EDITOR'S NOTEBOOK ARCHIVES

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EDITOR'S NOTEBOOK

BY MIKE KILLBREATH

CCN Executive Editor

Flint's mayor has the bright idea that a helicopter can help bring down his city's crime numbers.

The Flint City Council delayed the initial request to try the idea at a price tag of $300,000 to the city's taxpayers for three months. 

They came back on Monday night (July 26, 2021) and voted 7-0 (Monica Galloway and Jerri Winfrey-Carter were absent) to give Mayor Neeley his new toy for the police department.

Expect the issue to become a hot topic on the campaign trail for three council members who voted for the idea  —  Maurie Davis, Allan Griggs and Kate Fields. They are in contested races in the primary election on Tuesday, Aug. 3.

“If the police feel that this is what they need to help them deal with these issues that they’re having, then I support their knowledge and knowhow of what would help them the most,” said Fields who is city council president.

Several public speakers at the council meeting urged their elected officials to instead use the $300,000 to hire more police officers. Tonya Burns, a candidate for the 6th Ward seat being vacated by Herb Winfrey, theorized that $300,000 could put about a half dozen more officers on the street at "about $50,000 per year each for a full year."

That would make more sense, except Mayor Neeley would not have a new toy at his disposal to possibly grab lunch in Lansing with his State Rep. wife, Cynthia Neeley.

Mayor Neeley rode around one day in the State Police helicopter during his campaign to become mayor in 2019. He complained then about crime being out of control in the City of Flint. He said to elect him and he would do better.

Right now, we're at 158 shootings, according to statistics posted on the city's web site. We had 88 shootings at the same time last year. It was even less during each of the four years under previous Mayor Dr. Karen Weaver's administration.

We have more police officers on the street right now that during any time under Weaver's police chief — Timothy Johnson.

Yet it was Chief Johnson who needed to be fired, according to an interview Neeley did with PBS program "Off The Record" that was taped while Chief Johnson was busy resigning to run for Genesee County Sheriff.  

"While I was police chief, Flint came off the list as the most dangerous cities in the country," Johnson told me. "Once No. 1 for murders a few years in a row when Dayne Walling was mayor before Karen (Weaver), we were out of the top 10 while I was the city's police chief."

Johnson came out of retirement to take the job when Weaver came calling for his help.

"Now, crime is out of control again and it's an absolute shame after all the work we did to fight crime," Johnson added.

The murder count right now is at 39. That puts the city on pace to break the record of 62 set during Walling's first full year as mayor. Another year under Walling included 61 murders.

So Mayor Neeley thinks a helicopter will help. Hmmmm.

It seems to me a helicopter is at the city's disposal any time one may be needed, compliments of their partners over at the State Police post on Corunna Road. It also seems to me that a helicopter is a tool to help with high speed police chases. While in the state legislature, Neeley was a fan of not allowing cops in cars not to chase criminals. Maybe a helicopter could help combat the idea of criminals knowing they can out-run Flint cruisers because of the city's chase policies.

Maybe it could help combat a drag racing problem on the city's streets during the late night hours.

But I'm with the public speakers who urged city council members to instead use the money to hire more police officers.

Can't you just imagine the criminals pointing up at the helicopter, laughing and firing off a few shots in the copter's direction, then going back to their criminal business on the ground with the knowledge that no police officers are likely coming because the city doesn't have enough of them on the street to fight crime. 

This opinion column was Mike Killbreath's opening commentary  on The Morning Gazette Radio Show's Tuesday, July 26th episode.

  --------------------------------------------------------------- ​Mike Killbreath hosts The Morning Gazette Radio Show weekdays from 8 am until 10 am on MetroFlintNewsTalkRadio.com. He is also soon launching a new statewide syndicated TV show known as The Michigan Crusaders. He also hosts The Daily Gazette Sports Weekend Show every Sunday from 4 pm until 7 pm and regularly appears on Michigan Sports Zone weekdays from 6-7 pm on MetroFlintNewsTalkRadio.com. He has won statewide awards for both his political columns and sports columns during a 40-year career as a journalist. Killbreath has also won several statewide and national awards for investigative news reporting.

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EDITOR'S NOTEBOOK

BY MIKE KILLBREATH

CCN Executive Editor

 Here are last week's tidbits collected for my notebook while scouring newspapers and social media, and during top secret info missions in dark hallways inside the City Halls of The Daily Gazette coverage area:

A TRIBUTE TO A GUY WHO WAS NOT FAMOUS: I was saddened to read on Facebook that James Crow passed away at age 78. He was Mr. Crow to me. You may not know him unless you were around the local sports scene in the 1970's and 1980's when he was following his boys around. I had the pleasure to coach two Crows  — Tim and Paul. Yesterday's Editor's Notebook reminded me of Mr. Crow.

He gave his boys a baseball, and their love of the game was passed on to their boys. That love of baseball eventually took them around the world.  Paul to see son Kyle who is a Major League Baseball prospect who will soon be making a big splash on the local high school game out of Fenton High School. I've never met young Kyle, but I've followed proud dad Paul's reports on Facebook about competition against some of the best players his age in America. He has already signed a national letter of intent to play baseball at the University of Louisville. Paul's brother, Tim, gave me a rundown of Kyle's chances of becoming the first Crow to hear his name called on draft day during a lunch when he visited the area a few years ago. Tim Crow's love of baseball has taken him around the world, too. He's leading a pro club overseas in Germany for a second season after an outstanding career in the high school coaching game in Arizona where his star players were his twin boys. Before that, Tim Crow was a minor league umpire after his own playing career fizzled out.

Mr. Crow was the kind of sports parent every coach dreams about. At the diamond, he was always lurking around somewhere to watch. He was always brief on the phone, too. Yes, coaches were required to call their players on the phone in the old days before we had cell phones! We dreaded long conversations with parents about their child's exploits or their expectations, or worse — their complaints. If Mr. Crow fielded a call instead of Tim or Paul, he would always simply say: "I will make sure they know to be there."

And they always were. Usually with dad, Mr. Crow, to watch.

Both boys played hockey, too. Paul became one of the area's all-time greats in the travel game and later at Flint Southwestern where he was a star baseball player like older brother Tim. Both of them eventually played for me in baseball at the Connie Mack level as part of the old Welch Blvd. Hardware all-star dynasty. The team's unofficial General Manager was John Myers — the long-time head coach at Flint's Mott Community College. He tried to steer potential high school stars to Mott by steering them to my summer organization which also benefitted by me doing lots of recruiting for Coach Myers.

I remember how proud John was when finding out how I had signed Tim Crow instead of the Mr. Eveything kind of player getting away to Carpets by Smith or Centilli-Grossi — summer teams back then in the local Connie Mack circles that spent so many years grooming kids for a spot with one of the bigger universities. I had used both Crow boys on tournament teams with kids I had coached at Flint Kearsley. 

On the day Tim Crow signed, not only was John Myers happy. But I remember Mr. Crow remarked how his son was all sweaty on picture day at Southwestern. He had just finished a work-out by himself in the batting cage behind the varsity field.

 I remember the conversation very well because I always wished all parents were like Mr. Crow.  I remember Mr. Crow saying: "I'm glad he decided to play for you. I like your way with the boys. Besides, if he was on one of those other all-star teams — he wouldn't have the chance to shine."

John Myers thought Tim Crow was the best player in Flint in an era that included playing against future big league stars like Jeff Hamilton who won a World Series with the Los Angeles Dodgers and Jim Abbott who pitched a no-hitter with the New York Yankees after winning a Gold Medal in the Olympics and setting the world on fire as a star for the Michigan Wolverines.

It was the longest conversation I ever had with Mr. Crow — a model for how parents should behave. Let your boys have fun, and the game may someday take them around the world.

A memorial service will be held at 1 pm today (Saturday, July 24, 2021) for Mr. Crow. It will be held at  Bristol Road Church, located at 1315 W. Bristol Road in Flint Towship, where he served as a deacon.

OLD MAYOR LETS IT RIP! Former Flint Mayor Dr. Karen Weaver took some swipes Tuesday at the Flint Journal and ABC TV 12 on her morning radio show over the 910 AM air waves. 

Her microphone reaches thousands of listeners. As another 910 AM radio show host and former politician regularly proclaims about 910 AM on his morning program immediately after Dr. Weaver's show: "Broadcasting with 50,000 watts of attitude!" Broadcasting with 50,000 watts of power makes 910 AM and WJR 760 AM as Michigan's two most far-reaching radio stations.

Weaver, nearly two years removed from a 205-vote loss to then State Rep. Sheldon Neeley in her unsuccessful re-election bid, came to the rescue of young Michael Doan's reputation. Doan is the 26-year-old businessman running for a seat on the Flint City Council who released a Facebook video last weekend to explain how he simply failed to renew a gun permit he thought expired when his driver's license expired two years from now. 

Weaver called it "dirty politics" that a story on MLive mentioned the arrest but failed to mention how Flint City Hall was raised in 2011 when Kate Fields was scrutinized by the FBI after her company received an energy grant. Weaver says money had to be paid back to the federal government "because of finding fraud" and questioned why the FBI didn't put in her prison for it.  She asked her listeners: "You didn't read about that in their story though, did we?" 

MOST NASTY CAMPAIGN FLYER SO FAR! The honor goes to Judy Priestly who is running with Doan in hopes of taking away her 4th Ward seat on the Flint City Council. The mailer asked where the money went from Fields taking a $1.2 million energy grant, saying she produced only a 12-page report about how city employees could save the city money by turning out the lights when they left rooms. 

Priestly put the price tag for taxpayers at $10,000 per page! Fields, now the city council president, promptly responded by sending a text to Priestly warning her about a potential libel lawsuit. I think Priestly definitely owes Kate Fields an apology and her facts were dead wrong. I know Priestly is an accountant and all, but the way my calculator works  — $1.2 million for 12 pages of effort works out to $100,000 per page!

As to Weaver and Priestly suggesting Fields deserved prison since the city was forced to pay back money to the federal government, let us clarify for the record that Fields went on record with The Morning Gazette Radio Show on this issue during our 2017 campaign debate with Doan. Residents asked about the issue and Fields snapped, "Don't you think with all the time they spent looking at it, if I did something wrong, the FBI would have indicted me?"

I'd promise publicly to ask more probing questions about it during the 2021 debate on my radio show next week, but Fields would probably be a "no show" on my program.

LESSONS FOR NO SHOWS: Mayor Weaver refused to debate with competitors during the 2019 primary election and we subsequently endorsed then State Rep. Sheldon Neeley in this space and on the radio show. He won by a slim 205-margin. Incumbents Kerry Nelson, Jackie Poplar and Vickie VanBuren each skipped The Morning Gazette Radio Show's 2017 invitation to debate against their challengers, and voters kicked all three of them to the curb.

Only A.C. Dumas has declared that he won't participate. His protest is that we're allowing write-in candidate Rich Jones to engage in their debate when he didn't submit enough valid signatures to get his name on the ballot. During 10 years on the radio, we've always accommodated write-in challengers during our political debates. 

The Tom Sumer Program on  WFOV-LP 92.1 FM invited write-in candidates to participate in interviews he conducted for various interviews last week. His interviews were conducted one-on-one with candidates instead of a forum or debate format.

The Flint branch of the NAACP hosted the only previous forum during this campaign season and didn't allow write-in candidates to participate.  Rich Jones, a write-in challenger to Dumas in the 3rd Ward, took exception with the fact that Dumas is Vice President of the organization. "I asked to be in that forum and they flat out refused me," Jones said.

DUMAS IS CONFIDENT: He asked me in a Friday (July 23, 2021) telephone call: "Why should I debate them when I'm way ahead of them? It makes no sense for me to do that. I'm certainly not going to sit down with Rich Jones. He called me nasty. I won't debate him. Why should I? He couldn't even get 75 signatures to get his name on the ballot."

Dumas, who hosts a 30-minute radio program every Saturday morning on WFLT 1420 AM, has lost every previous election bid for Flint politics. Some suggest, however, that he could be the favorite in this race. Santino Guerra, who unseated Nelson last time as the youngest candidate ever elected to Flint's city council, chose not to run. Nelson beat Guerra, Dumas and Quincy Murphy in the 2017 primary, but Guerra then beat Nelson in the general election with strong endorsements from The Morning Gazette Radio Show, The Daily Gazette and the Flint Police Officers Association.

Dumas needs to be warned that if he doesn't want to face Jones in our campaign debate, our policy is to never endorse a candidate who thumbs their nose at the idea of presenting their views to voters.

THE FUN CONTINUES WITH A NEW TWIST: This year's campaign debates won't have the same fun as previous years when we've allowed audience questions during "on location" broadcasts from local restaurants and senior centers. 

Please accept our apologies but we're just getting back on the air on Monday (July 26, 2021) and we're still looking for staff members. We have seven openings and zero applicants at the moment. Without adequate staff on hand, pulling off a debate somewhere out in the community is impossible.

 While there's a new twist to our location this time around, we will still feature the popular round featuring each candidate getting to ask two questions to all his or her competitors.

The debates are scheduled to air during the final campaign week on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Each debate will be hosted by Yours Truly with co-hosts as panelists in a 48-minute format. Our programs will move from the 90-minute format to a two-hour format from 7-9 am every weekday.

You can listen live by clicking on the link here: Flint City Council Debates

  --------------------------------------------------------------- ​Mike Killbreath hosts The Morning Gazette Radio Show weekdays from 8 am until 10 am on MetroFlintNewsTalkRadio.com. He is also soon launching a new statewide syndicated TV show known as The Michigan Crusaders. He also hosts The Daily Gazette Sports Weekend Show every Sunday from 4 pm until 7 pm and regularly appears on Michigan Sports Zone weekdays from 6-7 pm on MetroFlintNewsTalkRadio.com. He has won statewide awards for both his political columns and sports columns during a 40-year career as a journalist. Killbreath has also won several statewide and national awards for investigative news reporting.  
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   EDITOR'S NOTEBOOK

BY MIKE KILLBREATH

CCN Executive Editor

 Maurice Davis used his Facebook Live video to dial up an old friend Saturday night. He instructed wife and co-host Beverly to get Eric Mays on the line, and the 1st Ward city councilman answered the call.

It was obvious Councilman Davis wasn't quite sure what to do once Mays was on live during his nightly "Blues & News" broadcast on Facebook. 

 I was expecting technical difficulties at any moment as the part-time blues music man, part-time councilman provided some entertaining conversation with Mays. It was somewhat embarrassing, however, for Davis who can't begin to match wits with Mays on local political issues.

My guess is that it was a "botched" setup opportunity to blast the 1st Ward councilman who has often been at odds with Davis over the past year. It started when Davis switched sides on the council and became part of what Mays describes as the "Fab Five" of "rubber stamps for whatever the new mayor wants." 

Davis has often gone along with Kate Fields, Eva Worthing, Santino Guerra and Allan Griggs to provide a 5-to-4 majority vote on the city council for whatever items are on Mayor Sheldon Neeley's agenda since Neeley was elected to replace Dr. Karen Weaver in November of 2019.

Prior to that, critics complained that Davis was a "rubber stamp" for whatever Mays wanted in his usual strong support for Weaver's agenda.As re-election time nears, dialing up Mays to chat like old pals maybe wasn't such a great idea. Mays fired off a series of embarrassing questions in an exchange that Davis obviously didn't run past his campaign manager. If she thought it was a good idea, Raquel Brown should be fired.

Of course, Raquel has been tabbed as "campaign manager" by political opponent Arthur Woodson who has set his sights on taking the 2nd Ward seat from Davis. We're not sure if it's official, or just Woodson's take on her strong support on social media for anything Davis does or says.

Woodson has so far been taking every opportunity during his own Facebook Live videos, Facebook posts and public comments at Flint City Council meetings to remind 2nd Ward voters how Brown and Davis were such strong supporters of Donald Trump's failed re-election campaign.

It's probably a pretty good strategy when considering how Woodson says Davis is "out of touch with residents in his ward" when pointing out more than 90 percent voted against Trump.We declared Davis' re-election attempt dead in this space shortly after he was on a stage at Bishop Airport during a Trump campaign rally with then-Vice President Mike Pence. Blame Charlie LeDuff, the Pulitzer Prize winning journalist who hosts Detroit's popular podcast "The No B.S. News Hour." The former Detroit News and Fox 2 Detroit TV investigative reporter gave Davis a forum to his 50,000 weekly listeners, and the story blew up about how the Flint councilman endorsed Trump. 

Woodson didn't need a campaign manager after that in a ward that despises Trump.

So maybe a call to Mays by Davis was to pal up a bit, reaching out to the most popular politician on the Flint landscape. Mays was the top vote getter of anybody in all nine wards in his 2017 landslide re-election victory. Nobody has even signed up to run against him in 2021 despite challengers throwing their hat in the ring for what could be a record number of primary candidates in the city's other races.

"I know you won't answer but I'm gonna ask," Mays kept repeating before each of his series of questions for the embattled 2nd Ward councilman who once provided the strongest support on the council for Mays.

Expect Davis to use any opportunity any time soon to strike against Mays in any way possible to discredit the senior councilman. His political future depends on it. Davis tested the waters on getting back in the good graves of Mays by providing the tie-breaker vote to remove Council President Kate Fields from the last city council meeting after Mays pushed the issue, claiming the 4th Ward councilwoman doesn't know the rules and has no business trying to chair meetings.Now that things didn't go so swell with Mays on his Facebook Live broadcast, look for Davis to be back to opposing anything Mays does or says. And look for an all-out effort to discredit Mays.

He has already become a key face in four races for Flint's 2021 primary in August.

Monica Galloway buried the hatchet long enough to get assistance from Mays during her 2017 re-election bid in the 7th Ward, then went right back to constant verbal tirades against him shortly after the votes had been counted. How strange that she is suddenly now again his biggest supporter on the council as another re-election bid looms. The two 3rd Ward challengers, Rich Jones and WFLT 1420 AM radio show host A.C. Dumas, have tripped over themselves trying to win support from Mays. 

Community activist Arthur Woodson, once arch enemies with Mays, has given Mays a platform from time to time on his Facebook Live videos with 6th Ward candidate Tonya Burns to boost his chances of unseating Davis in the 2nd Ward race. Burns did community clean-ups with Mays in his 1st Ward last summer and has been an outspoken critic of the mayor while offering strong support for positions taken by Mays.

With all four of the aforementioned seats, Mays could again seize the power on the council. He was a huge factor in Jackie Poplar, Wantwaz Davis and Kerry Nelson being defeated in 2017 when his biggest political enemies often combined with former long-time President Scott Kincaid and Vickie VanBuren to form 5-to-4 votes against resolutions supported by Mays. Before Davis goes back to war with Mays, maybe he should heed his advice of not so long ago when asking, "None of the council members who were constantly trying to make this councilman look bad are on the council anymore, so what does that tell you about the 1st Ward councilman who works hard for the people, doing my job?"

Councilman Davis should use Mays answering his telephone call as a step toward building a bridge to repair their relationship. Otherwise, "Blues & News" will become just the "Blues" for a Flint former politician who will suffer the same fate as the others who tried to tangle with Mays in Flint's political arena. 

  --------------------------------------------------------------- ​Mike Killbreath hosts The Morning Gazette Radio Show weekdays from 8 am until 10 am on MetroFlintNewsTalkRadio.com. He is also soon launching a new statewide syndicated TV show known as The Michigan Crusaders. He also hosts The Daily Gazette Sports Weekend Show every Sunday from 4 pm until 7 pm and regularly appears on Michigan Sports Zone weekdays from 6-7 pm on MetroFlintNewsTalkRadio.com. He has won statewide awards for both his political columns and sports columns during a 40-year career as a journalist. Killbreath has also won several statewide and national awards for investigative news reporting. 

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