Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan is planning to ask voters to support a $200 million bond issue next spring to wipe out more blight in the city.
Duggan announced his plans Thursday morning during his keynote address at the annual Mackinac Policy Conference on Mackinac Island.
The mayor first touted Detroit's progress with about $260 million in federal blight elimination dollars that's aided it in knocking down about 18,000 properties since spring 2014 as part of a massive demolition program.
But, the mayor said, "we've still got a bunch of areas we haven't gotten to" and it's "my obligation ... as mayor ... to get to every neighborhood."
Duggan intends to bring the ballot initiative to voters in March, and it won't result in higher taxes, he said.
Detroit's demolition program has been the focus of state, local and federal reviews after concerns were raised in fall 2015 over bidding practices and spiraling costs.
In April, a federal investigation secured guilty pleas from two men as part of a lengthy criminal investigation into the demolition program.
The Department of Justice has signaled it doesn't expect to bring more charges against public officials for wrongdoing in the effort that's awarded the city about $259 million to tear down blighted homes.
Earlier in his address Thursday, the mayor rehashed his early accomplishments in relighting streets, improving garbage collection and other efforts.
Also on Thursday morning, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed off on an auto reform bill. Rates, Duggan noted, have been "a huge financial penalty" in the city.
NBC has taken the lead on the "Colored" Revolution psyoptic with this in-depth production of propaganda, featuring Rip "The Rip-Off" Rapson & Mike Duggan, glorifying everything that was done under the Emergency Manager, the Detroit Bankruptcy and the Grand Bargain, where they were busted stealin' children, land and votes.
Rip "The Rip-Off" Rapson has finally come to the realization that there are "The Poors" (always said with clinched teeth) in the inner cities so he is going to build parks because, I shall assume, he wants to do as little as possible for Detroit's most precious treasures.
DETROIT (WJBK) - In an exclusive one-on-one with FOX 2, Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan talked about a spike in development that has nothing to do with downtown, Corktown or Midtown.
"We had a vision here in the Fitzgerald neighborhood at McNichols and Livernois that you could renovate 100 vacant houses, that you could turn the lots into beautiful flowers and we wanted to start anchoring it with a park," he said.
It's
the answer to the question so many have asked, "what about the
neighborhoods?" That can be answered at one of the new parks off Prairie
Street on the city's west side. The park, which had its name chosen by
residents who live around it, used to be home to five abandoned houses.
"When
we said, 'Let's take what worked Midtown, let's go out to McNichols and
Livernois, let's go out to West Village, let's go to Vernor in
Southwest Detroit, and we asked the philanthropic community for support
to get us started and they came through with $42 million, which will
bring in another $150 million in private investment and it's taken off,"
he said.
The
money for this comes from the Strategic Neighborhood Fund 2.0. Over 5
years, 10 neighborhoods will see over $400 million in park
rehabilitation and affordable housing. Neighbors are already excited
about what's to come.
"Months ago it was just grass and it was
never maintained and there was dumping on it. We had vacant houses
here. So neighbors are really excited. We have young people that are
excited that they'll have a place to go in the neighborhood," said
District 2 manager Kim Tandy.
Renderings show commercials
corridors through seven neighborhoods that will be getting some of the
cash to make these improvements. The Kresge Foundation made a $15 million contribution to the fund.
For the people who have toughed it out:
"It
was worth the wait, that we have not perhaps done justice to the
residents of Detroit over the last decade and now we are going to get
really serious about that. We have always understood they are the
backbone of this community but they need resources. They need support,"
said Rip Rapson of the Kresge Foundation.
Duggan says he feels a lot of the people who stayed are glad they did so.
"We'll
knock down the burned down houses, we'll save the houses that we can
save and move people in. We will clean up the blight, we'll build
parks," he said.
Detroit reached a key step in fiscal
redemption on Monday by reclaiming control of its own finances roughly
three years after exiting the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S.
history.
A state review commission
unanimously agreed to release the city from state financial oversight
after Detroit delivered three consecutive years of audited balanced
budgets. The city was about $12 billion in debt and unable to deliver
basic services like prompt responses to 911 calls and park maintenance
when the state took financial management.
"Detroit is once again finally a city of full self-governance," Mayor Mike Duggan said following the commission's vote.
The
change means that when contracts are approved by the City Council,
Detroit won't have to wait for the commission to approve them. But the
city must still submit monthly financial reports to the commission,
which will continue to monitor Detroit's fiscal health for the next 10
years and could resume oversight if a budget deficit occurs.
Gov.
Rick Snyder placed the city under state receivership in early 2013,
angering local officials and some residents because the move essentially
stripped power from the City Council and mayor's office. The Republican
governor also appointed turnaround expert Kevyn Orr as an emergency
manager to oversee Detroit's finances. The city, under Orr, filed
bankruptcy the same year.
After
restructuring about $7 billion in debt and setting aside $1.7 billion
in savings and revenue over a decade to improve city services, Detroit
exited bankruptcy in December 2014. Part of the restructuring plan was
creating the nine-member financial review commission, which is chaired
by state Treasurer Nick Khouri and includes Duggan, state Budget
Director John Walsh and former Detroit police Chief Isaiah McKinnon.
Members were given oversight of borrowing and large city-issued
contracts.
Most city operations were returned to
Duggan's control in September 2014, but Monday's action helps wipe away
the stain of bankruptcy and the anger some in Detroit carried.
"Today
is an important day in the history of our city," City Council President
Brenda Jones said. "Now, with the dormancy of the (review commission)
and a reduction in state oversight, local control is returning to our
city and its elected officials can assume the role that voters expect us
to carry out."
Under the terms of the bankruptcy,
creditors received pennies on the dollar for what they were owed and
thousands of retirees saw their pensions cut by 4.5 percent. Annual
cost-of-living increases also were eliminated.
Detroit's
general fund balance was about $595 million at the end of the 2017
fiscal year, compared to a deficit of about $73 million that the city
faced at the end of the 2013 fiscal year following years of a plummeting
population and tax base.
A $36 million operating surplus is expected for the fiscal year 2018.
Another
move by the city: Planning ahead by reducing costs and increasing
revenue. Property tax collections are up nearly 10 percent and income
tax revenues 15 percent over the past four years.
The city has been setting aside surpluses ahead of large pension and debt payments due to start in 2024.
The
financial review commission's vote "validates Detroit's remarkable
progress and path toward continued financial stability," Snyder said in a
statement. "Detroit is America's comeback city and I have every
confidence that we will continue to see Detroit reach new heights under
the city's leadership."
Credit
rating agency Moody's Investors Services, which currently rates
Detroit's credit as B1 with a "positive outlook," said Monday that
Detroit's emergence from financial oversight "is a testament to the
positive momentum the city has made in strengthening its reserves and
fiscal operations." David Levett, Moody's vice president and senior
analyst, said the agency expects "the strong financial management to
continue."
Rip "The Rip-Off" Rapson making Marygrove an offer
they cannot refuse.
Someone once made the comment to me:
"All you do is repost articles and make some comments."
I do much more than just "repost".
I am preserving the historic record as these articles are removed and wiped from the internet;
I am creating a one-stop-shop database for everything thing in child welfare fraud research;
I am commanding law enforcement investigations for States, Federal and International entities;
I am promulgating my legal arguments;
I am educating the public;
I am having a blast doing therapeutic stand up castigation; and,
I am writing an epic romance.
With that said, it looks like Rip "The Rip-Off" Rapson is working overtime trying to rewrite the annals of history by covering up fraud and creating a legal defense in a public relations move.
[Detroit, Michigan] –The following outlines The Kresge Foundation’s actions to stabilize and preserve Marygrove College and its campus, a historic educational anchor in the heart of an important northwest Detroit neighborhood. Kresge acted to stave off the college’s precipitous collapse and a raft of potential consequences.
Overview
Over the past two years, The Kresge Foundation invested $16 million to stabilize and preserve Marygrove College and its campus, as the college faced significant financial and operational challenges. Kresge grant and social investment funds have been deployed in a variety of ways since February 2016, including:
Financing the college’s ongoing academic programs and campus operations, including payroll, health benefits, and utility services;
Funding faculty, staff and student supports through the wind-down of what was determined to be an unsustainable undergraduate program;
Supporting the college’s recent transition to a graduate-level-only institution;
Protecting the integrity of the college’s 53-acre campus as a key community asset in the revitalization of one of Detroit’s most important neighborhoods;
Creating a new body, The Marygrove Conservancy, to steward the campus as a community resource;
Satisfying or restructuring Marygrove’s most pressing debts; and,
Exploring the feasibility of establishing an innovative cradle-to-career educational complex as a potential future use for the property.
How Kresge’s Involvement Began
In February 2016, newly appointed Marygrove President Dr. Elizabeth Burns contacted Kresge President Rip Rapson to discuss a precarious situation unfolding at the college. Burns indicated that the college would be out of cash within weeks and was facing an anticipated $5 million shortfall for the calendar year - this despite an emergency loan made in May 2015 to the college from its founders, the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (IHM), to avoid a similar liquidity crisis.
Dr. Burns sought $5 million in immediate support as part of a broader $15 million, multiyear Recovery & Sustainability fundraising campaign to stabilize the college. Several factors contributed to the college’s financial situation, including:
Total enrollment plummeted from 1,862 students in 2013, to 966 in fall 2016 (roughly 50 percent undergraduate, 50 percent graduate).
The college’s endowment had dwindled to $500,000; endowments at comparably-sized private schools in the region averaged more than 70 times that amount (e.g. University of Detroit Mercy, $43.5 million; Madonna University, $35.8 million; Adrian College, $33.6 million).
There was a growing burden of accounts receivables (outstanding tuition balances owed to the college).
Marygrove was not an outlier. Across the nation, the independent higher education sector was, and remains, in crisis mode. During the past decade, dozens of private liberal arts colleges have faced financial issues due to plummeting enrollment and weak endowments, causing them to close or pursue mergers.
Initial Response
“Our meeting made clear that Kresge had to respond, and rapidly,” says Rapson.
The importance of Marygrove to its immediate neighborhoods, city and region was obvious in several dimensions:
Marygrove has held an important role and legacy in urban education. The college had been educating Detroit women since the 1920s. In particular, Marygrove doubled-down on its commitment to educate minority women in the aftermath of Detroit’s 1967 uprising.
The college had embraced a role as a progressive force for racial and social justice and healing, both in its immediate neighborhood and in the greater southeast Michigan community.
The Livernois-McNichols district in northwest Detroit was emerging as a key place where equitable recovery could take root.
Just six months earlier (August 2015), University of Detroit Mercy, Kresge and other community partners announced the formation of the Live6 Alliance to steward that recovery process. The nonprofit planning and development organization was created to enhance quality of life and economic opportunity, with a particular focus on the Livernois Avenue and McNichols Road (aka 6 Mile Road) corridor in northwest Detroit. (The 53-acre Marygrove campus is located on the south side of McNichols Road, approximately a half-mile west of Livernois Road.)
Marygrove College has occupied its wooded, parklike campus since 1927.
Driven by the college’s status as an educational and cultural anchor in the neighborhood, coupled with Kresge’s recent commitments and investments in the area, the foundation was deeply interested in helping Marygrove shape a course of protection and preservation. The prospect of the college closing and the campus going dark was deemed unacceptable. The damage to surrounding home values, small businesses and other anchors in the district would have been calamitous.
“At the precise moment when the community should have been gaining momentum, there was a real fear of being forced backward,” says Rapson.
Kresge responded to Dr. Burns’ request with an initial operational support grant of $575,000 to keep Marygrove solvent. That spring, a Kresge-led convening of other philanthropies led to additional grant commitments totaling nearly $500,000 from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the McGregor Fund and individual donors. Kresge also committed an additional $2 million to Marygrove for ongoing operational support.
“There was more at stake than a school, its academic mission and its tradition of community service,” says Rapson. “The collapse of Marygrove could have left the campus in private hands with no commitment to community betterment or engagement. Or worse, the college could have wound up under a cloud of litigation that would forestall progress for years. There was no other choice than to link arms with the college and systematically confront its challenges.”
Long-term Challenges
Marygrove enlisted an auditor to analyze the college’s finances and assist Dr. Burns with the turnaround plan. The resulting report gave Marygrove a deeper understanding of its challenges. Beyond the cash-flow issues, the report helped Marygrove begin to address its debt obligations:
DoED – The U.S. Department of Education demanded a $7.2 million letter of credit as a condition of roughly $15 million in Title IV funds (student financial aid). Without these funds, the college would be forced to close immediately.
Senior Mortgage – A senior lender’s balloon note of $7.3 million – collateralized by the campus, thus putting it in jeopardy – was due in full on December 31, 2016. The loan was in default, and the lender was no longer willing to amend or extend it.
Wayne County– A debt of $500,000 was owed to Wayne County. The county provided this loan to Marygrove so that the college could acquire and renovate the Immaculata High School building for the purpose of creating a new community center. Marygrove was unable to raise the additional capital needed to complete the renovation, and the loan had gone into default.
IHM Sisters – A balloon note for $10 million was due to the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. This loan was also in default for nonpayment. The IHM Sisters have, however, remained far more flexible than other lenders and have not called the loan.
The college determined it was incapable of resolving any of these debts on its own and asked Kresge for funding and supports to resolve the following:
DoED – In 2017, Marygrove convinced the DoED to accept a letter of credit secured by Kresge for $1.5 million (10 percent, rather than 50 percent, of the Title IV funds the school would receive through tuition scholarships to students) in lieu of sequestering other Marygrove funds.
– Kresge supported Marygrove’s negotiations with the senior lender, ultimately restructuring the debt with a $5 million loan from a new financial institution (and secured, in part, by a $3.75 million guarantee from Kresge for the balance). The new loan is not secured by the campus.
Wayne County – In early 2018, Kresge provided Marygrove a $500,000 loan to pay off the county debt.
Meanwhile, ongoing operational expenses and payroll obligations were piling up, and Marygrove requested additional supportsfrom Kresge. And, as the year went on, Marygrove’s situation became more dire as enrollment projections for the fall 2016 semester were substantially lower than projected. Beginning in fall 2016, Kresge made $5.68 million in grants to the college to cover those expenses.
Difficult Decision
In spring 2017, Marygrove hired a consultant to conduct an operational audit and to evaluate its recovery plan. The firm specialized in providing consulting services to independent higher education institutions.
The operational report was presented to the Marygrove Board of Trustees on August 1, 2017. Based on a thorough analysis of academic program and student support costs, as well as enrollment and financial projections, the firm determined that there was not a sustainable path forward for Marygrove. The report recommended full closure of Marygrove or a drastic reduction in academic program offerings.
Marygrove would use the fall semester to ensure that every student had an individual transition plan and that faculty and staff had the opportunity to meet with administrators. Marygrove would also use the fall semester to invite other colleges and universities to campus to meet with students and help them identify a fit that would enable them to continue their undergraduate education.
College Transition Support
Kresge agreed to support the college in an orderly wind-down of the undergraduate program. Operating support for the college’s final undergraduate semester, and preparation for its transition, now included costs such as severance and health benefits for faculty and staff, campus maintenance and security, and numerous vendor obligations. At year’s end (2017), Kresge made a grant of $2 million to fund faculty and staff severance packages, a Student Transition Fund, and consulting support to help the college transition to a solely graduate-level institution.
“After supporting Marygrove’s good faith attempt to find a new path for its undergraduate program, we worked with the college to help faculty, staff and, particularly, students make their career or educational transitions,” says Rapson. “These have been wrenching changes for everyone. We’ve watched the entire college community making sacrifices, working together in common purpose, and otherwise trying to achieve the best possible outcomes under the most trying of circumstances.”
Where Marygrove Stands Now
In February 2018, Marygrove introduced the $1.2 million Student Transition Fund, supported by Kresge, to help cover additional costs incurred by students as a result of transferring to another college or university. Roughly 180 former students will be eligible to apply for reimbursement of logistical expenses (transportation, one-time moving, room and board) as well as some academic expenses (tuition rate increases, additional classes required by new school, and others).
Today, Marygrove, with Kresge’s support, has satisfied or restructured its most pressing debts. Between February 2016 and February 2018, Kresge’s total commitments to help stabilize and transition the college total $16 million.
Marygrove is in the midst of further developing its online graduate education programs and is actively recruiting to boost enrollment and achieve sustainability. Currently, in its first semester as a graduate-only college, enrollment has climbed to 436 students pursing advanced degrees, professional development and certifications in several education specialties, as well as advanced degrees in social justice and human resource management.
The 53-acre campus is being transferred to a new body, the Marygrove Conservancy, chaired by Sister Jane Herb of the IHM. The conservancy will manage campus operations and steward the campus as a resource for high-quality uses in the community. Inaugural board members include neighborhood leaders such as University of Detroit Mercy President Antoine Garibaldi and Marygrove President Emeritus Glenda Price.
With the campus held by the conservancy, the college will be a tenant on a long-term lease at a cost of $1 per year. (The college previously was a tenant to the IHM Sisters during its first 70-plus years on the campus, then purchased the campus facilities in 2009, which were subsequently mortgaged to a lender.)
Next Steps: Positioning Marygrove for a New Future
Kresge, Marygrove, the IHM Sisters and the conservancy are currently exploring the possibility of a consortium of educational institutions coming together to create a campus comprising a continuum of educational opportunities – from pre-school to K-12 to post-secondary to graduate. Examples of this kind of P-20 campus exist around the country, but are relatively few. These consortiums typically coordinate classroom education with wrap-around services and intensive community-based engagement and programming. A particularly powerful example of this approach is the Penn Alexander School in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
The Marygrove Conservancy, Kresge and other partners are developing a robust process to engage the surrounding community on the future development of the campus and enlist additional private, public and nonprofit partners.
“Revitalization on this campus must, and will, be accomplished with broad and deep engagement from community residents, civic organizations and businesses. Marygrove is part and parcel of the Live6 neighborhood – through its history, its ongoing renewal efforts and its aspirations for the future. Every dimension of community life will be shaped by the activities on the campus. We all have a stake in its success,” says Rapson.
______________
About The Kresge Foundation
The Kresge Foundation is a $3.6 billion private, national foundation that works to expand opportunities in America’s cities through grantmaking and social investing in arts and culture, education, environment, health, human services, and community development in Detroit. In 2016, the Board of Trustees approved 474 grants totaling $141.5 million, and made 14 social investment commitments totaling $50.8 million. For more information, visit kresge.org.
About Marygrove College
Marygrove College is a Detroit-based independent, Catholic graduate institution, sponsored by the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary that educates students from diverse backgrounds, fosters values-based leadership, provides innovative graduate studies and professional development toward career enhancement and social responsibility, and serves as an institutional leader within the city of Detroit. Marygrove students, as citizen-leaders, will inspire transformative change in their workplaces, communities, and society through their intellectual rigor and professional excellence, creativity and imagination, active compassion for others, and lifelong commitment to a just, humane, and inclusive world. For more information, visit marygrove.edu.
Former President Bill Clinton heralded Detroit's turnaround after the Motor City's exit from a record setting Chapter 9 bankruptcy restructuring — and jokingly compared the city's mayor to Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
At a Clinton Global Initiative event Wednesday in Denver, Clinton held a panel discussion with Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan, Kresge Foundation president and CEO Rip Rapson and a Detroit business owner, April Anderson, who owns Good Cakes and Bakes on Livernois.
During the nearly 40-minute discussion on neighborhood revitalization, Clinton said that being mayor of Detroit could be America's "most coveted municipal job" — and noted that with the Detroit land bank, much of the city's 139 square miles is controlled by the city.
Detroit's 2013 bankruptcy restructuring allowed Duggan to "basically become the most powerful municipal official in the country. He controls over half the land mass in the city of Detroit now. He's making old Putin look like a piker — and people actually like (Duggan)," Clinton said to laughter, according to video of the event posted online by the Clinton Foundation.
Rapson said Duggan may not live that image down: "That's a great image. I like to think of Mayor Duggan as our Mayor Putin. That's terrific. I think that's going to stick," Rapson said.
The city owns nearly half the city's property, Duggan said, or about 40,000 vacant parcels. Clinton compared Detroit to the "Homestead Act" in 1862 that convinced Americans to help settle the west by offering them free land. Duggan didn't directly respond to the Putin comparison.
Kresge was one of the nonprofits that helped Detroit exit bankruptcy more quickly by contributing to a fund that saved city-owned art at the Detroit Institute of Arts from being sold and defrayed pension losses for retirees.
Clinton praised the city's revitalization, but noted that the city lost 60 percent of its population since the 1950s — and is down a quarter since 2000.
Duggan, 56, said that he is focused on boosting the population — and has said he wants to be judge when he is up for re-election if the city is growing again. Detroit has lost population for every year that Duggan has been alive.
"You can drop Manhattan, Boston and San Francisco in the city of Detroit boundaries — and still have room left over," Duggan said. The real challenge is revitalizing the neighborhoods after the dramatic turnarounds in downtown and midtown, he said.
Duggan said there are 5,000 new housing units under construction in Detroit. Duggan said he is working to sell the 40,000 vacant houses in the city. The city is auctioning three homes a day. On Tuesday, three homes sold for a total of $100,000, Duggan said.
Duggan noted that the city is offering to allow homeowners to buy next door vacant lots for just $100. The city is now also offering to lease vacant land if the neigbhorhood association signs off on the use — such as a playground or urban farm.
During the event, Duggan said Clinton is the single biggest customer of Detroit watchmaker Shinola. Clinton bought customized watches for the Secret Service agents on his security detail that featured the presidential seal as Christmas presents.
Well, if I am a public nuisance, conspiracy theorist, then, what is the Michigan Auditor General, Doug Ringler because he just released the Office findings of more conspiracy theorist findings in the discovery period of my case.
I believe this is why MSHDA backtracked on its initial report that there was bid rigging in Detroit demolition with the Detroit Land Bank Authority.
Other departments were conducting other audits to compare to previous reports.
It looks like there are more rogue state employees in Michigan.
The point raised in this report has to deal with District 14, Wayne County and the question surrounding the acquisition of real estate for the Qline.
If the Qline got its properties from the Detroit Land Bank Authority, et al. with dirty deeds, then we have a serious problem.
The Law Firm of Perkins Coie & Other Legal Geniuses
for Clinton Foundation,
Detroit Land Bank Authority
Once upon a time, there was a group of "Legal Geniuses" (trademark pending) called the Clinton Foundation, Perkins Coie & Detroit Land Bank Authority, who thought they would never get caught running their fraud schemes for stealing from the children of Detroit.
So, they huddled together, and decided ===> to create the Detroit Land Bank Authority ===> to steal property from the people ===> to steal property taxes ===> to steal the federal funding assistance to help the people whose home they stole in elaborate mortgage - quitclaim schemes ===> to steal Hardest Hit Funds ===> to steal Title I funding for schools ===> to steal federal, state & local elections ===> to steal campaign funding of the DNC behind the back of my Sweetie ===> to take over the entire State of Michigan in its Emergency Manager Laws ===> to pillage the City of Detroit in bankruptcy ===> to sell social impact bonds ===> to foreign, unregistered agents ===> to invest in nuclear research technology.
Then, the Legal Geniuses wanted to go to another major city and do the same thing they did to Detroit, all over again because they have been doing this all over the world.
Innovative Venture Evolved from Clinton Global Initiative and the Obama Administration’s Detroit Federal Working Group
CHICAGO, Ill. (February 18, 2016) - Perkins Coie served as general counsel to Community Reinvestment Fund, USA (CRF), a national non-profit community development financial institution and a leader in bringing capital to underserved areas, in the development of Detroit Home Mortgage, an innovative new program introduced today to make Detroit home buying easier. Detroit Home Mortgage Fund is a $42 million funded mortgage program to help solve Detroit’s appraisal gap problem. Banks will now be able to lend qualified homebuyers the full amount needed to purchase a renovated home, or to buy and rehabilitate homes anywhere in the city of Detroit.
Detroit Home Mortgage was developed in collaboration with Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan, the Obama Administration’s Detroit Federal Working Group, the Clinton Global Initiative, local banks, foundations and nonprofits. Additional grants to CRF in support for the program include $6 million from The Kresge Foundation, $6 million from the Michigan State Housing Development Authority and operating support from the Ford Foundation and The Kresge Foundation. CRF is the sole owner/manager of the Detroit Home Mortgage Fund which evolved out of the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) meeting in the summer of 2015 and announced as a new CGI Commitment to Action.
Perkins Coie served as general counsel to CRF in connection with all aspects of the Detroit Home Mortgage Program, including the formation of the Fund and all program implementation documents.
The Perkins Coie team was led by Chicago partner Bruce Bonjour and included Chicago partners Ed Wicks and Richard Peterson; Dallas partner Craig Lackey and Washington, D.C. partner Jesse Kanach.
Each one of these names go on my adversarial witness list.
TRANSLATION: Detroit Land Bank Authority
Educator, City Employee, "anyone willing to
give up some quick cash" Discount Program
to pay criminal attorney fees
The Detroit Land Bank Authority has now resorted to another offering of 50% off program to Detroit teachers and employees, or anyone with a few bucks, to buy a house.
Only one problem:
The quit claim deeds are so jacked that it is impossible to find any "legal", notice I am emphasizing the word "legal" financing to repair the homes.
Do not even think about home owners insurance, because the title work is just a hot mess.
If ever the notion of hiring a licensed, private contractor to come in and rehabilitate your newly, purchased discount home comes to mind, I strongly encourgage you to dismiss that fantasy with the quickness because of the jack-legged title paperwork, no one is willing to take your money.
Just a legal liability issue.
Lastly, as a fair warning, you might not want to pay any of the back taxes the Detroit Land Bank Authority will levy as they do not exist.
Seriously, the delinquent property taxes do not exist because the properties went through quiet title action, which wipes all past taxes, including water bills.
There are no water bills attached so do not pay it.
But, before I go, when you decide to purchase your 50% discounted property from the Detroit Land Bank Authority, go have some fun and make the certified check out to the Detroit Land Bank Authority.
Make sure to share your stories on how they react when you hand them the check.
Detroit – The Detroit Land Bank Authority is offering half off to current full-time educators and school support staff for homes up for auction in the city.
The Land Bank says the educator discount program also is open to principals, counselors, teacher’s aides and other employees at pre-kindergarten through 12th grade schools in Detroit.
Discounts will be applied at closing and only can be used once.
A city employee discount also offers 50 percent off on Land Bank-owned homes to city of Detroit workers, retirees and their immediate family members.
The Land Bank helps Detroit redevelop vacant and abandoned properties and has acquired tens of thousands of homes. Some are rehabilitated and set up for the auction program.
Rip "The Rip-Off" Rapson wants to pitch another one of those social impact bond investment programs schemes to help "The Poors" (always said with clinched teeth).
For a synoptic overview of Rip "The Rip-Off" Rapson, his work and his legacy in Detroit, make sure to click the link provided, below, because it makes for an interesting read on the history of the City that only I shall continue to preserve in the annals of history, in the spirit of fuchsia.
Two big Michigan-based foundations announced Friday they are investing $50 million to support efforts to improve early childhood outcomes for Detroit children - money that will be used for a number of things, including upgrading existing facilities, building a state-of-the-art early childhood center and providing competitive wages for early childhood educators.
And not a penny for other things critical to improving childhood outcomes for Detroit children like, quality and affordably housing, food, water, you know, the basics, but have no fear, those state-of-the-art early childhood centers will be filled to capacity once Rip "The Rip-Off" and his cabal finish its forced migration plan for "The Poors" (always said with clinched teeth).
The $50-million pledge was made by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and the Kresge Foundation, each of which is investing $25 million.
Hold on, it is coming...the money shot.
That money will support the Hope Starts Here Community Framework, a 10-year plan for ensuring young children and families are placed at the center of public policy and business decisions. It's a broad plan that was developed based on needs in the community and in part on the input of people closest to the issue - parents and early childhood providers.
BAM! The money shot. Children are the most profitable segment of human capital.
"This gives us a road map to make sure that Detroit puts kids first," La June Montgomery Tabron, president and CEO of the Kellogg Foundation, said during an event at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History.
"We are organized and engaged and ready to push that agenda. By working together, we can ensure that every child in Detroit fulfills their potential."
Ladies and Gentlemen, and very tiny woodland creatures, allow me to present the international tempplate for social impact investment, featuring, none other than the notorious Clinton Foundation (a.k.a. Detroit Land Bank Authority). Yes, the Clinton Foundation also operates in Canada because they do not have to disclose their contributors under Canadian law, even though it is a U.S. foundation, registered under the purposes of a presidential library in Arkansas, yet registered in multiple states, under a different name, the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation, designating them with the sole controlling interests, without ever tellling the IRS what it is doing. Rumor has it November 15, 2017 is F-day, filing day, that is for those pesky things called audits. The Michigan Attorney General is over the Charity Division and refuses to do a damn thing about people who come into the state and set up shop by filing bogus corporation documents and charity tax exempt filings. Anyway, I digress, but I just wanted to put that out there just in case Bill Schuette thought he would blackmail them for more campaign contributions for his gubernatorial campaign, just saying...
But despite the big investment from the two foundations, officials said Friday that they need more people to get involved.
"It's all hands on deck," said Rip Rapson, president and CEO of the Kresge Foundation.
Chop chop! Do what I tell you for I am your savior and I need to generate that best interest of the child rate.
To that end, they've created a way for people to donate to the effort: By texting the word Hope to 50503. Text that number, and you'll receive a link to donate.
A key part of the efforts involves creating some cohesion for a system that is disconnected, with many providers and little collaboration.
What the city has now is "many people working with high purpose," but without "any kind of connection to resources."
That "working with high purpose" is called survival without "any kind of connection to resources", like water shutoffs.
Among the strategies targeted in this area is the creation of a central coordinating body that would lead early childhood efforts in the city and the use of a single data system to increase information sharing.
That need for a more coordinated effort is timely, given last week's announcement by Southwest Solutions, a nonprofit social services agency, that it was pulling out of a Head Start collaborative, affecting 420 children in the city. Efforts are being made to ensure those kids are placed elsewhere.
Rapson said he hopes that the stewardship board that has been in place for a year and will remain in place - guiding the implementation of the framework - could play a role in helping address some of those issues.
Now, Rip "The Rip-Off" is calling privatization take over of government a "stewardship board", indicating admirality, with a manifest of goods, human goods, to be exact.
"It may be that we couldn't have prevented it any better than the folks on the ground could. My hope is that we will. It's an opportunity for us to reason together and problem solve together," Rapson said.
Steve Ragan, senior vice president at Southwest Solutions, said exiting the collaborative - which includes several other Head Start providers - "has just been really painful." Money was an issue. The collaborative received a $60 million federal grant but was expected to provide $15 million in match funding. That, and a lack of adequate classroom space in the city, were factors that led Southwest Solutions to exit the collaborative.
Actually, no one wanted to work with Southwest Solutions. They have, oh, how do we say this, Detroit Land Bank Authority issues.
Ragan and Rapson said the exit is a symptom of a larger problem.
The larger problem is the fact that Rip "The Rip-Off" promulgated the largest rip-off scheme in this nation's history by fueling the burgeoning class of "The Poors" (always said with clinched teeth) by stealing the children, the land, the water and the votes from Detroit.
"By working together,
we can ensure that every child in Detroit
fulfills their potential"
La June Montgomery Tabron,
president and CEO of the Kellogg Foundation
"I hope it causes people to look really hard at the circumstances of early childhood education," Ragan said.
"This is needed in Detroit. There's a real gap. But it's a very difficult program to financially operate."
That gap is not just financial, it is economic. You ran the people away to bring in selected populations who have money to pay your social impact bond dividends.
"We have to figure out some way to put a stake in the ground about delivering these services in a way that’s consistent, coherent and adequately sourced," Rapson said. "Even if the magnitude of the problem exceeds the resources available, we are going to take long steps toward making sure that more resources are made available to the right activities over time," Rapson said.
That is why "Every Corporation Should Hire A Child", whether for-profit or non-profit, but tax exempt is always more profitable and using charities to profit from children is not as savage, you know.
The $50-million invested by Kresge and Kellogg will also go toward efforts to improve the quality of early childhood programs and increase access to those programs. A program would be launched to train "passionate parents" and put them on a path to become early childhood educators.
Passionate parents, as opposed to unpassionate parents? Is unpassionate parents the latest craze in coming up with a reason to call CPS or launch some other creative corporate scheme to implement corporate parental rights over the trusts of the child to make those social impact bond dividend payments?
Part of improving the quality of programs is to address the low pay of early childhood educators and the struggle to find people to work in the programs, Tabron said.
"That low funding and low salaries
create turnover and mobility.
What we're trying to do is
stabilize the profession."
La June Montgomery Tabron,
president and CEO of the Kellogg Foundation
"If it's not a livable wage, you're not going to get people who are committed and can stay there for a long period of time," Tabron said. "That low funding and low salaries create turnover and mobility. What we're trying to do is stabilize the profession."
"Stabilize the profession", more privatization code words for social impact investing.
Meanwhile, a revolving loan fund would be created to help renovate early childhood facilities.
"It’s desperately needed," Rapson said. "You can walk into facilities in our community and by any measure a child simply should not be educated there."
Then, once you walk out the facility into the community that you helped destroy in stealing houses, by any measure a child simply should not be living there.
And the new state-of-the art facility, part of Kresge's investment, would provide not just early childhood education programs, but things like parent education programs and health screenings. It would be a model for the best ways to educate young children, Rapson said.
Nikolai Vitti, superintendent of the Detroit Public Schools Community District, said he's excited about the effort and ready to collaborate.
"Everyone wants change in education ... What we don’t see enough is people putting their shoulder to the wheel to do things differently ... and to think in a more visionary way to help do the work."
That's what excites him about Hope Starts Here, because "this is the right investment to promote equal opportunity."
No, this is the only investment. Rip "The Rip-Off" was the keyman in any investment opportunity once they pillaged the city treasures and set up a bunch of strawman operations to intercept federal assistance, specifically intended for the people.
Vitti said Detroit, where academic achievement overall is poor, doesn't have an achievement gap.
"We have an equity gap. We have an opportunity gap. We have a resource gap. For decades we've been blaming children and parents and neighborhoods ... and not calling out that we have an equity issue."
Hope Starts Here is the result of a one-year community planning process that involved more than 240 community members and experts.
Experts? Oh, you mean "The Elected Ones". How much did you line their campaign coffers with?
In the end, they came up with six so-called imperatives - things that need to happen. Under each of those imperatives is a set of strategies to accomplish those goals.
"They’re vitally important," said Mark Davidoff, Michigan managing partner for Deloitte. "They’re crucial. They’re essential. And there’s an urgency about this."
Here are those six imperatives:
Promote the health, development and well-being of all Detroit children
Support parents and caregivers as children’s first teachers and champions
Increase the overall quality of Detroit’s early childhood programs
Guarantee safe and inspiring learning environments for children
Create tools and resources to better coordinate systems that impact early childhood
Find new ways to fund early childhood, and make better use of existing resources
Here are a few more imperatives:
Stop stealing taxpayer funding for education to build sports entertainment complexes;
Stop stealing real properties and making the kids homeless;
Stop stealing property taxes and forcing kids to live in poverty;
Stop stealing the vote.
Several of the speakers Friday talked about the importance of the efforts in the context of the city's rebuilding.
"If we’re going to grow the city, if we’re going to build a city people truly want to call home….
We’ve got to invest in our children," said Alexis Wiley, chief of staff to Mayor Mike Duggan.
Yes, but as of the date of this post, you have yet to do a damn thing for our children, except make a profit.
Published 5:06 p.m. ET June 8, 2015 | Updated 6:38 p.m. ET June 8, 2015
Detroit will figure strongly in a three-day conference in Denver on American economic revitalization hosted by former President Bill Clinton.
Mayor Mike Duggan is among nearly 1,000 political and business leaders gathering for the conference put on by the Clinton Global Initiative America. It will focus on the nation's economic recovery and on, boosting social mobility and transforming battered cities like Detroit.
Other mayors participating in the event that kicks off today include Michael Nutter of Philadelphia, Michael Hancock of Denver and Richard Berry of Albuquerque.
Duggan will be joined by Rip Rapson, president and CEO of the Troy-based Kresge Foundation, one of the major donors to Detroit's bankruptcy deal that eased cuts on city pensioners and protected the city's art from liquidation.
This is the pitch for the Detroit Land Bank Authority by Rip Rapson of the Kresge Foundation at the Clinton Global Initiative...in Detroit with Mike Duggan.
This is Rip Rapson at the Aspen Institute discussing the behind the scenes strategy of the Kresge Foundation for the Detroit Bankruptcy. His plan was a Public-Private Partnership. Listen to him speak about Flint. Listen to him speak about "The Poors" (always said with clinched teeth). Listen to him talk about Dan Gilbert, Title Source, Inc. Listen to him talk about the Detroit Economic Development Corporation. Listen to him talk about Rick Snyder. Listen to him talk about Kevyn Orr, Emergency Manager. Listen to him talk about Steven Rhodes. Listen to talk about Gerald Rosen. Listen to him talk about the art of the Detroit Art Institute. Detroit Land Bank Authority was a creditor in the Detroit Bankruptcy. The Kresge Foundation partners with the Aspen Institute where Rip Rapson works with John McCain, in human trafficking in child welfare.
He was working with Kwame Kilpatrick to create the Detroit Land Bank Authority. He is why I do not have my degrees from Wayne State University because I blew the whistle.
Rip Rapson needs to be imprisoned for promulgating propaganda to cover up fraud.
Duggan is featured prominently on the agenda for the conference. A bio on the website, www.clintonfoundation.org, says Duggan has partnered with the Detroit City Council and leaders in Lansing and Washington, D.C., to remove blight, install more than 35,000 new streetlights, purchase 80 new city buses with federal funding and reduce response times of police and ambulances.
Here are blog posts on Mike Duggan on the Clinton Foundation site I archived:
"The mayor is now focusing his energies on economic growth in the city and creating pathways to opportunity for Detroit residents," the bio says. "His ultimate goal is to reverse the 60-year population decline that began around the time he was born."
Duggan's office had no comment on what he would say during the conference.
Duggan and Rapson were to speak during closing remarks Wednesday focusing on "comeback cities." The agenda notes that the last nayears are turning themselves around through a series of different approaches."
Detroit was one of those inspiring moments with Duggan and Papson.
Duggan's ties to Clinton date back to the 1990s, when Duggan, then deputy to Wayne County Executive Ed McNamara, worked with the Clinton administration to secure federal funding for the modernization of Detroit Metro Airport.
The following audit was the other side of the Detroit Metro Airport Audit. It was the Wayne County Department of Children and Family Services Juvenile Services Division by former Auditor Brendan Dunleavy, a man I hold in the higest esteem.
Brendan Dunleavy saved the lives of a few young boys who were being raped, tortured, drugged and trafficked by uncovering a multi-million dollar fraud scheme in child welfare. The FBI dismissed me each and every time I would go downtown to the office to report fraud because I did not have an attorney, let alone afford one, if I could have even found one who could grasp the technical and legal concepts. Plaintiff also alleges that he was a confidential informant who provided the FBI with information about possible criminal activity he uncovered in the course of these investigations.
Dunleavy is a hero and I shall make history humbly bow to him.
Dunleavy filed under the wrong statute. I did not.
They were to be joined by April Anderson, co-owner of Good Cakes and Bakes, an organic bakery Anderson founded with her partner, Michelle Anderson, on Livernois in Detroit in 2013 with funding from Revolve Detroit, a Detroit Economic Growth Corp. program aimed at entrepreneurship to revive vacant storefronts in the city.
I produced congressional reports on the meetings of the City of Detroit Charter Commission. I sat at the table of all these programs, with these people.
Rapson also was to speak tonight on the future of American cities.
The Clinton Global Initiative has figured into the 2016 presidential race, with criticism about Democratic front-runner and former First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton's ties to the organization that has accepted significant foreign donations, including while she served as Secretary of State under President Barack Obama.
Hillary Clinton resigned from the board of the Clinton Foundation, which puts on the CGI America event, the day she announced her candidacy for president.
The Clinton Foundation now functions as the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation, a Michigan as a charity funneling money into political campaigns through child welfare tax exempt organizations like the Kresge Foundation or directly from the Detroit Land Bank Authority through the City of Detroit and Wayne County while the Michigan Attorney General of the Licensing and Regulatory Affairs Division covers up the fraud. Then they launder the rest overseas through international child welfare NGOs. They stole the children of Detroit and trafficked them. They stole the water of Detroit. They stole the vote of Detroit. They stole the property taxes of Detroit. They stole the houses of Detroit and are attempting to erase the annals of history. Back on my mission...
