CHICAGO -- Michigan officials Thursday named Joyce Parker to act as emergency manager of Allen Park, the latest city to be taken over by the state for severe fiscal distress.
Parker has already served as emergency manager for the city of Ecorse and most recently for Highland Park School District. She is the president of Ann Arbor-based The Municipal Group LLC, a consulting group for local governments.
She begins Monday, Oct. 29.
“Joyce Parker has an outstanding track record of making the tough but necessary financial decisions to address financial emergencies,” Treasurer Andy Dillon said in a statement released Thursday afternoon after the Local Emergency Financial Assistance Board named Parker to the position.
Following two reviews by state officials, Gov. Rick Snyder on Oct. 2 declared Allen Park to be in a state of financial emergency. Among other challenges, the city is struggling to make payments on $31 million of bonds floated in 2009 to finance a now-failed film studio.
The Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating the bond deal, according to sources.
In taking over the city, Michigan officials cited ongoing deficits and variances between general fund revenues and expenditures as originally budgeted. The state also cited the 2009 bond deal, noting that Allen Park paid nearly $11 million more for the property than it had been previously valued.
The film studio never materialized, and the city has been forced to dip into its anemic general fund to make the $2 million for annual debt service payments. Voters, many angry about the borrowing, have twice rejected tax increases to cover the obligation.
While at Highland Park schools, Parker oversaw the transition of the entire district to a charter system operated by a private firm. The state board on Thursday appointed Don Weatherspoon the EM of the district following Parker’s departure.
Allen Park is the eighth local government to be placed under Michigan’s state-controlled fiscal distress program. The appointment of Parker comes just two weeks before voters will consider a referendum to overturn the controversial new emergency management law.
