MDP Has A New Spokestoken

Brandon Dillon & Lavora Barnes

Brandon knows when to high tail it.

Can you say "Election Interference" in Oakland County?

No?

Well, I can.

She is absolutely clueless and is being used as a cut out op.

Michigan Democrats to elect new leader of state party

DETROIT (AP) - Michigan Democrats are poised to elect a new leader of the state party.

Democrats are gathering at Detroit’s Cobo Center for their convention Saturday. There are seven declared candidates, but the favorite to become the next chair is Lavora Barnes, who has worked as the Michigan Democratic Party’s chief operating officer for more than three years.

She has the backing of new Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, labor unions and others.

Current party chairman Brandon Dillon decided not to seek re-election after Democrats in November flipped control of top state offices and two congressional seats while making gains in the Republican-controlled Legislature.

Barnes, who joined President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign after working many years as a staffer in the Michigan House, was later a deputy clerk/register of deeds in Oakland County.

She won.

MICHIGAN SUPREME COURT AGREES TO HEAR PROPERTY TAX CASE

The Michigan Supreme Court will hear a case later this year in which officials took a man’s property for $8.41 in unpaid taxes.

The Michigan Supreme Court agreed to hear a case later this year over government officials having confiscated a man’s property for $8.41 in unpaid interest on taxes and kept the $24,500 it fetched at auction.

Uri Rafaeli failed to pay the interest owed on property taxes for a rental property several years ago. Oakland County, Michigan eventually foreclosed on his property for the $8.41 plus $277 in additional interest and fees. The county sold his property at an auction in 2014 for $24,500 and kept the whole amount.

Rafaeli sued Oakland County for the difference, but a trial court ruled he had forfeited his property. An appeals court agreed.

The appeals court said the officials acted properly under the state’s General Property Tax Act, which requires officials to take property for any amount of unpaid taxes and keep all the proceeds if they sell it.

Fifth Amendment Case

The Pacific Legal Foundation asked the Michigan Supreme Court to review the case on the grounds Michigan’s General Property Tax Act violates property owners’ Fifth Amendment rights, says PLF attorney Christina Martin.

The Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution says the government cannot take private property “for public use, without just compensation.”

“The fundamental problem is that the Act fails to recognize that equity in real estate is protected by the Takings Clause in the U.S. Constitution and the Michigan Constitution’s counterpart: Article X, Section 2,” said Martin.

“[The Act] claims the power to entirely swallow that equity, no matter how valuable the property or how small the debt,” Martin said.

‘More Than It Is Owed’

Martin says she hopes the Michigan Supreme Court will rule that when the government seizes property, it does not have a constitutional right to keep more than what the former property owner owes the government.

“We recognize that government has the power to sell property to collect a debt, including statutory penalties, costs, and interest,” said Martin. “But when government takes and sells property to collect a debt, it should not be allowed to keep more than it is owed. But that’s exactly what Michigan’s General Property Tax Act purports to authorize.”

A favorable ruling in Rafaeli’s case would require the government to give him the remaining funds from the auction of his property.

Most states do refund the surplus, says Martin, but Michigan is one of a few states which either require or allow the government to keep all the profits from the sale of private property.

Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Dakota, and Oregon have such laws.

“At minimum, to respect the Takings Clause, when the government sells property to collect a tax debt, it should have to refund the surplus profits from the sale of foreclosed property to the former owners,” Martin said.

“In Rafaeli’s case, that would mean the government should have refunded the $24,215 from the sale of [his] house, which exceeded [his] tax debt, interest, penalties, and fees,” Martin said.

‘Poor Discretion’

Although the General Property Tax Act allows for seizure of property, it is against common sense for the government to keep more than it is due, says Patrick Wright, vice president of legal affairs at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy.

“It is fair to say that regardless of the constitutionality, refusing to accept a late payment for $8 is ridiculous,” said Wright. “The county officials seem to have exercised poor discretion in deciding to process this.”

Michigan’s property laws are primarily meant to be sources of revenue, like all tax laws, Wright said. “The presumption would be that people should pay a portion of the tax commensurate with the value of property.”

Oakland County made $22.5 million from tax foreclosure auctions from 2006 to 2015, according to the Detroit News.

The foundation’s appeal brief is due in February, and oral arguments before the court “will most likely be scheduled for October 2019,” Martin said.

Voting is beautiful, be beautiful ~ vote.©

Detroit Homeless Women To Be Honored by COTS

These are the experts to listen to when it comes to social and economic policy in Detroit, in Michigan.

I encourage political leadership, Democratic, Republican and Progressive, to attend and embrace the ones who rock the cradle of Detroit society.

Homelessness: The Human Experience

On any given night, there are more than 16,000 homeless in Detroit, one-third of these are children, according to the Coalition of Temporary Shelter (COTS).

Frankie Piccirilli, Starkela Lloyd and Jessica West

For more than 30 years, COTS has served the most vulnerable in our community. The shelter operates at capacity throughout the year, offering programs and providing services for more than 800 men, women and children daily.

On Wednesday, Oct. 28, at 8:00 am COTS will hold its 5th Annual Leading Ladies Breakfast at Eastern Market. The breakfast is being held to celebrate COTS’ accomplishments and share their vision for helping families on their journey to self-sufficiency. Carol Goss, former CEO of The Skillman Foundation, will  co-chair the event and is very dedicated to the mission at hand.

“I’ve been involved in this work all my life. We want to help women to become self-sufficient, to live their lives in a way that is wonderful for them and to help them raise their children to become wonderful adults,” said Goss.

Frankie Piccirilli, chief development officer for COTS, is passionate about the work that she does. As Piccirilli faces the staggering statistics of homelessness in Detroit — approximately 20,000 homeless people and only about 2,000 shelter beds — she remains optimistic.

“I am a big fan of Mother Theresa and I truly believe that if you are the voice for one you become the voice of many,” Piccirilli said. “It is tough when you only look at the statistics but looking at stats and having an actual conversation with these women makes a difference in how I view my job. Viewing these families as people and not a number allows me to push harder and keep going despite what the statistics say.”

The face of homelessness is ever changing, as there are quite a few young adults who find themselves without adequate shelter.

Jessica West, 22, now resides at COTS with her husband and three children.

Originally from Denver, West came to Detroit with her husband seeking a better life but found that things were not as promising as they seemed.

“I came to Detroit in May. My husband is originally from here so we moved here for our children to be close to his family. However, when I got here things were different than I imagined,” said West. “I was eight months pregnant which made it difficult to find a job and the people we were living with weren’t really sympathetic to our situation and we were told to leave.”

That’s when West and her family began sleeping in their car.

Stories like this are becoming more and more common.

Young people, striking out on their own trying to make a life for themselves only to encounter challenges and obstacles along the way. Many are able to overcome the challenges and forge ahead but some, like West, have circumstances at play that make it difficult to get a grip.

“Being homeless at such a young age has been hard because all this time I felt like I was my own adult. When I realized I needed help and there was none within my family, it really brought me down. My husband and I don’t have alcohol or drug problems. We just thought we had support here and we didn’t,” said West. “But COTS has been very helpful to me. They are helping me and my family to get into a position where we can live on our own. I just started a job and am looking forward to getting a home for my children, soon!”

Children who reside at COTS

While the reasons for homelessness vary from one person to the next, studies show that domestic violence is the immediate cause of homelessness for many women. Survivors of domestic violence are often isolated from support networks and financial resources by their abuser, which puts them at risk of becoming homeless.

That was the case for 28-year-old Starkela Lloyd.

“I was in an abusive relationship with my daughter’s father and this relationship was so damaging to me that I became an alcoholic. I was at a point where I wanted to escape him but did not have the means or confidence so drinking became my escape,” she said.

As Lloyd’s drinking increased so did the violence and one day she decided enough was enough.

“One night we had a very big fight and my 4-year old daughter was right there screaming at the top of her lungs for us to stop. That was a turning point for me and that’s when I decided that I needed to get my life together. I realized that I was drinking all the time because I did not want the life I was living but I wasn’t strong enough to do something about it. The mental and physical abuse I was experiencing on a daily basis made it hard to envision a better day.”

However, even after having that moment of clarity, Lloyd was still hesitant about going to a homeless shelter.

“Ending up in COTS was something I never thought would happen to me,” she said. “I thought ‘me, homeless? Oh no, not me. I’m not one of those people,’ But I’ve learned that you can never say where you won’t be because it only takes one situation to become homeless.”

Leaving the  abusive relationship for a safer environment at COTS did not immediately solve Lloyd’s problem.

“My first two months there, I was down and depressed,” she recalled. “I turned back to alcohol. I would leave the shelter in the morning, go stand on the corner and drink. Then one day a counselor from COTS came up to me and said ‘you are going to stop standing on this corner drinking. You are going to so something with yourself. And go comb your hair!’”

That was almost three years ago. Today Lloyd is gainfully employed and self-sufficient, living on her own with her young daughter. A magnetic woman with a smile that lights up the room, you can feel resilience radiating from Lloyd. She has shown exceptional promise and has even discovered a talent for public speaking during her time at COTS.

Further proof of her development and talents are evident in her appointment to co-chair of the Leading Ladies Breakfast alongside Carol Goss. Lloyd has also been asked to attend various events and share her story and an encouraging word.

“Knowing that one day I can make a difference to the women in this shelter and possibly change someone’s life and be a voice has given me my purpose,” she said. “So that is why I speak and share my story”

“We felt Star was the perfect choice to co-chair the breakfast because she is dynamic. She is strong, fearless and just draws you in when she speaks. People really take to her and they have someone to identify with,” said Piccirrilli.

Putting a face to homelessness is important but it is also important to realize that that face is ever-changing for a myriad of reasons. As the old saying goes: there but for the grace of God go I. With so many in our community being classified as the “working poor,” the threat of homelessness is not exclusive to any one group of people. It looms over the heads of many.

As Piccirilli stated, “There are a lot of us who are one illness, one death, one flat tire, one paycheck away from homelessness. It really could happen to any one of us. It’s the human experience,” said Piccirrilli.

To meet the women featured in this article and to learn share how COTS’ structure has changed to help families overcome poverty through the Passport to Self-Sufficiency framework, please visit www.cotsdetroit.org and purchase your ticket to get a seat at the table.

Your presence and support will help families establish housing, embrace education, employment, health and well- being, and change the course for a better future as they seek to permanently eradicate poverty from their households.

Voting is beautiful, be beautiful ~ vote.©

MDP Women's Caucus Excludes Poor Women and Their Issues, Again

Once again, the Michigan Democratic Party is having an absolutely fabulous #MDP Toll Fest.

Michigan Democratic Women's Caucus screening attendees

"What is a Toll Fest?", you may ask.  Allow me to explain.

A Toll Fest is when an elite group charges a fee, typically not a nominal one, to access entry into the group.  If you do not pay the fee, your voice is excluded.

Toll Fests are closed systems designed to exclude any social media exposure or input.

Think of it as a roaring groupthink party where they celebrate the fact that they came up with a national agenda once again without engaging the majority of the population it is suppose to be representing.

The event is in Detroit, the largest concentration of voters and poverty in the State of Michigan.

The event also does not seem to understand that the highest population of children in poverty rate in the industrialized world is in Detroit, where women are the primary caregivers.

The entry fee to the National Federation of Democratic Women Midwest Regional Conference and Issues Conference is $40, $50 with lunch.

Do not dare to even ask for daycare.  "The nerve!"

No hardship exceptions are offered but it does not matter.  Everyone knows poor people do not vote.

Join the Michigan Democratic Women's Caucus 

for the

National Federation of Democratic Women Midwest Regional Conference and Issue Conference

Saturday, October 24

8:00 AM to 4:30 PM

COBO Convention Center

Detroit, MI 

For more information and to purchase tickets click here.

Speakers include:

Jennie Blackton, Democratic Media Consultant and Award-Winning Writer (One Day at a Time)

Renee Branch Canady PhD, Every Woman's Business: Policy that Promotes Women, Infant, Child Health & Well Being

A'shanti F. Gholar, DNC

Christine Greig, Michigan State Representative

Anne Pope, Why the 1965 Voting Right Act Still Matters

Paid for by the Michigan Democratic State Central Committee, 606 Townsend St., Lansing, MI 48933,www.michigandems.com. Not authorized by any federal candidate or candidate committee.

Forward To A Friend

Michigan Democratic State Central Committee
606 Townsend St.
Lansing MI 48933 United States

Voting is beautiful, be beautiful ~ vote.©

Michigan Democratic Party Wants To Know Why People Think It Sucks

Brandon Dillon is the new face of the Michigan Democratic Party, #MDP .

Thank goodness, because the MDP possesses a long, and dramatic  history of sucking.

Lend Your Voice: Path Forward Survey

The MDP needs your voice as we begin to undertake our strategic planning process to build a strong foundation for 2016 and beyond. Take the survey today at www.michigande...

MICHIGANDEMS.COM

BTW, there is no link to the survey on the YouTube video.  Here is the link to the survey.

Allow me to share with you a brief history of why the MDP has sucked for so long.

DETROIT                                    

Detroit and its municiple gems possess the largest concentration of a voting age population, yet, when it comes to state leadership, it has traditionally thrown its nose up in the air to the 13th and 14th Democratic Congressional Districts.

When Mark Brewer and Lon Johnson were both running for the seat of State Chair, neither of them wasted their time to even engage these Detroit districts when it came to the convention vote.  I was present to listen to the, well, let's just say "spirited discussions" on why these candidates would not come to stomp for their own vote in Detroit.

Ron Scott, of the Detroit Coalition Against Police Brutality attempted to run against Mark Brewer a few years ago.  Scott raised an interesting issue regarding the mandatory $1,000 filing fee to become a candidate for MDP State Chair.  He called it a "poll tax".

Now, why would he call a filing fee to run for office a "poll tax"?

Well, it seems that if you are poor, there is a strong likelihood that you will not be able to afford a run for office, so the $1,000 filing fee, imposed by the MDP, should be considered to be more like a "poll toll" because, in order to play, you must pay, and everyone knows the poverty rates in Detroit, the largest voting base of Michigan.

Considering the fact that Detroit and most of its surrounding communities wake up everyday to the smiling face of poverty, the poll toll functions as a filter for the MDP elite.

I call them the elite because all the contracts, and jobs, go to the same Lansing clique.

YOUTH

Youth, as I know it from federal codes, is typically until the age of 18, with exceptions in child welfare allowing the "youth" age ceiling to be raised to the age of 25.

The only thing The Michigan Democratic Party Youth Caucus is doing for youth is recruiting youth for more campaigning for their hand picked candidates.

Of course, Detroit youth and their struggles are never on the agenda.

JOBS

So far, from what I know and what I see, there are no jobs initiatives but there are lots of fundraising in Lansing.

SOCIAL NETWORKING

I believe it was some time during the 2008 election cycle that I was able to have a seat at the table with MDP leadership.  I was literally stunned with the lack of technological sophistication.

The MDP website was using a free Wordpress code which came with an astronomical price tag.  Why?  It was free, yet it really, really sucks.  There are so many web developers and SEO experts working, like myself, tirelessly on showing off their skills to win the opportunity to bid on contracts.

Now they use Drupal coding.

But of course, keeping to the MDP structure, there are no public bid announcements.

Advanced networking of the website does not exist.  Here is an example.  No where do you see an hyperlink to the District Parties, or any other participating group, websites.  This is pretty sad.

What is even sadder is the fact that the bloggers and other individual sites are excluded from being supported by the MDP.

The MDP should not strictly focus on sending out sensationally obnoxious emails to people they already know are too broke to hand over spare dollars and will not read them for lack of source links and citations, but extend their cyber arms to embrace others who are sincerely trying to give a voice to people who cannot afford to run for office.

Running for office is not always about getting elected, it is also about elevating an issuse to the public agenda and preserving the record of history.  Every tweet or facebook post is recorded in the Library of Congress.

Extranet public relations do not exist for the MDP.  There is no one to standfast to research and develop an internet presence with backlinks or keywords.

The site has no search option nor does it have archives.

God forbid I speak upon the cost of the development of its mobile apps, which were also free, of course.

Someone made goo goobs of money and it was not the people.  I wonder who the shyster is?

I would say more on how badly its SEO sucks, but I want the MDP social networking contract.

RECRUITING CANDIDATES AND NEW MEMBERS

If the MDP wants its leadership to reflect its base, it should come down from the ivory tower every once in a while and rub shoulders with the people.  All the funtions typically have an entry cost, as they are fundraisers, and, with extremely poor social networking, no one really knows what is going on.

I get a real hoot watching state candidates run for office.  You typically, immediately spot who will win the seat because the MDP will only support who they want, not what the people want.

Running for office is not always about getting elected. It is also about giving a voice to issues which are too contraversial for prime time politics, like child welfare.

With the advancements of technology, SEO has created the ability to reach many groups, instantly and progressively, from the palm of your hand.  I should know.  I am doing it with this post.

DIVERSITY

Little known fact, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee recently had to create a diversity recruitment division.  Seriously.

MCP former Chair Lon Johnson addressing Detroit
area party leadership

In regards to diversity, the MDP has a unique take on this topic.  During the 2014 election cycle Lon Johnson, former Chair of the MDP, came to Detroit to speak to local party leadership.

He left me utterly speechless.

Johnson came to promote the initiative to "make  African-Americans vote in Detroit so the MDP could put in its gubernatorial candidate, whom no one could ever pronounce, spell his name or pick him out of a police line up.

First off, the MDP practice of labeling, and even assigning forced labels upon people, based on a really skewed and archaic concept of forcing an individual to "pick one racial identity" is what has turned off Detroit voters.

I tried to speak upon the cultural amalgamation of a vote base which is historically ignored, but I guess it did not fit in with current party rhetoric.

There are so many individuals, who may not have English as their first language, who are illiterate, and who know nothing about civic participation, government structure and administration, the role of an elected official or even know about campaign finance.

I guess the MDP does not believe its base is important enough to be educated on voting rights and candidate rights.

With all said, well, not really, I am intentionally holding back specifics, one may be now in a position to understand why the Democrats lost the 2014 elections; it alienated its base.

I am posting this to encourage everyone to participate in this survey and to skew stats on the video and survey responses.

Again, #BrandonDillion is a wonderful person I have had the pleasure of working with him on child welfare issues.

Show him some love and share this post, alot.

And make sure you let the #MDP know when you fill out the survey that I should get the social networking contract.

http://www.michigandems.com/survey/ 

 Voting is beautiful, be beautiful ~ vote.©