Mayor Stanley's role in the downfall of Flint
By Page W. H. Brousseau IV
TIMES STAFF WRITER
As a current resident of Flint, and I stress current, I am quite fascinated with the state of affairs within the city limits.
Every American should be lucky enough to reside here, we have all of the big city political turmoil from monetary mismanagement to charges of cronyism and counter charges of racism, without all of the problems big cities face like traffic and Al Sharpton.
However, like a thunderhead rolling across the plain. Flint's troubles will be noticeable to the townsfolk only after darkness has ascended and the deluge has begun.
Our city's lot was determined over a decade ago with General Motors implementing its jobs for Mexicans program by moving factories in Genesee County to sun-flier locales. By the time Mayor Woodrow Stanley was elected in 1991 Flint was on an economic slide.
Applying the brakes and correcting course was a daunting task, but not impossible. Ten years later the mayor has proven his ineptitude toward governance and his propensity toward slides.
City Hall is proliferated with mismanagement and incompetence.
Though, to be sure, the mayor is only one job in the city, his leadership is what guides the city.
The mayor has failed time and time again to take responsibility for anything, and continues to see the city council as an oligarchy that he must plunge into combat with at every turn, on nearly every issue, all for the good of the people.
On August 29, the Flint Journal called for Stanley's resignation. Now this may seem childish to some but the impact it could have on this city should not be underestimated.
The editorial has weight behind it, maybe not in numbers of residents who support it, which is uncertain, but in truth it is titanic:
Stanley's policies and politics have been nothing short of ruinous. The $151,200 fine just levied against the Fire Department for safety violations is only the latest debacle that can be attributed to his leadership. The city is buried under horrendous debt, the scope of which only recently was revealed, though the mayor, of all people, should have known. Bond ratings are at near junk level, and the city clearly cannot manage its finances.
Then there is to say Flint has a deficit of $25 million. A portion of a $2.9 million grant has been revealed as misspent, scheduled to go toward an empowerment zone off Carpenter Road it was directed toward the creation of an upper class subdivision off Kearsley Lake Golf Course featuring $150,000 homes. City employees impeded the state's investigation into Flint's Fire Department. The School Board Superintendent was given a severance package of three figures for leaving his contract early. City employees were bought out of their contracts with outrages sums, then hired back. Services were being awarded without proper competitive bidding taking place and city council approval.
Not everything is Stanley's fault, but leaders are called leaders because they lead. They do not pick fights, squabble or cry when they do not get their way. They do not take out restraining orders against reporters. Nor do they ignore the problems this city is in while thumbing their nose towards the city council and the state. In a normal society this would lead to an outcry of condemnation. This, however, is not a normal society; this is a city in America.
In American cities were liberalism rules sadly everything evolves around race. In an interview with NBC 25 Stanley pointed out the lack of color on the editorial board at The Flint Journal to imply the reason for the resignation call was racially motivated. It must have slipped his mind that The Flint Journal had endorsed him in the past, all the while he seemed more forthcoming with his conspiracy theory against him than an answer for the city. During an interview with ABC 12 Stanley continued his stonewalling, declaring this is not Lansing (gasp!) and Flint is going through what Gary, IN and other cities are going through. Why are we not going through what New York City, Jersey City and Cleveland are going though? A renaissance in improvement has hit them all. Schools are improving, crime rates are falling and fiscal irresponsibility has been corrected, all these cities have turned around their gloomy past.
In Stanley's reply to The Flint Journal, he accused the paper of being inaccurate and unfair, yet he offered no example of this, only calling on a boycott of the paper.
Picking up where Stanley left off, the NAACP has weighed in. Instead of seeing Stanley's shortcomings adversely affecting the city's residents, a majority of whom are black, they see him as piped piper leading us towards a better tomorrow in the face of racism. The NAACP statement to the press said The Flint Journal was, "irresponsible and irrational and, some would say even racist." Remind you no one said anything about race until Stanley brought it up. Then they continue, "We find the institutional racism inherent in the Flint Journal's actions reprehensible." At least they cleared up who played the race card. It is sad to see NAACP slip further away from it storied past. Instead of being a tower of Freedom and Liberty, they now march lock step with the Sharptons and the Jacksons of this country who defend every black man with power accused of incompetence as being a victim of a racist plot.
Judging Mayor Stanley by the content of his character not the color of his skin is pretty easy to do. While the sun fades and the wind increases its strength the nine men and women on the city council scramble to advert danger Stanley scrambles to find support in the area's black churches, meanwhile another house in Flint goes on the market and another business decides Lansing has more to offer than Flint.
© The Michigan Times 2001
