The case of the rowdy priest

Mike McGonegal is dedicated to changing the tone in Lansing that gets back to the American ideal of compromising to solve problems and working with the other party to actually find solutions to the many problems facing our state.
Whatever happened to bipartisanship to get things done? What happed to it is the attitude of people like Chris Ward. Long-time Lansing staffers say that Ward, as floor majority leader that sets the agenda for the full House to consider, is rude, sarcastic and arbitrarily cuts off debate. Here's one recent example of his attitude when he threatened to have a Priest arrested. This is from a May 26 column by Lansing State Journal columnist John Schneider.

WESTPHALIA - On Wednesday, the Rev. Cecilio Reyna, pastor of St. Mary
Catholic Church attended his first public hearing.
He came to Lansing from Westphalia to stand up and explain why he was against a proposed state law that would identify Michigan drivers as U.S. citizens, or noncitizens, on their driver's licenses. "I wanted to tell them about my mother," Reyna told me.
But he never got a chance and, in fact, was told that if he persisted in his attempts to voice his opinion at that particular time and place, he would be forcibly removed from the hearing room. Reyna was accused of interrupting the meeting. It wasn't exactly an auspicious debut for Reyna in the realm of public debate.
"Why I was not allowed to speak baffles me," Reyna said.
The sponsor of the bill (House Bill 6085) that would create the citizen/noncitizen designation is House Majority Floor Leader Chris Republican from Brighton.

Time constraints
Responding, via e-mail, to Reyna's complaint that he was silenced, Ward wrote, in part: "The fact of the matter is that the committee (hearing) was already running long. ... Many committee members were already running late for other committees they serve on, and we needed to wrap things up. "It is not uncommon to cut short testimony and vote on bills when you run into time constraints."(As a former staffer who has attended Committee meetings, when time is running out, other chairs at a minimum go through all the cards submitted and at least ask the person if they support the bill or do not. Why not that courtesy here, especially for a priest in full collar?)

Ward pointed out that he publicly invited Reyna to submit written testimony, which would become part of the official committee record.
Following my inquiries, Reyna got a call from a Ward aide who offered him a face-to-face meeting with the rep. (Ah, the power of publicity and elections. It makes rude, inaccessible lawmakers polite and available. I don’t think the Father Reyna wanted a face-to-face with Mr. Ward, he wanted the full committee and the public to hear him.)

The House Oversight, Elections and Ethics Committee approved Ward's bill, which will now go to the full House. (Since approved)

Extra information
The rationale for the law: It would assist law-enforcement officials in identifying illegal aliens (even though noncitizens are not necessarily illegal) and inform employers about the citizenship status of job applicants.
Ward's chief of staff, Marcia Hagenbarth said the citizenship Designation also will be helpful if, and when, election officials start requiring Photo ID at voting polls.
"We're not necessarily trying to target illegal aliens," Hagenbarth said. "This is NOT a witch hunt."
Anyway, here's some of what Reyna wanted to say about his mother:
A Mexican national, she married an American GI in 1957, then lived in The U.S. as a noncitizen LEGAL resident for 40 years.
She eventually became a citizen in 1997, but long before that she became a tax-paying resident with a job and a Social Security number.
In an e-mail, Reyna wrote: "My poor mother would have been quite distressed by some public official assuming she was not here legally because of her identification as a noncitizen. "I wanted to ask (the committee members) to show compassion by rejecting a bill that might cause similar distress to people who are not citizens,
but are here legally."
That, Reyna concluded, was all he wanted to say.