Lansing State Journal: State worker unions call on commission to reject proposed rule changes
Unions representing more than 30,000 Michigan state government employees today called on the Civil Service Commission to reject a proposal for new limits on collective bargaining.
Under a proposal earlier this month from State Personnel Director Jan Winters, unions could no longer negotiate over how employees are recalled after layoffs, how overtime is doled out or how performance pay or other incentives are handled, among other issues. The Civil Service Commission, which regulates state workers, could vote on the proposal at its next meeting on Sept. 20 in Lansing.
In a joint statement on Tuesday, leaders of five of the state’s six employee unions called on the commission to say no.
The Detroit News: Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan offers to chair a Biden 2020 presidential bid
Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan says he would run the Democratic nomination campaign of former Vice President Joe Biden if he decides to run for president in 2020.
“Well, you know, I’d do it if Joe Biden wanted,” Duggan said on Politico’s Off Message podcast that was released Tuesday.
Biden, a Democrat, grew into a major advocate for Detroit during the Obama administration, paying a number of visits to the city during its revitalization and helping it to land federal grants.
Biden is also a Duggan advocate, recording a robocall for Duggan’s re-election campaign at his request that went out to Detroit households the night before the Aug. 8 primary, he said.
Detroit Free Press: Push is on to sell, develop former prison site in Plymouth
With hopes of boosting development plans for a high-tech corridor, an aggressive push has begun to sell a 120-acre former prison site in Plymouth Township and find a developer to transform the longtime eyesore.
To that end, state and local officials gathered on the site Wednesday morning as the Michigan Land Bank Fast Track Authority announced it is seeking proposals to purchase and redevelop the property on Five Mile, west of Beck, where work crews early this year demolished long-unused Detroit House of Corrections buildings.
“Our primary mission is to take unproductive properties and return them to productive, tax-capturing use,” Josh Burgett, the authority’s director, said. “DeHoCo has been an eyesore sitting unproductive for far too long.”
Plymouth Township Supervisor Kurt Heise, who has called the area “one of the hottest commercial corridors right now in southeast Michigan,” welcomed the news as an opportunity to develop the property, create jobs and stimulate economic growth.
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