Tagged: Detroit consent agreement

Detroit’s top lawyer has apparently decided to fight on in her effort to challenge the city’s consent agreement with the state.

State officials warn the ongoing court battle threatens Detroit’s ability to “get back on track and move forward.”

Detroit corporation counsel Krystal Crittendon maintains the consent agreement is illegal because the state owes Detroit money, and the city can’t have a valid contract with a debtor.

But Ingham County Circuit Court Judge William Collette threw the case out, saying Crittendon had no authority to bring it.

It’s been a few months since the city of Detroit and the state entered into a consent agreement aimed at stabilizing the city’s finances. Since then, the financial advisory board has been formed, but there have been a few hiccups in the city’s progress, including a lawsuit brought by the city’s corporation counsel challenging the validity of the consent agreement.

Stephen Henderson is editorial page editor for the Free Press and the host of "American Black Journal.” He joined us to talk about developments around the consent agreement.

Jennifer White: Do you have a sense of whether progress in being made towards stabilizing the city?

Stephen Henderson: Well a little bit of progress has been made. We got some of the money the state promised to extend to us to keep the city from going bankrupt, and they sold about $80 million worth of bonds in the spring to do that. The second part of that funding though has been held up by this dispute about the city’s corporation counsel, and whether she can sue to stop the consent agreement from taking place. So that’s at least a little bit on hold right now. But of course we got some good news recently because the fiscal year changed over here in Detroit over the weekend. July 1 was the beginning of our fiscal year and so the city is a little bit cash rich right now, even though we still have a structural deficit. So, I think the emergency part of this might be subsiding but we still have big questions about how we’ll manage going forward.

JW:You mentioned the lawsuit brought forward by Krystal Crittendon, the city’s corporation counsel, challenging the consent agreement’s validity, and there was considerable push back from Mayor Bing and the Snyder administration. That included the threat that $28 million in revenue would be withheld from the city. When will there be resolution on that?

SH:I don’t know. That’s a big problem because she asserts that she can, on her own without the support of the mayor, challenge this agreement. Most lawyers and most judges in fact that I’ve talked to say that there’s no way she should be able to do that, but we have a city charter that does not make that terribly clear. So really to solve that problem we have to get back in to the charter and amend it. Of course it would all go away if she would just relent and say it’s not worth holding up the city’s entire existence over this question. But she’s been unable, or unwilling to do that so far.

JW:Does she have the support of city council members?

Detroit Mayor Dave Bing and city union representatives appear to be headed for a showdown over contract negotiations.

The heart of this disagreement is Detroit’s consent agreement with the state.

There’s language in there that allows the mayor to impose union contracts after previous contracts expire. Most city workers’ contracts expired June 1.

But in a scathing letter to Bing, union officials say it doesn’t exempt the city from bargaining with unions—something they haven’t done since the two sides reached tentative agreements in February.

Detroit Mayor Dave Bing took questions from Detroiters during a “community conversation” at city hall Wednesday night.

Bing answered a wide range of questions from citizens, ranging from concerns about blight and crime, to leaking pipes and building permits.

But he also deflected some questions to his top officials, nearly a dozen of whom flanked him in a city auditorium.

Detroit Mayor Dave Bing went to the Detroit City Council Friday to formally tell them he wants to get rid of the city’s top lawyer.

Instead, he walked out of an abruptly-recessed meeting he later called a “sideshow.”

Bing has been at odds with Detroit’s corporation counsel, Krystal Crittendon, for weeks now.

Detroit Mayor Dave Bing has asked the city’s top lawyer, Krystal Crittendon, to resign—and she’s refused.

Now, Bing says he’ll make a case for removing her to the Detroit City Council.

Crittendon recently went against Bing’s wishes by pressing a legal challenge to the city’s consent agreement with the state.

Crittendon said she was obligated to do that because she believed the consent agreement violated the city charter. And she insisted the charter allowed her to act independently of Bing.

The Detroit City Council is moving ahead to implement the city’s consent agreement with the state.

The Council had delayed appointing its two members to a nine-member financial advisory board while the city’s corporation counsel challenged the consent deal in court.

Detroit pulls back from the brink... again

In another down-to-the-wire showdown, an Ingham County Judge ruled yesterday that Detroit's top lawyer had no standing to halt a consent agreement between the state and the city. If she had been successful, there were warnings the city would go bankrupt in a matter of days.

Sarah Cwiek follows the Detroit drama for Michigan Radio and she caught up with Mayor Dave Bing after the judge's ruling:

“We need to get on with running the city," Bing said. "The city is still in a crisis. And we can’t have all of these distractions and think we’re going to bring the city back.”

The first steps: convening the city’s nine-member financial advisory board. That’s a key provision of the consent agreement. Bing says they’ll meet for the first time Friday.

Signs of improving housing situation in Michigan

Bank repossessions of homes in Michigan have dropped more than 40 percent over the last year.

Michigan Radio's Steve Carmody reports the Metro Detroit area's home foreclosure rate fell faster last month than any other of the nation’s 20 largest cities.

Carmody spoke with Daren Bloomquist, a Realty Trac vice president:

“We’re seeing about the same number of properties start the foreclosure process in Michigan as we saw a year ago,” says Bloomquist,  “But, we’re seeing fewer...much fewer of those actually make it to a completed foreclosure where the property is repossessed by the bank.”

Michigan's unemployment rate ticks upward

Michigan’s unemployment rate for May increased by two-tenths of a percentage point to 8.5 percent.

What does it all mean?

The Michigan Department of Technology, Management & Budget says it means more people are actively looking for work, which means they get counted as "unemployed" (you only get counted as unemployed if you've been searching for a job in the last month):

“Michigan’s labor market in May and throughout early 2012 has been stable,” said Rick Waclawek, director of the Bureau of Labor Market Information and Strategic Initiatives. “The minor upturn in the state’s jobless rate in May was partially due to individuals entering or reentering the workforce looking for jobs.”