Why Granholm Shouldn't Fire Kwame

Detroit City Council is now trying to put the heat on Governor Jennifer Granholm to fire Mayor Kilpatrick. No one believes more than I that he should not be in office... Kwame Kilpatrick stole $8.4M from the residents of Detroit. He took money they needed for infrastructure, etc. and spent it on covering up his affair. Then he lied about it under oath. He is now embarrassing that city regularly on national news. But asking the governor to do the dirty deed isn't the answer.

A governor shouldn't use executive power for this situation. It should truly be a last resort. While this seems like extenuating circumstances, it would become harder and harder to draw the line on when a governor should invoke this power once it is unleashed. The people of Detroit voted for this man and he thinks they still want him there. They need to make it clear that they do not. Even if you believe that marital indiscretion plays no role in determining how effective a leader can be, the misuse of funds and the perjury can not be denied. The problem here is that many of the people in Detroit don't feel any pain over the loss of $8.4M city dollars and many others don't really know what needs to be done to oust the mayor.

Governor Granholm has always been very generous to the city of Detroit in revenue sharing and the doling out of state funds. Rather than fire the mayor, the governor should withhold state funds until they have someone in office that won't misuse or steal them. When the people of Detroit realize that the mayor's lies, indiscretion, and lack of respect for the hard-earned tax dollars they all paid will result in their sidewalks and roads not being repaired or plowed, then they will be more determined to correct the situation. Why should Michigan funds be thrown onto a sinking ship? I know, I know... there are probably a million tidbits of legislation that would make this a slippery slope, but humor me. The governor certainly has the power to put a good deal of pressure on without having to be the HR director for municipalities. After all, politics is nothing more than the art of deciding who gets what, when, and how much.

Comments

[Politcal Man]

This guy is not the problem of Granholm, he is the problem of Detroit, as the Mayor of Lansing is the problem for the people of Lansing. As in the City of Lansing, the people took it upon themselves to use the Lansing City Charter to RECALL their mayor. I am sure the Detroit City Charter allows for some sort of recall as well.

[amac]

Nothing wrong with that, except that the people of Detroit are, at best, evenly divided over whether Kwame should stay or go, whereas most Michiganders outside Detroit are against him.

[Michael Motta]

It seems to me that Michigan county level government is relatively weak by national standards. However, I'm just wondering if Wayne County (as theoretically an intermediary level of government between the City of Detroit and the State of Michigan) has any say in this matter.

[MSUGeek]

Certainly in the prosecution phase.

[Michael Motta]

Thanks MSUGeek . . . I was wondering more about politically though than criminally. Does a county have specifically political jurisdiction over the cities contained therein the way in which the state apparently does? To be blunt, if Granholm, in representing the state, can fire the mayor of Detroit, can Wayne County also fire him?

[Aubrey Marron]

Michael,

As a former county commissioner, I can answer that. No, counties do not have any direct authority over the cities and townships within them, and county commissioners can't remove elected officials from those bodies.

The Michigan constitution of 1963 and subsequent state laws, not the city charter, give voters the right to recall an elected official, in Article 2, Section 8:
"Laws shall be enacted to provide for the recall of all elective officers except judges of courts of record upon petition of electors equal in number to 25 percent of the number of persons voting in the last preceding election for the office of governor in the electoral district of the officer sought to be recalled. The sufficiency of any statement of reasons or grounds procedurally required shall be a political rather than a judicial question."

Sadly, there doesn't seem to be the surge of indignation and embarrassment in Detroit that it would take to pull off a recall. Perhaps Leon Drolet could be persuaded to draw up some recall petitions and pay people to copy names out of the Detroit phone book onto them?

[Populista]

Ooh, good one, Aubrey :)

[EmersonsZen]

From The Detroit Free Press:

"The Detroit City Charter similarly states that felony conviction, which of course would include the crimes of perjury or obstruction of justice, justifies and, indeed, requires the mayor's ouster by the City Council. In that event, there would be no need for the governor to intercede under the state law."

[Heather Spielmaker]

Thanks for the update, Emerson. I suspect the Detroit City Council will still ask the Governor to remove Mayor Kilpatrick, as they have been already, because of the time it often takes to get a conviction.

[Michael Motta]

Thanks for the help Audrey and EmersonZen. Audrey, do you know Mark Grebner then or were you in a different county? We used to read his "Grading the Profs" back in the day and I remember meeting him for the first time when Cedar Village was cordoned off with police tape and crawling with cops of every make and model sometime in the late 80s. It was like meeting a celebrity!

[Aubrey Marron]

Michael,

I know Mark Grebner pretty well. I was a commissioner in Ingham County, as he is and was. In fact, I may have been with him at the Cedarfest you mention. We were both concerned about making sure people's civil rights were not violated. And we both represented part of campus. He still does. I'll send him your best wishes. BTW, it's Aubrey, with a B, not Audrey, though I do love Hepburn.

Zen, you make a good point, that if/when he's convicted, the city council would have the authority to remove him.

Heather - good thought-provoking blog! I agree that people will still pressure the Governor to remove him, because it's faster. But I don't think she will, and I agree that it shouldn't be her responsibility. How weird would it be if she removed him and he ran again and won?!?

[Michael Motta]

Aubrey, I think I usually call you Aubrey, or at least I hope so! I just had similar occur recently when I wrote a gal named Juliana and I called her Liana, but an editor with whom I correspond is named Liana. I don't correspond too often with Audrey Hepburn! Getting old I guess.

I doubt Mark Grebner would know me, but I might not mind working for him! I just met him way back when, and maybe once or twice not long after, but I've started to look like he did back then (when he was probably only slightly younger than I am now). I have the long hair (and glasses) and it's moving backwards on my gourd! I was thinking you would have been a student back then because you don't look any older than I am in your photo, but maybe you were a very young politician.