Benevolent overlord to take control of state's largest city

'Cause Daddy Knows Best

I love small-government, liberty-loving conservative Republicans.  They are so freedom-minded that they want to peep into your bedrooms.  They love indendpence, so much, that they want to decide who you can and can't marry.  They want to control what you see on television, watch in movies, and see on the internet, because, won't anyone think of the children?!  They want to be able to look through your library records.  They want a government so small that they can probe, prod, and control a woman's body.  And, now, my Michiganders, they want a government so small and petty that it's running your local city council.  

So much for Republicans screaming about "local control".  It's only about "local control" when they want to keep "those people" out of their neighborhoods or control the ones already there.  This isn't a slippry slope; we're already at the bottom of the hill.  If the Constitution allowed a president to come in and takeover a state, and Obama had come in and declared a financial emergency in Michigan, they'd be screaming bloody murder, the f%cking hypocrites.

So much for that admonishment againt "picking winners and losers" and "letting the market sort it out."

You see, folks, because it's local government for me, but sadly not for thee.  I got mine, Jack...and now I've got your's, too, 'cause, well...Daddy knows best.

BTW, on the specifics, I still wonder how the state's auditors are getting away with wrapping the debt of the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department - a seperate, revenue generating entity whose debt is paid off by a seperate revenue fund - in with the city's general debt, and no one but a few are calling them on it.  Detroit's long-term debt is a problem, regardless, but wrapping in the DWSD debt is the difference between their being an immediate "emergency" and there being a further off structural problem present in almost every big city in the country.

Well, this is going to be fun.  All fiscal turnarounds - and particularly one of this size - require millions and millions of dollars for the restructuring.  Detroit will be no exception.  The legislature has already said they aren't going to provide the city with any money.  I know Snyder is "One Tough Nerd" (HA!), but he'll need to turn water into wine if he's going to get money out of this race-baiting legislature.

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by: MiddleGrandGuy @ Sat Mar 02, 2013 at 02:09:16 AM UTC

Detroit Water & Sewer

There are issues galore to focus on in the new city of Snydroit but privatization of the city's water department is right up there. I can easily see Nestle or some other corporation gaining control of public water on the cheap via the EMF law.  

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by: LiberalBubba @ Sat Mar 02, 2013 at 15:02:34 PM UTC

Indeed

DWSD is, indeed, the prize, here.  It's leadership has already been cleaned out, so it won't take much for them to hand it over to the state for sale when the EM gets in there.  People were calling the city council crazy and paranoid when they said this is about the potential money-making endeavor that is the DWSD and its assets, and the suburbs have been wanting this thing handed over to a regional authority for years.  

In a perfect world, the state would have simply let the new DWSD leadership get its footing - which it actually was doing - so that it could finally bring in revenue for the city, so that the city wouldn't even be in a fiscally troubling situation.  Now, it really does seem that the state is at least going to privatize operations.  Even more likely is that they are going to sell it off, entirely, and it'll be making money for its shareholders, and the last municipal department that could save the city's finances will be in hands of the corporate world.

IF Snyder knows what's best for his re-election chances - and more important, the city of Detroit - he'll keep his damned hands off DWSD and leave it under city ownership, if even he changes management of the system.  If not, I hope the City of Detroit sues the bejeebuses out of him.  I know they think municipal charters can go in the shredder; well, that's their opinion, and that's why we have courts.

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by: MiddleGrandGuy @ Sun Mar 03, 2013 at 01:44:45 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

There's a lot for the suburbs to oppose in this

A privately run water company would hurt them, too.  Time to start getting the Drain Commissioners and Water Resource Commissioners on board with stopping privatization.

Greetings from Detroit, Ground Zero of the post-industrial future!

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by: Neon Vincent @ Sun Mar 03, 2013 at 01:49:51 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

I don't know

I don't know if they realize that.  DWSD has become the touchstone and sounding board for all of their problems with the city.   I get the feeling that most suburbs would take a chance on anything other than city control over water, just as most people in the region as willing to take a chance on unproven (or even proven in the other direction) emergency manager for Detroit.

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by: MiddleGrandGuy @ Sun Mar 03, 2013 at 05:42:05 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

They probably don't realize that yet

How about I make it my personal crusade that they do?  That's not a rhetorical question.

Greetings from Detroit, Ground Zero of the post-industrial future!

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by: Neon Vincent @ Sun Mar 03, 2013 at 20:17:35 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

The right answer

Detroit ought to sell DWSD to a consortium which consists of all the users of the system, with voting rights distributed according to system use. My guess at a purchase price would be $2 billion.  From that point on, the regional water board would face the correct balance of interests, leading to better cost controls and more interest in maintenance and upkeep.  And Detroit's use of its control to fleece the suburbs would be at an end.

The state legislation that brings this about should place the money into a trust, to be used exclusively for Detroit's benefit, but subject to oversight to ensure the money isn't used to delay the day of financial reckoning for the city at large.  Since it would be one-time money, it shouldn't be used to finance continuing expenditures.

Of course, 1) Detroit isn't willing to part with DWSD, because its politicians will lose their ability to loot it, 2) the suburbs will continue to be unwilling to actually pay to purchase control, since they hope somehow to steal the system, and 3) the State won't propose anything useful, preferring to preach.

So, never mind.

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by: Grebner @ Sun Mar 03, 2013 at 02:25:05 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

That's an idea that makes too much sense to happen

That written, I think it's exactly what needs to be done.

Greetings from Detroit, Ground Zero of the post-industrial future!

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by: Neon Vincent @ Sun Mar 03, 2013 at 20:16:23 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Fleece the suburbs?

Wrong, Grebner. The suburbs fleece their own people in marking up the costs of the water to the tune of up to 40-50%, if I recall correctly from the document I saw on this topic a couple years ago. Could be more. No such thing as "fleecing" by Detroit.

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by: MIChange @ Tue Mar 05, 2013 at 15:20:14 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Thirty years ago, the DWSD director took bribes

No one who has been within a mile of the DWSD could possibly imagine that it is a competent or honest organization.

Thirty years ago, Charles Beckham took hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes to steer a $1 billion contract for hauling sludge.  That's not opinion - he was convicted and sent to prison.  As soon as he was released, Detroit hired him back as a manager.  He only retired about a year ago.

Fast forward to five years ago.  MonCon, Sam Riddle, and that whole crowd were again taking bribes to steer another $1 billion contract to haul sludge.  (Actually, they had their fingers in many pies.)  Again, they're convicted and sent to prison.  Bobby Ferguson is given close to $100,000,000 for doing - what?  His company didn't actually have the personnel or equipment to do anything useful, but our favorite organized crime figure (Tony Soave) was ordered to put him on payroll if he wanted to maintain his favored position at the trough.

The pipes leak.  The Mafia is hired to fix them.  Perhaps the mob has a special knack for fixing plumbing, but I doubt it.  

I could provide lots of specific stories about the obscene waste and stunning incompetence of the management, but how could I top the Charles Beckham story?  So I won't try.

DWSD may be the most screwed up operation of an insanely badly run city.  If anyone thinks they're some sort of exception, that DWSD provides great value to the suburbs, they're wrong.  What makes DWSD so central to the criminal element at City Hall is that there's almost no money left to steal from Detroiters - the bones have been picked clean.  But DWSD is able to steal from the SUBURBS.  So when Kwame needed money for a prostitute or a Rolex, DWSD was the obvious choice.

The suburbs tack on additional charges, but that's not what I'm talking about.  "Somebody" is picking up the tab for hiring Tony Soave and Sam Riddle, and that somebody ought to put up the cash to buy Detroit out.

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by: Grebner @ Wed Mar 06, 2013 at 01:06:14 AM UTC

[ Parent ]