Michigan Votes Forum

Introduced in the House on September 18, 2008

Click here to view bill details.

What happened to Constitutional freedoms? While I understand the need to curb conflicts of interest, I do believe that the election process provides an override for that. "We the People" are smart enough, in most cases, to decide who we want to elect to our local school boards and I believe that the by laws of most Districts have provisions regarding Board decisions that involve potential conflicts. A board member is always able and obligated to recuse himself from a vote that involves a relative. School boards work best when the members are passionate about the people whom they represent. What's next, a statute eliminating board members who have children in that District? The process of popular vote has worked fairly well the past 230 years and I believe that it should be okay for a while longer.

Laws that unduly restrict opportunity for citizens to participate directly in governing -- as proposed by this bill -- are fundamentally un-American.

The simple fact of being a spouse, child, parent or sibling of a school employee does not and never has created a conflict of interest for a school board trustee under Michigan law.  It is nonsensical to change that now, and create a purely artificial and arbitrary barrier to public participation in local government.

 as a citizen, i cannot trust the honesty of the results of any vote that benefits the school that a "school board member's relative" works at. each and every one smacks of conflict of interest.

while there MAY BE nothing innapropriate about it, the APPEARANCE OF IMPROPRIATY is all the people will see. way too much here ALREADY APPEARS INNAPROPRIATE,

relatives cannot work in several departments in this state, why not in this case?

are you IN FAVOR OF NEPOTISM simply because it hasn't presented "A PROBLEM" so far?