberry was the Chairman for the State of Michigan appropriations committee in the House of Representatives 2008-2010.

3.     Taking the lead in reinvestment into the City and Regional infrastructure with the expansion of the People Mover System to the Tri-County Area.

4.     Blight Removal and land revitalization through the redevelopment of idle land into homes, allowing people to build bigger homes of selected tracts of land

5.      Reaching out to low to moderate income individuals to help correct their low to moderate income status. Education is essential in the areas of carpentry, electricians, electronics, truck driving and, auto repair will give our youth something to do and look up to for a future.

6.      Will propose that by 2016, all City of Detroit vehicles be required to run on fuel grown in Michigan albeit Industrial Hemp, Corn and, other organic plants.

7.      Will work with fellow councilmembers, Mayor Duggan and President Obama to re-invest into the revitalization of the Tuskegee Airmen/Coleman Young International Airport with commercial Air Service to Toronto Canada, Florida, New York, Cleveland,  Chicago and, any other City as needed.

8.     Before President Obama leaves office we will have a revitalized Amtrak system hub in Detroit so that people do not have to drive to Dearborn to catch a train because of the parking situation. The land formally known as the Michigan State Fairgrounds will undergo a magical transition and become a transportation hub for Intermodal Bus, Train and, People Mover traffic.
 

If you support this effort, Mr. Cushingberry is requesting that you contact your district council member and request that they vote in favor of George Cushingberry Jr., for the Presidency of the City Council, representing the great and talented people of the City of Detroit. The Election will be held on January 6th, 8am 2013 in the Chamber of City Hall.

Please plan on attending to help Push for Cush as President of City Council.

 

Sincerely,

The Friends of George Cushingberry Jr.   Councilman District #2

 

How privatizing Michigan’s Medical Marijuana Program will benefit the Citizens of Michigan. Hearing in Lansing MI. April 15, 2010 @ 10AM

The Friends of Cushingberry
By Richard C. Clement
April 15, 2010

“A 420 Technology Slam in Lansing MI”

A slam is an event where people with similar traits go to ‘show their stuff’. For instance Poets have a poetry slam where a group of poets get together and let out their best verses to an audience. The Information technology profession has events like give camps and computer competitions.


The House of Representatives Intergovernmental and Oversight Committee will meet on April 15, 2010 @ 10AM at the State Capitol 3rd floor room 352, to settle a dispute between public and privatization. The hearing will be recorded by MGTV for the record if you happen to miss it. The State will be represented by David Neuman, legislative liaison for the Department of Information Technology. The challengers are two companies who have applications currently running in other states. At this hearing the defendants will state to the committee on having the best process to handle the deluge of applications coming into the program. The current process is unmanageable due to the increasing volume of applications and the tactical misuse of State Employees in a clerical function.


The Michigan Medical Marijuana program has been wildly successful for the State of Michigan in regards to public interest and participation. The sheer volume of applications received is a testament to the fact that the people of the state voted to allow the use of Marijuana as a medical solution instead of being a problem. There has been an explosion in the number of medical doctors who are writing recommendations for Medical Marijuana so much so that there is a 120 backlog of applications from the date of receipt by the Department of Community Health.

When an application is received, they are reviewed on the spot for completeness within the 15 day review period. Then they go to the backlog pile and wait to be processed. Processing includes calling the doctor who did the recommendation to verify the application. This is a problem for patients and law enforcement employees who have to make a snap decision on the street. Sometimes it is a poor and un-informed choice based on the documentation provided to the officer, prosecutors, and judges.

By privatizing the process the taxpayers will benefit because the software to do the job is already working in other Medical Marijuana states. Law enforcement agencies will have the information to make intelligent and sound decisions regarding Marijuana. Participants will be served faster and renewed much quicker if the system was privatized. State Government is going through too many layoffs, furloughs, payless paydays, and other cost cutting measures to implement a system of this magnitude. There is no need to re-invent the wheel and allowing State employees to use tax dollars to conduct study after study while they are behind is a waste of money and time.


The target time of April 20, 2010 @ 4:20AM has been changed to April 20, 2010 @ 4:20PM for a full presentation before a bi-partisan group of private citizens, technology experts, Senators and Representatives. The reason for the time change is to accommodate the non-technical employees and cooperation with computer geeks and nerds who do not have regular sleeping hours. Michigan’s new Medical Marijuana Law has already generated jobs and opportunities in dispensaries, agriculture, and the computer field. The addition of 5 staffers by the Medical Marijuana program is a band-aid and is not a permanent solution. Given the rate of applications coming in at 80 per day, it will take another 2-6 months to address the backlog if ever.


We believe that the solution to the backlog is in the tactical use of technology. The Department of Community Health MMJ program does not have resources to maintain and implement the program in a cost effective manner. The popularity of the program and the increased volume of applications will overwhelm the current staff at the current pace. Placing the process out for public bid will bring in the best and brightest minds from the private sector to vastly improve the management of information and will bring the Department of Community health into compliance with the law as voted on by the voters.


If you favor privatizing the processing of applications for the Medical Marijuana program please let your comments be known by entering it on our blog for public review and, e-mailing your personal State Representative in Lansing MI.

State officials to re-appear before House Oversight Committee to answer questions regarding the Medical Marijuana Program on 4/15/2010

The Friends of Cushingberry
March 30, 2010



On April 15, 2010, administrators from the Departments of State Police, Information Technology, and Community Health will be testifying before an Intergovernmental and Oversight committee of the House of Representatives at the State Capitol in Lansing MI. They will be compelled to answer questions, complaints, and concerns regarding participation in the Michigan Medical Marijuana Program. One of the major issues is that patients are being arrested by City, County, and State police officers and their medicine confiscated. Law enforcement officials are confused on the issue of a person’s status in the program based on a Xerox copy of an application. This document can be easily forged and is very impractical because of its size.


What happens next is beyond belief and an embarrassment to the citizens of the State. When a person is arrested, the arresting agency has to call between the hours of 8am to 5pm Monday through Friday. A good example of this is if you arrested at 5:01PM on a Friday, you have to wait until Monday morning until you are “verified” with a phone call as a valid participant in the program. Your weekend is all screwed up and any plans that you had that week are forever changed.


The law specifically states that after 20 days a person’s application is deemed valid if there are no anomalies and paperwork is properly filed. The wait up to 120 days for a card is basically un-acceptable and must be dealt with immediately. Currently some local law enforcement agencies have the ability retrieve information in their squad cars about the driver such as: warrants, status in the 7411 diversion program, and the lien holder of the car.


David Newman legislative liaison of the Department of Information Technology will answer to the committee regarding improving this current debacle in the bureaucracy. According to Mr. Newman no request for help was ever received from the Department of Community Health. He also admitted that the Department of Community Health has only one printer for the cards. When he was asked why is that printer not running 24/7 there was no answer.


The issue of privatization of the process will be addressed at this hearing. The State of Michigan’s Information Technology Department is a hodge-podge collection of contractors and consultants that the taxpayers support. These contracts are necessary because the agency’s employees do not have the time, money or ability to do the job.

Scofes Consulting Inc. has a program that can be quickly implemented to relieve the backlog in processing. The owner Stephen G. Scofes has stated that this program is already being used in California and, can be implemented in Michigan. The ultimate goal is to process the cards as fast as or faster than the Secretary of State, the gold standard in information processing for a government agency. Given the urgency of the situation it appears that Scofes has the answer to the problem. His company may qualify for a no-bid contract if they can perform the following tasks in a timely manner.


The bid will be based on the following parameters:
1. Registration of patients and caregivers via a secure web page to MDCH.
2. The processing of cards within the 20 day period including renewals.


The Department of Information Technology and Scofes will be asked to demonstrate how this proposed system will be implemented and maintained. If Mr. Scofes can demonstrate that his company can implement the system by April 20, 2010 @ 4:20AM, he will have earned the honor of being awarded a contract to perform that service for 2 years from the date of acceptance. If the demonstration shows that these participants can’t do the job, the process will be put out to a bid for the general public. When this bid is let out, there will be a required demonstration before a panel of committee members, department officials, and private citizens who have a vested interest in the process.


MDCH officials will answer to the committee regarding the status of the review board(PA 368 of the Public Health Code of 1978). According to the law there is a requirement for a 15 member board to review requests for additional qualifying conditions. As of March 30, 2010 there have been NO members selected and NO meetings scheduled.




Some of the questions the committee will ask are:
1.What is the delay in appointing this board(SOAHR Adm Rule 333.131)
2.What is the department doing to address the appointment of members to this board?
3.The benefit of allowing a private company to manage the Medical Marijuana Information System?
4.How can the MMJ program assist in sharing information with local law enforcement regarding a patient’s status in the program?
5.What is the cost savings to the taxpayers by storing additional information on the microchip of the enhanced driver’s license from the Secretary of State? Printing ONE card instead of two.


These questions and others from the committee and the public will be asked to these agencies. If you have additional questions that you want asked by the committee please leave it as a comment to this article. These questions will be compiled by Rep. Cushingberrys staff for review by the committee. If there are duplicate questions, they will be combined to address the main idea being expressed by the commenter.


Rep. Cushingberry appreciates the input from the following organizations: Americans for Safe Access(ASA), Michigan Medical Marijuana Educational and Defense Organization(3MED), Michigan Medical Marijuana Association(3MA), Michigan Chapter of the National Association for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (MI-NORML). Also appreciated is the Michigan Departments of Community Health, and Information Technology to improve the system for Michigan citizens. The ending result will be a system that will address the needs and wants of its customers. Government can work for the benefit of the people when the citizens provide positive and rational input to be reviewed, analyze, and implemented to the satisfaction of all sides of the issue.