Detroit City Council reacts to review that recommended a emergency financial manager for city

DETROIT (WXYZ) - Detroit is waiting for the governor to decide if the city needs an Emergency Financial Manager and City Council members have a whole lot to say about the review team’s findings.

They’re trying to figure out what the next move will be.

They met first thing this morning to talk about the review team’s report that Detroit is in a financial emergency and there’s no viable plan in place to fix it.

Council President Charles Pugh directed staffers to help develop a response that they will forward to the governor in the next few days in hope of showing him that there are options, as opposed to an Emergency Financial Manager.

“I think we went from, you know, an audience that involved the treasurer and the review team. Now we’re down to an audience of the governor,” Pugh said. “And what can we say to the governor, with our fiscal case, that we directed our staff to make today. You know, what kind of impact can we have on the outcome of the governor’s decision.”

“You know, my gut reaction is, overall I found it to be a evenhanded and accurate description of where the city’s finances are at this point,” Council member Ken Cockrel, Jr. said. “I mean the reality is the mayor and the council have collaborated. We’ve taken some significant steps to try and address the issue, but we have some structural constraints. The city charter limits what we’re able to do.”

However, both are split on the matter of the need for an emergency financial manager..

“I’m not convinced, at this time, that an emergency manager should be the foregone conclusion,” Pugh says.

“I would hate to see it come to an emergency manager, but the reality is I think it’s an option that needs to be considered,”
Cockrel said.

At the council session this morning one of the mayor’s executives in the human resources department urged the council to vote to impose additional furlough days on union workers.

But council member Saunteel Jenkins said the city should wait and see and take a step back and wait and see what the governor will do next.