Whitmer commission to grow Michigan starts work at undisclosed location

The Growing Michigan Together Council held its first meeting Friday in Detroit, at an undisclosed location, according to media reports. Reporters were forced to watch via Zoom to follow along.

“In-person attendance for media was initially floated, but it was switched to livestream only,” reported Beth LeBlanc of The Detroit News.

Before taking office, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer pledged to run an historically transparent administration. That promise, like fixing the doggone roads, has gone unfulfilled. Now an advisory board Whitmer created to make recommendations on how to grow the state’s population is acting without the public’s input. 

The panel is already filled with Lansing insiders, all of whom are in the governor’s orbit. When Whitmer needed someone under 25 to round out the commission, she didn’t look far. She tapped a colleague: State Rep. Alabas Farhat, a 23-year-old Dearborn Democrat.