Tagged: emergency financial manager

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.

Today is the day the State will released the results of its emergency review into Detroit's finances.

Since late last year, a six-member team has taken what's been called "a deep dive" into the city's records to determine just how massive Detroit's money troubles are.

Is getting this report card going to lead to any better cooperation between Mayor Bing and City Council members?

Does the review team offer suggestions for action, or does it just present "the facts" and let the Governor draw his own conclusions?

Michigan Public Radio Network's Lansing bureau chief Rick Pluta talked to us about what to expect from the report.

PONTIAC, Mich. (AP) - A judge says Pontiac's state-appointed emergency financial manager violated the Open Meetings Act in making changes to the city's retiree pension board.

The Oakland Press of Pontiac and the Detroit Free Press report Oakland County Circuit Judge Rae Lee Chabot on Wednesday ruled against Lou Schimmel, who last year cut the pension board from 11 members to five amid concerns about spending.

Chabot says the change "looks like a dictatorship."

Schimmel says he disagrees with the judge's order but he'll comply with the directive. He's working to fix the finances of the cash-strapped city.

The preliminary injunction comes in a lawsuit filed by the City of Pontiac Retired Employees Association. The board is scheduled to meet this month.

   Pontiac's finances have been under state supervision since 2009.

Benton Harbor’s incoming emergency financial manager says he’ll work quickly on a plan to put the city in the black.

Tony Saunders II says no kid aspires to grow up to be an emergency financial manager, but he’s excited about the opportunity. He’s 26-years old, expecting his first child in April. But he says people should consider his experience working in Detroit and Highland Park, not his age.

“I’m not worried about my age and I don’t think others will once they have a chance to meet me and see the pace that I’m willing to work at,” Saunders said.

According to an independent annual audit, Detroit's deficit recently reached almost $327 million.

Detroit Free Press editorial writer Nancy Kaffer addressed the city’s dire financial status.

Kaffer said Detroit is closer to having an emergency financial manager, but was unsure as to how soon it would happen.

“There is a relatively dysfunctional relationship between the Mayor and the Council... you really have to have everybody on board together to get some of the dramatic changes they’re looking for,” said Kaffer.

This story is the third in a four-part series about how things are going so far in Michigan's first fully privatized public school district. Find part one here, part two here and part four here.

The decision to convert the Muskegon Heights Public School district into a charter school district was a financial one. But the officials who run the new system hope to improve academics too.

From the outside, Edgewood Elementary School looks and sounds the same as any other year.

But this year, Mosaica Education, the charter company that’s running the school, hopes a new curriculum, longer school day and year round classes will improve student success.