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National,
State
and
Local
voices
weight
in on
financial
proposals
By COREY
WILLIAMS/AP
Writer-Detroit
DETROIT
- The
Detroit
City
Council,
its
attorneys
and
fiscal
analysts
will
take the
weekend
to
digest
more
than 45
pages of
a
proposal
that —
in part
— could
nullify
hard-fought
concessions
reached
with
city
workers
while
determining
the
troubled
city's
financial
future
for
years to
come.
After
about
four
hours of
discussion
among
themselves
and
comments
from
irate
residents
Thursday
on a
financial
stability
agreement
negotiated
by Mayor
Dave
Bing and
Gov.
Rick
Snyder,
the
council
decided
to
continue
the
debate
Monday.
The
proposed
agreement,
if OK'd
by the
council,
would
wipe
away
tentative
concessions
Bing
reached
after
weeks of
negotiations
with
Detroit's
municipal
unions.
Those
concessions,
which
include
a 10
percent
pay cut,
and
health
care and
pension
givebacks,
have not
been
presented
to the
council
for
approval.
The
financial
stability
agreement
calls
for the
mayor to
not
"execute"
and the
council
to "not
approve"
any
changes
to
current
collective
bargaining
agreements.
Bing had
used the
threat
of
Snyder
appointing
an
emergency
manager
to
oversee
the
city's
finances
to get
the
unions
to come
to the
table.
Under
Public
Act 4,
an
emergency
manager
would
have the
authority
to rip
up and
renegotiate
union
contracts.
The
unions
grudgingly
gave
ground.
Councilman
Kwame
Kenyatta
said the
proposed
consent
agreement
makes
the
temporary
agreements
with
city
unions
"null
and
void"
and
"usurps
the
rights
of the
council
in its
bargaining
rights."
"I think
we've
been
locked
into
(being
told)
that
this is
what we
should
do," he
said in
opposition
to the
plan.
Councilwoman
JoAnn
Watson
questioned
why any
on the
council
would
consider
supporting
the
proposal.
"It's an
outrage
and an
insult
to have
unions
once
again on
the
chopping
block,"
she
said.
The
agreement
still is
a work
in
progress.
The
draft
seen
Thursday
by the
council
was
returned
to the
mayor's
office
this
week
after
revisions
by the
state
Treasurer's
office.
Late
Wednesday
afternoon,
a
separate
document
spelling
out
required
provisions
of the
city's
collective
bargaining
agreements
was
given to
the
city.
That
calls
for
existing
"favorable
concessions"
in the
temporary
agreements
with the
union to
be
approved
by two
newly
created
positions
and a
nine-member
financial
advisory
board
before
new
contracts
take
effect
after
June 30.
"We're
not 100
percent
behind
this,"
Deputy
Mayor
Kirk
Lewis
said of
the
proposed
agreement.
"We
thought
it
important
to bring
this to
the
table
for
discussion."
AFSCME
Local
207
President
John
Riehl
said the
agreement
being
reviewed
by the
council
would be
"bad for
city
workers
and bad
for
citizens,"
and
appears
to be
"an
emergency
manager
in
disguise."
"For the
governor
to come
in ...
after it
was
ratified
is
insulting,"
Riehl
said.
"He
doesn't
give a
damn
about
the
people
in
Detroit
and the
city
workers
who
voted
for
this."
Detroit
has a
$200
million
budget
deficit
and
long-term
structural
debt of
$13.2
billion.
A
financial
review
team on
Monday
determined
that
Detroit
is in
"severe
financial
stress,"
but
stopped
short of
recommending
that
Snyder
appoint
an
emergency
manager.
Appearing
on TV
Thursday
evening
as the
council
meeting
continued,
Snyder
said
April 5
was the
"drop-dead"
date for
a deal
that
would
avoid a
state
financial
takeover
of
Detroit.
"I have
to do my
job,"
Snyder
said in
the
studios
of WXYZ
in
suburban
Southfield.
Snyder
said his
administration
and
Detroit
officials
were
making
progress
in talks
for an
agreement
that
would
provide
more
limited
state
oversight
than
under an
emergency
manager.
In
answer
to a
question,
Snyder
acknowledged
there
are
racial
dimensions
to the
dispute.
The
white,
Republican
governor
said he
has been
working
hard to
establish
trust
with
residents
of the
overwhelmingly
black
city,
which he
said is
an
integral
part of
Michigan's
hopes
for an
economic
turnaround.
"We need
Detroit
on the
path to
success,"
he said.
Bing,
who
continued
to
recover
in a
Detroit
hospital
after a
weekend
operation
to
repair a
perforated
intestine,
said in
a
statement
that a
council
resolution
to
approve
the
agreement
"represents
a
significant
milestone
in
addressing
the
city's
financial
crisis,
decades
in the
making."
"It
won't
get
fixed
overnight,
but our
partnership
with the
state
will
drive us
as we
remedy
our
financial
crisis,"
Bing
said.
Bing
said the
draft
lets him
hire his
own
executive
staff
and
outlines
specific
support
from the
state.
It also
calls
for the
creation
of a
board
that
will
advise
the
mayor on
Detroit
finances
and work
with the
city to
set
annual
revenue
targets.
The city
would
have to
adopt
three-year
budgets
instead
of an
annual
budget.
The
proposal
doesn't
include
cash
from the
state,
which
Bing's
office
said is
necessary
for any
restructuring.
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