Friends of George Cushingberry Jr.: Restoring the Revenue: Stopping the Financial Coup De Tant upon Detroit Retirees and Current Employees

by The Friends of Cushingberry

"We will rise from the ashes..." - City of Detroit

The result of a bad bet on Wall St.

The State of Michigan through Manager Kevin Orr filed and official bankruptcy request with the United States Bankruptcy Court. According to the State through Mr. Orr, there has been mismanagement in Detroit for 60 years going back to 1953. Retired and Current Detroit Fire Department members are calling total feces on the entire proceedings. The Detroit Pension fund is %96.1 funded by its stellar accounting staff who have served them while they gave their lives for their fellow human beings. Since the takeover, firefighter deaths have risen %264 percent due to the reduction in fire houses and layoffs. The result is that you have more abandoned property with valuable metals such as copper and aluminum that is money managed by Goldman Sachs in the commodities market. This is also good for the Jones Day Law-Firm receiving $1.6 million dollars for 6 weeks of services that would have paid for 16 firefighters with full benefits and pension for one year. Detroit insurance rates will always be high due to lack of personnel and longer arrival times. In two to four minutes a home can go up in flames so hot that you have to stand across the street because of the heat.

The true purpose of the Bankruptcy filing is to accomplish these things:

1. Dissolving the Public Unions in lieu of temporary contract workers

2. Lowering Wages and Health benefits for Current Employees

3. Restructuring the City Charter to override the law voted for by the Citizens.

4. Using pension funds like poker chips on Wall Street to fund risky investments without constitutional protection from losses, fraud and mismanagement.

Through the use of politically motivated accounting, Detroiters and their retirees will get the short shaft regarding benefits. If you are a City Employee or retiree between the ages of 46 to 65, this means you! Privatization usually means at will employment at a lower wage scale. The company that has the contract operates as an at will employer that can terminate a contract on the spot for any reason with no recourse. Using the bankruptcy to change the City charter is another clear example of usurping the will of the voters through legislative voting fraud. On the WDIV-TV 4 website, Kevin Orr said that he will attempt to change the city charter with the help of a federal bankruptcy judge.

This bankruptcy filing may be a good opportunity for the people to remove an illegally appointed Emergency Manager through the Federal Voters Rights act. The people will get the opportunity to file a complaint that the appointment of this person was illegal because the people voted against this type of position’s job duties. The bankruptcy judge could invalidate the filing on a technicality. The current council and previous mayors after Coleman Young signed bad deals with the State of Michigan or mismanaged money in a scandalous manner that hurt every Detroiter.

Hope is on the way! Detroiters will get up work together and walk it off to relieve the stress. The City of Detroit will come back by every means necessary. It will take the creation of jobs to maintain and rebuild the infrastructure of the city roads, and sewers. It will take an investment into a citywide light rail system combined with a federal investment into Hi-Speed Rail between Detroit, Lansing, Grand Rapids, Chicago, Cleveland and Cincinnati OH. Intermodal transportation is an investment that will restructure an entire region. Driving on the Lodge northbound at 4:30-6:00 pm, the area begs for a light rail transport system. There are so many cars leaving Detroit after 5:00 pm and coming into Detroit for events that a rail system running along the route of the freeway is a no brainer.

These are the types of infrastructure jobs that Government creates and invests in for the public good. Did you know that the computer industry was funded and promoted by Government? The industry was funded heavily by the Defense Department with Admiral Grace Hopper who invented the COBOL programming language that is still used today. So when you hear these people talk about we don’t need government, ask them who the Government is? The answer is looking at that person in the mirror. Government of, by, for and maintained by the people.

Our city needs an elected City Council with brains instead of, or in addition to the beauty. We need City leadership that is knowledgeable and have the people best interest at heart. Right now and up until August 5^th at 5pm, I want you to Vote today, in Person at: Wayne County Community College and the Detroit Election Commission. Find my name and please vote for George Cushingberry Jr. for City Council, the man for YOU, in District two.