According to a March 18, 2013 article in the Wall Street Journal Governor Snyder tried to negotiate a solution with the leaders of Detroit. As part of the negotiations state attorneys prepared a consent degree that required Detroit to accept state oversight of its operations. Mayor Bing and his advisers believed that if they signed the agreement they would be abdicating their responsibilities as elected officials. The mayor was right but at the same time foolish for not agreeing to the oversight. Clearly no high ranking official in the Bing administration looked forward to state oversight of their actions. Yet the oversight would spread the risk of success or failure to Gov. Snyder and the state government. There is no doubt that Detroit has failed to properly manage its finances. A specific role for Detroit’s government could have been hammered out.

It must be realized that the city has lost more than 25% of its population in the last ten years. The more affluent citizens have long left the city. Since the waning days of the Colman A. Young administration Detroit has been experiencing fiscal problems. Its bonds have regularly been rated as junk. The time line of city’s problems reveal an inability of those in political office to turn things around. Consequently, Mayor Bing should have blamed past administrations for Detroit’s current dire circumstances and accepted help from the state. Instead of working with Gov. Snyder Mayor Bing compelled the appointment of EFM. Under the best of circumstances the leaders of Detroit would have had to cede power under any agreement with the state. Now the city administrators are left with very little to do except to comply with the EFM.

Much has been made out of the fact that the governor is a Republican and the mayor is a Democrat. This is as true as it is irrelevant. The governor understands that a collapse of Detroit would adversely impact the state’s economic recovery. The political costs of a Detroit bankruptcy would have to be paid by all political parties and politicians. Even die-hard Detroit Democrats realize that the city is being managed poorly.

It is clear that Democrats in Detroit need to produce some positives results for the city. Under the stewardship of the Democrats, for whatever reason, the city has fallen on very hard times. Mayor Bing inherited a fiscal mess and should have been more honest with the public from the beginning. The idea that Detroit could continue to spend when its revenues had evaporated speaks volumes about the city’s mismanagement and lack of public accountability.

Accusations of corruption, nepotism and incompetence have swirled around the Detroit Mayor’s office for years. The most recent mayor caught up in scandal was Kawame Kilpatrick. He was considered a rising star in the Democratic Party. Once he assumed his official duties he transferred the mayor’s office into a criminal enterprise for exhortation, bribery and plain “wrong doing.” Federal investigations concluded that he and other around him were engaged in a wide range of illegal activity. He was indicted on federal charges, stood trial and was convicted on March 11, 2013 by a jury on 24 of 30 counts. The trial lasted about 5 months and saw more than 90 witnesses testified. With all of the evidence that the government presented it is incredible the many city residents actually

Kawame Kilpartick During Trial

believe that Kilpatrick was a victim of overzealous prosecutors.

U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade faced the press after the conviction. She correctly discussed its significance in relationship to Detroit’s current financial problems. She claimed that “Kawame Kilpatrick stole money from the people of Detroit. And while Kawame Kilpatrick enjoyed a lavish lifestyle, he watched the quality of life erode for the people of Detroit.” In my opinion the Motor City is mired in a culture of corruption and incompetency.

There is universal agreement upon some aspects of Detroit’s problems. The city’s more affluent residents moved away a long time ago. We should not fault these residents who merely sought a better life for themselves and their families. According to the 2010 census about 80% of Detroit’s current residents are black or at least non-white. These residents have either chosen to stay in the city or are not able to relocate to a better environment. The city’s recent political history indicates that since the late 70s the city has been governed by black Mayors who have all been Democrats. Also blacks tend to blame the city’s fiscal problems on “white flight to the suburbs and an indifference to the needs of the poor.” On the other hand many whites blame blacks for abusing the city’s resources by spending too much on social programs and allow neighborhoods to become havens for crime. For purposes of this post it is not necessary to address all of the charges and counter-charges over race as a factor in Detroit’s problems.