FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
News from Progress Michigan
September 9, 2014
Contact: Sam Inglot, 616-916-0574, sam@progressmichigan.org
Progress Michigan Calls for Gov. Snyder to Fire Richard Baird
LANSING — In light of recent reports that Gov. Rick Snyder’s right-hand man, Richard Baird, continues to threaten a select group of women that criticized his unwarranted tax breaks, Progress Michigan is calling for the governor to fire Baird.
“This is what happens when you run a state like a business, you get administration officials who think they are unaccountable to the people they work for every day,” said Lonnie Scott, executive director of Progress Michigan. “Back in his boardroom days, Richard Baird may have been able to get away with threatening women over email and voicemail, but now he’s a public servant and his actions clearly show he should not be working in the public domain. As a member of the Snyder administration, Richard Baird works for Karla Swift, not the other way around. It’s time Governor Snyder fired Baird for incompetence and behavior unbecoming of a high-ranking public employee who is charged with overseeing vital operations of the state’s affairs and for not adhering to his “relentless positive action” mantra through which he has supposedly run his administration.”
Today, Progress Michigan submitted a FOIA request to Bath Township requesting documents related to the sale of Baird’s property and communication between Baird and township officials since the story broke.
“This whole situation is another example of reckless and out-of-touch behavior from the highest levels of Snyder’s administration,” Scott continued. “For three years, Baird was either knowingly taking a tax break he knew he did not apply for, or he was too incompetent to notice it until it was pointed out by the media. Complaining about legitimate criticism in response to his own failing is further proof that Rich Baird is not fit to work in state government.”
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