CHICAGO Two weeks before leaving an office stripped of power, Detroit Mayor Dave Bing said he had restored integrity to the tarnished post and helped establish a stronger foundation for the future of the bankrupt city.
Bing, in his last address as mayor Wednesday, said he faced roadblocks during the last four years as he tried to oversee Detroit during one of the most turbulent times in its history.
Battles with the Detroit City Council, difficult negotiations with unions, and a cumbersome city charter all blocked progress, Bing said.
“We had a lot of issues to deal with right from the beginning. Unless you have been living under a rock, you know that corruption, pay-to play, and scandal brought down the previous administration,” Bing said in his address to the Detroit Economic Club. “I inherited a lot of issues that created a situation where I couldn’t move as rapidly as I wanted to. I didn’t have the authority or the power to act independently, as the emergency manager does today. I also knew coming into this job that I was going to have to make some difficult and unpopular decisions. But nonetheless, they were decisions that I felt had to be made to protect the long-term interests of the city and our residents.”
One of the most difficult decisions was the large number of layoffs of city employees, he said.
Bing said he believes the city charter needs to be revised because some of its rules are an “overreaction” to the corruption of the Kwame Kilpatrick administration.
Bing won the office in 2009, after a brief tenure by then-council president Kenneth Cockrel Jr. after Kilpatrick was forced to resign.
Despite the problems, Bing said he helped create some of the building blocks such as regional authorities that will help restore the city once it emerges from its historic Chapter 9.
“In 2009, there was no definitive plan in place for moving our city forward,” Bing said. “Today, there is a strong foundation in place and plenty of data for my successor to review so that he can make informed decisions.”
Bing said he was still disappointed in Gov. Rick Snyder’s decision to appoint an emergency manager to take over the city in March 2013, Bing’s final year in office. After his speech, Bing reportedly told local media that the state should offer financial support for the city’s pensioners, who face deep cuts in the bankruptcy process.
Bing said he hoped to continue to work on blight removal next year and that he wants to work as a mentor for young black men.
The March 2013 appointment of Kevyn Orr as emergency manager stripped Bing and the council of any power. Bing announced shortly afterward he would not run for re-election.
Mike Duggan, former CEO of the Detroit Medical Center who won the November election against the Wayne County sheriff, will take office on Jan. 1.
Duggan said in a separate talk Wednesday that he has had hours of “difficult conversations” with Orr to try to win some power to oversee the city’s operations while Orr shepherds the city through the bankruptcy process, according to local reports.
“It is my intention to strike an agreement with the emergency manager to take over more significant operations of the city,” said Duggan.
Duggan spoke at a workshop for the incoming Detroit City Council, where five of the nine members are newly elected.
The mayor-elect said he hopes to work closely with the new council.
“I’m anxious to sit down and talk about how we go to Lansing together,” Duggan told the council members. “This is the way I’m going to approach this. I’m going to try as best I can to get real authority back to the city leaders and show residents streetlights are coming on, abandoned houses are being addressed and we are going in the right direction.”
