My Perspective: Holding Dave Bing Accountable

Holding Dave Bing Accountable

The people of Detroit have spoken and on Tuesday, May 5, 2009, Dave Bing became Detroit’s newest mayor. Therefore Dave Bing will finish out the rest of former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick term and because no big name political heavyweights or anyone with real money is not going run against him in August, Dave Bing will be Detroit’s mayor until 2013. So as Detroiters, I have to say that we have to hold Dave Bing for 10 things that will put Detroit on good footing so the next mayor can lead Detroit into the future. So let me begin by saying that as many of us begin threw our support behind Dave Bing, I for will am not supporting Bing but I do support Detroit which means I am looking for various things from the Bing administration.

So with that being said, I am not expecting Bing’s administration to develop a repopulation plan within 4 years and I don’t expect him to lower city taxes. Also I don’t expect Detroit’s economy to rebound within the next 4 years but do expect Bing to help stop the bleeding so the next mayor of Detroit can come in with a balanced budget and the objective of not just stabilizing Detroit’s economy but growing it.

So in no particular order, here are the 10 things I will hold Dave Bing accountable for during his term as mayor for the next 4 years and I hope other Detroiters hold him accountable or this as well.

1. Giving Up His Paycheck. While on the campaign trail, Dave Bing promised that he would not accept the mayor’s salary because he would give it up in order to keep police on the streets. Therefore we as Detroiter’s have to hold Bing accountable for this early campaign pledge because Bing ran on the idea of change and on the notion of protecting us the residents of Detroit. So we have to make sure that he isn’t getting paid for his duties because he doesn’t need the money and plus he wants us the residents to be protected so he is truly showing us that he wants to do right by those of us who have stayed here in Detroit for years.

2. Better Public Safety. Candidate Bing also promised that he would improve the public safety in the city. While he never really laid out any key ideas to how he would improve public safety besides saying he would give his mayor’s salary up to keep more officers on the streets. Therefore we have to make sure that Bing advocates and implements more community policing programs where our police officers are walking the beat more than usual. Also candidate Bing advocated for cutting down the response time of our public safety units so we have to hold him accountable on that by seeing within 4 years rather our emergency response times are faster than how they are now.

3. Better Schools & Education. Dave Bing has been a huge advocate of charter schools but the reality is that Detroit doesn’t just need alternative schools but it needs better schools. Many of the charter schools in Detroit are no better off than Detroit Public Schools therefore if Bing is given control of DPS, he has to find a way to improve the state of education in the state for both public and private education. In fact Bing should look for charter schools such as KIPP Academy Schools and perhaps boarding schools such as the SEED Foundation Schools in D.C. & Maryland. Nonetheless Bing has to find a way to help improve the dropout rate in Detroit and at the same time, he has to find a way to make sure that our students are competing at a global rate with the reestablishment of foreign languages and social studies within DPS. Therefore I am looking for Bing if he does take over the school system to improve the quality of education in Detroit over the next 4 years.

4. Clean Streets. On the campaign trail but particular during the mayoral debates, Bing always complained about how the streets of Detroit were dirty or the city was dirty. Therefore Bing needs to be held accountable for cleaning up our city and making sure that our streets are not as dirty as they have been. However he can’t do it alone and we as Detroiters have to do our part by keeping our own lawns cut and by cleaning up in front of our houses or rental properties. But nonetheless Bing has to do his part by keeping the rest of the city as clean as Downtown looks. Cutting the grass on many vacant lots and in parks can go a long way for the Bing administration. So Bing has to find room in the budget to make sure he has a clean city initiative outside of the Detroit Clean Sweep program that takes place once a year.

5. Balance the City’s Budget. Every mayor has to do this but what Bing has do that that the last two mayor’s of Detroit have failed to do is actually balance the city’s budget on time and in timely fashion. Too many times, Detroit’s budget has gone unbalanced and unresolved for months causing us to lose out on revenue sharing profits. Detroit can’t afford to lose any more revenue sharing money from the state so Bing and his administration must balance the city’s budget but first making difficult decisions such as cutting the city councils individual budget’s and perhaps cutting the salaries of many downtown workers.

6. Don’t Stay in the Mayor’s House. The biggest complaint that many Detroiters who didn’t support Bing were he was an outsider and he didn’t stay in Detroit prior to running for office. Plus the fact that Kilpatrick abused and misused the mayor’s house at his own pleasure doesn’t sit well with many Detroiters. Therefore Bing should not move into the mayor’s house. Bing should continue to live inside of the loft he owns Downtown and at the same time Bing should offer to rent out the house to Detroiters who want to have certain events. Therefore the city could earn some money on the house and Bing should also look to perhaps turn the house into a museum of the mayoral history of Detroit. It is time for Detroit’s mayor to stop living off of the tax payers for free. So Bing and every mayor after Bing should be paying property taxes, electrical bills, water bills and every other bill like the rest of the residents of Detroit do.

7. No City Vehicles. Dave Bing should send a quick and strong message to not only his administration but to city council by implementing a policy that he will not use a city vehicle to get around but instead will use his own vehicle and that policy should be adopted by the new city council come November. I don’t mind the mayor’s gas being paid for or the city council gas being paid for but the city of Detroit can’t afford to continue to lease cars for City employers like we did in the past. So this is something that Bing didn’t campaign on but it is something I will look to see if he is bold enough to do it.

8. Paving the Way for Regionalization & Regional Sharing. Dave Bing’s administration will pave the way for Detroit’s Regionalization and Regional sharing initiative. Some might see this as a bad idea but if you look at the city of Nashville, you will quickly find out that regionalization is not a bad idea because it actually helps in revenue sharing and in emergency response times to many problems plaguing our city and our neighboring cities. Also regional sharing attracts more conferences and businesses to Detroit and the region if it is done in an innovative way that markets the entire region equally and fairly. Therefore I don’t expect for Bing’s administration to lay the groundwork for more cooperation with regional leaders in order to help the southeast region of Detroit grow economically, socially and culturally. In fact, I will be looking for the Bing administration to be putting together ideas that will help Detroit stop the bleeding economy while also attracting more regional opportunities to the city that Detroit has missed out on for many years. Bing’s administration will have to strike the right chord in terms of making sure Detroit keeps many of its assets in regional sharing but at the same time, it leads to better negotiations and allies in southeast Michigan that we have not had for years. Thus expect the Bing administration to get the Cobo Deal down and for Cobo to become a regional partnership that Detroit as well as our regional partners in southeast Michigan can all benefit from.

9. Getting Detroit to the 21st Century. While Bing is the oldest mayor in Detroit’s history, I am not giving him a past when it comes to getting Detroit into the 21st century by having City Council decrease on the amount of paper they use a day. City Council officials should have computers in city council chambers instead of passing around bulks of paper that sometimes, many members are missing certain pages to particular documents so meetings have to be slowed up until that particular council member gets page 23 of 124. Let’s be real people, Detroit is the largest city in Detroit and we need to make sure our city council gets into the 21st century by updating city council chambers. Secondly the city’s website needs a major overhaul because it is not user friendly in the sense of announcing city council meetings and the resolutions they pass. Plus the mayor’s public appearances should be readily available on the city’s website so that is another thing that the Bing administration needs to look into. Lastly Bing’s administration just needs to do a major overhaul of Detroit’s IT department in order to bring it up to date in all aspects of technology so that we the residents of Detroit can know about positions of hire that are available downtown as well as making it easier to know what the various departments of the city are doing.

10. Major Ethics reform. I honestly believe that the Bing administration will bring a quieter less flashy tone to the mayor’s office but that doesn’t mean ethics will come with it. Therefore I will look for Bing to implement major ethics reform that will stretch as far wide as city employees disclosing any meetings that they have with lobbyists and special interest groups. In fact I will be looking for Bing to implement a policy of more transparency with the media and the residents of Detroit by revealing who works in his office and who all of his advisors are so people can know who they previously worked for and in what capacity. So many times, we hear about ethics but the reality is ethics is more than just morals but it is about character and revealing the character of a person’s past job positions to the public with perhaps companies that have played a role in city government. Therefore I will be watching for the Bing administration to implement a strong ethics policy that should redevelop how city government does business.

These are the 10 things that I will hold Dave Bing and his administration accountable for. I know many people will differentiate on what 10 things they will hold Bing accountable for but the reality is that some of the things I have listed, all Detroiters can look to make Bing’s administration accountable for. So for the next 4 years, the Bing administration has its work cut out for them but if they can implement 7 out of 10 of these things than they will put Detroit on solid footing for the next mayor to come in and reenergize the future of Detroit like never before.