My Resume

Ben W. Washburn, 14600 Glastonbury, Detroit, MI  48223

Home Phone:  (313) 838-5049   Cell Phone which I only use when not at home:  (313) 330-7700  Email:  benwashburn@msn.com

Web site:  http://www.plunkbenwashburnforschools.com

PERSONAL:  Retired, with benefits, but still able, capable and concerned about the future of our City, and looking for options to make it better.  Married since 1971 to Paulette.  We have three children who attended DPS. All three attended the DPS Detroit Open School for K to 8.

Our oldest daughter, Kathryn graduated from Renaissance High in 1991, along with her close friend Alycia Humphries (now Meriweather).  They both went to U of M and shared a house on S. State Street with three other Renaissance classmates.  We attended Alycia’s wedding some 20 years ago.  We thought highly of her back then, and even more highly today.  Kathryn has been the Girl Friday for 3 successful Silicon Valley start-ups, an organizer of the Golden Gate AIDs March, and a fund-finder for Children First, a San Francisco non-profit which promotes research on children’s issues.  She now lives in Buffalo, N.Y. with her husband and our 2 grand children.  She is currently the coordinator of the Buffalo Association of Non-Profit Fund-raisers.

My youngest daughter, Lesley, graduated as Salutatorian in 1997 from the DPS Communications and Media Arts High School, and had a full-tuition scholarship to Wayne State, where she studied Technical Theatre.  After using those skills for a couple of years in doing home renovations, she went to Missoula, Montana to seek a Master’s Degree.  There, she ended-up for the past 8 years as the props manager for the Missoula Children’s Theatre, whose 48 crews bring children’s theatre to 2000 locations each year in the U.S., Mexico, Canada, and at armed forces bases around the world.

From age 12, my son Elliot, was hot on becoming a professional hockey player, and went to Catholic Central, which has a strong hockey program. Elliot is and was dyslexic, as am I, and as was my father.  We hired a lot of tutors to get him through school, both at the Open School, and at Catholic Central.  With this help, and because of his hockey aspirations, he managed to graduate as the 267th GPA in his 267 graduating class.  But the average graduate at Catholic Central then scored a 26 on the ACT in 1995, whereas the average graduate at Renaissance scored a 19.   These days, he is about the only hockey-playing hair stylist in Bloomfield Hills.  OK, he sometimes cuts Verlander’s hair, but his hockey injuries will surely limit his ability in the coming years to stand on his feet all day.

RELEVANT WORK AND VOLUNTARY EXPERIENCE:

1948 TO 1953:  Kentucky tobacco and sheep farmer.  On farms, you are expected to help with the field work from age 10 on.  There and in the agricultural vocational high schools, you learn how to do lots of stuff for yourself.

1953:  Worked that summer as a Steeplejack Apprentice in central Kentucky installing lightning rods on water towers, silos, barns, etc.  Thankfully survived four life-threatening accidents.  With the $832 that I earned that summer, plus a $250 Kroger Scholarship, I was able to pay my way through my Freshman year at the University of Kentucky College of Agriculture, where I posted a 4.0 GPA.

1954:  Worked that next summer in a safer job as a Teamster in a Cincinnati milk plant doing vacation relief work, sterilizing vats, making cottage and Philadelphia-type cheese, testing for butterfat content, loading trucks, and setting-up packaging machines.  But, all of my earnings that summer went to pay for my brother’s appendicitis operation, and I had to join the Air Force to get the GI Bill if I hoped to go back to college.

1954 to 1959:  Military intelligence operations specialist in covert operations in Europe and the Middle East.  I joined to get the GI Bill before Congress ditched it.  But, by the mere draw of a straw, this service changed my world perspective and my life forever.

1959-62:  I worked the rest of my way through college in Ann Arbor.  In addition to the GI Bill, I ran a fraternity kitchen (of which I was not a member), delivered laundry (Varsity Laundry Co.) and pizza (Cottage Inn), and maintained the landscaping of a big church on Washtenaw.  I worked 100 hours a week in the summer and 25 hours during the school year in order to make ends meet.  Fifty years ago, it was still possible for a young person with no other means, to work their way through college, even though it took me 8 years.  Today, that is largely impossible, without a lot of crippling student debt.

1962 to 1966:  Personnel Examiner for the Detroit Civil Service Commission, recruiting, testing and reclassifying engineers, chemists, foresters, veterinarians, architects, building tradesmen, water system and street maintenance workers, construction equipment operators, bus drivers and mechanics, police cadets, firemen and unskilled workers.  From this, you learn the nitty gritty details of what it takes to run a City and support operations for the school system.  In 1966, I was the lead examiner on reclassifying 3,000 employees in the skilled and semi-skilled trades, in order to enable compliance with the Public Employees Relations Act (PERA), which had just been passed by the Legislature in 1965, to enable public employees to unionize.  Evenings, I attended the Wayne State Law School, and graduated in 1966 with a Juris Doctorate.  Again, back then, the annual tuition was $252, and the City reimbursed me for the first $250.  So, I was able to get my degree over 4 years for just $8. out of pocket.  These days, students run-up $100,000 in student loans.

1967 to 1971:  I was the head grant-finder for the City in assuring that we were the first in line with our applications, as the Congress churned-out dozens of new programs after the Kennedy assassination, for Johnson’s Great Society initiatives.

1971 to 1983:  Deputy Director of the Detroit – Wayne County Justice System Coordinating Council under Mayors Gribbs and Young.  We administered a $140 Million grant program to improve public safety and the justice system, including implementation of:

*9-1-1 in Detroit and suburban police dispatch systems.

*The Detroit Emergence Medical System.

*A crash program in 1971 and again in 1979 to eliminate a run-away backlog in the Detroit Recorder’s Court.

*Successful on-going computerized case management systems in the Jail, Civil and Criminal Courts, Prosecutor’ Office, and Juvenile Justice System.

*Implementing communications, dispatch and crime-reporting statistical and analysis systems in Detroit and suburban police departments.

*Establishing Mini-Police Stations in Detroit.

*Establishing both a Detroit and Sheriff’s Police Academy.

*Establishing the One-Day, One-Trial Jury Service System.

*Establishing training programs and rotating appointments for indigent defense counsel.

*Making modifications to the Wayne County Jail to bring it into compliance with federal standards.

*Establishing successful diversion programs for first-time offenders, and Release on Own Recognizance to reduce jail overcrowding.

*Arranging the transfer of the Pre-sentence and Probation supervisory functions to the State Department of Corrections, because the City and County could no longer afford the cost.

*Obtaining State pick-up of a large part of court operational costs.

*Obtaining and facilitating a transition from a 27-member Board of Wayne County Commissioners to the first Charter County in Michigan.

1983 to 2009:  Commission Counsel, the Charter provided legal counsel and policy advisor to the Wayne County Commission.  I researched and drafted at least 95% of the county ordinances now on the books, as well as regulations and proposed charter amendments.  I aggressively defended the legislative powers of the Commission regarding oversight of the executive branch, budgetary control, and home rule powers.

RELEVANT VOLUNTARY EXPERIENCE (JUST SOME OF THE HIGH POINTS):

1968-70:  Vice President, Detroit Jaycees, working to engage young downtown executives to take a more active role in civic service, with regard to urban planning, mass transportation, education, economic development, inclusive race relations, and local political issues.

1968-70:  I was a supportive activist in Council President Henderson’s Coalition Against Insurance Red-lining.

1971:  I was the Finance Committee Chair for a State-wide Coalition to Reform School Financing.  This was an early attempt to reform State school finance in order to provide distressed schools like Detroit’s with more State aid.  We failed, but we tried.  I have been involved in continuous efforts to improve Detroit’s schools for 45 years.

1974:  I took a local lead with the Coalition for Peaceful Integration after Judge Roth’s deseg order, in order to avert Boston-type outbursts.  We were successful.

1973-74:  Chair of the Public Safety Committee of a large group of Grandmont/Rosedale Residents for Better City Living.

1977 to 1983:  I was the main organizer of a Block Captain’s Network in Rosedale Park.  I assembled an extensive manual for this purpose which is still used as a model around the City. I went block by block to all 59 blocks in the neighborhood and recruited 122 new-comer families to this voluntary work.  38% were new black neighbors, many of whom still live here and are still active in the neighborhood.   In that manual, I stressed that the adults on every block needed to get to know the children on their block and to talk to them about their education.  Children need everyday reinforcement from the adults around them that school is a very important thing.

1980-84:  I joined the Liaison Committee at the Detroit Open School, which attended every school board meeting to make sure that there was nothing on the agenda meant to harm our school.   The Open School expressly did not teach to the test, but its students were always outstanding when tested.  Other principals and administrators were embarrassed by this comparison, and did all they could to hamstring the school.  We had to attend and scan every agenda, and then when needed to call-out 200 angry parents to face-down these threats, which we did again and again.  I have been there and I have done that, and I know that most institutional reflexes are about maintaining a status quo, and are rarely in the best interests of our children.

1984-85:  Co-Chair of the Detroit Open School Parent Body:  Over the summer, I visited each of the 260 families at the school to garner a solid promise from each to devote at least 40 hours per year to in-schoolroom or other needed help.  This one-on-one contact tripled participation.

1984 to 1989:  Member of the City-Wide School Community Organization of the DPS.  Because I was at so many School Board meetings, Dr. Jefferson invited me to become a member of this in-house advisory group.

1987-88:  Invited to take part in a Colloquium on Education in the 21st Century.  For 18 months, Aretha Marshall, the Director of Alternative Schools (the Open School was one of 13 across the City) and the Wayne County Intermediate School District flew-in the top-named school reformers of the nation, to present to us and confer with us.  Out of this, a reform movement emerged, known as the HOPE Campaign (Hayden, Olmstead and Patrick for Education).  I was a grass roots organizer of this campaign, along with a dozen others.  Once they were elected, I was the unofficial secretary, writer, and mentor for the group.

1989:  I was a core team member of a recall effort against our local school board member, who had resisted the HOPE agenda for no good reason and who even refused to meet and talk about it.  This was the only successful recall effort in the City for the past 50 years.  After the recall, the group recommended to the Board that I be appointed to fill the vacancy, and they did so.

1989 to 2003:  Member of the Detroit Board of Education, elected 4 times, mainly because I was willing to go door-to-door to thousands of homes for weeks on end to personally gain support.  All people respect one-on-one contact.  My first time campaign managers were Freman Hendrix, Jennifer Granholm, Nabil Leach and Mary Sue Schottenfels.   Even though I had been a ten-year appointee of Mayor Young, and even though he had no problem with anything I had done, he ran someone against me, and put 130 of his appointees out to the Primary polls on City-paid time to defeat me, basically because he could not control me.   I had more than 200 able volunteers behind me who thoroughly covered all 38 district polling places for all 13 hours, and we beat his guy, 58 to 42.

During my 4-term tenure, I served as Chair of the Physical Plant, Audit, Finance, and Superintendent Evaluation Committees.   I still know those top-down accountability roles inside-out.  Looking back, I am no longer a fan of top-down activism.  What we now need to do is select a Superintendent who has a proven track record as a bottom-up activator, and once selected, to mainly get out of the way, and leave most oversight to the use of a strong after-the-fact audit group.

1993 to present:  Member of the Christ the King Catholic Church Stewardship Commission, which oversees church finances and facilities maintenance.  Out of a 360 family parish, I muster some 120 volunteers each year to help with our annual garage sale fund-raiser.  But, again, this only happens with intensive one-on-one contact and encouragement.

2005:  At the end of the first State takeover in 2005, Governor Granholm asked me to serve on a Transition Advisory Task Force.  I co-chaired the Ethics Committee.  As part of that, I updated and revised a policy on procurement and ethics, which was based upon a National Procurement Code.  This code is now in use in 20 of our 50 states.  I know this code inside-out, because back in 1978-80, I was on the working group for the American Bar Association, which drafted this code.  I helped craft each word, phrase and section.   But the new board ignored it and went back to the same old ways, and that brought us a new series of Emergency Managers.

2012 to Present:  Active member of a five-neighborhood action group dedicated to obtaining a City Ordinance to enable neighborhoods to create by a special assessment district, a means to enhance neighborhood security, provide for street and sidewalk snow plowing, and mosquito abatement.  We have obtained necessary amendments in Lansing to the State authorizing Act, and have obtained an implementing City ordinance.  We are currently conducting a door-to-door campaign to obtain the buy-in of the 3,000 homeowner signatures needed to establish the special assessment district in our 5 communities.

2014 to present:  Revised my 1970’s Block Club Manual to address the needs of today’s neighborhoods.

2015:  As a volunteer, I legally advised the Detroit Public Library Commission on how best to seek a renewal of its operating millage.  I also drafted a policy which advised all library employees on what they could and could not legally do to promote the passage of the millage.  The millage renewal was successful.   The Library Commission is appointed by the Detroit School Board.  Adult and student literacy (reading skills) is one of our most important education objectives.

2013 to Present:  Member of the Board of Directors, and for the past 2 years, the Treasurer of MOSES (Metropolitan Organizing Strategy Enabling Strength), a coalition of churches, mosques and synagogues dedicated to promoting public issues which are important to everyone, such as mass transit.  I have been active with this group since its inception in southwest Detroit and Downriver with Rev. Joseph Barlow’s Jeremiah Project around 1990.  Sorry to say, I was not on my game in promoting my educational perspectives, and our Education Committee was persuaded to follow the lead instead of an institutional coalition.   As you will soon gather from my website, I disagree fundamentally with that viewpoint.

But I only raise this point to say that I have not been resting on my laurels for the past few years.   I have been active in several civic initiatives.

RELEVANT EDUCATION:

BA, History and Sociology, University of Michigan, 1961, much of which was based upon previous credits from the University of Kentucky College of Agriculture; Cleary College, Wichita Falls, Texas; University of Omaha, Nebraska; University of Maryland Overseas Program; and Johann Goethe University, Frankfort am Main, Germany.

Juris Doctorate, Laws, Wayne State Law School:  1966.  Today, everyone who graduates from a law school gets a Juris Doctorate, but back in 1966, only the top 10% of the class received this degree.

1970:  Certificate from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, Intensive four week residential program for the Advanced Study of Organizations.

1975:  Certificate from a two-week intensive residential program of the State Court Administrator’s Colloquy in Denver, Colorado.

 

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