30,000 Petitions Circulated in First Week as State Wide Effort To Repeal Michigan's Emergency Manager Law Grows

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Jun 27, 2011, 03:36 ET

Volunteers are canvassing attendees to tonight's Detroit fireworks show right now

LANSING, Mich., June 27, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Stand Up for Democracy campaign is announcing it has distributed 30,000 petitions to more than 3,500 volunteers across Michigan during the first full week of operation. The petitions call for a vote to repeal Public Act 4 – the law that created emergency managers and gave them sweeping powers including the ability to:

Seize and sell public assets without a court order
Remove elected officials from office without due process
Dissolve or merge cities, townships and school districts without a popular vote
Break binding contracts and eliminate collective bargaining rights at will
Close vital public services without a public hearing
Outsource public services and enter into contracts without public oversight

The law is a naked grab for power by Lansing politicians. "Emergency managers rule with impunity and break legal contracts at will. They close public services and make policy without regard to citizen input or local law," said David Bullock, president of Rainbow Push Detroit and member of the Committee to Stand Up for Democracy. "That is not democracy. That is a dictatorship. The 30,000 petitions in circulation is strong evidence people see it the same way. People are answering the call to stand up for democracy."

On June 18th thousands of volunteers gathered in Ann Arbor, Benton Harbor, Detroit, Flint, Kalamazoo, Lansing, Marquette, Monroe, Pontiac, Petoskey, Traverse City and Ypsilanti to launch the petition drive. Volunteers are currently out gathering signatures from people attending the annual Detroit fireworks show. Only 161,000 valid voter signatures are needed to place the issue on the ballot in the November 2012 general election. The current law is suspended until the general election once the signatures are validated by the state elections bureau. For more information go to www.michiganforward.org or call 1-866-306-5168.