Tagged: emergency financial manager

It’s been a week since Governor Snyder announced Kevyn Orr as Detroit’s emergency manager.

Orr, begins his new job on Monday.

Today, Business Columnist at the Detroit News Danel Howes wrote a column saying Detroit's situation is reminiscent of General Motors circa 2008.

He argues that what it really takes is an outsider - someone who isn’t inside of the financial problem - to fix things.

That’s what happened with the auto bankruptcy as well.

That creates a problem, particularly for Orr. There's a certain level of distrust among Detroiters who think Orr “isn’t one of us” - that he can’t really understand “our” problems.

What of the very strong cry that bringing in this unelected outside manager effectively strips Detroit citizens of their right to elect their leader?

Howes wrote in today’s column:

"Detroit's culture of denial, dysfunction and entitlement, as obvious in the city's slide as it was in the auto bankruptcies, is a primary reason change here eventually is imposed from the outside."

We’ve seen the auto companies come back from the fiscal edge.

And much like what happened with the auto industry, he argues that over time those associated with the past failures begin to be sidelined and new leadership begins to emerge.

This is the narrative that Howes believes we’ll see from Detroit in due time.

To hear our full interview with Howes, click the link above.

The Flint city council has delayed a decision on whether to take part in a quarter billion dollar project to tap water from Lake Huron for the city’s drinking water. The panel delayed taking action on the proposal last week as well.

The project has been in development for years. But supporters say they will soon have to start work on the project. They want Flint leaders to decide now if the city is going to be part of the project. 

What is an actual emergency manager's take on Detroit's financial troubles.

Lou Schimmel has been the appointed emergency manager for Pontiac since March of 2009.

We had Schimmel speak with us on Stateside to get his view of what needs to be done to fix the city's broken finances and his suggestions for fixing Detroit.

Listen to the full interview above.

Today marks a historic decision.

Governor Rick Snyder announced the appointment of an emergency manager for the city of Detroit.

On today's show, we looked at the many things that will change in the city once it's under state control.

We also talked with the emergency manager of Pontiac to get his view of what needs to be done in the state's largest city.

We also spoke with Columnist Daniel Howes who says don't take bankruptcy out of the equation.

But first, we were joined  with Michigan Radio's Zoe Clark and Tracy Samilton to talk about this afternoon's announcement in Detroit. They told us a little bit more about what the Governor had to say.

Every week we speak with Susan Demas, political analyst for Michigan Information and Research Service, and Ken Sikkema, former Senate Majority Leader and Senior Policy Fellow at Public Sector Consultants.

Today they talk about the review team that Governor Snyder assigned to look into Detroit’s financial situation and it seems likely that the city will end up with an emergency manager. That would bring the number of Michigan cities or school districts under emergency managers up to ten.

DETROIT (AP) - Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder is planning to discuss Detroit's financial situation on Thursday.

The governor is expected to hold an afternoon round table with the media in Detroit. Snyder's office says he isn't planning to announce if he'll appoint an emergency manager, but instead to provide an update on where things stand.

The Republican governor has less than a month to decide whether the state will take over the city's broken finances and send in someone to oversee a recovery.