Bing'Snyder to reveal Detroit EM decision Friday

Gov. Rick Snyder on Friday will announce his decision on whether Detroit needs an emergency manager, Mayor Dave Bing said.

Bing, speaking Thursday at the Detroit Policy Conference at Motor City Casino, said he spoke with Snyder by telephone Thursday morning and was told Snyder will make an announcement Friday.Mayor Dave Bing, attending a policy conference today in Detroit, said he spoke with the governor this morning but would not say what Snyder told him his decision was, saying only "that he's going to let the governor make his announcement tomorrow," said spokesman Bob Warfield. But Bing said he doesn't expect Snyder to name a person into that position on Friday.

“I’ve got to let me him make the announcement,” Bing told reporters outside a conference center at MotorCity Casino-Hotel. “I think everybody’s got a pretty good idea of what the announcement will be.”

But when asked if he expects Snyder to name an individual for the position, Bing replied “not immediately. “I’m a team player,” Bing said. “I’m more interested in instead of fighting Lansing, in working with them.” High-level city officials have been told Snyder will make the announcement on Friday and has invited clergy and other stakeholders to the event. Details of the location and time weren’t available, according to a person familiar with the discussions who would only comment on condition of anonymity because the information wasn't authorized to be released. Snyder's representatives couldn't be reached for comment today on his decision, widely expected to be that he'll appoint an emergency manager to fix the disastrous finances of a city drowning in deficits and more than $14 billion in long-term debts and liabilities related to bonds and retiree pensions and health care benefits. Underscoring the urgency of the crisis, Snyder said last week that he believes much of what he wants done in Detroit - a bottom-up restructuring of city operations, addressing restrictions written into the city's charter, investing in information technology upgrades and other "very challenging problems" - can be implemented by November 2014. A state financial review team issued a report last week that concluded the city’s financial situation is so dire that it cannot be corrected without outside help. Snyder received the report over the weekend. Snyder has the option of affirming the review team’s report that a financial emergency exsist and Bing reiterated today that Detroit will need Lansing’s help no matter what to fix its financial mess.

“It’s all about the numbers,” he said. “And anybody who’s been following the numbers in Detroit knows that the numbers are not good and they’re not going to change dramatically anytime soon. So there are things Lansing can do to help to get us out of this situation faster than we can do it by ourselves.
"I would be doing the same thing they are trying to do to maintain myself as an elected representative for the citizens. The emergency manager essentially takes all of their authority." A state review team found last week that the city has $14.9 billion in long-term debt, including unfunded pension and employee retirement liabilities. Word of Snyder’s announcement comes as opposition to an emergency manager appointment grows. The Detroit Branch NAACP, one of the state’s most influential civil rights organizations, urged Snyder not to appoint one and instead work in partnership with the city. Mayoral candidates including Lisa Howze, Krystal Crittendon, Mike Duggan and Benny Napoleon have come out against an emergency manager, with Howze, Crittendon and Napoleon questioning whether the state of Michigan exaggerated Detroit’s financial obligations to justify appointment of an outside manager with broad powers to slash services, gut unions and usurp local elected officials. Napoleon, in a statement, said he questions why the city’s water department debt was included in Detroit’s overall long-term obligations when the department itself is a revenue-generating division with its debts secured by its assets and fees paid by customers. He and Howze also questioned why debts owed 25-30 years from now are cause for immediate crisis. “The governor and treasurer owe the city of Detroit and the rest of the world an immediate and thorough explanation as to how they justify these discrepancies,” Napoleon said.

“These findings, if verified, are cause for grave concern because it would be unconscionable that they would have the bond market and the entire world believe that the city of Detroit is in the verge of fiscal collapse – and even worse – days away from stripping Detroit of its democracy under false pretenses.”

The Detroit City Council is also expected to issue a response to the state review team’s report. The council’s reseach and analysis division and its fiscal analysis division have concluded that the city would be best served by Snyder ordering a new consent agreement that would fall under Public Act 436, which was passed late last year by a lame-duck legislation. Municipal bankruptcy expert Douglas Bernstein said the city can offer alternatives to emergency management, but they must include specific milestones for getting things done. The key is it has to be realistic and progress has to be made fairly quickly, he said.

"If you are demonstrating meaningful progress, that would be the best demonstration that things are going to change from how they have been," Bernstein said. "It needs to be something more than lip service. You've had all this time with the financial stability agreement to do things and you haven't accomplished them."