 You're supposed to go to see what you eat. This person is from Washington. This person is in theater class. I wonder if she brings anything. There's more people I know here. Which I should have known, I guess. Judging by the names I'm seeing. She's such a beautiful person. What? What's his name? My sister. Where? Good evening everyone. Thank you first of all for coming out to the opening act performance of State of Emergency. My name is Andrew Morton. I'm the artistic director of shop floor theater company. Thank you. Thank you. I don't usually talk before the show but I just want to say a couple things tonight as some of you may have seen as you were coming to the lobby stage on the screen out there. We're actually live streaming our performance right now through the new play TV channel online. So I want to say first of all hello to our friends that are watching in Detroit and Ann Arbor and anywhere else who might be tuning in with us this evening. I want to say thank you for sort of participating with this. This is the first time we've done this. I think it's really cool and exciting that our audience is not only kind of here in the flesh but also outside and joining us via the internet. What's really cool about that is when we have our post show dialogue after our performance we're going to have a kind of conversation with people outside of this venue too. So I just want to remind people who are watching online that you can join our dialogue via Twitter. So you can sort of tweet us with comments and questions during the dialogue to at shop floor Flint and include the hashtag new play and Flint SOE for state of emergency. Any questions or comments and when we have our dialogue we'll kind of try to incorporate some of those into the discussion. There will be a 10 minute intermission during the show and when we go into the second act we'll kind of go straight into the dialogue and the discussion. So I hope you will stick around. We really consider the dialogue and the performance part of the same event. We want this piece to be very kind of conversational. There are going to be a lot of questions that are asked this evening and we hope that you'll be ready to you can be spoken at for quite a while. So we hope afterwards that you'll be ready to talk to us as well. So if you're coming in feel free to come in and just find a seat and I'm going to hand over to one of our cast members now Brittany Reed and she's going to tell a bit more about how we wrote this show. So thank you again for coming. Enjoy the show and I'll hand over to Brittany. Thank you all again for being here. My name is Brittany. I'm one of the actors in tonight's play. This is a play that's been developed over the last few months using a style of theater called verbatim theater, which is where a script is created using information from recorded conversations, interviews, blog posts, news articles and other found sources. A lot of what you're going to hear in the play is part of our research on Public Act 4, The Controversial. In the Controversial she manages it all. Thanks for that. Anyway, so we want to kind of get started by giving you a taste of how we made this play. You may have noticed some of you who came in may not, but some of our actors have been walking around with a questionnaire with some of the questions we used as research for our play. So we want to hear some of your answers. A couple of my friends are going to help me with this. These two will be walking around with bull horns. So if you want to respond you can speak into one of these. Someone who you want to be able to hear you. Right? The question we have is what does democracy mean to you? Who would like to respond? Democracy is having a say in the decisions that affect your life. Absolutely. Does anyone else want to weigh in on this one? It's okay, we're all friends here. That's cool. What do you guys think? I think the core idea of democracy is that the group is wiser than the individual. For me, it's all about engaged and informed citizens taking responsibility. We are brought up in a society that greatly values the freedom to express ourselves. When things go wrong, you can't just walk away. One of our audience members says, What does democracy mean to you? It means the freedom to choose an elected representative. I'm glad that I live in the United States and I have a participatory democracy. I mean, a lot as it may be, we have the right to choose, and it's much harder in other parts of the world. Democracy is a wonderful concept for organizing the government, but it can often be messy. Another of our audience members responded, Democracy means every voice is heard and valued, no matter what race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, etc. Right on. So this is the kind of idea here. We just want to open up this conversation, and we're really interested in what you, the audience, have to say. Making this kind of theater is an interactive process, and the community is a really big part of that. So I'm going to throw out another question. Everyone might be easier or maybe less controversial, but we want to know what you think constitutes an emergency. Anything at all. A problem you can't solve on your own in the back? Absolutely. Did you have something down here? Absolutely. Did everyone hear that? He said a situation when it kind of comes to a head and reaches a point of emergency? Where you have to make a decision? Down here in the middle? Absolutely. Beacher High School yesterday, and the kid said something as simple as like, when the police come, right? What constitutes an emergency? It's something extraordinary by definition. Something that challenges the ability to cope with the demands of the situation. Katrina was an emergency. I think the loss of manufacturing jobs in Flint was, an emergency. Well, you can use whatever superlative you want. One thing of which I am certain is that public education in this country is in a state of emergency. One of our audience members said, what constitutes an emergency? People or circumstance in extreme danger? When I think of an emergency, I think somebody's being affected imminently. It's a danger. Somebody needs assistance. Another of our audience members said, what constitutes an emergency? When the government wants to take away my gun rights, charge me $4 for a gallon of gas. No jobs, no money. Oh, wait, that's happening now. Emergencies are unavoidable. I think a lot of things that are considered emergencies are not really emergencies. Emergencies evoke certain responses out of people. And I think a lot of things are deemed emergencies just to employ fear. Okay. So I think that's enough to kind of give you a sense of how we made this play. So if I can remind you to kindly switch off your cell phones devices if you have them, we'll begin our play. Ladies and gentlemen, we now present State of Emergency. In late September, Governor Snyder, which finds that Flynn is facing a financial crisis and that no civil plan is in place. The city had failed to eliminate its general fund deficit in the two-year period preceding the end of fiscal year 2010. Two. Mission plan. And? Three. The city had a structural operating deficit in its general fund. The city went into receivership on December 1, 2011. And we decided to write a play about it. One of the first people that we spoke to was Paul Jordan, a lecturer at Mount community college. So where were you when you found out that there was going to be a manager in Flynn? I was at home on my computer and my initial reaction was pfft. I mean the timing absolutely stinks because it was election day. No way in hell was that acquainted. The announcement that Flynn was going into state receivership was made on November 6, election day. The day that Dane Walling was re-elected mayor. I've read the report and it was pretty obvious the governor was going to do that. I anticipated it would be after the event. I thought it was particularly rude to do it on that day. It was a dick move. A local community organizer. And it probably suppressed some of the vote. It's like, why vote for a mayor? They're not going to have any power. Election day is supposed to be considered with a certain degree of reverence. I mean in a democracy, elections are a sacrament. You know what? You don't mess with the sacrament. It was just after three o'clock when the state treasurer called me. I take the day off because I was going to be out campaigning. I saw that it was a treasurer. The treasurer informed me that the governor was going to accept the recommendation that Flint get an emergency manager and he was calling me because that press release was going out within an hour. Flint City Councilman Dale Wayhill. I was riding around to polling places checking out the results of the mayoral election and I got a text that told me the EM's coming and the governor's announcing it in two hours. You know, a lot of people have said that it's not a coincidence the announcement was made on that day. But how did it make you feel? Oh, it was a terrible feeling because I was literally out asking people to go vote. And of course that vote still matters because the imposition of PA4 doesn't change the fact there is a mayor and city council members. But the authority of those positions obviously changes drastically. It's not a coincidence the announcement was made that day. Nothing the government does that's that significant is done without some thought. What the agenda was, I don't understand. Due to our condition, I was obviously kind of hopeful the governor would appoint the right person who would take some of our views in time. We went to city council. They could have appealed the decision but they decided not to. There was a 7-to-2 vote. Councilman Neely made the motion to appeal and I was in the 7 that went against his motion. My rationale was I did not think that the facts were in dispute. The governor appointed a group of analyzers who looked it over and talked to our finance team. I'm sworn to uphold the laws of the state. I didn't feel you could appeal it if you don't like the decision. I wanted to take classes that the emergency manager takes so the city council probably thought he'd be appointed and have extra powers. On November 29, Michael Brown is named the emergency manager. I've got about a 37-year career in what I call public service. I started out in the nonprofit sector in the mid-70s. I worked for the Michigan Association of Counties and the Flint Board of Education and for four years I was the government relations director, community development director for the mayor of the city of Flint. I've worked with nonprofits, the Red Cross, the United Way, and in 02 I went to Sierra Leone. I worked at a youth center and wrote programs and organized events. This was a country that had 10 years of civil war so the kids that came to us were child soldiers so they were victims and perpetrators at the same time. We came back in the spring of 2003. There had been an embezzlement at the Lansing United Way office so from 2003 to 2008 I was the director of the United Way. But of course my heart was back here in Flint. The community had been so great to us and I just felt like I wanted to make a contribution. I started working for the Chamber of Commerce then. I wasn't there six weeks when some people approached me and said, how would you like to be the mayor for six months? I said, what the heck? So in 09 I was the interim mayor for six months. And after that I was the director of the Flint Area Reinvestment Office. Where were you when you got the call about becoming the emergency manager? I was driving to a meeting when I got the phone call. So someone said, alright, Brown, if the city goes into receivership would you be open to serving? I didn't think, which I normally do. I said, sure. The next thing I know my name was being submitted and I was involved in a whole interview process. Some people have called you a dictator. What do you say to those people? The one thing I would say in taking this job is, you cannot have a thin skin. I know I'm going to be called every name in the book. And I have. I was able to put a team together that was competent and would focus on getting the job done and not be concerned about the criticism. It's like I've said from the beginning, it's not like we have all the right answers. Basically, you just have to sit around and look at all your options. You gather your facts. And then you've got to make some decisions too. In February 2012, Mike Brown held a series of community engagement meetings in each of the city's nine wars. The second or third public meeting was the most volatile. All of them were well attended. All of them had approximately 140 people. And this was the second public meeting. And people were coming up to you. You could have, man. That's it. The meeting at the library was incredibly intense. It was like political theater. Well, a lot of people were really concerned. I mean, water rates were going up and people wanted to know what they'd done about the high rate of homicides in the city. Yeah, but I think a lot of people were just confused. I mean, even I was. I was the manager before. And there was already a law in the book, so why did we need a new one? I think it's really important that we try to explain this in our play. That's easy. Pitter it. Dense pine forest, as far as the eye can see. Commodities to the lumber industry, which, for better or worse, cleared the land. Lumber resources help fuel the production of carefully carried or traded in for cars. Years of prosperity for Flint families. They're in the city of Flint. Lush forest? They're not. Mid-century decades of good. Even great times for the city. You heard him. But the next 50 years are filled with the haze of deindustrialization, followed by tax-based declines and all of the associated problems. Why did I invest everything in the city of Flint? In 1986, by circuit court decision, Louis Chimo is appointed the receiver in charge of the city of E-Course after they go through a $6 million deficit. Two years later, Governor Blanchard and the state legislature passed Public Act 101, which would later be used if it were deemed that a financial emergency existed. All right, now this is working complicated. Two more years later, in 1990, Governor Blanchard signed Public Act 72 into law. This more formal emergency manager law allowed the state to negotiate consent agreements with local officials to resolve fiscal emergencies. The act was used by both Democratic and Republican governors in the next 20 years in communities like Flint, Highland Park, Benton Harbor, and E-Course. In 2011, Republican governor Rick Snyder and the Republican majority in the state legislator approved a new law, Public Act 4. This new emergency manager law gave sweeping powers to the state-appointed person in charge. It allowed for EM's to cancel union contracts, negate the power of elected officials from Mayor's City Council, sell off public property, and even dissolve municipalities. This was a law that was repealed in the November 2012 election. Come on, there she goes. And that, my friends, is how we got here. Okay, okay, okay. That is a lot of information to digest. Thank you. I have to admit, I'm not entirely sure what the differences are between the laws. We need to be extremely clear what change can PA form PA 72. How much clearer can we be? I give up. You do it. All right, all right. It's quite civil, really. PA 72 allowed for an emergency financial manager to be appointed to a joint group of local and state officials. The EFM, as it was called, allowed the power to renegotiate collective bargaining agreements, but unlike the PA-4 emergency manager, they cannot throw out those contracts entirely. Now, the EFM of PA 72 will make consolidated departments of local government and transfer functions inter-departmentally. They have the ability to add or remove heads of departments, but they may not remove elected officials, clerks, or any ombudsman position. Now, an ombudsman is the citizen's advocate against government abuse. Now, the EFM of PA-4 can act in a much more unbridled fashion. Mike Brown, Flint's EFM, flexed his power in the first few days of office by firing the city on budget, among others. Sport guy? We spoke with Dr. Jason Kuzniewski, associate professor of political science at U of M Flint. His research assistant Faith Finholm also joined the conversation. I've known the theory behind the emergency manager for quite some time. It's the shock value. You create the crises to get people to do things that they would never normally do. It's an old tactic. Well, I have to admit, I was shocked Rick Snyder-1 was able to pass some of the proposals and laws. I was more shocked he was able to pass public to act for, and there was no outcry. We have this governor, right, who presents himself as this innocuous, nice, nerdy guy, but his policies are incredibly radical. Well, there are components of an emergency manager that are necessary. But why not give those to an elected official as opposed to an emergency manager? To say that we are in an emergency now, it's ludicrous. Because these things have been going on for so long and they are products of choices. There are still incredibly well-off parts of the state. And certain parts of the state aren't. There is always a financial emergency in Flint. But these prices are made by choices. I mean, this is not like a tornado. It's not like a plague of locusts. But that's the way people want to portray it. These problems have been festering. Now, I don't think an emergency manager is the way to go. If a city has to file for bankruptcy, I understand it has an effect on the state, too. But your constituency has to learn it's their fault that led to this. I didn't grow up in Michigan. But learning about this place has been fascinating. The trajectory of Detroit going from nothing in the 1900s to being the fastest growing city in the 1930s to being the apex of so many things in the 20th century and then this spectacular decline, it's indicative of so much that has happened. I don't think your government should be run like a business. Your government and state are supposed to be run as protectorate of the people. If you look at the mayor of Flint or Detroit, Benton Harbor, they have the hardest jobs in the world because they have to govern with these arbitrary lines. This is where my influence begins and this is where it stops. And the lines only matter to their decision making. It has nothing to do with their policies, with their economies, but they got to deal with these stupid freaking lines which have been constructed over the years to include and exclude certain people. The lines on one hand don't mean anything. But if you were to cross the line, it means everything. You can live in Flint and be so far removed. Whether you're in Flint or Grand Blank, you can visually tell when you are. Whether you are in Detroit or Gross Point, Gross Farms, there's so many Gross Points out there, you know? I never remember which one is which, but if you were to cross the line, it's amazing. I don't think that leaders are necessarily bad people. My main issue is you're taking away rights of citizens, taking away their right to vote. I don't think that's going to stop. I think I'm finally starting to wrap my head around this. Obviously, we know what's going on in Flint, but what about other cities that have been affected by PA-4? Don't forget about the school districts. Well, John Conyers, the Democratic Representative of Michigan's 14th District, he wrote a report. Right, the Conyers report. Which spells it out pretty well, I think. Let's see here. The new EM law that's PA-4 he's talking about had the effect of rapidly broadening the authority of the current EMs operating in the Detroit Public Schools, Pontiac, E-Course, and Benton Harbor. And it was used to appoint the new EMs in Flint for the second time and the Highland Park Public Schools. In addition, under the EM law, financial reviews have been initiated for Inkster, the city of Detroit, and the Muskegon Heights schools. And I mean, this thing was published in February 2012, so things have obviously changed since then. Right, because initially Detroit was going to enter into a consent agreement with the state. That basically means that the local officials will agree to undertake certain actions to address the fiscal problem. And so the city council and the mayor would remain in charge, right? In theory, but they might end up getting an emergency manager after all. Well, what do we have on Benton Harbor? Anything? Oh, I met a couple guys from Flint who got arrested at a protest in Benton Harbor. Great, what do they tell you? Benton Harbor is going through the same thing we are, more or less. The surrounding area is, you know, growth, but there, the main thing is, one of their crowning jewels, Gene Clark Park was sold by their emergency manager. I'm not sure if you're familiar with the way the emergency manager situation has played out in that community. I knew it was happening. One of the things that happened was the selling off of a public park on Lake Michigan to the developers of a private golf course that was then bringing the PGA tour. Before coming to such a drastic decision, there had to be a conversation, you know? The segregation of Michigan is as bad as anywhere, whether it's Detroit, Flint, or any of these communities. In Benton Harbor, it seems even more exaggerated. I don't know how they cannot have more shame about it. So, they have the PGA Pro Tour there, and a protest is staged drawing attention to that event. People are chanting and clapping. Some people have megafaulans, you know? It's a protest. I tuted a horn just to say I didn't know where the golf tournament was, and I got a noise violation ticket in a public park in the middle of the afternoon. For speaking out against the actions of the emergency manager, were you riding a bike? No, it was part of the protest. My friend had brought up a horn. He let me hold it for a second. Couldn't resist giving it a two. I saw another protestor who I had spoken with earlier, so we sat down and started talking. As someone else passed, he said, hey, did you hear someone got a ticket for honking a horn? I'm like, yeah, it was this horn. And he's like, why don't you honk it? So I said, sure. Before I know it, this cop comes up and snatches me up by the shoulders. Big guy, he says, you're coming with me. Did he give you a citation? Yeah, he gave me the misdemeanor violation, which is a criminal charge and could be on my record. So how many times do you have to go back out there? Five. So you have to go back out there to get something figured out? Yeah, sure. I've made special requests, but what am I going to do? This case could have important implications for any protest movement. If making noise can result in you getting arrested, how are we free to protest? In March, a lawsuit was filed claiming the state violated Michigan's Open Meetings Act and appointing Mike Brown because his financial review team recommended his appointment behind closed doors. The intent of the Open Meetings Act is to strengthen the right of all Michigan citizens to know what goes on in government by requiring public bodies to conduct nearly all business in open meetings. March 20th, Ingram County Circuit Court Judge Rosemarie Acalina rules and fade with the lawsuit. Removing Mike Brown from power and putting power back in the hands of the mayor and city council. In the Flint Journal... Get out of here. In March 20th, Acalina State... The Open Meetings Act is as important as our constitution. We can't operate behind closed doors. However, only a few days later the State Court of Appeals overturns that ruling stating that financial review teams are not subject to the Open Meetings Act. Mike Brown is immediately reinstated as Flint's emergency manager. In March, Mike Brown wrote the guest blog for the Washington Post Detroit, titled Chartering a Course for Lasting Solvency. The following is an excerpt from that blog. Eight months after the local government and school district Fiscal Accountability Act was signed into law, I was appointed as emergency manager for Flint. In Flint, we are concentrating our efforts on the city's future growth, prosperity, and financial solvency. In addition, I have identified two other areas of concern. Public safety and infrastructure development. Public Act 4 allows emergency managers to take a holistic approach to solving the city's problem. Managers have the authority to seek partnerships and cooperative agreements with other units of government. The law also opens the door for private sector options for service delivery. Emergency managers have the ability to make policy changes that are not necessarily popular but in the best interest of the city and its residents. While it's true the law gives broad powers to an emergency manager, it doesn't require the use of these powers. My role is to judiciously apply the law. I do this by working together with elected officials, leaders, and residents. My hope is that this split will be on a solid course for lasting solvency and continued positive growth. The goal is to set cities on a path for sustainability and to prevent any reoccurrence of a crisis situation. In early April, several city unions reached a tentative contract agreements with the financial managers office. Local 352. I just want to be at the table. We understand the times and we had a concession package that we had, wasn't much. It approached 15%. We ended up with something approaching a 20% reduction instead. We renegotiated contracts under PA 72, something that both sides could live with. We lost night bonuses and some holiday pay because we understood the environment. We would have settled for 15% and hopefully they would have taken into consideration the EMS proposals I submitted. They had it sitting on their desk. We had no political will to implement it. It brought in 720,000 in its first year. By the end of its fifth year, it would have produced over 2.1 million for the city's coffers. Farnsworth said that the Flint Fire Department is the busiest per capita in the nation. However, they're underfunded and the new contract didn't even attempt to address that. We have been six years without safety boots, which are critical and we have to buy them on our own. We have to hold on to what we have. I know that there is an effort to impose a right to work legislation and I will fight it. At the end of April, Brown issues dozen executive orders including concessions for two city unions and the adoption of the budget for 2013. This includes a $66 street light assessment and a $143 waste collection tax replacing a $3,000 waste collection tax. On the same day, the Board of Commerce for Democracy Coalition announced they have collected enough signatures to place the repeal of Public Act 4 on the November 2012 ballot. I was the field organizer for Stand Up for Democracy, the legal entity that challenged and eventually turned over Public Act 4. Now, you're explaining to us how this movement got started. There's this guy from Detroit I know. He's the executive director of this urban policy think tank called Michigan Forward and I have a friend who's part of the community. He's the manager. When PA4 was signed into law, he was just like, well, how about we appeal that law? They formed a coalition, brought together some folks and they asked me, they were like, we'll put together some money and pay for the petitions. It took a long time because there was no money paying people to collect signatures. So it was pretty much the people who were really passionate about democracy who just jumped out there and became leaders in their own communities. We heard the petitions in April 2011 because right away it was clear that Public Act 4 violated our rights. It took our voice and our vote away. Amy Harden, blogger and founder of democracytree.com I found out about it and so did a bunch of other people and we were all appalled. And Northern Michigan is a very conservative area, though Traverse City itself has a more progressive core. The Trail Homes pastor of the Greater Galilee Baptist Church. After the adoption of PA4 meeting and Pastor Jefferson did a wonderful job of letting us know we should watch this legislation. After I began to read I saw that within this law nothing was barred to this appointed individual whose only check and balance is the state legislator and the governor. But I also saw that there was a peace within this law that would allow for continued local governments, the local advisory council. Pastor Holmes was asked by Mike Brown to serve on his behalf. I believe they were going to ask me and when the call came through I had made up my mind I wanted to be a part of this. We went all over not just Flint not just Genesee County but Detroit, Benton Harbor, Grand Rapids, Saginaw who went all over getting petition signed. People started marching in downtown Traverse City about the law. It was 20 degrees out we had probably 400 people marching. Our local newspapers right there they didn't peak to see what was going on. They didn't pick it up. We were on every street corner with petitions. It was a grassroots movement. We're very proud of that. In the eight local municipalities that were affected you certainly see more involvement from all level of residents. Here in Flint I know what it's done for the local faith leaders. It's made us more aware and gotten us most involved in what's going on. We needed 156,000 signatures in order to get the repeal of Public Act 4 on the ballot. We had about 125,000. Once you turn in your signatures the secretary of state has to make sure that all the signatures are valid. Once the signatures are valid the Board of Canvassers has to certify the petitions. The Board has two Democratic and two Republican appointees. The rationale is that anything that gets put on the ballot is going to have bipartisan support. They ended up voting along party lines. The two Democrats voted to certify the signatures the two Republicans voted for fiscal responsibility. Who told the Board that amongst other issues the petitions were printed into small font size. They couldn't tell us the amount of signatures. So they were like it's too small. Not their excuse was people didn't know what they were signing which I knew was a lie. I wear glasses to read. I didn't have to have glasses on in order to read it. According to an MLive article dated April 26th 2012, Attorney John Perich representing citizens for fiscal responsibility told the Board that headlines in the petition were not published in size 14 print. Are you kidding? What? And the Board did not have the authority to certify it. In the same MLive article Herb Sanders representing stand-up for democracy called attempts to discredit his group's efforts. Minimally disingenuous and borderline perjury. Yeah, but wait it gets better. Let's see here. In an article from the Detroit News it states leading up to Thursday's vote questions were raised about two of the Board members Jeffrey Timmer and Julie Matuzak. Matuzak, a Democrat is the political director of the American Federation of Teachers and she actually helped get signatures to get the repeal on the ballot. And Timmer, a former Michigan Republican Party executive director is a partner at the Sterling Corporation political consulting firm in Lansing. Bob LeBrant, the firm's general counsel filed the challenge to the petitions for citizens for fiscal responsibility which had the same address as Timmer's firm. It wasn't finished. In recent weeks MSNBC liberal host Rachel Maddow has likened Timmer and Matuzak to being in the position of the pitcher and the umpire in the issue. Nat, Nat, Nat, Nat, Nat, Nat, Nat, Nat, Nat, Nat, Nat, Nat, Nat, Nat, Nat, Nat, Nat, Nat, April 30th, protesters opposing PA-4 take their message to Flint City Hall. Protesting would they believe to be taxation without representation, they stage a Mad Hatter's Tea Party in front of City Hall. Although their boisterous protest ends peacefully, another protest a few days later led by Pastor Reginald Flynn ends with him being arrested and detained by the citizens that have been made by Mike Brown. I felt like I needed to make a statement. I knew if I would have consulted with my family, my colleagues and members of the church they would have did their best to discourage me but I felt like I needed to make a strong statement. So I took a page out of the old Civil Rights Movement and demonstrated with the full intent that I would probably go to jail and I did just that. I took my bullhorn and I suffered the consequences. I have a great deal of respect for both the former and current EFM. The concerned pastors and I had three meetings with the prior and current EFM. I remember when we went before them and said the community simply cannot handle the water rate increase. They said we know the community can't handle the water rate increase but we're going to do it anyway. After that I just felt like the meetings were to gauge our anxiety level. According to an MLI article dated May 4th Pastor Flynn's arrest came after more than half an hour of erratic and frightening behavior inside Clinton City Hall. Many people are saying to me now when Spark is growing sense of opposition. It touches me when people say Pastor Flynn, you go into jail Spark the movement. It led to our opposition being more vocal. While being detained Pastor Flynn writes a letter titled A Letter from the Birmingham City Jail. Inspired by Dr. Martin Luther King's essay A Letter from the Birmingham City Jail. Led by local pastors and faith leaders gathered on the front lawn of City Hall and Pastor Flynn read his letter. We shall welcome Sir Mr. Michael Brown Welcome to the Flint City Jail for what you described as erratic and frightening behavior and making accusations against you and your staff. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s famous essay A Letter from the Birmingham City Jail To understand the motives behind my nine violent protests it is important to be familiar with the historic context of Dr. King's arrest. His letter was a response to a statement titled A Call for Unity which argued that the battle against legalized racial segregation should be fought solely in the courts. The clergy city officials law enforcement and business leaders criticized Dr. King for causing trouble in the streets of Birmingham. Against the clergyman's assertion that the protests and demonstrations were against the law he argued that not only was civil disobedience justified but that one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. Mr. Brown in lieu of the erroneous exaggerated and embellished report you may regarding my actions I can assure you that my alleged verbal tirade was nothing more than a direct non-violent civil disobedient protest against the implementation and execution of Michigan's emergency manager law as practice in Flint, Michigan. I would venture to say however that your tirade of executive decisions have become the veritable embodiment of erratic and frightening behavior. It is reasonable to conclude your actions are far more erratic threatening and frightening to Flint residents than the use of my $50 bullhorn. That's right. Application of the emergency manager law has removed our basic constitutional protections. The expensive use of state power and the rise of the prison industrial complex have spurred the mass accursion of African-American and Hispanic men and boys. In 2012 the police force is still a reality for many African-American males. I can speak from firsthand experience. Talk to him, Pastor. On May 3rd, I engaged in non-violent civil disobedience. I was not asked to leave the building. I was not warned to cease from speaking. I was not asked to place my hands behind my back. I was not informed that I was under arrest. I was not read my Miranda rights. I did not resist arrest. I approached and slammed to the semen floor. Handcuffs were placed on my wrists so tight my hands became numb and swollen. My arms were so restricted that my shoulders began to sting with excruciating pain. One officer placed his knee and four weight on the small of my back. Another officer placed his hands around my neck to keep my face to the semen. The weight was so heavy I could barely breathe. Then I was walking around in the water. When I make a ride today, I realize the smiles, victories that were won during the Civil Rights hour. Much more remains to be done. Other ones, we are regressing. Not progress. We are overestupped. Take off. The lessons from the Civil Rights movement making class as to what we must do today. Yes. I can hear the voice of Dr. King, It's power as times, don't you get weary? Don't be weary. Push the handle, pass on that. There's a way for equality. There's a way for justice. And a justice way of doing this business. And raises this like a master's degree. That appeals court declines to convene a special panel to decide a dispute over the font size on petitions. Well, I guess size doesn't matter after all. Really? Come on. Come on, you knew we were going to use that line. At the end of April, Michigan Supreme Court ordered the State Board of Canvassers a suit. And the Supreme Court ordered the State Board of Canvassers a suit. And the Supreme Court ordered the State Board of Canvassers a suit. And the Supreme Court ordered the State Board of Canvassers a suit. And the Supreme Court ordered the State Board of Canvassers a suit. And the Supreme Court ordered the State Board of Canvassers a suit. And the Supreme Court ordered the State Board of Canvassers a suit. And the Supreme Court ordered the State Board of Canvassers a suit. And the Supreme Court ordered the State Board of Canvassers a suit. And the Supreme Court ordered the State Board of Canvassers a suit. And the Supreme Court ordered the State Board of Canvassers a suit. And the Supreme Court ordered the State Board of Canvassers a suit. And the Supreme Court ordered the State Board of Canvassers a suit. And the Supreme Court ordered the State Board of Canvassers a suit. And the Supreme Court ordered the State Board of Canvassers a suit. And the Supreme Court ordered the State Board of Canvassers a suit. The petition is soon certified, PA-4 is immediately suspended, and the previous version of the law, PA-72, goes into effect. Because of a technicality in PA-72 that prevents any former city official from serving as emergency manager, Mike Brown is forced to step down. But before leaving office, Brown signed 63 resolutions, including putting a six-mil public safety tax before voters and selling the city-owned Genesee Towers to Uptown Reinvestment Corporation for $1. $1. City's new emergency financial manager, a position he held during the city's first state takeover, and he appoints Mike Brown as the new city administrator. Ed Kurtz respectfully declined to be interviewed for this project. I suppose now would be an excellent time for intermission. I hate having to listen to myself during these interviews. I always sound so inarticulate. Well, that's because most of the time you are. Shut up. What are you doing? I'm just looking up some pro and anti-PA-4 videos on the internet. Oh, anything we can use? It is not really sure. All right, everyone. Let's get started. Thank God we're back. I take you all had the chance to look over the rough draft of Act 1 over the weekend. Any thoughts? I think we've covered all of the major events, but there's just so much information. I'm afraid we're going to confuse our audience. Well, it is an overwhelming subject. I like a lot of what we have already, but I think it's pretty heavy on stuff from people who oppose PA-4. Well, have you had any luck finding opposing or alternative viewpoints? Well, I have been trying to attend some of the meetings at U of M College, the Republican Society, but I haven't had any takers. And I also tried to call the Genesee County Republican Party. They advised me to contact the Mayor of Schwartz Creek, and no, I haven't gotten a call back. And as expected, the Mackinac Center never responded. Well, what do we do if nobody wants to talk to us? I guess we could just say that in the play. Well, I think we need to be careful that we don't paint this as purely a Democrats versus Republicans issue. Well, it kind of is that. Not necessarily. Well, hold on. Do you still have that article from Mother Jones? Oh yeah, I'm sure it's here somewhere. Oh yeah, here it is. Okay. All right, now the piece is called Michigan's Hostile Takeover. It's published on February 15th. Now, we briefly mentioned Louis Schimmel in Act 1, but under PA 4, he was actually appointed as the EM for the city of Pontiac. Now, according to this article, Schimmel got to work quickly firing the city clerk, city attorney, and director of public works, and outsourcing several city departments. Yada, yada, yada. Schimmel has proposed putting nearly every city property up for sale, including City Hall, the police station, fire stations, water pumping stations, the library, the golf course, and two cemeteries. Who buys a cemetery? I don't know what to do. A little later on it says, with an indefinite term and a city salary of $150,000, Schimmel doesn't answer to anyone but the governor at whose pleasure he serves. Asked by radio station WJR if the emergency manager law hands power over to a dictator. Schimmel sighed, I guess I'm the Tyrant and Pontiac then, if that's the way it is. $150,000? Oh, that is chump change. Trent Farnsworth said that Mike Brown gets paid $172,000 a year. He's the highest paid city administrator in the country. Now, this is the same article about the Mackinac Center, right? Right. You know, Jason Kazanowski called the Mackinac Center the evil death star of Michigan politics. We can't say that. Oh, we can say that. We're going to use it. So, Louis Schimmel used to work for the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, which is a free market think tank that shares his enthusiasm for privatizing public services. The center has received funding from the foundations of conservative billionaire Charles Koch, the Walton family, and Dick DeBoss. Guys, this is huge. There's big money behind this. Okay, okay. I think that's the entirely different play right there. But I think it's important we at least mention this. I agree. Okay. We'll mention it. Do we have any interviews that give us a more balanced view of this whole thing? I want you guys to listen to someone like interview from Rob Claddy. He makes some really good points. I can actually see both sides of this. And I can see that Mike Brown or what was in charge has given the task of trying to balance budgets to make us stable. We are fooling ourselves that we think we can have public services without the finances to do it. Ultimately, it would not be sustainable. Let me fast-forward a little bit. I guess my hunch is, yes, something needs to be done. We seem to have a legacy of not being able to be fiscally responsible on them. Last thing I want to see is state intervention in that, but I don't know what else to do. To give an extreme example, I feel like it's the parent's responsibility to care for the child. But if they are not doing it, then their provision is in place where the child will not be harmed. So I'm not for federal control, not for state control. But when we cannot get our financial act together and the citizens suffer, that is when I become more open to an emergency manager. And if I actually thought the state wanted to take over the city, it might change my mind. But I believe the last thing they want to do is to take over. You know, I think a lot of people are in the same boat. They see both sides of this issue. I had a great conversation with Harold Ford. He works for the Beecher School District, and he was able to look at this from a completely different perspective. I understand the argument against the emergency manager law. I understand that there are locally elected officials, and that when the state government steps in and you search the power of those officials, then that's an anti-democratic move. I also understand that there are racial ramifications to this, because the majority of urban centers and the majority of school districts having the emergency manager applied to them are predominantly African-American. However, we have examples in our country's history of a more powerful government stepping in and checkmating the power of our smaller government. For example, the Little Rock Public Schools in 1957 would not permit African-American youngsters to their school system, and so the federal government sent troops and desegregated the Little Rock Public Schools. That would be an example of the federal government using its power to checkmate the power of local government. I think it's analogous to what's happening now. My focus is on education, because that's where I've spent my career for over 40 years. And I know that most of the school systems under the gaze of the emergency manager law are predominantly African-American. And so the charge of racism is level. You're taking over black schools and not taking over white schools. However, I would argue that it would be racist not to protect the rights of those children to have a good education. If local officials have proven themselves incapable of providing the education that those kids need, then I would argue that if you don't go in, that that would be racism, because you're allowing lives to be adversely impacted by incompetent or corrupt local officials who can't meet the needs of those children. That's good stuff. Interesting way of thinking about it. This is too hard to string some more coffee. I think we're going to need something stronger by the end of the day. All right, moving on. I think we need to hear some voices from people who live outside of Flint. These are some excerpts of interviews I did with Tim Lamb and the Grand Blank resident. I have always paid attention to what's going on in Flint. Even though I haven't resided there for almost 30 years, I've always paid attention to Flint politics. I know Grand Blank doesn't agree, but I believe Flint is the anchor for the community. I live in Grand Blank Township, so I'm not a part of Flint. However, we have to be concerned about what's going on, because it does trickle out to the surrounding communities. The first emergency manager situation, I don't know if I agreed with that, but it did improve things as far as the financial stability of the surrounding communities. The second time around, I started paying more attention to what was going on in the city council. This is where I start to point fingers. The city council just doesn't get it. Dane Walling is trying to improve things in the city, and every time he turns around, they are telling him, no. I do think the president mayor is trying to make a change. He's in a tough position, and it goes back to no money. But just like a household would do, if you only have $100 for groceries, you only spend $100. The city government is a business. If you're debit-themed with your credits, then your ass is in jail. How can you continue spending when you're not bringing anything else in? There's no money coming in. There's no money to go out. However, you still have all these services that need to be provided. Eventually, the governor says, listen, Flint can't pay its bills. What can we do to hold Flint accountable? The mayor doesn't have any control because the city council says no. And the city council isn't concerned all they care about is getting reelected. People are elected because we believe what they say and what they're trying to do. Just because you have that job doesn't mean you're entitled to it for the rest of your life. We have to hold our elected officials accountable. If we don't start holding people accountable, we're always going to have the same thing happen. Williamson was just a joke. I mean, what happened during that administration was just total stupidity. I think a lot today can be blamed on him. At least this way, someone's making decisions. If Walling were making these decisions, he wouldn't be at office next time. He'd be out and someone else would come in and we'd have this vicious cycle all over again. At least this way, someone is appointed to make the difficult decisions. The community is going to feel the impact. What is that doing to taxpayers? It's driving them out. Well, it still needs some more work, but I think we've given ourselves something to think about. Now, you'll have to excuse me. I have a phone interview with someone in the Treasury Department. For the record, could you state your name and role inside the Treasury Department? Roger Frazier. I'm the Deputy State Treasurer for Local Government Services. I was hired to oversee the Bureau of Local Government and implement the PA-4 law. Great. Thanks. And thanks so much for your time. One of the goals of our project is to demystify PA-4. So, how would you explain PA-4 to your average Michigan citizen? Well, I think for people who live in a city where finances are not well managed, there is trouble with increasing rates of taxes and decreasing rates of services, particularly what's happened in the last four or five years with our economic troubles. There have been cities with really big problems with decreasing revenues, so they cannot do the business of the city. In some cities, people have been able to handle it and make the right decisions, and in some cases, that's just not true. As consequence, there have been efforts to raise taxes, and if they can't raise taxes, they cut services, and people get laid off. It's in those circumstances where the feeling is that there needs to be some sort of intervention, and that is what PA-4 is all about. Well, what do you have to say to people who claim that PA-4 is anti-democratic? Well, and I think you take out the authority or cross the authority of a mayor or city council. It's fairly self-evident. That goes against representative democracy. But we have democracy at many levels in our country and in our state. The fact is that our elected officials or folks are continuing to be represented by elected officials, whether as a mayor or council, on legal standing or not. The idea of accountability on the local folks, it's something that's not well-addressed in our charters at a local level, and in the state constitution that says what happens when the decisions they are making causes a financial mess. There needs to be some sort of means of correcting that. I wonder if you could give me some examples of school districts or cities. I think it's interesting to point out that PA-72 is in existence until March of 2011, and none of those provisions, there was really no way to enact collective bargaining issues. And all the cities are affected. Collective bargaining dominated how much people get paid, their benefits, and the working rules under which they operate. It's only been with PA-4 that we have had ways of addressing those issues. So if you take a look at examples of success, the most meaningful one is e-course, which has been under emergency managing leadership twice in the last few decades. More recently, they're operating under a balanced budget, and they're actually creating a small surplus. They're actually on the verge of coming out of receivership. Another example is Highland Park, which has been under PA-72, came out of that and fell back in again by running themselves into a financial hole. Today, Highland Park does not have an emergency manager, but the state is helping the mayor and city council work out a way of balancing their budgets. The most recent analysis shows that Highland Park has a pension obligation that over time will cost them millions and millions of dollars. It's going to take some imagination and outside input before we can fix that. There are many cities that have benefitted from these laws, but there are still some places where the issues go back 30 and 40 years, and it is virtually impossible. Race is a small but loud group of protesters staying to demonstration on Saginaw Street. Yeah! The Sugar Law Center of Detroit filed a lawsuit claiming that PA-72 has permanently repealed and PA-4 was signed into law. Governor Rick Snyder wrote a guest column for nlive.com. He was urging citizens to vote yes on the emergency manager ballot proposal. The following is an excerpt from that column. Michigan's communities and schools are at a critical fork in the road this November. Proposal one is appending ballot referendum to repeal public Act 4. PA-4 is an important tool designed to help our state's struggling communities and schools with financial emergencies and to protect residents and students as well as Michigan taxpayers. Millions of dollars in debt are piling up. Bills aren't being paid. Lights can't be turned on. Police and firefighters can't do their job. Children are at risk of not having schools to attend, all of which can have a disastrous impact on our economic recovery. That is where PA-4 comes in. The law was updated to provide additional warning indicators to help communities and schools avoid a financial emergency. And if they are in an emergency, to appoint an emergency manager with more tools and ability to get the job done faster. It's not about Republicans or Democrats. Fiscal crises affect us all. And Michigan's emergency manager law has been around for decades. It's not about takeovers or control, but about helping communities get back on solid financial footing and adapt to changing circumstances and realities. In fact, I would far prefer never to have to appoint an emergency manager. That's a last resort. It simply allows the state to assist when local leaders have been unable or unwilling to make the tough decisions necessary to right the ship. It's not about circumventing collective bargaining agreements or avoiding contracts, but about ensuring fair contracts and benefits while recognizing that the past status quo simply isn't sustainable anymore. While the law was passed after a thorough legislative process and robust public discussion, emergency managers are accountable to me and to the state legislature, all of whom are elected. It's about working together. Michigan is the comeback state in the country and we need to keep moving forward. That's why PA-4 is an important, needed tool. Please join me in voting yes on proposal one to retain the emergency manager law. We began to ask people what they would like to see happen if PA-4 was repealed. Carl Jordan had a lot to say on this matter. He criticized both of the old laws for failing to achieve lasting solutions. I think one of the defects of public act four and public act 72 is that they really don't do anything to increase the expertise of people governing a city on an ongoing basis. And the emergency manager can bring in whoever he wants. He can say we're going to spend a million dollars and the best talent money can buy and the city is on the hook for paying for that. The city provides basic services like picking up the trash, 911 and fire, those kinds of things. Local units of government are creatures of the state under the state constitution. Cutting taxes for businesses and well off individuals wasn't a good idea. They could have saved the state and not given certain tax cuts. They gave revenue away which could have been used on basic services and still balance the budget. One of the things that I think is completely overlooked is a solution only the federal government can provide. Quite frankly, we need a completely different health care system in this country because ours is unsustainable. We have the most expensive system in the world. We don't have the best system in the world. Unless that's addressed, government at all levels is going to find itself under great stress. As someone who sees how the city's finances actually work, long term legacy burdens I would like to see bundled together and paid for to statewide or metropolitan scale. Because it's not the fault of today's taxpayers that 30 years ago there was a union contract that let someone retire with 25 years of work and for the rest of her life received Cadillac health care without ever having to go on Medicare. That's part of what made the city less competitive attracting new businesses and new families. I feel if that were dealt with more collectively, if we shared it more broadly then we would have the resources we need. I don't know we can solve these problems just by taxing, raising revenues or special fees. If we had wise representation at the state level they would understand that maybe we can't afford things the way they have been so we need to figure out how to do it more efficiently. But the state has to provide some revenue. Sure we can do some things locally but the state needs to do more. Right, frankly I think bankruptcy has its place too. If you're a corporation, you declare bankruptcy, and you start over. I think there's circumstances under which that's appropriate. That's something the governor doesn't want because bond ratings will go down. With the bankruptcy option bond holders aren't going to get their money back. We've needed a simple, easy statewide business tax but we haven't had local government revenue reform. We haven't had school district revenue reform. We're going to have to see the same kind of major reforms we've seen in other areas. It is pretty simple at the end of the day. I would tax the hell out of the 1% and put it into the schools. First and foremost we have to have jobs. If you can put people to work they can afford to buy a house. If they can afford to buy a house, then they can take pride in that property and then you can start to turn communities around. I moved here because of my standard of living and my standard of living is decreasing. My cost of living is increasing and the standard of living is decreasing and I see it getting worse and worse. Well Flint's never going to get out of financial trouble by the nature of the city we are. I would like to see the state require better land use plans. The city Flint should have never gone 50 years without a comprehensive master plan. We have to realize that the goal of the 21st century is fundamentally different than the 20th century was. If we want our community to thrive what things can we make sure they have? We need to stop thinking about how we can bring more money to this community and start thinking how can we make our community healthy? More than my mortgage. When I moved here for the five of us it was like $60. Now it's like $250. I don't understand how people survive. I really don't. The point at which the state takes over now is during the financial emergency but these things have been developing for 20 years. Blaming the city for everything well clearly all the problems Flint is facing we brought on ourselves. Wrong. The problems that are happening in Flint is about how much money cities get from states. It's not going to get fixed overnight. Katrina was over in a matter of days. The recovery took years. The emergency here in Flint has been over for 40 years. How long is it going to take us to recover? November 12th. November 6th, 2012. Election day. We got up early because I canvassed the communities to make sure all the motors got out. I had quite a few phone calls that day because November 6th is my birthday. It was very memorable. I just kept telling everybody else they called. I just got to get through this election to make sure everybody gets to the polls. Now there were about 10,000 absentee ballots in Flint that could not be counted until after 8 o'clock. So I just kept saying the polls are not closed yet. We had promised to go to local 651 which was my local when I worked for General Motors. Members kept calling saying it passed. I said, do not call me until it is completely over. So two or three we were still waiting and I went to bed. I knew we'd probably win in Flint because everyone was all hands on deck. We didn't know we were going to win until four o'clock on Wednesday morning. My niece started a new job on November 7th. She had to be there at 8am. She calls me. She says, I'll be there in a minute. I got up after and I took her to the job. I forgot my phone at home and a hundred people had called by the time I got back. Here in Flint we had something like 10,000. And in Detroit it was something like 70,000. I was looking online and I kept refreshing every 10 minutes. I'm like, we're 88% I think we're good. I was grateful. I said what legwork won't do, prayer will do. Now it wasn't a one man or a one person show. It was people working together that brought about change. I was grateful for that. It was a victory for the grassroots movement. Well now that the election's over what's going to happen? Well I'm back to being a volunteer because this is something that's really important for me. There are a lot of different options out there. Different lawsuits in Bitten Harbor, here in Flint, Pontiac, Highland Park in Detroit challenging the constitutionality of PA 72. We need to find something more equitable instead of where someone just comes in and lands to pass a new law. There's still work to be done. What are you afraid might happen? A watered down version of Public Act 4. Governor Snyder is going to have another one and ramrod it through legislature. If they attach an appropriation to it the only way to repeal it is if the legislature repeals it or overriding it completely themselves. A lot of things that went on in Flint, Detroit just won't stand. The people stand up, fight, speak out. And that's what we the people are going to have to do. Now, I may not have what you have but we all have something to bring to the table and we're going to have to bring it to the table together. We're going to have to make some stone soup. On November 7th, 2012 the announcement was made that PA 4 was wrote it down and might brown communities to serve as city administrators. On December 5th, the administration of Governor Snyder unveiled a new emergency manager law, Public Act 436 or the Local Financial Stability and Choice Act. This new law promises to allow for greater input from local officials before a financial emergency is declared and gives local officials a choice between four options, a consent agreement, mediation and emergency manager or Chapter 9 bankruptcy. This new law also gives local officials more power to improve certain actions by an emergency manager or come up with alternative solutions for providing equal savings. It promises to pay the salaries of emergency managers and makes it possible to remove an emergency manager if two thirds of the local government vote in favor of removal. Clint will be grandfathered into PA 436 because the city is currently operating under PA 72. On December 12th, the house passed PA 436 in a 63 to 46 vote during the lame duck session. Representative Kevin Carr was the only Republican to join Democrats in voting no. The new law also includes an appropriation making it referendum proof. The law will go into effect at the end of March 2013. On that same day, as multiple bills were quickly passed behind locked doors, over 10,000 protesters gathered on the lawn in the state background. More than I did when we started. I mean, I feel like if I was quizzed on what's going on with the new YEM laws, I would probably only vaguely pass. I think we can fit every aspect of this story into one play. This is bigger than any timeline or any slogan on a picket sign. And it's not like the story's over. You know, this project is about involvement. It's about commitment. It's about coming together as a community to solve the problem. The business of government is to serve the people. But when running government is treated like running business, then we, the stock holders, need to look at more than just our financial statements to understand the full effects. The politics will come and go. But this current caliber of leadership, this abandonment of ethics in our culture, and this manipulation of government, it feels like a cancer that's going to take us all down. I hear a call to action and I have never felt that way before. We're all accountable to the government. And the government is, or at least should be, accountable to the will of the people who empower it. That's democracy, no. It's the ideal we should always strive for. It's the form of government that should fight for the people. Into our dialogue session. I'm going to introduce Mona Eunus who's going to facilitate our first dialogue session for us this evening. Thank you Mona. And the cast is going to join us for this too. I just want to remind you, those of you that are watching remotely, again you can tweet us with comments or questions at shop floor Flint. If you want to move down a little closer to, we've got a few empty seats here at the front, it might kind of make our way up. As I mentioned before, we want this to be a dialogue so we've kind of spoken at you now for a little over now. We want to kind of hear your thoughts and your reactions now too. I'm going to kind of pass things over to Mona and we can kind of start the conversation. Can I just say can we give another round of applause for this wonderful deal that was a lot of information to pack in. I'm just really proud of this group up here. Nick, you can come join us please. Can I just add one more thing too? This evening who we're sort of featured on stage come joining now is Nick Custer who was one of the writing team alongside me and also Jessica back. Can we have a couple of other writers? I know Beth Brooks I think is watching at home on the internet so hi Beth, thanks again. And Kenny Indesh who's not here this evening too. But yeah we wanted Nick to join the conversation too. So Mona? Great. I'd like to know share your voice and your experiences and your perspectives and there will be people walking around with microphones I believe? Yeah we can use the microphones if we need to or you can just kind of use your big voice. Okay. Performance that you just witnessed. What are some words that you would choose to describe how you feel after watching it? Just popcorn style shout them out. They're speechless. Can I just ask maybe we repeat those things so the people on the audience who don't hear but also people watching online can hear that? So we just heard a range of emotions like overwhelmed, revolutionary, ready, wow, informed, a lot more. Anything else? Ashamed, frustrated? How did this happen? Angry. So was there a specific line or an image that really stood out to you and resonated? So in a nutshell the last line about having stones in your hand and other things too from the play. What else? What else stood out to people? The letter from the Flint City Jail? Genesee Tower? Yeah. So we heard the small group of folks that's kind of running the show and really affecting people's lives and the networks behind the scenes and the the image of the police used against the citizens. Yep. The astounding salary for the emergency management. I'm going to ask it because I don't have to repeat every brilliant thing that's being said. I'm going to ask that we use the megaphone. Jason, could you say that again for the benefit of our online audience please? Don't be shy to like really speak into it. Yeah, so we can make sure we hear you. Can we hear you? In order to manipulate a group of people or individuals, you have to convince them that it's very easy. Manipulation occurs because they're formed and educated enough to understand that there's more than one channel. So this process has been going on for decades. One single thing, education has been cut. It's been kicked. In some cases, there are large groups of people not just here but in this country and the result of that there are thousands of people who have no real idea of concept or the information or know what to do with that information in front of them and are therefore left to make decisions. Now the thing that I've always told my kids is that people make a decision for one reason, emotion. They justify it with logic. But if you don't have the education and the understanding of things to understand that logic, then it's very easy for somebody the biggest one is fear. Somebody puts it the idea of fear in your mind. This is on both sides of any argument. Each side is trying to argue that it's more fearful for them that way to go. And that's all on here and most of the time is these fear arguments. Most of the time when I look at news, when I look at some stuff, a lot of what was going on in this play. There's fear. Now in this particular case there's a lot of stuff going out there. But I think that if there was someone who wasn't paying attention to this in the first place it would be almost over one month. And then what you're left with is this emotion. And I think the part in terms of the play where people would most likely be connected especially at the end there is this what democracy looks like. Now we're drawing on that emotion but without that knowledge without that education and without an understanding of the great question which is what insights have you all gained about the emergency manager laws? So just making up new when one law is repealed another one gets brought back I think it gets back to the having a small group of people make decisions and that when one approach doesn't work and they have the political means they will just have another law come right back and do what they want to ultimately there's okay I got two options it's time to fix things you know instead of thinking you know that's a lot of problems nobody's going to be involved until things go crazy and there were a lot of things that would be a lot better there would be a lot more things to fix because simply we think this could happen you're involved in this your life is changing hardly anyone watches the news the fact that a lot of these things they just want to live their lives and they can do anything to that I would say that there is no level it's a constant build and it's a constant fight you can never become complacent if you want something you have to constantly fight for it because there's always going to be another side that wants something different they're going to do what they want to do because they know the financial reality of this city and yeah there's been corruption and there's been to be want to but you know we brought up that people are doing things in government especially that it was back in the day that no one's wanting to change except that the world is changing things have changed all these factory jobs have left so what needs to change it's ways but I don't feel like that more they just want things to keep going the way they were about changing policies changing how funding goes or they also meant to be here there was no master plan for the city right so I do appreciate that address because things do need to change it doesn't seem like anyone is trying to make that change they're just trying to pass things temporarily hoping that things are going to change how we run the city I also do want to mention I appreciate that you do mention that I think that you try to get people's opinions out who approve of the city manager and you just couldn't find anybody to talk about that so I do appreciate you trying to get the other side and can I just say really quick for anybody who doesn't know the city of Flint is actually currently undergoing its process it's the first one that the city next year the city will have the first master plan since 1960 so if you live in Flint and you want to get involved I believe the website is imagineflint.com you can all the steering committee meetings are public they're held at the Flint public library for the most part it's something to be attuned to and it is a solution I think to take care of these really complex and broad reaching issues in Flint so what are your thoughts on whether this is an emergency the crisis in Flint is an emergency this is something that was addressed in the play some of the voices in the play were suggesting that emergency is maybe not an accurate portrayal of Flint's situation what do you think there you go that's not a solution that's not leadership all we need is for people and someone to be able to go up there and be able to say these are the directions these are the goals that we need to set these are the ways in which we think you can see I don't see it as a situation just as something that has been on this thing is not going to get corrected overnight this is something that's going to require payment in lots of ways and the people in this community will probably come out of the wild but we have to be doing things in such a way that they're actually working towards a goal and right now I don't see any goal ever being put on this by an emergency manager I need a shift to address that one of my favorite parts in the play is during this alternative section it really says that the main issue really is that you have these people that are brought in by an EM or emergency financial manager they're paid for the best of business even if they found the books but then they don't preside this community so that an outage doesn't stay here we've called that thing to re-create as has been planned we came out of a situation a few years ago and then there weren't the great trust in the city there's no easy answer to this I think it's like economic philosophy today, we're saying bookkeepers I see this as a positive and a negative situation and that when this city has some money as coffers that means everything's good but then there are people on the other side that want quality of life and they're not being in the first place especially when you cut apart you sell that office a major thing for that community or in this community whatever that they're trying to privatize trash they have this different set of priorities these different values they're not taking consideration one side having a choice and not the other so there's a lot of different ways that we can be leaders around different issues in the community and their actions that we can take so has anybody in the audience been motivated to take action and if so, in what way being part of CAS I've lived in this city my entire life I had no idea what that well meant or what it was you have to put yourself in a position to fight this encounter there are avenues that you can learn that don't take up all of your time there's information out there is anything this place done to me it's made it more important for me to say hey, take a minute, read what's going on because what's in that paper today is something you're gonna have to go on tomorrow if you don't know what you're doing you're gonna end up with what we have any other ways people feel like getting involved or taking action as a result of what you've learned today I think I heard somebody mention earlier that here like contacting like a local representative or state official I was saying that's maybe something that you know I try to do and I think if it's a case of sometimes I feel that like people aren't gonna listen or like bother reading that email or that phone call but I sometimes hear well if it's something you really feel strongly about keep sending emails and keep pulling that number of blocks then hopefully the message can come but I think often like that's a really simple way to just you know if there's something that you're not happy about or you have questions like actually contact that person exactly make it shift structure or this mentioned near the end of the play that the revision of public or it's going to go into effect in the end of March so it seems like you know things have read this new conversation which of those four paths worked out so that I think is the starting point being part of that conversation and things like that really clean up the community again it's our religion blogging together the word that we can start actually seems like the next one was that is a dangerous and something I noticed about an activist is that you tend to want one big master's server that will address the problems we see inside it and I don't think so I think that courage everybody to continue this dialogue outside of you know this fear take it back to your families to people in the community continue this conversation and really think about how each one of us how you can get involved and be part of the change I want to thank Mona for facilitating the dialogue this evening and we do have some food outside so we hope that you'll continue to stick around and eat with us and talk with us I want to thank a couple people if it wasn't kind of clear from what he was saying Jason Kosnowski was one of the people we interviewed if you were one of the people that we interviewed for our project and you're here in the audience can you maybe stand so we can thank you because it's really impossible to make a play like this without people speaking to us thank you just for watching in Detroit and our brand anywhere else thanks for tuning in and let's keep talking outside and we'll do that alright would you need to keep these in from so I use 3D