DETROIT – A solemn Governor Rick Snyder confirmed on Thursday what Detroit and state residents expected by saying he would declare a financial emergency in Michigan’s largest city and name an emergency financial manager, but he also hoped that with the action a process of restoring and rebuilding Detroit would begin.
Flanked by Detroit Mayor Dave Bing and the man who will have operational control of the city as emergency financial manager, Kevyn Orr, Snyder told a crowded news conference in his office suite at Cadillac Place, “In many respects it is a sad day, to have to say we have to have this day, but I see it as day of opportunity.”
With teamwork and participation the city can be turned around, Snyder said. “This is not about anyone stepping aside,” Snyder said of the current city’s leadership. “This is about all hands on deck” to help revive Detroit.
Snyder also insisted that Michigan’s future is tied to Detroit’s future.
Bing said he was willing to work in partnership with Mr. Orr to help bring the city out of its crisis.
“The good thing about today is I think we have the leadership capabilities and qualities to bring the city back,” Bing said.
And Bing said Detroit’s residents no longer really cared who was mayor or on the City Council. “They just want things fixed,” he said.
There was not unanimity citywide on the decision. Some 50 protestors were outside the Cadillac Place challenging the decision.
City Council members criticized the action, but also indicated they would not fight the appointment of Orr, instead focusing on their own role under the financial emergency. The council had been the scene of continuous debate and dissension during the process of resolving the city’s financial situation in recent years.
Snyder also said the situation was “not about fighting or bickering (which has marked much of the debate leading up to this moment) but about getting people together.”
Bing concurred, saying, “The bottom line here is we must stop fighting each other, we must work together.” With this appointment, “I’m happy I’ve got teammates, I’ve got partners to help do what need to be done.”
Asked if he agreed with the council, which had argued during the appeal of the order on Tuesday that Detroit needed more time to make the consent agreement reached in 2012 to work, Bing said, “Time is not our ally now.”
And Orr said he was determined to tackle the job and to make it succeed. A bankruptcy and turnaround specialist with the international law firm of Jones Day (Orr said he has resigned from the firm effective on Friday), Orr called the prospect of the city’s turnaround as “the Olympics of restructuring.”
Of the three men facing the dozens of reporters, Orr was the only one who had a positive demeanor. Snyder and Bing both appeared grim and exhausted by the ordeal of the city’s finances that led to this point. As he made his announcement, Snyder’s voice seemed at one point to quaver.
Snyder made the announcement, confirming his decision that Detroit was in a financial crisis, just two days after an appeal hearing requested by the Detroit City Council.
Snyder said he respected the process of the hearing, that he had watched the hearing as it was held, and that he had reviewed the report on the hearing. But all those elements confirmed in his mind that an emergency existed.
This is not a new situation for the city, Snyder said, as Detroit’s financial problems go back 50 years.
“Short term this is about better services to the citizens of Detroit, they deserve that. The city’s finance stability, that’s required. But long term, it’s about growth for the city of Detroit, it’s about a thriving downtown, thriving neighborhoods.”
Treasurer Andy Dillon said Orr has the key skills and traits needed for the job.
“If you look at Detroit, it’s both an operational turnaround as well as a financial turnaround,” he said. “He’s lived in the financial turnaround world for years. The other thing I like about him is I thought he had the right personality where he can collaborate with folks and bring people along. … He’s going to be a person that brings people together rather than cause divisions.”
There was speculation prior to Orr’s name surfacing about whether the pick would come from southeast Michigan or instead be someone with no ties to the existing power structure. Dillon said such considerations were secondary.
“I really think it was, ‘Hey, let’s find someone with the right skill-sets first and then we’ll worry about where they live second,’ so I don’t think that was a big factor; it wasn’t for me and I don’t think it was for the governor either,” he said.
Members of the financial review team attending the press conference, who in talking with reporters as Orr and Snyder left for the Emergency Loan Board meeting, praised Orr’s appointment and put much of the blame for the city’s current problems on the ongoing political disputes between the council, Bing and others.
Isaiah McKinnon, a former Detroit police chief now teaching at the University of Detroit-Mercy, said opponents of the financial emergency declaration were “more concerned about saving their jobs than serving the people.”
Nothing seems to be able to please councilmembers and other opponents, and no one seems to be able to find a way to reach concurrence, McKinnon said. “Jesus could be outside changing the water into wine, and they would say it’s not the right wine, it’s Ripple.”
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