Sen. Colbeck, Rep. Heise Talk About Legislation

Two Michigan legislators, Sen. Patrick Colbeck, R-Canton, and District 20 Rep. Kurt Heise, R-Plymouth, spoke to about 50 constituents Monday night about the bills that have and will come before them in this legislative session.

The legislative update, organized by the Wayne 11th Congressional District Republican Committee, included an opportunity to mingle with the legislators over refreshments for a $20 fee. The committee, according to its Facebook page, "conducts the business of the Republican party in western Wayne and Oakland counties.”

At the event, held at the Northville Sports Den, Colbeck and Heise talked for about 20 minutes each and then answered crowd questions on issues ranging from education and teacher tenure to the emergency manager law to health care.

Colbeck discusses passed legislation

“I tell you, every contentious bill we have pushed through the Senate has come through my committee,” joked Colbeck, a freshman senator. “We kicked it off with emergency manager legislation.”

He said the emergency manager legislation promotes fiscal responsibility and accountability. Since its passage, the law has generated much controversy and the ire of some of the local governments where it has been implemented.

Colbeck said his support for a ban on project labor agreements (PLAs) earned him a “death threat.” He voted to support banning PLAs, which require bidding companies to employ only union workers.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, a PLA "is a required set of labor standards imposed on contractors for the life of a project. PLA’s generally cover wages and working conditions, mandate that all employees join a union and pay dues, designate the union as the sole representative of the employees, and require payment into union benefit funds. Included in the agreement is the guarantee that projects will be built without strikes, lockouts, or similar disruptions."

Colbeck said, “All we did is push forward a bill that suggested that we shouldn’t discriminate during the bid process on the basis of whether or not a bidder was a union shop or a non-union shop."

Using union-only bidders eliminates 80 percent of the bids and increases taxpayer costs, he added.

Teacher tenure – which he vehemently expressed needs to be rescinded – reform will be discussed this week in the senate, he said.

“Please tell me how teacher tenure is good for the kids,” Colbeck said.  “It’s nothing but job security on it and unfortunately not only does it provide job security for good teachers but it also provides job security for teachers that should not be in the classroom.”

Colbeck also took jabs at the media, which drew applause, saying that headlines such as those indicating teachers had been laid off around his district – “bullied” legislators in a manner akin to scare tactics. Plymouth-Canton Community Schools board of education agreed to cut 269 teaching jobs in April but as of Tuesday night, all those teachers had been recalled and fewer than 35 remained on the layoff list. Plymouth-Canton is the third-largest school system in the state and in Colbeck's district.

Heise talks about Detroit water board and judicial reform

Heise talked at length about the water bill he sponsored and judicial reform, among other pieces of legislation.

The water bill is a personal issue for him, he said, because a handful of his communities, including Plymouth and Northville, have seen double-digit increases household bills for water and sewerage service.

Heise wants a regional board to oversee the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department, with three appointees from the suburbs and four from Detroit. He said it was important to have a suburban Wayne County presence, especially on the issue of rate approval.

“There’s a great disparity in the rate-setting process,” Heise said, adding that more oversight is needed in how bidding processes work within the department.

Reducing the number of judges in the state is also on Heise's to-do list.

“We have too many judges in Michigan,” he said

He discussed a bill expected to be introduced in the Michigan House of Representatives later this year, which would consolidate district, circuit and appeals courts. Courts within Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties would get special scrutiny, he said. Heise also said that the language of the bill is "being integrated and coordinated between the House, the Senate, the governor’s office and the Michigan Supreme Court. It’s quite unprecedented for this to be happening.

“We have too many judges working downtown,” Heise said. “We have this old 1970s notion of one city, one judge or one city, two judges. We cannot sustain that cost anymore.”