Mark Maynard | 2016 | March

With evidence that Snyder discussed the problem of lead contamination in Flint’s water with his advisors as early as the summer of 2015, the Governor’s hand-selected Flint Water Advisory Task Force had no choice but to turn on him in their scathing final report

By Mark | March 23, 2016

When it was announced last year that our Governor would be hand-selecting a panel of politicians and experts to look into what exactly went wrong in Flint, I wasn’t expecting that their efforts would amount to anything substantive. “If the Governor were serious about this,” I thought, “he would have had someone else choose the task force members, and he would have made sure that they had the subpoena power necessary to really get at the truth.” And, as neither of these things were true, I felt it was pretty clear that the intent was just to shift the blame away from him and his administration. Later, when I read the preliminary report of the task force, which came out just a few days after this past Christmas, I knew that I’d been right to be suspicious. Following the lead of Snyder, the members of the task force laid the blame squarely at the feet of the ‘career bureaucrats’ at the MEDQ… Here’s their exact quote: “We believe the primary responsibility for what happened in Flint rests with the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ)“… That was three months ago, though, and a lot has changed since then.

In their 116-page final report, which was just release today, the members of the Flint Water Advisory Task Force, while still placing blame on the MEDQ, have apparently come to the conclusion that the Governor’s office played a significant role. While the authors do echo the common refrain we hear from inside the Snyder administration that this was “a failure at all levels of government,” the five members of the task force don’t shy away from suggesting that much of what went wrong had its origins in the Governor’s office.

Not only do the authors of this report say that the Governor’s office played a role, though. They say that Snyder himself knew about the problem of lead in Flint’s water long before October 2015, when he maintains he first heard about the issue and sprang to action. “In mid-summer 2015, the governor and senior staff discussed Flint water issues; lead was apparently part of those discussions,” they write.

While the five authors of the report are still clear that the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) bears “primary responsibility for the water contamination in Flint,” they are also now quick to point out that this likely wouldn’t have happened if not for Snyder and his emergency manager law. This “occurred when state-appointed emergency managers replaced local representative decision-making in Flint,” the members of the task force said in the report, “removing the checks and balances and public accountability that come with public decision-making.” The task force members, to their credit, also don’t shy away from the issue of environmental racism. As the report says, “Flint residents, who are majority black or African-American and among the most impoverished of any metropolitan area in the United States, did not enjoy the same degree of protection from environmental and health hazards as that provided to other communities.”

What does it mean when even your hand-picked task force members are turning against you? I guess we’ll have to wait and see. I can’t help but think, though, that we may see a new Governor in office this spring.

Here, for those of you who don’t have time to read the entire report, is a clip from the executive summary.

Posted in Health, Michigan, Uncategorized | Tagged checks and balances, Emergency Manager, environmental racism, Flint Water Advisory Task Force, lead, lead poisoning, MDEQ, Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, public health, Rick Snyder | 47 Comments

“This is what daddy sounds like when he laughs.”

By Mark | March 22, 2016

I don’t want to suggest that my kids have never heard me laugh. They have. In fact, I laugh quite often, in my own little way. I shake my head and chuckle. I occasionally allow a guffaw to escape. I don’t think that my son and daughter have ever had the occasion to hear me laugh uncontrollably, though. They’ve never seen me have to hold on to a table to keep from falling to the floor in a fit of laughter. They’ve never seen me laugh so hard that I have to gasp for air just to remain conscious. My hope is that one day they will. I think it’s probably a good thing for a kid to see their parent lose control like that.

Something very similar crossed my mind a few days ago when we put down Freeda. I was sobbing my eyes out and it occurred to me that Clementine was watching me. I thought, “It’s probably good that she’s seeing this.” For what it’s worth, I still remember the first time I saw my father cry. We were visiting his family in Kentucky, and he’d gone out to play basketball with some of his childhood friends, while I stayed around the house, talking with his mother and grandmother. His grandmother, at some point in the conversation, left the small kitchen table where we’d been sitting, saying that she wasn’t feeling well. When she returned just a few minutes later, it was clear that something terrible was happening, and we called an ambulance. By the time father returned, she’d been pronounced dead. And I remember him trying to talk to me, but not being able to. It was, of course, a terribly sad time for our family, but it was also kind of beautiful in a strange way to see how much she’d meant to my father, who was always somewhat stoic.

Back to laughter, though… I know it’s probably a poor substitute for the real thing, but it was just brought to my attention a few moments ago that audio exists of me in the grips of a laughing fit. It was taped this past winter when my friends and I gathered in Cleveland to document our 21st day as a band. So I thought that I’d share it here, in hopes that one day, if they never have an opportunity to hear what the real thing sounds like in person, Clementine and Arlo can at least know what I sounded like when I really, really laughed.

I’m told I was reacting to lyrics written by my friend Dan for a song he called “Get in the Van.” Apparently, I thought they were hilariously funny. [These lyrics, it should be noted, were not intended to be hilariously funny by the song’s author.]

For what it’s worth, I rarely laugh like this, and, to my knowledge, this is the only such instance caught on tape. I have a relatively clear recollection of it happening once in about the 11th grade, as a few of us gathered around a table in the Newton High School library, but, other than that, no specific memories come to mind. [I do, however, have a vague recollection of it happening a few times when I lived in Los Angeles, in close proximity to my friend Jeff Kay, but no specifics come to mind.] My guess, and I could well be wrong, is that such events happen about once every three or four years or so for me now… instances where I’m laughing so hard that I can’t speak and almost lose consciousness.

I know it’s kind of late in the year for resolutions, but I’d like more moments like this in my life, more near-death laughing fits. And I’d like for my kids to hear one of these happen in person. Hopefully 2016 is the year.

Posted in Mark's Life, Monkey Power Trio | Tagged Arlo, Charles Maynard, Clementine, Cleveland, crying, Dan Richardson, Fred, Jeff Kay, laughing, laughter, Ma Florian, Mark Maynard Archives, Monkey Power Trio, Newton High School | 11 Comments

I’ve got a cold and my sincerity meter is off. Can one of you please watch this video of Brian Calley talking about Flint for me and tell me what you think?

By Mark | March 21, 2016

Apparently this video of Michigan Lieutenant Governor Brian Calley talking about how awesome Flint is going to be now that the administration has finally agreed to do something about the deadly health care disaster they helped to create, came out a few days ago. My first inclination, as I’m watching it here in my sickbed, is to assume that it’s bullshit. But I don’t know if that’s fair. I think I might just be turned off by the fact that Calley, who is obviously reading from a script, begins by telling viewers that assigning blame won’t help anyone, and repeating the administration’s familiar taking point about how this was “a failure of government at all levels.” But I’ll be the first to admit that, after several sleepless nights of coughing into a damp rag, I’m probably not inclined to think well of people, no matter how good their intentions. So I’ve decided to suspend judgement for the time being, pending your analysis… So, when our Lieutenant Governor says, “We’re determined to work with the people of Flint to make their city a great example of how education and economic development come together to create a better future for everybody,” should I believe him? Is this the message we’ve been waiting for, where they legitimately set out to make things right in Flint, or is this just PR spin in lieu of real, meaningful action?

For what it’s worth, I don’t think that people are inclined to believe anything from the administration until they see action on the street, and maybe not even then. I think I said it in an earlier conversation on the subject, perhaps just after it broke in the news that Governor Snyder had hired two high-priced public relations firms, that my advice to him would have been to move his office to Flint for the duration and spend time among the people of that city, like Chris Christie did along the Jersey coast in the wake of Hurricane Sandy. Instead, though, Snyder and company went a different route. They avoided Flint for up to seven months, at least according to the comments of Representative Matt Cartwright of Pennsylvania, who attacked Snyder last week during his testimony before Congress. And now, at least as I perceive it in my somewhat clouded state, they’re trying to demonstrate empathy from afar, from a studio somewhere, while b-roll footage of Flint rolls by in the background. And I think that’s always what’s bothered me, and made me think that the administration truly knows that they’re responsible for this. That’s the only reason I can think of why the governor of a state wouldn’t rush to the site of a deadly public health disaster, and instead hire criminal attorneys and public relations firms. Nothing else makes sense. But, like I said, I’m high on generic cough syrup… So, what do you think?

Posted in Health, Michigan, Politics, Uncategorized | Tagged apology, Brian Calley, fake sincerity, Flint water crisis, lead, lead poisoning, Rick Snyder, Rudy Giuliani, sincerity, water | 11 Comments

One wonders what the situation in Michigan might be like today if Rick Snyder had governed like Minnesota’s Mark Dayton

By Mark | March 20, 2016

Along with a lot of my social media friends, I spent a good deal of this evening reading and thinking about an article in The Atlantic titled The Miracle of Minneapolis, about how the 14th-largest metropolitan area in the United States had accomplished what so few American cities have been able to… which is to grow significantly more prosperous, while, at the same time, keeping housing affordable, and creating opportunities for the poor to enter the middle class. The only other financially successful cities that are even close when it comes to social mobility and housing affordability are, according to the article, Salt Lake City and Pittsburgh, and Minneapolis has out-performed them both on a number of critical metrics. Here, with more on that, is a clip from The Atlantic.

…Only three large metros where at least half the homes are within reach for young middle-class families also finish in the top 10 in the Harvard-Berkeley mobility study: Salt Lake City, Pittsburgh, and Minneapolis–St. Paul. The last is particularly remarkable. The Minneapolis–St. Paul metro area is richer by median household income than Pittsburgh or Salt Lake City (or New York, or Chicago, or Los Angeles). Among residents under 35, the Twin Cities place in the top 10 for highest college-graduation rate, highest median earnings, and lowest poverty rate, according to the most recent census figures. And yet, according to the Center for Housing Policy, low-income families can rent a home and commute to work more affordably in Minneapolis–St. Paul than in all but one other major metro area (Washington, D.C.). Perhaps most impressive, the Twin Cities have the highest employment rate for 18-to-34-year-olds in the country…

Well, while reading this, I received a message from a friend who had just finished it, suggesting that, in part, “the Minneapolis miracle” might be attributable to the bold leadership of Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton, who took office in January of 2011, inheriting a $6.2 billion budget deficit and a 7% unemployment rate from his anti-tax Republican predecessor, only to turn things around in dramatic fashion. Dayton, instead of doubling down on tax breaks for the wealthy, like we did here in Michigan under Rick Snyder, who took office at roughly the same time, raised taxes on the wealthy, increased the minimum wage, and invested more heavily in public education. And these efforts, despite warnings from conservatives, have begun paying dividends. The following clip is from a recent article in the Huffington Post.

…During his first four years in office, Gov. Dayton raised the state income tax from 7.85 to 9.85 percent on individuals earning over $150,000, and on couples earning over $250,000 when filing jointly — a tax increase of $2.1 billion. He’s also agreed to raise Minnesota’s minimum wage to $9.50 an hour by 2018, and passed a state law guaranteeing equal pay for women. Republicans like state representative Mark Uglem warned against Gov. Dayton’s tax increases, saying, “The job creators, the big corporations, the small corporations, they will leave. It’s all dollars and sense to them.” The conservative friend or family member you shared this article with would probably say the same if their governor tried something like this. But like Uglem, they would be proven wrong.

Between 2011 and 2015, Gov. Dayton added 172,000 new jobs to Minnesota’s economy — that’s 165,800 more jobs in Dayton’s first term than Pawlenty added in both of his terms combined. Even though Minnesota’s top income tax rate is the fourth highest in the country, it has the fifth lowest unemployment rate in the country at 3.6 percent. According to 2012-2013 U.S. census figures, Minnesotans had a median income that was $10,000 larger than the U.S. average, and their median income is still $8,000 more than the U.S. average today.

By late 2013, Minnesota’s private sector job growth exceeded pre-recession levels, and the state’s economy was the fifth fastest-growing in the United States. Forbes even ranked Minnesota the ninth best state for business (Scott Walker’s “Open For Business” Wisconsin came in at a distant #32 on the same list). Despite the fearmongering over businesses fleeing from Dayton’s tax cuts, 6,230 more Minnesotans filed in the top income tax bracket in 2013, just one year after Dayton’s tax increases went through. As of January 2015, Minnesota has a $1 billion budget surplus, and Gov. Dayton has pledged to reinvest more than one third of that money into public schools. And according to Gallup, Minnesota’s economic confidence is higher than any other state…

I don’t know how good of an analogy it is, but one wonders if there might be a book in this, a comparison between these two wealthy businessmen [Dayton is an heir to the Target fortune] who took over struggling midwestern states at around the same time, and went about trying to fix things in incredibly different ways. [It could be called “A Tale of Two Governors.”] Granted, the politics in the Michigan and Minnesota statehouses was likely very different when the two men came into office, but one does wonder what might have happened had Snyder chosen not to prioritize tax breaks for the wealthy over schools, retirees, and Michigan’s working men and women, and instead followed a course like Dayton. “What would Michigan be like today if he had?”, I wonder. “Would all of my friends with kids in college still be encouraging them to leave the state upon graduation?”

Posted in Michigan, Politics, Uncategorized | Tagged affordable housing, Mark Dayton, minimum wage, Minneapolis, Minnesota, Pittsburgh, Rick Snyder, Salt Lake City, social mobility, threats to the middle class, unemployment | 30 Comments

Rick Snyder, told repeatedly by members of Congress this morning to step down, responds by blaming “career bureaucrats”

By Mark | March 17, 2016

Well, today was the big day. Rick Snyder was under oath, responding to questions posed by members of Congress as to his role in the Flint water disaster. I’ve yet to make it all the way through the C-Span video, but, so far I wouldn’t say that I’ve learned very much. The Republicans kept up their attack on the EPA, Snyder kept trying to shift the blame to “career bureaucrats”, and the Democrats did their best to lay everything at the feet of the Governor. So it was really just more of the same, even if the stakes were a little higher this time around.

I don’t know what I was expecting. Maybe I thought that, under oath, one of our members of Congress might get Snyder to reveal some critical piece of evidence that would prove his culpability beyond a shadow of a doubt. That didn’t happen, though. And, really, it’s not what things like this are intended to accomplish. Hearings like this aren’t about finding answers so much as generating sound bites that’ll play well back home in the various Congressional districts represented by the men and women who serve on the Republican-led House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. Still, though, there were some moments worth noting, like the part where Snyder eventually conceded that “it would be a fair conclusion” to say Michigan’s Emergency Manager law failed the people of Flint… Oh, and then there was this heated exchange between Snyder and Pennsylvania Congressman Matt Cartwright, who hammered the Governor on what he knew and when.

For those of you unable to watch the above clip, here are the highlights… “There you are, dripping with guilt, drawing your paycheck, hiring lawyers at the expense of the people and doing your dead-level best to spread accountability to others and not being accountable,” Representative Cartwright said to Snyder. “Plausible deniability only works when it’s plausible, and you were not in a medically induced coma for a year… People who put dollars above the fundamental safety of the people do not belong in government. And you need to resign too, Governor Snyder… I’ve had about enough of your false contrition and your phony apologies. Pretty soon we’ll have men who strike their wives saying, ‘I’m sorry dear, but there were failures on all levels.'”

I could go on, but I’m rapidly losing the ability to type. If you want more, check out the coverage at Mother Jones.