Quote Originally Posted by Flintoid View Post
I am very confused as to how this hasn't worked anywhere else. Examples;

Pontiac: Police response times have gone from 76 minute average to just over 9 minutes. Fire services now partner with Waterford. Downtown has seen a dramatic increase in redevelopment. Leased out excess space at water facility to erase long term debt obligations, freeing city taxes to pay for services not debt.

Flint: Balanced city budget while adding to police and fire department thanks to a 6 mill ballot proposal. Privatized management of previously closed and abandoned golf courses. Privatized trash collection to save city $1 million annually and add recycling. Created OPRA redevelopment district for a dozen downtown properties. Removed Genesee Towers [[major liability) from the city's books and gave it to a redevelopment firm. Rewrote 2 union contracts and negotiated 3 more to achieve cost reductions. Balanced the city's lighting and trash funds with fee changes. Moved pension liability from the city to the state.

Any one of these things would be seen as major, yet EMs have done them all in about 2 years. I will never understand this idea that EMs are an utter failure.
One of the biggest problems we have today is that we are increasingly being sheltered from information except from our friends and associates. And they often think like we do.

I see lots of success with EFMs. But clearly others don't. Who's wrong? Would that we have a strong, independent press who everyone believed. But instead we have Fox News on one side, and BAM on the other. If you're on Obama's mailing list, you're getting information about only the failures of charter schools. If you're on Rush Limbaugh's list, you're hearing about pension abuse.

One thing I like about this forum is that it exposes me to people who DON'T agree with me. Makes me question myself.

Back to Flintoid's post: He writes " Rewrote 2 union contracts and negotiated 3 more to achieve cost reductions" I'll bet that the AFSCME union newsletter doesn't write much about the successed in Flint. And a lot about forced wages reductions.