Amidst layoffs and pay cuts, DPS buys emergency manager brand new $40,000 SUV

(WXYZ) Detroit, Mich. - Most say the hardest job in Michigan doesn’t belong to the governor, not even Detroit’s mayor, but the new emergency manager for Detroit Public Schools.

So far, Roy Roberts has asked teachers, students and parents to share in some deep cuts, but tonight Action News Investigator Ross Jones has details on a costly new perk that’s raising eyebrows

He’s ruffled some feathers with his straightforward and sometimes blunt approach to getting Detroit’s troubled schools out of a decades-long drought. And while there’s no doubt about Roy Roberts’ passion, there is concern tonight that a purchase made under his watch is sending the wrong message.

On his first day on the job as Detroit schools’ latest Emergency Manager, Roy Roberts made it clear that under his watch, DPS would be doing more with less.

“Money is tight in this state, in this school system, in every school system,” Roberts said on May 16.

“It’s the same adjustment that you’ve had to make in your homes,” he said.

Roberts said district would be evaluating how its spent money in the past, and give up unnecessary frills.

“What are the things we need the most," he asked the parents, teachers and students in the audience.

"Which ones are nice, and which can we do without?"

But amidst all the cuts, it’s a recent purchase that’s raising questions tonight about whether district sacrifice is extending to the top. In June, during the same week Roberts took an axe to the Detroit Schools’ budget, the district bought him a brand new, $40,000 Chevrolet Tahoe.

The Tahoe is used to chauffer Roberts around the city. It’s an expense the district said it needed to make: the previous vehicle, used by Robert Bobb, needed “extensive maintenance,” they said, and racked up 110,000 miles.

“My last car had 230,000 miles on it,” said Ida Byrd-Hill, whose son and daughter just graduated from Detroit Public schools.

“You do what you have to do when you’re in a financial situation, and a financial struggle," she said.

Byrd-Hill has seen 12 district superintendents, CEOs, and Emergency Managers come and go. Like most parents, she supports Roberts, but fears that the money could have been better spent as the district makes drastic cuts.

“That $40,000 could have been two assistants to a teacher, because they need that assistance, because they can’t do it by themselves,” said Byrd-Hill.

We checked with other large districts, virtually all of them in far better financial shape than DPS, to see how their superintendents got around. In the larger Houston, Memphis and Columbus school districts, superintendents use their own vehicles, opting to receive a monthly stipend instead. They average about $600 a month.

In Los Angeles and Chicago, their superintendents use less costly Ford Crown Vics that are several years old. Charlotte’s superintendent was offered a 2002 Buick Century, but declined; he drives his own car instead. And in Boston, their superintendent wouldn’t accept a car, or a stipend.

Roberts is a retired vice-president for General Motors, paid $250,000 a year from the district, and his spokeswoman tells Action News that the decision to purchase the Tahoe was made by DPS police, citing safety concerns. Regardless of who made the call, parents like Ida Byrd-Hill say it’s a frill the district can’t afford.

“You want me to have 60 kids in a classroom or 40 kids in the classroom because you don’t have the money,” said Byrd-Hill.

“And yet you had money to buy a new car. That doesn’t work well with parents."

Roberts declined to speak to Action News on camera, but says the 10% pay cuts will apply to him as well.

When Robert Bobb took the position of Emergency Financial Manager in 2009, his transportation was a four-year-old Dodge Durango.

If you have a tip for the Action News Investigative Team, contact us at tips@wxyz.com or at (248) 827-9466.