Governor Snyder answers questions as deadline arrives on consent agreement

DETROIT (WXYZ) - Governor Rick Snyder said Monday that state and city officials are close to working out a deal to help reshape the city's bleak financial picture.

He said the latest agreement on the table needs two or three more paragraphs.

He expects a deal to be reached this week.

"My role is not to run the city of Detroit," Snyder told reporters. "My goal is not to have an emergency manager in Detroit. My goal is for the state providing a supporting resource, to be a partner in helping it achieve success."

The governor met with six of the city's nine council members at his Detroit office.

He said the meetings were fruitful.

"It wasn't us versus them," Snyder said.

The governor says there are three key things that need to happen to get Detroit back on the right track: getting the city's finances stable; basic services like lighting need to be improved; and the city needs to grow.

Council President Charles Pugh was among the council members summoned to Governor Snyder's Detroit office Monday morning, as both state and city officials try to work out a plan to fix Detroit’s finances.

“We got a call from the governor saying he wanted to meet with us," Pugh said. "Clearly we have some things to talk to him about. We don’t want an EM or need one."

The meetings came with time ticking on today's scheduled deadline for the governor to accept a consent agreement that would allow city officials to retain some of their power. At the same time the consent agreement would prevent an emergency manager who could make sweeping changes, something council doesn’t want.

“It would mean the democratic process is thrown out the window," said Councilwoman Saunteel Jenkins about an emergency manager. "It would mean city assets could be sold without any input from citizens or from elected officials. It would be pretty devastating to the city."

Jenkins was among the council members who met with the governor Monday.

Specific details on the deficit elimination plan remain unclear.

A majority of council members would have to support it.

State and city leaders have been wrangling over how much power each side would retain.