It's Your Money

Who is the Michigan Municipal League (MML)
working for with your money?

Michigan Statute MCL 247.64(2) used to say:

“A village or city, or a township having a population
of more than 5,000, may, whether or not provided in
its charter, provide by ordinance enacted for the
purpose of controlling and eradicating noxious weeds
in subdivided land that if the owner, agent, or occupant
of subdivided land in a subdivision in which buildings
have been erected on 60% of the lots, or the owner,
agent, or occupant of a lot along an improved street
in common usage, has failed, after 10 days' notice as
provided in this section, to destroy the weeds, for a
depth of 10 rods or the depth of the lot, whichever is
less, then an agent authorized by the governing body
of the township, village, or city may enter upon the
lot and destroy noxious weeds by cutting.”

In 2010, under pressure from the Michigan Municipal
League, that law was changed and now reads:

“A village, city, or township may, whether or not provided
in its charter, provide by ordinance enacted for the purpose
of controlling and eradicating noxious weeds in subdivided
land that if the owner, agent, or occupant of subdivided
land in a subdivision in which buildings have been erected
on 60% of the lots, or the owner, agent, or occupant of a
lot along an improved street in common usage, has failed,
after 10 days' notice as provided in this section, to destroy
the weeds, for a depth of 10 rods or the depth of the lot,
whichever is less, then an agent authorized by the
governing body of the township, village, or city may enter
upon the lot and destroy noxious weeds by cutting.”

Then in MCL 247.63a they do away with the notice requirement.

Is this what the MML means when they say their purpose is to
“make better cities?” It looks more as though they're all for
acquiring more power and control over “free citizens” than
anything else. Little by little the cities impinge on freedoms
we've come to take for granted. They have time, after all,
they've already been around for 110 years. Initially the
purpose was to assist undereducated elected officials.
Any more they're really about power grabs, because nobody
is watching and they've gotten themselves exempt from FOIA.

There will be more on this topic in the months to come.

Bill Vajk