by Gongwer News Service
August 08, 2008

With summer vacation soon to end, the legislature is expected next week to jump headfirst into the policy pool. Lawmakers have unfinished business before them: shoring up the budget and electricity deregulation legislation, as well as a dive into the deep end of controversy with leaders in the Senate wanting to veto the governor’s choice to the Liquor Control Commission. And at least one House committee will busy itself with dissecting recent unfavorable audits of the Department of Human Services.

As of Friday, both chambers had pegged Wednesday for their first session day, with sparse information available about committee activity. However, a conference committee to hash out the Department of Transportation budget, one of the last of the bills to go through the approval process, is scheduled for that morning.

Rep. Dudley Spade (D-Franklin Township), chair of the DHS Appropriations Subcommittee, also scheduled a hearing that afternoon to, in his words, “get to the bottom of” two DHS audits released in the last month.

Those audits revealed that in recent years the department has released childcare payments to thousands of criminals and child abusers and has essentially wasted in excess of $145 million in state funds by errantly sending payments to providers that didn’t qualify under the DHS program.

Mr. Spade said that although the department has changed many of the policies that allowed those mistakes to happen, he still wants someone from the department to answer the committee’s questions and alleviate concerns.

He also wants to publicly push legislation, some of which he sponsored, that is still sitting in the Senate and that he said would further reform childcare programs.

Legislators may also move the last parts of a long-awaited electric choice package, which have been in conference committee since late July when lawmakers hit a roadblock over the bill that deals with how much energy to allow from alternative providers. Both chambers provided a 10-percent threshold but disagreed on other provisions in the legislation.

Also part of the conference committee, and perhaps ready for a vote this week, is the renewable portfolio standard and whether it will look like the Senate’s wish list for a 7-percent RPS by 2015 or the House substitute of 10 percent by the same year.

Line in the Sand
The Senate may also in the upcoming days seal the deal on what’s become the controversial appointment of Colleen Pobur to the Liquor Control Commission.

Senate Republicans had planned to reject Governor Jennifer Granholm’s appointment in late July, but were forced to delay the move because two members of their caucus were absent from session.

However, officials have said that in spite of numerous documents from the administration in support of Ms. Pobur, the Senate GOP caucus still supports the idea of rejecting her appointment. In a caucus, one official said, senators reviewed the reasons for and against rejecting Ms. Pobur and they still hold to the belief that she isn’t qualified for the post.

Ms. Pobur’s appointment has become the new line in the sand over the appointment powers and rights of both the governor and the Senate.

Initially, Senate Republicans had offered to allow her appointment to go through if Ms. Granholm would keep Republican Judy Allen on the Commission (Ms. Allen was first put on the five-member body by former Governor John Engler).

After Ms. Granholm rejected that offer, Senate Republicans said they began the normal process of vetting the appointment and came across information that they said casts doubts on her abilities. Officials close to the administration say all the claims that Ms. Pobur is not qualified are bogus, and that the issue is simply one of politics.

The Senate and Ms. Granholm have sparred several times on appointments since she took office, including a situation where the Senate disapproved Dorothy Jones’ re-appointment in 2005 to the Board of State Canvassers because of allegations she violated her oath of office in voting against certification of an issue banning gay marriage and an independent candidate to the ballot. Appointments by the governor stand unless rejected by a 20-vote majority of the Senate.

Ms. Granholm demanded that the Senate state its reasoning for rejecting her choice for the commission, and she raised fury by saying the Senate GOP was engaged in McCarthyism. To that, Republican leadership promptly responded that they aren’t required to hold a hearing on appointments and can reject anyone for any reason, including wearing the wrong shoes.

The GOP has refused to release the information on which it has based its decision, in part, officials said, because doing so could put some people’s jobs in jeopardy. However, there have been selective leaks that charge that former Wayne County Executive Ed McNamara fired her and that there were problems over her handling of the concessions arrangements at the new Detroit Metro Airport.

Reacting to that, the administration has released a 2001 letter to the Detroit Free Press from the late Mr. McNamara that praised Ms. Pobur’s handling of the concessions and saying her transfer to another department was not a demotion.

The administration also released letters from Compuware CEO Peter Karmanos, Renaissance Strategies CEO Paul Welday, and Plymouth Mayor Phil Pursell (all Republicans) backing her appointment, letters that so far the GOP has dismissed.

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