Greg Bowens is a public relations professional and free lance writer. He is also a former press secretary for ex-Detroit Mayor Dennis Archer.
Warren Evans (file photo)
By Greg Bowens
Wayne County Executive Warren Evans may have doomed us all.
Like the lookout on the ill-fated Titanic, Evans shouts ‘ice-berg dead ahead’ way too late to avert disaster with his recent press conference detailing the county’s financial woes.
Instead of taking charge and inspiring confidence in crew and passenger alike, Evans points at the obvious.
We hit a financial iceberg and now there’s a hole in the ship bigger than we thought.
Thanks for the news flash.
The last captain, former Wayne County Executive Bob Ficano had already crashed the ship and it’s been taking in water for years. That’s why we elected a new captain.
We know the hole is bigger because the county has been floundering for years.
The job of the new captain should be to rally the crew, not send an SOS inviting round two of what the region just lived through with Detroit’s state takeover and bankruptcy.
We've seen this story before. Former Detroit Mayor Dave Bing did the same thing when he sounded the alarm (several times) saying the city was poised to run out of money.
Financial market watchers panicked.
Creditors panicked.
Employees feared bounced checks and pay-less paydays.
The governor, ill-equipped and/or simply unwilling to tackle the systemic problem of financial icebergs made massive by dwindling state revenue sharing, declining property values and Prop A, instead calls for a sacrifice to appease the financial sea gods of Wall Street.
Folks elected Warren Evans to do more than roll over and play dead for the state. Anyone can do that.
The macabre human sacrifice ritual goes like this…
Invoke calm with encouraging words and consent agreements.
Steer the ship into the fog of bankruptcy.
Strip the elderly of their pension life vests. Weigh them down with high healthcare costs and throw them overboard.
Let the bankruptcy lawyers, consultants and accountants swimming like sharks in the wake of calamity feast on the carcasses made fat by a lifetime of work in public service.
Then mourn the dead and hail them as heroes for their sacrifice.
Michigan is flush with icebergs and there are plenty of municipal ships floundering in the dark.
But right now, it’s Wayne County’s turn.
Let's hope the new captain can do more than blame his predecessor and wait for a state takeover.
