Attorney pushes for Flint Charter revision

Attorney Terry Bankert, longtime community activist, is looking for community support to get a question about changing the Flint City Charter on the November ballot.

He said that he plans to meet with community groups, unions, the NAACP and others to build a coalition representative of the community. Their first task would be to gather 9,000 signatures, double the 4,500 signatures required to put the issue on the ballot.

The petition would ask for a yes or no vote to determine if a charter revision commission should be formed. If the original vote is yes, they would have 60 days to elect nine members under the state's Home Rule City Act.

This body would make recommendations to the voters for approval or rejection in a future election.

Councilman Josh Freeman, Mayor Dayne Walling and other prominent local groups and figures have asked for a charter revision, said Bankert.

The last revision was approved by voters in 1974. Among other things, a strong mayor and city council replaced a professional city manager and city council.

This revision also changed city councilman terms from two to four years and mandated an ombudsman office and the Flint Civil Service Commission.

The ombudsman office has the ability to take complaints and investigate official acts of any city agency for residents. The service commission does the same for employee representatives, administration representatives and public-at-large representatives.

Both of these groups were eliminated in December by Michael Brown, the state appointed financial manager.

Bankert said that although he tried to challenge this move, the action is legal. The statue allows Brown to act for the entire city council and only a supermajority of city council can fire the ombudsman, according to the charter.

While he thinks a change in the charter is necessary, Bankert said that until the residents have the political will to hold elected officials accountable to act in their interest, the charter might as well not matter.

"Maybe this community does not have the will to demand excellence from the mayor and its elected officials. If not, we should just admit it," Bankert said.

Bankert, who was a 1974 city of Flint charter board speaker and later served a full term as ombudsman, believes that there are certain changes which should be made to the charter.

He suggested reducing the number of councilmen from nine to five and reinstating the non-elected, professional city manager. The city council would be unpaid and the mayor would receive a per diem allowance to cover daily expenses.

He believes that by staffing a city manager's office well enough to address people's problems, the council could act more effectively with five members. This smaller council would fund and monitor the city. By reducing the number of councilmen, Bankert believes, they would be less able to dispense patronage.

"I challenge Mike (Brown) to throw it to the community to see if we want charter revision. He can put a question on the ballot for yes or no to a commission and simultaneously, candidates for the commission," he said. "He could challenge the community to craft itself into what it wants to be."

A press release by Michael Burton of Occupy Flint Dec. 4 stated that the group formed a ballot question committee and will circulate a petition. But Jan. 6, he said that the issue was put on the back burner because it distracted the group from larger issues, including the Public Act 4 of 2011 (emergency financial manager law), the National Defense Authorization Act and maintaining a physical protest presence.