Restitution For City Retirees Under 65 are on the Horizon - Detroit Police get $3.8M in Drug Fighting Equipment - New Housing Projects for Homeless

By Richard C. Clement 

At the Detroit City Council Budget, Audit, and Finance committee meeting held on September 6, 2017 at the Coleman S. Young Municipal Center, the committee set in place the plan to help repair the financial damage to the retirees on health care costs. Committee members Gabe Leland, Janee Ayres, and Committee Chair George Cushingberry Jr  reviewed a possible solution. The proposal is to help all retirees under 65 because they are not eligible for Medicare. The committee discussed the best way to help with health care cost is to get group rate health insurance by adjusting the Voluntary Employee Benefit Agreement (VEBA) that was negotiated in the bankruptcy.  

City of Detroit Auditor General
Mark Lockridge

The end result would be lower health care costs for retirees and, that would be a major step in the road to financial recovery for Detroit.  On December 31^st, the City of Detroit will exit all State of Michigan financial control and that will give city leadership the power to negotiate fees to sustain and elevate a better quality of life for Detroit residents.

City of Detroit Financial Team

This action was a result of a letter from Council President Brenda Jones on behalf of the Retirees to use the budget surplus as a funding source to restore the cuts suffered by them in the Bankruptcy Proceedings. The letter was sent to the Legislative Policy Division and sent to the BFA committee for their detailed review. Other funding sources are not off the table and will be brought up in committee meetings before November. On other news the Detroit Police Department’s Drug Enforcement Program was appropriated $3.8 million dollars to purchase police equipment or services that are eligible to use in Local Forfeiture funding. 

New and Livable Housing in Detroit

Finally homelessness and affordable housing issues were addressed by three projects authorized by the committee.  The first one was for Kamper and Stevens to rehabilitate the exiting Kamper building and Stevens building containing 165 units of senior housing with 145 one bedroom units and sixteen two bedroom units. The next project was by Norstar development USA to create the Gardenview estates on the former Herman Gardens Housing Projects. This project will create 97 one and two story townhomes units. The final project is by Detroit Central City CMH, Inc. to develop the Saint Rita Apartments. Project. This development will consist of 26 units of rehabbed living conditions.

For more information please contact the members of the Budget Audit and Finance committee and Stay tuned for more information.

Marijuana Policy at Mackinaw? A 2016 Ballot Question To The People

by The Friends of George Cushingberry Jr.

Lansing Mayor Virg Benero

During the Mackinaw Policy Conference, a new effort to allow Michiganders the legal right to use Marijuana without arrest, prosecution, and discrimination was introduced.  The group MI Legalize (www.milegalize.com) is spearheading an effort to place this issue on the ballot in November 2016. This Marijuana legalization effort if adopted by the people will allow municipalities to regulate this industry with 20% of the profits going to the city or township the provisioning center is located in. The current Michigan Medical Marijuana Act will remain intact.

"Free The Weed for the Jobs We Need" -   Richard C. Clement

Michigan residents will have another chance to determine the direction of the management and regulation of the exploding Marijuana Industry. Michigan voters have the opportunity to force the reform of the current system by electing responsible leaders who will do the following:

1. Getting a Picture of the Cardholder on the Medical Marijuana Card
2. Removing all Marijuana Convictions from citizens who are incarcerated in the legal system
3. Use the growing revenue to revitalize blighted properties in Detroit
4. Eliminate the requirement of placing Medical Marijuana in the Trunk of your car
5. Remove Marijuana from the Controlled Substances Act
6. Pot profits for Potholes, School Funding, Retiree Pensions and lowering Co-Pays on Health Insurance with the Affordable Care Act.

Richard Clement and
Mrs. Jodie Emery
Wife of Marc Scott Emery
 A Canadian Citizen abused by
America's war on Weed.

Since the Ronald Regan revolution of the 1980, the prison population has quadrupled to 2.4 million people. Cost per prisoner ranges from $21,000 to $33,000 per year for each person within the US Prison population. 20% of State Prisoners and 51% of Federal prisoners are in jail for Drug Charges like possession of Marijuana. Compared to 4% of the prison population is composed of robbery and 1% for murder, this is a huge financial commitment to keep people locked up. Currently, the State of Michigan spends up to $2 billion dollars a year maintaining their Department of Corrections facilities. On a Federal level, prison costs are expected to rise to 30 percent of the Department of Justice's budget by the year 2020.

Davidson Freeway at Oakland Exit

The ballot proposal by the group MI Legalize will put a major dent and spur a massive redirection of funds used to prosecute people for Marijuana crimes. The breakdown of the revenue that will be generated by this effort will direct 40% of all profits for transportation, 40% to the school aid fund, and 20% to cities and townships where the business is located. By voting in 2016 citizens can elect State of Reps that will introduce legislation to repeal the law that required people to carry Marijuana in the trunk of their car like a weapon.  This one law is responsible for many arrests, and convictions of Michigan Citizens was endorsed by prosecutors and a few mis-guided Michigan State Senators who were “influenced” by Attorney General Bill Schuette and, the Michigan Sherriff’s Association.

Citizens can finally force the Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs (www.michigan.gov/mmp) to place a picture on the Medical Marijuana card after 6 years of operating the program, calling an end to the legislative buffoonery when it comes to Information Technology. While other states like Arizona allow you to upload a passport like picture, Michigan officials are woefully lacking and intentionally slacking off to sabotage the Michigan Medical Marijuana Act, one of Michigan’s only profit making programs in State Government.

If Marijuana is to become legal then, we want our citizens of all races, religions, spiritual beliefs, political or sexual preference, etc. to have an equal opportunity to participate in this industry.   Based on population as of 2014, Michigan has 80% more citizens at 9 million residents than Colorado has at 5 million residents. Therefore, Michigan will make more money than Colorado from the legalization of Marijuana. Schools, Roads, and Retirees will benefit because a City or County Government can fund pension programs and defray the cost of their healthcare by diverting the 20% of profits into the pension system.

This effort needs 302,400 signatures to be collected by circulators who are gathering signatures from REGISTERED voters.  If you are not registered to vote please do so ASAP.  If you are a felon or know a felon who is NOT inside of a correctional facility, please inform them that they are eligible to vote. This is the non-violent social change that Dr. Martin Luther King was advocating when he was alive and when people got beat up on a bridge to get the right to participate in their government.

For more information  about this legalization effort, please visit the www.milegalize.com website.

For a list of 2016 Presidential Candidates please visit this link: 

https://www.mpp.org/2016-presidential-candidates/

Source:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/08/13/wonkbook-11-facts-about-americas-prison-population/

Community Leaders meet to regulate Medical Marijuana businesses in the City of Detroit

by Richard C. Clement

"600 Million Dollars a year in taxable revenue from Marijuana" - Harry Smith CNBC

Led by Winfred Blackmon and Marcus Cummings, the Metro Detroit Community Action Coalition is attempting to develop an ordinance to reduce the number of Marijuana related business in the City of Detroit. After further review of their proposal, the group’s attempt is to shut them down and/or severely restrict their growth through the use of the Building Safety, Detroit Fire Department Fire Marshals, and other zoning restrictions that have been deemed illegal by the Michigan Supreme Court.

Developing a Marijuana regulation ordinance based on the theory rooted in the ideology of the late Harry Jacob Anslinger (May 20, 1892 – November 14, 1975) is to re-affirm the failed ideology of prohibition with racism. Anslinger was a United States government official who served as the first commissioner of the U.S. Treasury Department's Federal Bureau of Narcotics (FBN). He was a staunch supporter of prohibition and responsible for declaring Marijuana a Schedule I drug like heroin with no medical value. He was an avowed racist that described Marijuana as a drug that makes Negros attack White Women. He along with FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover sincerely believed this until they died. This mindset was carried on by President Nixon and John Ashcroft who authorized the shooting of two activists by the FBI and Michigan State Police at the Rainbow Farms camp in Vandalia Michigan in 2001. (click here for the story of Rainbow Farms)

In 2015, interviews with high ranking Detroit Police Department officials and neighborhood police officers reveal that DPD has not had a police call for trouble at ANY of the identified places of business by this group.  If places are getting raided, it is because they are doing something more than dealing with Medical Marijuana like gambling and vice. Otherwise these places of business in the district are operating within the law by permission.  This addresses the safety of the neighborhoods issue because if the Detroit Police are not having any incidents of trouble, then where is the danger?

The growth of these business are a reflection of a trend toward decriminalization of Marijuana by Federal, State and Local leaders who see the war on Marijuana as a total failure and agree that something has to change. The war on weed has a disparate impact upon our diverse community and, only serves to keep the economy of the for profit correction system in the black. Mayors like Virg Benero of Lansing and Jan Parisi of Hazel Park have come out of the closet to support decriminalization. This is because they are listening to the people and they are saying loudly and clearly that we want these businesses to patronize.

For this group to use the Detroit Zoning Board, Detroit Police, Detroit Fire, and Building Safety Departments to fight a losing proxy war against Marijuana is a sure loser and a waste of tax dollars. The Detroit Fire Department marshal wants safe entry, exit with no capacity overloads and, fire extinguishers in these facilities, just like any other business. Building Safety wants a code compliant building and, the Detroit Police want to keep the peace.  People who use Marijuana are not violent when they only use Marijuana. They get plenty hungry and that could help sales of food in the community.

The last thing the City of Detroit needs is a 1920 style of the Temperance movement who created alcohol prohibition and you see where this got us as a nation. If we can allow Hookah Bars, Cigar Bars, then what is the problem with a “weed bar”?  Given that Detroit retirees need to have their pensions protected and respected with decent health care coverage, the time may be coming so that retirees can have their Medical Marijuana covered to lower their health costs.

Using the rules of the Voluntary Employee Benefit Agreement (VEBA), the members can vote to make this happen with funds from the sale of legal marijuana to help the pension funds for Police, Fire, and General Employees get financially sound.

We cannot go back to the time where we had people like Marc Emery, a citizen of Canada extradited to the United States to serve 5 years of Federal time in Mississippi for the act of selling marijuana seeds. While Colorado makes $2.5 million dollars a month from legal Marijuana sales for schools, we can do better when we use the Cannabis plant for manufacturing products like cars, homes, fuel, fabric, and 20,000 other uses. Most of the corrections system is full of prisoners for small drug crimes.  We hope that before President Obama leaves office, he will issue a complete pardon to immediately remove these prisoners from incarceration.

Finally we hope that the next President continues the policy on a path of saneness to correct this injustice from the grave of Harry Anslinger in 1939.