My Perspective: Detroit’s City Council & Charter Needs Sweeping Change

Detroit’s City Council and Charter needs sweeping change especially since Councilwoman Martha Reeves says that being on council is her second job. If this is the type of politicians that we don’t want any longer in politics in the City of Detroit than we have to bring real reform and change to not just council but the creation of the charter commission. It is clear that their needs to be rules and laws in place in the city charter that deal with attendance of council members and their pay where if they miss days of work they don’t get paid for that day especially if they miss council meetings and votes.

Last Friday, Detroit City Councilwomen Councilwoman Martha Reeves was performing as Martha and the Vandellas in England, barnstorming the country in a Motown 50th anniversary tour, being hailed as a legend, lionized as a diva and missed at the council table during a busy week back home. Since then, Reeves told an interviewer that her council service was “a second job I have” after singing. However Reeves returned to Detroit but was unable to comment on the departure of Monica Conyers because, she said, she didn’t know Conyers had resigned. Now the last concert was Sunday night in Liverpool, and Reeves missed work at her $81,000-a-year “second job” — with car and staff — in Detroit for the sixth day on Monday.

Still Reeves is getting paid a high five-figure salary for a second job and I don’t know of any second job that pays that well and has benefits and perks such as a car and staff as well as health. Come on Detroit, we can’t continue to allow ignorance and buffoonery to reign supreme in our city especially in our city government. With Monday’s recent actions where six members of council held a news conference calling for their disgraced colleague Monica Conyers to step down after her guilty plea to federal bribery charges, Reeves was no were to be found and didn’t know what her colleagues were doing. Still later on Monday, Conyers announced she would resign while Reeves said on Monday she didn’t know Conyers stepped down.

However what is still more alarming is that Reeves missed critical votes on approving water and sewer rate increases last week. She also was gone as the state Legislature was finalizing legislation to set up a regional authority to oversee the expansion and renovation of Cobo Center. But on Monday evening, Reeves defended her absence. Reeves said that there are 9 council members and all you need is a majority vote. Reeves also added that her staff was at every meeting and she got full reports. Well if Reeves got full reports as she claimed, she was still unaware that Conyers, her colleague and close ally on council was stepping down. In fact Reeves said she was unaware that Conyers had resigned until told by a Free Press reporter about 6 p.m. Even after being told Reeves declined to comment on Conyers’ departure, saying she needed to get up to speed on what happened.

This is the type of things that just adds fuel to the fire for the calls of change. Detroit needs change on not just council but in our city charter that makes it easier to oust buffoons who say that council is a second job. Martha Reeves actions are clearly another reason why we need serious minded intelligent people on council who believe that being on council is a full time job not a second gig. Reeves bragged to reporters overseas in Liverpool that politics and singing keeps her sharp. However Reeves sharpness hasn’t been seen while she has been on council when she is continuously been a Conyers’ and Kilpatrick supporter the whole time she was on council. In fact if many people think back to the 2005 elections, some say that Reeves snuck on council after some vote rigging and the lights going out downtown during the vote count that put Reeves and Jones on council.

Still Detroiter’s have all the fuel they need to light a fire of change with all that has happened over the last 4 years in terms of how the council has acted. The city is in decay in terms of city service but the residents of Detroit are being taxed for just walking the street and parking their car while Council members continue to raise water rates and other taxes throughout the city. Enough is enough Detroit and it is time that we elect people to City Council who not only know that being on council is a full time job but they are willing to work night and day for us the citizens of Detroit. We need a stronger city charter that gives us the citizens of Detroit more power to remove elected officials and at the same makes our council & mayor’s office work more closely in terms of city appointments and balancing the city budget than ever before in the city’s history.

The time has come for us, the citizens of Detroit, to finally make our city government work for us and by us instead of against us like they have done over the last 4 years. It is time out for lavish trips and spending sprees by our council members. It is time out for our council to use their council seats for special perks and privileges such as getting lower tax rates on their houses, extra pay for family and friends, and the hiring of family and friends to council or other city government positions. We have to change this Detroit and we have to start holding our city’s government officials accountable. We can’t continue to allow our city politicians to ignore their duties while they reap the perks and benefits of being an elected official in the city.

That’s why the City’s Charter Commission must have people who are willing to reform the city’s government in ways that strengthens us the people voice while at the same results in immediate removal of elected officials who plead guilty to a crime or who misuse city funds for non-city business. Also the City Charter Commission needs people who are tired of the status quo and who are willing to change the way city government operates in terms of the mayor getting the right to appoint nearly 110 positions within City government. This must change because certain positions need to be chosen by council and the mayor so that certain services keep working properly without political bias and political machines being created.

We have to change the way the City of Detroit does business and this is the opportunity to do it. This is the opportunity to finally get rid of people who think that council is a second job. It’s time to send those people who think council is a second job to work their first job full time again and stop wasting our city’s government time as well as us the citizens time. We can do better Detroit and we must do better if we are to succeed in making our city government and our city work for us once and for all. Detroit, we have suffered too much over the last two years but even more over the last 16 years since Coleman Young Sr. stepped down as our mayor. We can’t continue to be 40 years behind the rest of the world. We need progression and pro-activism as we embark on a new day, a new journey and a new agenda of doing business in not just city government but in our city.

We have to change now Detroit and we can do it if we just work together to elect the right people to office who will carry all sectors of the city and all sectors of the people voices to city government. We need a mixture of young, old, experience, inexperienced, business, labor, public safety, education (public & charter), spiritual, nonprofit, grassroots, etc. on council and the city charter commission. Our council and city charter commission needs to be as diverse as we are a city. It doesn’t matter about race or gender but what does matter is that people understand the issues, that understands the city and they have solutions to how we can fix Detroit not only in the short term but the future. Detroit we need serious minded, intelligent, honest, innovative, hardworking, and optimistic as well as pragmatic people who are practical in their approach but are sound minded and strong in their deliberation to digest the complex and sometimes complicated issues that plague us as a city, a region and a state.

We need to do better Detroit and this is the opportunity for us to bring about sweeping change to both our city council and the creation of the charter commission. 2009 will be the year that determines Detroit’s future for years to come. That’s why it is important for us, the residents of Detroit to get it right now once and for all. Detroit deserves better, needs better and must do better but that starts with us electing the right people to not just city council but the charter commission as well because the charter commission will write just how we run city government for the next 10-20 years at least. That’s why we can’t allow this moment in our city’s history to go by without us taking action to improve our city for the better once and for all. We can’t look back on this moment years from now and say to ourselves that we didn’t do all we could to bring about sweeping change to our city when we the residents of Detroit have an opportunity to do the things that we have always wanted to for our city which can be done with the political machines throughout the city being torn down like never before.

It is time for new blood in our city government and it is time for people with innovative ideas to help draft our city charter. We have to make sure we bring about sweeping change to Detroit’s politics and that starts on Tuesday, August 4, 2009 with who we chose to get out of the primary for City Council and the Charter Commission. So what are you going to do make sure this moment in Detroit’s history isn’t another mute point in our city’s history? It is up to us to make Detroit better and it is up to us to make the change we want to see in Detroit by electing the right people to council and the charter commission. This is our moment Detroit. This is our time. This is what we have been waiting for and it all begins for us on Tuesday, August 4, 2009. Let’s make it happen not now but right now.