Michigan's Corruptibility Rated An 'F' In New Report -- And It Isn't Just A Detroit Problem

Yes, Kwame and his wife both had their hand in the child welfare cookie jar.  Detroit child abuse task force money used to go in his pocket and his wife used to receive checks out of Wayne County for doing daily employment background checks on kids in foster care as young as 6 months old.

From the cases of Kwame Kilpatrick to those of Monica Conyers and Robert Ficano, metro Detroit has not wanted for blockbuster political scandals over the past few years. But now a new ranking from the Center for Public Integrity claims that Michigan as a whole is one of the worst states when it comes to "corruptibility."

I wholeheartedly support their findings with documented proof.

Michigan got an F and ranked 43rd in the nation in the State Integrity Investigation, which aimed to figure out how loopholes or laxness in state laws make it easier to unduly influence legislators and leaders and subvert the political process.  Maura Corrigan,

For national political junkies accustomed to cracking jokes about the mob-like political culture of Illinois, New Jersey or Rhode Island, the news that Michigan is one of the most corruptible states might come as something of a surprise. Nope.  It was the inspiration for my site. But for clean government advocates who have had their eye on the Wolverine State as they watched corporate money pour into state and local elections in the last few years, the report is just one more sign that Michigan needs to change to avoid even more scandals.  One must also keep in mind that a NGO is a charity, a church, a non-profit which will also pump money into a campaign.

The problem, those advocates say -- and the State Integrity Investigation bears them out -- is that activities that might put you in jail in other states are perfectly legal in Michigan.  That is absolutely correct.  For example, you file false claims for Medicaid cost reimbursements for child welfare services which were never rendered because they do not exist, then when the foster care agencies get the check and cash it, they put big money into the campaigns of probate judges who preside over their child welfare and juvenile delinquent cases so the agencies may continue using that judge's rubber stamping of fake cases.  Shelia Gibson-Manning is notorious for her scandalous partnership with Black Families Development and false claims funding of her campaigns.

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"It absolutely extends beyond Detroit," said Jocelyn Benson, a former candidate for secretary of state who is now the associate director of the Damon J. Keith Center for Civil Rights at Wayne State University Law School. Statewide, "we have some of the weakest disclosure and lobbying laws in the country," she said.

She speaks the truth.  It originated in Lansing.  Go as Jennifer Granholm to share stories of the schemes she was involved in when she was prosecuting child abuse cases at Lincoln Hall of Justice as an assistant attorney general.  Using the same x-rays of a broken arm of a child, Granholm successfully prosecuted 4 different families.  Then ask her about the fraud at Wayne County Juvenile Assessment Center.  I am quite sure she would tell you even more of the fraud schemes she refused to prosecute as Attorney General.  Make sure to tell Jenny I am still on that mission.
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"Corporate-funded ads and commercials funded by shadowy organization have been on the rise in Michigan and been a significant problem in Michigan years before Citizens United," Benson said. Through super PACs and other campaign practices legalized by the Supreme Court's ruling in its 2010 Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission decision, the rest of the country is now getting a taste of Michigan-style politics, she added.

This is what I like to call child abuse propaganda.  Many elections were won by throwing dead babies.  These child placing agencies will dump big money into a political campaign under the guise of preventing child abuse.  Just look at the Michigan Children's Trust Fund.  For even more fund, guess where some of that money was going to in Detroit and Wayne County.  If you said elections, you were partially correct.  Portions of the funds also went for cars, shopping sprees, dinners, manicures, etc.

In 2007, the Meijer supermarket chain ran afoul of Michigan's disclosure laws by not revealing its spending to sway the outcome of a recall election for Michigan's Acme Township Board after the company's management didn't like the board's zoning decisions. Michigan's secretary of state later fined the supermarket company $190,000 for this and its activities related to a 2005 referendum. But such enforcement actions are rare in Michigan; much more often, corporations can change public and legislative opinion in ways that may not violate any laws. In 2008, undisclosed donors plunged millions of dollars into a fiercely fought and ostensibly nonpartisan battle over electing a Michigan Supreme Court justice.

That was Maura Corrigan when she was trying to be Chief Justice ($80,000 I know about).  For her 2006 election she had tons of non-disclosed money dumped into her campaign, mostly from religious organizations with state contracts in child welfare services.  Seriously, try and pull up her campaign finance disclosures.

More recently, the owners of the Ambassador Bridge and their allies sought to influence legislators to vote against a proposal to build a new, government-owned bridge to Canada. Colleagues of state Rep. Rashida Tlaib in Lansing, Mich., have pointedly told her they would rather remain silent on the bridge issue rather than risk the ire of the Detroit International Bridge Co., which owns the Ambassador Bridge, Tlaib said.

Manny has money and Manny gets bored.

"Sometimes my colleagues will say, well, I don't want to upset the bridge company because I don't want them to upset my election," said Tlaib, whose district includes the Ambassador Bridge and who has long tangled with its owner. "That's the scary part of having corporations bully our public servants through the threat of recall or funneling money to various opponents."

Tlaib said Gov. Rick Synder told her he was shocked by the ability of the Ambassador's owners to unite state legislators, the Koch brothers and the New Black Panther Nation to stand against a competing bridge proposal by spreading money around.

None of it comes as a surprise to Rich Robinson, who tracks spending on undisclosed financing of "issue ads" for the Michigan Campaign Finance Network. Since 2000 he has watched the posting of about $70 million in TV advertisements that skirt the state campaign finance disclosure system. Other states put stricter limits on such ads, he said, but in Michigan the secretary of state has effectively "given itself a lobotomy at interpreting stuff."

And it's not just advertisements; lobbyists in the state capital of Lansing can get away with quite a lot without registering any of their transactions with state regulators.

That is because the state Attorney General is too busy defending the false claims of its state contracts. It's like this, the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit is warehoused in the Attorney General's Office.  That would mean there is an inherent conflict of interest because the Attorney General is not just prosecuting fraudulent and fake child welfare and juvenile justice cases, it is also defending the fraudulent and false activities of these child welfare institutions.  There are so many antitrust violations in child welfare services contracting that it makes perfect since to just let HHS penalize Michigan by decreasing the federal financial participation rate in Medicaid.  It makes more money to let the feds cut off a percentage of Medicaid dollars because the state can make it up through false claims in child welfare.


That is why Maura Corrigan jumped ship and took over as the Director for Department of Human Services.  She knows how to cover up.

"There's really no meaningful disclosure of what lobbyists are spending courting officeholders and administration officials," Robinson said. "Semi-controlled bribery is, I think, an apt description."

Gov. Snyder and Democrats in the state capitol have proposed ethics packages in the form of new legislation. For her part, Benson is proposing the passage of a "Corporate Accountability Amendment" to the Michigan Constitution to impose limits on some of that behind-the-scenes undisclosed financing. But all of those efforts face an uphill battle, and Benson's amendment, if passed, would not go into effect until at least 2014.

In child welfare, this will never apply.  Child welfare activities are secret, including the fraud, murders, false claims, you name it.

Until then, Michigan's leaders have plenty of cleaning up to do. In separate rankings, Michigan received an F in each of the following categories: executive accountability, judicial accountability, state civil service management, state pension fund management, state insurance commissions, political financing, legislative accountability, lobbying disclosure, ethics enforcement agencies and redistricting.  You forgot child welfare.