A vast stash of Detroit financial data and restructuring plans will become public as part of the Chapter 9 bankruptcy case, lawyers for the city now agree.
That turnabout comes after Federal Judge Steven Rhodes challenged the emergency manager's tactic of keeping the information in a password-protected "digital vault" for access only by Detroit's main creditors, who had to sign a confidentiality pledge.
"Speculation and conjecture are not the basis for confidentiality,” Judge Steven Rhodes says.
Nathan Bomey reports on the turnabout in the Free Press:
Detroit attorneys filed a motion in bankruptcy court asking for permission to redact personal information from documents in the database and declaring their intention to make more documents accessible to all creditors without requiring them to keep the documents secret.
Among the files the city plans to make available to creditors are “multiple versions of the city’s 10-year restructuring plan, together with the underlying revenue and department detail, overviews and historical financial data,” according to a court filing. The database contains 70,000 pages. . . .
The move reflects a victory for creditors that objected to the secrecy of the so-called “data room,” including the UAW, which publicly refused to sign a confidentiality agreement. . . .
“Those having access to the data room will no longer be required to sign a nondisclosure agreement,” the city said.
At a hearing Wednesday, Rhodes said Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr lacks a valid reason to keep the information under wraps. “Generally speaking, speculation and conjecture are not the basis for confidentiality,” the bankruptcy case judge said.
The database has details about union deals, employee benefits and city debts, Bomey notes.
Retirees, who now have a separate committee to represent their interests in bankruptcy proceedings, are anxious for more information on the city’s proposals for funding the General Retirement System and the Police and Fire Retirement System, the city’s pension funds.
