Thursday, June 13, 2013

EM Cancelled Two Meetings In Detroit Amid Threatened Protests

Misinformed: EM Town Halls not being held June 6, 10

zjeffries Posted date: June 06, 2013
Michigan Citizen

DETROIT—There will not be a community meeting tonight with Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr. Two community meetings — which were to be held at Greater Grace Temple and Martin Luther King High School, for June 6 and June 10 — will not happen.

EM press secretary Bill Nowling wrote in an email, “No meetings have been announced by this office. When they are, we will send it around.”

Nowling says he’s aware that incorrect town hall meeting dates were circulated. His office, however, never made a press announcement to the community.

“Yes, I am away [sic] of this and numerous other instances of misinformation being circulated,” he wrote in the email.

Protests were scheduled for both events. Organizers for Moratorium NOW! and other organizations planned to protest the Town Hall event.

Notice of the meeting was widely circulated online, posted by neighborhood organizations and block clubs.

According to a city source, the EM never scheduled those dates.

Orr is mandated to hold Town Hall meetings pursuant to Public Act 436, Section 141.1551 within 30 days of the EM’s submitted financial and operating plan to state officials. Orr’s plan was dated May 12 and submitted May 13. The 12th fell on a Sunday.

Orr has until June 12 to hold a public meeting.

Nowling says EM Orr intends to have the public meeting “on or before that date.”

“Look for an official notice of the meeting soon,” he wrote.

Also, any modifications to Orr’s plan, according to the law, must be made within that timeframe, although the plan or modifications do not have to receive public approval.

Some citizens doubt a true public meeting will be held.

“Snyder has used the term Town Hall to apply to private invitation-only meetings,” Russ Bellant, Library Commission President, told the Michigan Citizen. “Our idea of a Town Hall [is] publicly accessible.”

A retraction notice from the Northeastern District Police/Community Relations Council was sent via email to “community partners” advising that the information they’d received about the June meetings with Orr were incorrect.

“It seems that the information given to my sources and I, and which I shared with you, is non-factual,” wrote Doina Rosu, vice president of the council.

Staff Report

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