I must admit that interim Mayor Ken Cockrel Jr. expresses some good talk but the reality is that Detroit needs a lot of work in terms of the neighborhoods, our economy, and schools. No matter who is going to the be next Mayor after May 2009 Mayoral general election, their main job has to be to make sure the city of Detroit doesn't sink any further because the real bulk of re-writing and changing Detroit's future will rest in the hands of who is the winner of November 2009 Mayor general election. The winner of next November's mayoral election will ultimately make the tough decisions that will re-write a broken ship and a broken economic system that has made the city of Detroit suffer for far too long. The city of Detroit next mayor will have to address the city of Detroit's failing education system and Lansing's lack of responsibility to help build the state's number one city into an economic powerful that can help the southeastern part of the state prosper as well as the rest of the state. Nonetheless Ken Cockrel Jr. made some good points but now is the time for him to put real action behind his rheotric and real plans together that will make the city better in the come January 2010 no matter who's the mayor.
On his first experiences as Detroit's mayor: "Overall, the first couple weeks have gone extremely well. That's not to say, however, that it's not a very challenging position. One of the things I am thankful for is that I have transitioned into this job after having nearly 11 years of experience on the Detroit City Council. Frankly, I think that experience has proven invaluable, because if I didn't have that experience, I think I probably would have been overwhelmed."
On the relationship between Detroit and state leaders: "When I went to Lansing about two weeks ago ...overall I felt that I was very well received, which in my view means that the city was well received. That's not to say that there's not going to be certain people in Lansing that aren't going to continue to be hostile to the city of Detroit, that are not going to continue to dump on and pile on the city of Detroit, or use this as a scapegoat for some of the state's problems and troubles.
"But I do think, and one of the things I sense, is that there was a willingness on the part of a lot of people there to wipe the slate clean and recognize there is new leadership in the city of Detroit."
On his vision for Detroit: "We need to make the city of Detroit more family friendly. ... I think to a certain extent the city has made great strides in attracting single, young, urban professionals. The problem is we're not very good at keeping them."
On the city releasing more text messages in the Kwame Kilpatrick scandal: "I have not seen all of those text messages yet, and I have an interest in seeing them just from a public policy standpoint in terms of whether or not there is or is not something that we don't know."
On attracting appointees: "The fact that I may not be around for an extended period of time has not been a major factor in terms of deterring people to come to work for me. If you look at some of the appointments ... not to toot my horn, but I brought in some pretty heavy-duty people, and they were well aware of the circumstances and dynamics that they would be operating under."
On labor contracts: "I don't anticipate that I will necessarily be playing a tremendously active role in the negotiation process itself -- that is something that I would rather leave to the experts. But one thing I do want to do for the sake of making it clear that there is an open door is to at least meet with the heads of a lot of the unions ... to open the lines of communication, to hear them out, to hear some of the issues and then let the experts take it from there."
On Detroit Public Schools: "I don't have a direct role, nor do I have any authority over that, because the Board of Education is a seperate governmental entity. But I do plan to meet with both the board and the superintendent to see what the City of Detroit can do in partnership. ... I'm not prepared to write the public school system off, because in my view, you're always going to have most of your kids in public schools. Therefore, it is incumbent upon us to do whatever we can to keep that ship from sinking."
On his new chief financial officer, Joseph Harris: "One of the reasons why I tapped him for that particular position is I know he has a strong finance background. I was always very much impressed with him when he was the city's auditor general. One of things that I did like about him is that he has a reputation -- which I think he lives up to -- of telling you what you need to hear as opposed to what you want to hear. He has hit the ground running."
On federal monitoring of the Detroit Police Department: "The bottom line is if you have the federal government coming in, they're going to be here until you deal with the issue. If you don't like it, the way to get them out of here is to meet the terms of the consent decree, to comply with them and address the issues. That's one thing we haven't made a focus."
On Detroit's workforce preparedness: "It can be great to attract a lot of business to the city of Detroit. But if the only people who get those jobs are people who don't live in the city of Detroit, then we're really only dealing with half the issue. That is an ongoing problem -- the fact that you have a lot of people out there that want to work, but really are not ready to work, not trained or equipped to work in certain jobs -- that's got to get dealt with."
Compiled by Suzette Hackney
References:
COCKREL: Detroit Faces $100 Million Deficit
http://www.wxyz.com/mostpopular/story.aspx?content_id=640cb937-7a0e-4a39-ab92-b9c46d3ad9fd
City deficit could soar to $150M
http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081009/METRO/810090420
What's the Manoogian's future?
http://www.freep.com/article/20081009/NEWS01/81009005/1006/NEWS
Cockrel sets right tone, but budget crisis looms
http://www.freep.com/article/20081009/OPINION01/810090326/1006/NEWS
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment