MACKINAC ISLAND – Obstacles that sunk a first plan to facilitate modernization and expansion of Detroit’s Cobo Hall through a regional authority are close to being resolved, Detroit Mayor Dave Bing and Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano said Friday.
The two said there is agreement that the authority would get control through a long-term lease rather than transfer of ownership, something that Oakland County Executive Brooks Patterson said on Thursday he could support, and there are ways to deal with contract preferences.
Bing said he has talked to all members of the city council, which blocked the first plan, and believes he will have the votes prior to the July 1 deadline set in legislation that has passed the Senate and is now pending in the House.
He said it will require a few more “tweaks” that he would not identify, though he said the issue of contract preferences could be handled similarly to provisions in the Detroit casinos in which citizen advisory councils conduct reviews of contract awards.
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