Great Lakes Wire

As Gov. Gretchen Whitmer gradually permits Michigan to emerge from the shadows of COVID-19 restrictions, critics of her ongoing claim to rule by decree are continuing to call for a transparent public process that involves the constitutionally directed checks and balances of the state Legislature working in tandem with the governor's office.

Mark Hackel, Macomb County executive, recently appeared on WJR's "The Frank Beckmann Show" to speak about why he thinks the situation needs to change.

Hackel said that he isn't against all of the actions Whitmer has taken.

"I agreed with the stay-home orders; I agreed with the shutdown," he told Beckmann.

Hackel said other government executives at the county level or below have used emergency powers only until legislative bodies had the time to begin taking action.

"Even at the local-est of levels, school boards are working with their superintendents, their executive branches, to make a determination about what we're doing with our kids right now," Hackel told Beckmann. "But for some reason, our Legislature at the state level has been locked out."

Hackel said that it's not about trying to take anything away from Whitmer.

"This is something that was taken away from the Legislature that has not been restored but should be," he told Beckmann.

Whereas legislative deliberations would be inherently transparent and public, the decisions regarding how and when to permit reopenings, and even who to allow to reopen, are being made without any communication from Whitmer's administration regarding the reasoning behind her decisions.

"There is no connectivity, and we're not getting the right answer, or the factual answers, and I can't just let that go," Hackel told Beckmann.

"I need to know, on behalf of these businesses, what is the criteria we're using? Rather than something that comes out at a press conference, arbitrarily," he said on the radio program.

Rather than the current situation with the governor and the Legislature in contention, and Whitmer refusing to answer questions or give clear guidance, the Legislature needs to be back involved and working in tandem with the governor's office, Hackel said. That would return the situation to the checks and balances that were laid out in the Michigan Constitution.