Detroit Elects New Mayor; Mixed Results for Midwest Ballots

CHICAGO - Detroit voters elected businessman and former Pistons star Dave Bing over incumbent Kenneth Cockrel Jr. to serve out the mayoral term of Kwame Kilpatrick, while voters across Michigan and Ohio delivered a mixed bag of results on bonding measures on Tuesday's ballot.

Bing, a retired National Basketball Association hall of famer and political novice who ran as an agent of change, won by a 52-to-48% margin in the special election, which attracted light voter turnout.

Cockrel, who hails from a local political family, will return to his previous position as City Council president. Cockrel took over as mayor after Kilpatrick resigned last September as part of a plea agreement with local prosecutors involving obstruction of justice charges that he lied under oath in a civil whistleblower trial.

Bing, who had lived in suburban Detroit until last fall, told supporters Tuesday night his election would bring "efficiency, transparency, honesty, and integrity back to the mayor s office." Bing, 65, is the owner of the Bing Group, a manufacturing company. His term is a short one, with a primary for a new four-year term scheduled for August and the general election in November. Both Bing and Cockrel, 43, are expected to run.

Bing inherits control of a city in fiscal turmoil, although Cockrel has won praise on some fronts for addressing a structural deficit in his proposed budget and releasing overdue audits. The council has been holding hearings on Cockrel's proposed 2010 budget, and it is unclear at the moment what changes Bing might seek.

Under the proposed $3.7 billion spending plan, the city would lease its half of the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel, as well as the municipal lighting and parking departments, to a private operator for up-front cash payments that could help eliminate a looming $300 million deficit. The budget's only proposed borrowing is $450 million of water bonds.

Detroit was hit with a trio of downgrades from all three rating agencies earlier this year, leaving its general obligation credit in junk bond territory. Analysts cited auto industry-related woes as a chief economic pressure. General Motors Corp. is headquartered in the city and Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler LLC have a significant presence there.

Bing said in a radio interview yesterday that a top priority is pursuing the expansion of the aging downtown convention center known as the Cobo Center - home of the lucrative North American International Auto Show. A bond-financed deal that would have brought new owners and renovations to the center was put on hold after the Michigan Court of Appeals Friday upheld an earlier ruling blocking the state-crafted deal.

The ruling favored the City Council's recent rejection of the proposal, which would have allowed a regional authority to purchase, renovate, and expand the aging center. Cockrel had vetoed the council's action.

Detroit voters also favored by a 78% to 22% margin revising the city's charter. Voters will be asked on the August ballot to appoint members of an 18-member commission that will oversee the charter revision process.

More than 20 bonding referendums were on the ballot in Michigan jurisdictions with mixed results. Utica Community Schools narrowly won approval for $112.5 million of borrowing to finance various remodeling, construction, equipment, and technology projects at its schools.

East Detroit Public Schools won approval for a $23 million issue to finance various building upgrades. Local published reports said it was the first referendum approved since the disclosure earlier in the decade of a long-running bribery and embezzlement scandal. West Bloomfield School District voters approved overwhelmingly a $24 million issue for various building upgrades and to buy school buses.

Voters in the St. Johns Public Schools District rejected a measure for $75 million for school improvements. The Fruitport Community School District also lost its request to borrow $83 million to finance improvements and construction of a new high school.

Ohio voters faced more than 15 referendum in various jurisdictions that also showed mixed results. The Xenia Community School District lost in its second attempt in a year to win approval for an $80 million referendum. The district said the funds were needed to qualify for $58 million in matching state money that could have funded a new high school and four new elementary schools. The Switzerland of Ohio Local School District won approval for its $35 million issue for six new schools.

Also in Ohio, voters in the Manchester Local School District approved a tax increase for operations but rejected a $26.6 million bonding referendum. Upper Arlington voters rejected a $25 million bonding question to fund expansions at two libraries and other purchases.

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