Obviously, this defeat didn’t sit well with Trustee Lisa Manzella and the Nightingales. So, the recall zombies decided to regroup and try what everyone, even those outside politics, considered impossible: doing their whole recall all over again.
Bringing a dead recall back to life is what earned these people the label RECALL ZOMBIES. You know, rising from the dead to protect their entitlements. We first used this description in our June 29th INSIDE OUT and the title stuck. Several readers wrote to say how perfect this label was for people who were obviously bent on destroying our democracy for their personal greed.
The Save Shelby recall advocates tried, and LOST BIG. One recall zombie admitted afterwards (in a private conversation) that “the recall was a shot in the dark and we really didn’t expect all the work. It was tougher than we were promised it would be and some people got fed up. The message was not really clear, even for those who were getting signatures. Honestly, it was a mess.”
After the loss, and despite the “mess,” the recall zombies were mad as hell. They were going to get their way somehow. When Trustee Lisa Manzella conned resident Tom Delise into filing his petitions again (the identical petitions that failed to garner enough signatures) we were surprised to hear that Delise took the bait. Common sense says if you fail once, why try to do the exact same thing again? Even a two-year-old learns that if you get hurt doing something once, you don’t go and do it again! However, common sense has never been a characteristic that describes the recall zombies.
Especially trying to do in one month what the group couldn’t accomplish in six months. Delise either didn’t see the error of his ways, or he bought what the recall zombies were selling. Delise filed the identical petitions again and they were approved again.
After the recall petitions were approved (for a second time), the group tried to put a positive spin on this. Mr. Delise went on Facebook and told the recall zombie army that he was going to do the whole recall again. Why? Delise said because it was necessary and it would be much easier the second time around. Really? Says who? Political consultants will tell you that recalls are tough enough once, but trying to do a failed recall a second time is just plain stupid.
Despite the conventional wisdom about recalls, the Save Shelby recall zombies had a message:
“Who cares what consultants say, they are wrong and we are going to prove it!”
As the first recall petition effort stalled due to a lack of volunteers, the Nightingales and the police union intervened and took charge. They did some of the work and hired people from outside Shelby Township to do the rest. What about Delise? Sure, he was the recall petitioner of record and was the public face of the recall. Delise may have thought he was in charge, but the Nightingales and the police union were actually calling the shots. Delise was USED — plain and simple — by special interests with a darker political agenda.
Since Mr. Delise and his people did such a fantastic job the first time, when the second round of recall petitions were filed and approved, the recall zombies decided to keep Delise at arms length. Was his public persona hurting their recall? Delise filed the second wave of petitions (at the urging of Trustee Lisa Manzella) to get the ball rolling, but that would be the end of his involvement. The recall zombies decided it was time to move on and put a new public face on the recall.
Enter Richard Batchelder. Mr. Batchelder, a retired Shelby Township firefighter, is also a member of Shelby Township’s Sidewalk Committee. After being crowned the recall spokesperson, Batchelder got to work. As reported in the July 12th Source Newspaper Batchelder immediately went on the offensive in support of the recall zombies, again trying to put a positive spin on this whole “mess.”
“We’re better organized and things are going much faster this time,” said Richard Batchelder, a spokesman for the latest recall effort. The group now has until Aug. 5 to collect 6,318 valid signatures and have them turned in to the Macomb County Clerk's Office.
“We didn’t do our homework last time,” Batchelder said. “We’re much better prepared this time. I don’t think we’re going to have any problem collecting enough signatures to get this on the November ballot.”
When these recall zombies lost the first time around, there excuse (according to Batchelder) was they “didn’t do our homework.” Now, since they failed again to meet the mandated August 5th deadline, what is their excuse going to be? “Our dog at the homework?”
Regardless of your personal feelings about the recall, we can’t help but feel sorry for Tom Delise. Here is a guy who felt he was doing the right thing and who, in the end, got screwed by others. He was made to look like an utter fool. Delise has been used by Trustee Lisa Manzella and her recall zombies. Some may even call Delise a political patsy. Delise agreed to become the public face of the recall, and his face is the one that ended up with egg on it. If we were him, we would NEVER support any scheme that Trustee Lisa Manzella, or any of the other Save Shelby recall zombies, hatched again. Why should Delise subject his reputation to further ridicule?
The Save Shelby/Nightingale/Police Union recall failed miserably. They failed, initially, to get their petitions approved. Then, when they did get the petitions approved (after filing more than 50 petitions), they failed to get enough valid signatures to force an election. Finally, when their recall petitions were approved for a second time, they failed to meet the required deadline. Even though Mr. Batchelder bragged that they would have no problem collecting enough valid signatures by August 5th to force a recall election this November, they completely missed the mark.
So what did the recall zombies prove? What was their point?
One point that becomes crystal clear from this is that those maligned political consultants who said it couldn’t be done were correct after all.
Recall threats have been a noose around the necks of taxpayers for more than two years now. In addition to Supervisor Rick Stathakis and Treasurer Paul Viar, Trustee Mike Flynn has been a repeated target of the recall zombies. Why do they hate him so much? Maybe because Mr. Flynn can’t be intimidated? Maybe because Mr. Flynn is a true conservative fighting against liberal spending? Could it be because Mr. Flynn opposes special interest demands on elected officials?
Trustee Flynn talked about the recall in a recent editorial. The comments first appeared in a blog on the Shelby Utica Patch website and were reprinted in the August 6-7 edition of the Source Newspaper. For those who may have missed Mr. Flynn’s editorial, we encourage you to check out the links above. We are also reprinting Mr. Flynn’s editorial below:
Guest column: Where do we draw the line on political debate in Shelby Township?
By MICHAEL FLYNN
By now, most Shelby Township taxpayers realize what the issues facing us are - and they are not unique to our community. We are seeing it happen again and again all over the country at the state, federal, and local levels. The party is over. The balloons are all popped and we are out of cake and ice cream.
We are in a recession. Property values have plummeted, people are unemployed, and underemployed on a level not heard of since the days of Jimmy Carter. What does this mean? It means lower revenues for all governments: federal, state, and local. It means, like most of us have already done in the private sector, it's time for government workers (and their special-interest allies) to tighten their belts and to do without cake and ice cream for a while.
However much like the obnoxious party guest who refuses to leave at the end of the night, these folks think they are entitled to even more of a good time, all at taxpayer expense. This attitude was perhaps most prominently displayed when a retired Shelby Township Police officer approached the podium and directed his comments at Shelby Township Treasurer Paul Viar.
As many Shelby residents know, Mr. Viar has been an outspoken critic of the unsustainable pension and benefit packages currently being funded by township taxpayers. He has also suggested that his failure to support these lavish (in many cases) payouts may be the primary reason for many of the recent recall efforts against him and other reform-minded board members (including myself). Would the township police union (85 percent of whose membership live outside Shelby), and a disgruntled towing contractor care about a zoning issue? Why would a trained police officer three times his size, and 25 years his junior need to have a "conversation" with Mr. Viar in the township parking lot?
Like most issues in politics, the real answer always comes back to money. For government workers, it means finding a board who will vote to continue pay/benefit packages far out of line with private-sector equivalents, even if it means massive tax increases for you and me. For the disgruntled contractor, it means finding a board who will never put their contract out for bid - or else!
What's the "or else" you ask? Quite simply, it's intimidation, it's recall threats, it's mob rule. Why? Because it works. Previous boards (and some members of this current board) have been perfectly willing to keep feeding taxpayers to the wolves, as long as they promise to eat them last. That may be good for getting re-elected, but it's bad for taxpayers - eventually you run out of taxpayers.
That's what brings us back to today's Shelby Township. Reformers like myself and Mr. Viar will not be silenced by threats of recall, or other intimidation tactics. Our job is to watch out for the taxpayers, not government unions or other special interests. They work for us, not the other way around. These are our tax dollars and the people of Shelby Township decide how that money is spent. The taxpayers and their representatives deserve better than a choice between higher taxes or threats to "meet me in the parking lot."
Michael Flynn is a Shelby Township trustee.
The Inside Out discussed Mr. Underwood’s conduct in our July 25, 2011 blog. If you missed our editorial, or the Board of Trustees meeting that started it all, we encourage you to check it out yourself. Past meetings can be seen by going to Shelby Township’s website, scrolling down to Board of Trustees (on the left) and then clicking video on demand. Check out the Business from the Floor section at the end of the meeting. Or, if you prefer, you can check out Mr. Underwood’s actions and statements on YOUTUBE.
Mr. Underwood certainly has the right to free speech, but telling anyone to meet you in the parking lot to continue a conversation after the meeting ends is nothing short of a threat. When you watch this exchange, ask yourself if this is simply Mr. Underwood’s beliefs, or is it reflective of a much larger sentiment. Considering that Mr. Underwood is a retired police officer who is angry about public exposure about taxpayer-funded pensions, and considering that the Shelby Township police union is upset by Mr. Viar’s revelations about taxpayer-funded pensions (which the Board is trying to change), could this perhaps explain why the police union was so heavily involved in circulating recall petitions against Mr. Viar?
Until next time...
P.S. A couple of noteworthy developments:
• The Save Shelby website, the one loaded with misinformation and lies used to support the recall, has been shut down. Nevertheless, we have all the website’s screen captures that will help make for a fascinating exposé in the future. The website was used to distribute false information, and was also used to help solicit money for the recall.• The Save Shelby Facebook page remains up, however there has been no activity on it since Marsha Nightingale condemned residents for failing to support the second recall, and since Trustee Lisa Manzella compared Treasurer Paul Viar to journalist Andy Rooney.
• The police union PAC “Shelby Do the Right Thing”, the PAC that we theorized would be used to finance the recall, has been dissolved. See letter above. Looks like their grand plan backfired, or at the very least didn’t work out quite they way they hoped it would.
You see, Shelby Township residents are not as stupid and disconnected with what is going on in our township as these recall zombies believe.
Divine Providence Won. Thank You God.
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