Ecorse's Grand Experiment; G. Kaza

481 Ecorse's Grand ExperiDlent by Greg Kaza A t first glance, Ecorse, Michigan, appears an unlikely place for a grand experi ment. Aging steel mills dominate the landscape in the 2.2-square-mile community of 11,000,located in a region known as Downriver Detroit. Down river is typical of many of the "Rust Bowl" areas that dominate America's once-great industrial heartland. Row after row of small, wood-frame houses stand in the shadows of the mills, home to three generations of steelworkers. Along West Jefferson Avenue, the bars and fast-food estab lishments are fighting a battle against creeping blight. Crack cocaine dealers have invaded from Detroit, decimating several surrounding neigh borhoods. But look beneath the surface and you will find evidence of a grand experiment unique in recent American history. Three years ago, Ecorse teetered on the brink of economic bankruptcy, the result of a $6 million budget deficit caused by wasteful local spending.

Today, the deficit has virtually disappeared, along with most of the Ecorse city government, which has been privatized to the point of near-ex tinction. "We have created a model city that no body else in the country has," explains Louis Schimmel, the man responsible for Ecorse's grand experiment. "Some communities have pri vatized certain functions. I've privatized just about everything. Everything that I could legal ly." Greg Kaza is Vice President for Policy Research at the Mackinac Center, a Midland, Michigan, public policy think tank. Ecorse was unique before Schimmel's appear ance on the scene. It was the first Michigan com munity to be placed in receivership. Chief Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Richard Dunn ap pointed Schimmel receiver for the troubled com munity on December 3, 1986, after city officials failed to comply with repeated court orders to balance the budget.

Symbolic of the budget crisis was Ecorse's ani mal control officer,paid $45,000annually. "That's an awful lot for collecting dead dogs," Schimmel said. "I told Judge Dunn 1 didn't want the [re ceiver's] job if 1 had to do what the typical politi cian has to do, which is make promises and then chase the taxpayer's money to keep them. That's how Ecorse got in the mess that it is in today in the first place." Schimmel's first act as receiver was to dis charge 40 paid political employees from the Ecorse payroll. "Cost was not important in Ecorse even though they were near-bankrupt. Having their political buddies, cronies, relatives, and friends on the city payroll had become more important than the taxpayers," he said. Schim mel's second step was privatizing the 34-member Department of Public Works. Motor vehicle maintenance, snow removal, street and sidewalk repairs, tree trimming, water meter reading, weed cutting, and a myriad of other activities are now performed by the private sector. For an encore, Schimmel sold the DPW building and the depart ment's equipment. "They're gone. It's going to be difficult if not impossible to resurrect them from the dead," he said.

Garbage collection was already handled pri482 THE FREEMAN • DECEMBER 1989 DowntownEcorse. vately, but Schimmel renegotiated the contract at a savings of $120,000. "It is important that con tracts. are monitored on a regular basis," he said. The city boat-launching facility was privatized. The city lost money under government control but is now turning a profit. Surplus buildings and abandoned city lots were sold to reduce the bud get deficit, which has been cut to $1 million. Michigan law prevented Schimmel from alter ing Ecorse's police department, but he privatized the pension fund, restoring fiscal sanity to a sys tem once underfunded by $15 million. Under the fire union contract Schimmel renegotiated, the current full-time force will become a part-time and volunteer department through attrition. "We have a long list of applicants for the new posi tions. They don't seem to mind that it's not full time. They just want to work," Schimmel said.

Few Ecorse departments have escaped Schim mel's budget-cutting. The city's work force, once 140, has been reduced by more than 60 percent through privatization. There have been excep tions. The duties of the $45,000animal control of ficer were contracted to the neighboring city of River Rouge. "We pay half their costs and both of us save money," Schimmel said. Privatization is frequently characterized as a "Sun Belt" or "Republican" idea. The Ecorse ex ample proves otherwise. Downriver is synony mous with the so-called "Rust Belt," and Michi gan Treasurer Robert Bowman, a Democrat, is among those supporting Schimmel. Bowman and Governor James Blanchard may turn to Schim mel to resolve a $4.4 million budget deficit in River Rouge. "There isn't a community Down river where I wouldn't use privatization," Schim mel said. "That includes River Rouge." Not everyone is impressed with Ecorse's grand experiment. Labor unions representing former city employees have criticized the receivership, portraying Schimmel as an economic czar with an abrasive personality. Officials responsible for the $6 million deficit contend the privatization of city services has gone too far.

For his critics, Schimmel has a ready response. "They knew bankruptcy was coming with that kind of spending, but they didn't do a damn thing about it. We did." D 483 The Artificial Inflation of Natural Rights by Antony Flew L ike other currencies, the currency of • rights has in recent years been subject to inflation. And just as money tends to lose value the more of it that governments print, so the more that is said to be a matter of natural or universal human right, the less force any such particular claim will have. In the good old days of the American Declaration of Independence the Founding Fathers of the United States men tioned only three such universal, unalienable, supposedly self-evident, and necessarily equal rightsto "life, liberty and the pursuit of happi ness." But since World War II such declarations -more frequent and much less eloquently writ ten, as well as (on the part of so many of the new signers) totally insincere-have embraced ever lengthening lists. In the most notorious, adopted in 1948 by the UN General Assembly, the table of specification covers, not one modest clause in a single world-shaking sentence but six printed pages. In what would have appeared to the American Founding Fathers a crescendo of ab surdity we are told: (Article 22) "Everyone ...