DETROIT: Bing as Emergency Manager?

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

This morning I read where the mayor of Detroit, Dave Bing, is hinting that Detroit may need an emergency manager and he may want to be that manager.

I knew something had to happen because Detroit was just not getting better with its tax base eroding swiftly and the unions still demanding their benefits even though job performance has eroded also, Bing does not see a way out except a city dictatorship and I agree.

The city council which I had pinned my hopes on appears to be no different from the councils of the past, primarily looking out for their own personal welfare and re-electability as exemplified by council members trying to prevent a new charter for Detroit from being ratified since the charter provisions (election by wards) would cost some of them their jobs.

Mayor Bing has not done a stellar job either with daily headlines in the local papers exposing the still prevalent corruption and plain incompetence in city departments costing millions and unable to deliver benefits to city inhabitants that really need those benefits.

I have always claimed that an emergency manager could override union contracts that have no place in this economy and make fundamental changes in pensions by switching them to 401(k)s which is the only way to go and mandating higher health care deductions and raising health care premiums for workers which most states have already done.

Let the battle begin…

Related articles

• Bus Crisis In Detroit Hampers Riders (npr.org)
• Detroit pays bus drivers to sit and do nothing (thegrio.com)
• It's Time for Detroit to Stop Settling (theroot.com)