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Showing posts sorted by relevance for query conyers detroit bankruptcy. Sort by date Show all posts

Thursday, August 29, 2013

Conyers Announces Forum on Legal Implications of Detroit’s Bankruptcy Filing; Forum To Be Moderated by Professor Michael Eric Dyson


(DETROIT) – In response to the myriad issues presented by the Detroit bankruptcy filing, Congressman John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich.) announced he will be holding a forum on Friday, September 6, to discuss legal and other implications of Detroit’s bankruptcy filing. The forum, expected to be broadcast live by C-SPAN, which will be held at the Fellowship Church in Detroit beginning at 6 pm, will be moderated by acclaimed scholar and commentator Michael Eric Dyson and  include key public officials, legal experts, clergy and others.

U.S. Representative
John Conyers, Jr.
In announcing the forum, Rep. Conyers stated:  “Given the unprecedented nature of Detroit’s bankruptcy filing, it is imperative that we have a public forum to discuss its impact on Detroit and the city’s future.  The forum will examine the full range of issues facing Detroit as a result of the bankruptcy filing, including the impact on pensions, the state of possible conflicts of interests and other issues raised by an unelected official making the filing, such as whether the filing was made in good faith. In addition, the forum will discuss the ramifications of the filing on taxpayers, workers, retirees and other stakeholders in DetroitMichigan, and around the nation.”

Further information about the event is detailed below:

What:
Detroit Bankruptcy Forum 
Who:
Ø      Host – Congressman John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich.) – Ranking Member, House Judiciary Committee

Ø      Moderator – Michael Eric Dyson – Professor, Georgetown University

Ø      Harvey Hollins – Director of the Office of Urban and Metropolitan Initiatives on behalf of Governor Snyder
Ø      Robert Ficano – Wayne County Executive
Ø      State Senator Coleman Young
Ø      State Senator Bert Johnson
Ø      Detroit Council Member JoAnn Watson
Ø      Reverend Wendell Anthony – President, NAACP, Detroit Chapter
Ø      Marcia L. Dyson – Political Strategist, Social Activist and Writer
Ø      Al Garrett – President, AFSCME, Detroit Chapter
Ø      Mark Diaz – President, Detroit Police Officers Association
Ø      Rose Roots – President, AFSCME Detroit Retiree Subchapter 98
Ø      James Spiotto – Partner and head of the Special Litigation, Bankruptcy and Workout Group, Chapman & Cutler LLP
Ø      Krystal Crittendon – Former corporation counsel for the City of Detroit
Ø      Mike Steinberg – Legal Director of the American Civil Liberties Union ofMichigan
Ø      Shar Habibi – Research and Policy Director, In the Public Interest

When:
Friday, September 6th, 6:00 p.m.
Where:      
Fellowship Church
7707 West Outer Drive
DetroitMI 48235

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Friday, July 18, 2014

Conyers Introduces Two Bills Safeguarding Public Employees, Retirees & Access to Utilities During Bankruptcy Proceedings


(WASHINGTON) – Today, Congressman John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich.) introduced H.R. 5133, the “Protecting Employees and Retirees in Municipal Bankruptcies Act of 2014,” along with Representatives Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas), Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.), and Henry C. “Hank” Johnson (D-Ga.). Specifically, this legislation amends chapter 9 of the Bankruptcy Code to strengthen protections for public employees and retirees in municipal bankruptcy cases by: clarifying the criteria that a municipality must meet before it can obtain chapter 9 bankruptcy relief, ensuring that the interests of employees and retirees are represented in the chapter 9 case, and imposing heightened standards that a municipality must meet before it may modify any collective bargaining agreement or retiree benefit. The “Protecting Employees and Retirees in Municipal Bankruptcies Act of 2014” is supported by both the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) and the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO).

Representative Conyers also introduced H.R. 5132, the “Preventing the Termination of Utility Service in Bankruptcy Act of 2014,” along with Representatives Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas), Henry C. “Hank” Johnson (D-Ga.), and Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC). This legislation would ensure that a consumer who has filed for bankruptcy relief is not forced to pay security deposits to maintain water, electricity, and gas utility service simply because he or she has filed for bankruptcy. The “Preventing the Termination of Utility Service in Bankruptcy Act of 2014” is supported by the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys.

U.S. Representative
John Conyers, Jr.
“As the City of Detroit continues to work through bankruptcy proceedings and recover from the aftershocks of the global financial crisis, I introduced today two pieces of legislation to safeguard the earned benefits of public employees as well as retirees, and to protect individuals’ access to vital utilities like water,” said Conyers.

“When a city files for bankruptcy, its dedicated public employees - the policemen, firefighters, and workers who selflessly served their city for years - are at risk of having their hard-earned wages, pensions and health benefits reduced or even eliminated entirely. While the City of Detroit worked to limit the blow of bankruptcy-driven cuts to employee wages and retirees’ pensions, the financial security of Detroit’s public workers was placed in serious jeopardy, and the case set a potentially problematic precedent. Other cities facing these bankruptcy challenges may try to use current bankruptcy law to set aside collective bargaining agreements and worker protections. Today, I introduced the ‘Protecting Employees and Retirees in Municipal Bankruptcies Act of 2014’ to guard against this prospect, and provide guidelines on how to protect public employees in future bankruptcy cases. Specifically, my legislation requires a city to engage in meaningful, good faith negotiations with its employees and retirees before applying for chapter 9 bankruptcy relief, and ensures public employees and retirees have a say in any plan that would modify their benefits.

“In addition, I introduced legislation to defend the public’s right to utility services, and protect against unscrupulous demands from utility companies for water, gas and electricity. At times, individuals - through no fault of their own - struggle to pay for these services often in the face of devastating medical debt or job loss. Current law permits utility companies to force individuals going through bankruptcy, even if they are current on their bills, to pay hefty security deposits - typically two months or more of their average bill - in exchange for the utility continuing to supply service. I introduced the ‘Preventing Termination of Utility Services in Bankruptcy Act of 2014,’ to disallow this injustice. As water rates in some cities such as Detroit have skyrocketed in excess of 100% over the past decade, it is unconscionable to terminate a family’s access to such life-saving services that keeps the lights on, warms homes, and ensures families can bathe, hydrate and prepare meals.”

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Wednesday, October 25, 2017

CONYERS Bill To Add More Judges To Detroit Bankruptcy Court Set To Become Law; Helps Residents Seekk Economic Relief


Conyers Bill Included as part of Legislation Providing Funds for Disaster Relief

Washington, D.C. –H.R. 2266, a $36.5 billion humanitarian aid package for victims of hurricanes Harvey, Irma, Maria and Nate passed the U.S. House and U.S. Senate and is now set to become law. The bill includes an amended version of Congressman John Conyers’ (MI-13) legislation that will extend 14 temporary bankruptcy judgeships and establish four additional bankruptcy judgeships across the Nation.  The bill extends the temporary bankruptcy judgeship in the Eastern District of Michigan as well as authorizes an additional bankruptcy judgeship for that District, which serves the City of Detroit.  

According to the Judicial Conference, without extending the temporary judgeship and adding another judgeship for the Eastern District of Michigan, the District’s caseload would exceed by 40 percent of the caseload standard for a federal judicial district.  The legislation passed out of the U.S. House of Representatives on October 12th, the U.S. Senate on October 24th and now heads to the president’s desk for signature.

Congressman Conyers released the following statement:

Dean of the U.S. House
of Representatives
John Conyers, Jr.
“This legislation will ensure that citizens of Detroit, especially those facing economic distress, are able to obtain financial relief from a fully-staffed bankruptcy court.  While I would have preferred the original version of my legislation, which would have made these judgeships permanent, I am pleased that Congress took action.  

“H.R. 2266 also contains much needed economic aid to those who were harmed by recent hurricanes and wildfires and provides critical debt relief to the citizens of Puerto Rico by forgiving certain flood insurance obligations and loans owed by the Commonwealth.

“This aid package reflects how our Nation -- when called upon to address overwhelming devastation resulting from natural disaster and economic distress -- can come together to provide critical aid to those most in need.”

In addition to extending a temporary bankruptcy judgeship and adding an additional bankruptcy judge in Detroit, this legislation will expand temporary judgeships in Delaware, Florida, Maryland, Nevada, North Carolina, Puerto Rico, and Virginia. The legislation also adds additional bankruptcy judges in Delaware and Maryland.  The Judicial Conference of the United States has warned that without this legislation, the Nation’s bankruptcy courts would “face a serious and, in many cases, debilitating workload crisis if these temporary judgeships were to expire.” 


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Saturday, September 7, 2013

Forum on Legal Implications of Detroit’s Bankruptcy Filing

Forum To Be Moderated by Professor Michael Eric Dyson
(DETROIT) – Saturday, September 7th, Congressman John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich.) will be holding a forum to discuss legal and other implications of Detroit’s bankruptcy filing. The forum will be held at the Fellowship Chapel in Detroit at 3 pm, and will be moderated by acclaimed scholar and commentator Professor Michael Eric Dyson. Participants in the forum will include key public officials, legal experts, clergy and others. The forum will be taped by C-SPAN and broadcast at a later date.

Updated information about this event is detailed below:

Forum on Legal Implications of Detroit’s Bankruptcy Filing


Host – Congressman John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich.) – Ranking Member, House Judiciary Committee


  Moderator – Michael Eric Dyson – Professor, Georgetown University

  Robert Ficano/Hester Wheeler – Wayne County Executive/Assistant
  State Senator Coleman Young
  State Senator Bert Johnson
  Detroit Council Member JoAnn Watson
  Reverend Wendell Anthony – President, NAACP, Detroit Chapter
  Al Garrett – President, AFSCME, Detroit Chapter
  Rose Roots – President, AFSCME Detroit Retiree Subchapter 98
James Spiotto – Partner and Head of the Special Litigation, Bankruptcy and Workout Group, Chapman & Cutler LLP
  Professor John A. E. Pottow – Bankruptcy and Commercial Law Professor, University of Michigan
  Professor Melissa Jacoby – Bankruptcy and Commercial Law Professor, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  Krystal Crittendon – Former Corporation Counsel for the City of Detroit
  Mike Steinberg – Legal Director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan

Saturday, September 7th, 3:00 p.m.
   
Fellowship Chapel
7707 West Outer Drive
Detroit, MI 48235

Voting is beautiful, be beautiful ~ vote.©

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Conyers Announces Judiciary Braintrust Forums at CBC Annual Legislative Conference


Forums will be held on: “H.R. 40 Sustaining a Dialogue on the Legacy of Slavery,” “The Trayvon Martin Tragedy,” “Protecting the Right to Vote,” and “The Return of Detroit: From Bankruptcy to Rebirth”

(WASHINGTON) – This Friday, September 20th at the Congressional Black Caucus Annual Legislation Conference, in Room 143-A of the Washington Convention Center, Congressman John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich.) will be hosting four separate Judiciary braintrusts on Advancing the Civil Rights Agenda. The four forums will include discussions with participants on the legacy of slavery, the Trayvon Martin Tragedy, protecting the right to vote following the Supreme Court’s decision in Holder v. Shelby County, and the way forward from Detroit’s bankruptcy filing. The braintrusts will feature panels composed of leaders in the civil rights movement, elected officials, prominent academics, critical advocacy organizations, and civic leaders.

Further information about the four braintrusts is detailed below:

What:
Chairman Conyers Judiciary Braintrust – H.R. 40: Sustaining a Dialogue on the Legacy of Slavery
Who:
Ø  Moderator – Dr. Ron Daniels – Institute of the Black World 21stCentury

Ø  Dr. Julianne Malveaux – Former President of Benedict College
Ø  Nkechi Taifa – Open Society Institute
Ø  Council Member JoAnn Watson (Detroit At-Large)

When:
Friday, September 20th, 9:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.
Where:      
Washington Convention Center: Room 143-A


What:
Chairman Conyers Judiciary Braintrust – The Trayvon Martin Tragedy: The Intersection of Criminal Justice Reform and Racial Profiling
Who:
Ø  Moderator – Tanya Clay House – Public Policy Director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights

Ø  Benjamin Crump, Esq. – Counsel to Trayvon Martin Family at Parks & Crump
Ø  Chief John Dixon – President of the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives
Ø  Professor Charles Ogletree – Harvard Law School
Ø  Laura Murphy – Director of the American Civil Liberties Union in Washington, DC
Ø  Patricia Rosier, Esq. – President of the National Bar Association
Ø  Ron Scott – Detroit Coalition Against Police Brutality
Ø  Reverend Al Sharpton – President and Founder of the National Action Network
Ø  Imani Walker – Executive Director of the Rebecca Project
Ø  Donnell White – Detroit Police Commissioner

When:
Friday, September 20th, 11:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.
Where:      
Washington Convention Center: Room 143-A


What:
Chairman Conyers Judiciary Braintrust – Protecting the Right to Vote
Who:
Ø  Moderator – Professor Spencer Overton – George Washington University Law School

Ø  Barbara R. Arnwine – Executive Director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights
Ø  Nicole M. Austen-Hillery – Director and Counsel Washington Office, Brennan Center for Justice
Ø  Wade Henderson – President and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights
Ø  Reverend Jesse L. Jackson, Sr. – Founder Rainbow/PUSH Coalition
Ø  Dr. Tyson D. King-Meadows, Ph.D. – University of Maryland Baltimore County
Ø  Greg Moore – Executive Director of the NAACP National Voter Fund
Ø  Professor Charles Ogletree – Harvard Law School
Ø  Becky Pringle – Secretary/Treasurer of the National Education Association
Ø  Hilary Shelton – Senior Vice President for Advocacy and Policy of the NAACP
Ø  Deborah J. Vagins – Senior Legislative Counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union Washington Legislative Office

When:
Friday, September 20th, 1:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.
Where:      
Washington Convention Center: Room 143-A


What:
Chairman Conyers Judiciary Braintrust – The Return of Detroit: From Bankruptcy to Rebirth
Who:
Ø  Moderator – Dr. Michael Eric Dyson – Professor, Georgetown University

Ø  Reverend Wendell Anthony – President of the NAACP, Detroit Chapter
Ø  Krystal Crittendon – Former counsel for the City of Detroit
Ø  Al Garrett – President of AFSCME, Detroit Chapter
Ø  Harvey Hollins III – Director of the Michigan Office of Urban and Metropolitan Initiatives
Ø  State Senator Bert Johnson (MI-2nd District)
Ø  James Spiotto – Partner and head of the Special Litigation, Bankruptcy and Workout Group, Chapman & Cutler LLP
Ø  Professor John A. E. Pottow – University of Michigan Law School
Ø  Council Member JoAnn Watson (Detroit At-Large)

When:
Friday, September 20th, 3:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Where:      
Washington Convention Center: Room 143-A

Voting is beautiful, be beautiful ~ vote.©

Monday, December 30, 2019

Meet Detroit Paid Segregationist Rochelle Riley - Co-Conspirator Meanie Who Bleachbits The Legacy Of Conyers

https://www.rochelleriley.com/
Dearest Rochelle,

At this point in your life, I do not believe you are capable of descending any further into the ranks of ethical depravity.

Why are you bearing false witness in the public record, as a public official of the City of Detroit?

Did you tell City Council that you were going to be promulgating published child welfare propaganda, as an act of personal inurement, by promoting your segregational, bleachbitted book, about to come out next year, through a public university, Wayne State University, to further privatization?

Rochelle, precious, are you not aware of the genus of this entire Mueller Investigation?

I do pray your response is in the form of a tale of an affirmative defense, because the only other, plausible explanation you can provide to the people, as to why you used your public office to advertise your anti-ammalgamationist narrative to perversely infect the annals of history by reducing the legacy of My Sweetie down to the latest round of talking points memo, is that you are a co-conspirator of the coup.

He represented everyone, not just your #coloredrevolution army of greedy, blackhearted souls who perpetuate the residuals of the peculiar institution for any kind of pecuniary interests they can conjure up in a fake ass Public Private Partnership, like the Detroit Land Bank Authority, and all those other wonderful child welfare foreign corporations stealin' the children, land & votes.

Dare I mention that you neglected his history on impeachment, a core component of Voting Rights?

I have a much, deeper level of respect for the work of Nolan Finley over your actions of election interference, simply for the fact that he has no shame to his game, because his trolling generates hits for The Detroit News, a great marketing technique for a private corporation.

Rochelle, love, you are a public official.

MAYOR RENEWS CITY’S COMMITMENT TO ARTS & CULTURE COMMUNITY, APPOINTS ROCHELLE RILEY TO LEAD EFFORTS

This means you took an oath of office.

You cannot use your office to be mean to my Sweetie.

That gives me the Saddy Face because you breached the children's trust.

What also gives me great pause in filing a formal complaint against you to the City Inspector General for Ethics violation, is to only reinforce my position that you are just a vile creature, in the realms of Jeanine Pirro.

To begin, are you aware of My Sweetie's history in the establishment of Ethics, or his history in the administrative structuring of DOJ, FBI and the OIG?

Of course, not, those are not in your talking points.

Since you are promoting yourself as an expert in making miscengenation fashionable, again, for the purposes of the congress to obviate for Her Flatulent Boviness, Sheila Jackson Lee, spokestoken of the new and improved #coloredrevolution reparations economic reinvestment, Detroit - U.S. Marshall Fund, just because they stole all the TARP, I thought this a great transitional moment to illuminate the reasons why I am going to label you a "co-conspirator".

How come you made no mention of #MeToo, a major component of the legacy of Conyers?

Is this not a violation of civil rights to due process, or were you explicitly instructed not to mention anything about what you know, due to pending scheduling for you to your act of contrition in an attestation in the public square...or a court of law, but hey, what do I know?

I know nothing because you kept to the talking points when cranking out this distractionary indicator of another #coloredrevolution psyoptic.

Are you that crass that you would masticate your paid interpretation of what you wish to interject in the educational curriculum of our schools by failing to mention that due process is the edifice of the rights of a civil society in your omission of the two Ethics Investigation Referrals to the U.S. Department of Justice, which were completed quite some time ago?

That is quite bold because he denied the allegations and you do not consider this a major part of history.

I know for a fact that you said nothing about the Michigan Emergency Manager, Detroit Bankruptcy, Detroit Grand Bargain, or the Detroit Land Bank Authority, because if you did, you would have to speak upon Voting Rights, as this is dealing with gerrymandering.

You may even have to say my name, but you did not, which means you excrete the crap of child welfare propaganda.

What about his work on FISA, FARA, or are these your naughty talking points you are not supposed to reference?

I am going to stop, here.

I do not want to spoil the show.

You suck, Rochelle, because you are a child welfare propagandist, furthering the stealin' of the children, land & vote.

John Conyers: One of the Last of the Civil Rights Warriors
1929-2019

By ROCHELLE RILEY

Rochelle Riley, a longtime newspaper columnist, is director of arts, culture and entertainment for the City of Detroit. She is author of The Burden: African Americans and the Enduring Impact of Slavery and the young readers anthology That They Lived: Twenty African Americans Who Changed the World (Wayne State University Press, 2020).

The school that birthed the lions is closing. And its alumni are dying.

That school was the Civil Rights Movement, the heartbreaking fight for equal rights for black Americans that took up most of the 1950s and 1960s. Its classrooms were the streets of myriad urban centers and stubborn Southern strongholds, where brave young warriors faced off against America’s longest-serving tradition: bigotry.

Those warriors changed America. Some preached. Some taught. Most marched. But some, like the late U.S. Representative John Conyers were born to lead.

Conyers—a war veteran who earned his law degree after serving in the Michigan National Guard, the U.S. Army, the U.S. Army Reserves and a year in Korea during the Korean War—jumped feet-first into the movement. As a young lawyer, he worked with the National Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and with some of Detroit’s labor unions. In 1964, he won his first congressional race, hiring civil rights legend Rosa Parks to work in his Detroit office.

He went on to win 25 more times.

While in Congress, Conyers made achieving racial equality his primary mission. He co-founded the Congressional Black Caucus. He was, as the Nation put it after his death, the “only African American member of the House Judiciary Committee during the crucial debates about strengthening the Voting Rights Act.” Days after Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was fatally shot on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Conyers proposed a national celebration of his birthday. It took him and the indomitable Representative Shirley Chisolm until 1983 to win that battle, when President Ronald Reagan signed the bill for what is now a federal holiday honoring King.

Conyers learned the ropes from fellow Michigan Representative John Dingell, whose record congressional longevity he nearly matched. Conyers, at the time of his death in October, had become the longest-serving African American representative, completing nearly 26 terms.

As momentous and heartbreaking as his death was for his constituents, his family and his friends, Conyers’ passing also signaled the passing of something far greater: the movement that gave him his start and his heart, that fueled his passion and that of so many others. Conyers, who was born four months before the stock market crashed in 1929 and who was a witness to nearly every major American news event for almost a century, was one of the last of the civil rights warriors. He represents a kind of leader that doesn’t really exist anymore, no matter how many pretenders try to match it. He was a man of the streets who became a man of Congress—who was still a man of the streets. Revered in his hometown, Conyers knew nearly everyone. And if he didn’t know you, he made you feel like he did.

People still talk about that time—back when segregation was a legal way of life in Detroit and the mistreatment of black folks finally pushed a city over the edge—that Conyers stood on top of a car. It was July 23, 1967, and the beginnings of a melee that arguably has been called a riot, rebellion, demonstration or reckoning. As the Detroit News recounted 50 years later, when the trouble started, the phone rang at Conyers’ house on Dexter Avenue. An aide told the 38-year-old second-term congressman that the Fire Department was calling for him to come to the corner of 12th Street and Clairmount Avenue.

Conyers went. Why would he not? That is what lions do. He was there for his people, but he was too late. He went to that street corner teeming with angry Detroiters, and he hopped onto a car in an attempt to be seen and heard above the fray. But he could not staunch the anger of so many who had been ignored or beaten down for so long. The crowd shouted him down. But he didn’t get angry. He understood.

“I was telling them this was not going to settle anything by getting mad and looting and having arguments with one another,” Conyers told the News as if that half-century were just a week ago. “They were fed up with the discrimination, segregation and all that goes along with it,” he said. “It was like they just couldn’t take it any longer, and collectively, it was like a fuse was blown. It was a dangerous thing because they didn’t care what happened.”

The crowd shouted him down that day, but it was a rare occurrence. He was beloved by his constituents who watched him introduce bill after bill, unapologetically, to help African-Americans and the poor, who had few others to carry their concerns. He called for health care for all Americans decades before President Barack Obama did, and he sponsored the United States National Health Care Act. He fiercely opposed the Vietnam War, which sent countless African American men into a senseless battle, and he fought against the death penalty, which was applied unjustly to more African American men than white.

No issue was more important to him than the study of reparations for the forced enslavement of African Americans. He introduced and reintroduced legislation seeking to study the issue—for three decades. That Congress and presidential candidates are now finally talking more seriously about reparations is a testament to Conyers and to the school that birthed him.

In the end, Conyers was once again in the spotlight—not atop a car but facing allegations of sexual misconduct, which he denied; nonetheless, he resigned in 2017. But unlike the first time, when he was ignored, his constituents largely rallied around him. My hope was that such a storied career wouldn’t end in tatters.

It didn’t. And for those of us watching the sun setting on the lions of the Civil Rights movement, it was a hard good-bye. Conyers died 10 years shy of a century that he helped shape. Barring another movement, another seismic shift in the fight to end second-class citizenship in America, there won’t be more like him.

Voting is beautiful, be beautiful ~ vote.©

Thursday, December 11, 2014

CONYERS REMAINS CAUTIOUSLY OPTIMISTIC AS DETROIT EMERGES FROM BANKRUPTCY


WASHINGTON -  Today, Rep. John Conyers, Jr.  (MI-13) issued the following the statement concerning the City of Detroit emerging from bankruptcy:

U.S. Representative
John Conyers, Jr.
“I believe all stakeholders – citizens, elected officials, organized labor, clergy, and the private sector – need to continue to work collaboratively to help Detroit grow and prosper in the 21st Century.  We know that Detroit’s potential is unlimited, and I look forward to working every day to improve our great City.

“It is disturbing that the bankruptcy court established a very dangerous precedent last year by holding that pensions and retiree benefits can be diminished in bankruptcy, notwithstanding the clear statement in the Michigan constitution.  We should not subvert the very principle that made Detroit great – respect for workers’ rights.  Putting the pensions of our police officers, firefighters, and other municipal workers on the chopping block repudiated not only the State law, but our City’s working class history and heritage.  Although in the end a compromise was achieved to resolve this case, I fear that the precedent could be used in other cases to the disadvantage of hard working public employees.  That is why I have introduced legislation, the “Protecting Employees and Retirees in Municipal Bankruptcies Act of 2014” (H.R. 5133), to respond to this problem.

“With the resignation of emergency manager Kevin Orr, Detroit will be returning day-to-day control to its duly elected leaders, although subject to continued state oversight.  Non-elected emergency managers should not run Detroit, nor any other city or political subdivision as it is anti-democratic and inconsistent with our principles as a city, state, nation.

“Now that the City has emerged from bankruptcy, Congress and the Judiciary Committee should hold hearings concerning the largest municipal bankruptcy in history and consider the ramifications for other financially troubled cities in the future.”
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