Noting the appearance of Detroit's Odd Couple -- Mayor Mike Duggan and City Council President Brenda Jones -- together in Lansing Wednesday, Step[hen Henderson argues in the Free Press that the "Grand Bargain" bills making their way through the legislature need to give Detroit a path to self-determination.
He writes:
Give us a chance.
That was the reasonable and modest request of Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan and City Council President Brenda Jones in Lansing on Tuesday, as they testified before a legislative committee debating a $200-million contribution to the bankruptcy’s “grand bargain” to save the Detroit Institute of Arts’ collection and shore up pensions.
Give Detroit a chance to prove, post-bankruptcy, that things here have changed, management is better and oversight — what lawmakers have said they want in exchange for the $200 million — is unnecessary in the long term.
Henderson says the city deserves clear guidelines for that oversight, a methodical path it can work, over time, to restore full autonomy to manage its affairs. That’s about protecting democracy.
