The following are excerpted notes from bookmarking of articles pertaining to the Financial Stability Agreement signed by Detroit elected officials on April 4, 2012.
Posted from Diigo. The rest of Occupy Detroit Knol group favorite links are here.
-
3 of the nine member board have been APPOINTED: Robert Bowman, Darrell Burks, Ken Whipple
- - By Stephen Boyle
- Snyder selects three members of the board; Bing and the City Council get to select two each; state Treasurer Andy Dillon appoints one, and Bing and Snyder jointly appoint one.
The city and state will split costs for the board, including $25,000 in annual pay for each member. Bowman was the joint appointee, Burks was Snyder's choice and Whipple was Dillon's designee. - $1.2-billion budget was presented to the council, but many details of the spending plan were vague or not available. Administration officials said the document was put together in a rush to meet a city charter-mandated deadline for a budget presentation after chaotic weeks of negotiating the consent agreement.
- Lewis said he expects administration members to go before the council Monday to discuss details of the budget, which should offer more of a glimpse into how officials plan to climb out of debt. The budget proposal calls for $160 million less in spending than the current fiscal year's, a savings that officials have said could be achieved through department consolidations, eliminations and work-force reductions.
- Financial analysts are eyeing whether the city's first attempt at a post-consent deal budget calls for enough cuts and consolidation or privatization of departments, including water and sewer and public lighting, to truly make a difference.
-
CFO and Program Management Director salaries to exceed 3x what city council members earn.
- - By Stephen Boyle
- Jenkins and other council members asked Bing's chief operating officer, Chris Brown, to send the proposal back to the state with a request to cap the yearly salaries at $220,000. Snyder's staff proposed pay of $190,000-$280,000 for the CFO and $160,000-$250,000 for the program manager. Both positions, which would get tens of thousands more in health care and other benefits, would report to the mayor.
- Council members weren't buying the argument for bigger salaries. They questioned why the pay ranges were at the high end compared with similar positions in other big-city and county governments that the Bing administration surveyed.
- The city will pay for the two positions, but the city and state will split the costs of a nine-member financial advisory board appointed by the state, the mayor and the council that will have final say on financial matters. The advisory board members are to be paid $25,000 a year.
- The Detroit City Council questioned on Tuesday the proposed pay for the new positions of chief financial officer and program management director. Here are base salaries for various elected and appointed officials in Detroit and Lansing; the figures do not include the costs of health care and retiree benefits:
-
- Snyder and Bing said they named former state Treasurer Robert Bowman, currently president and CEO of Major League Baseball Advanced Media LP, as the joint mayoral-gubernatorial appointee to the board.
Snyder said Darrell Burks, a senior partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers, will be one of three people he will appoint to the board. Meanwhile, Ken Whipple, board chairman at Korn/Ferry International, is Dillon’s appointee.
-
One of the people in line to decide the fate of the referendum to challenge Michigan’s emergency manager law has a business interest in the outcome. Jeffrey Timmer is a partner at The Sterling Corporation and is a board member on the State Board of Canvassers. That’s the bipartisan panel that will make the initial ruling on the challenge.
- - By Stephen Boyle
-
Earlier this month, some opposed to the state's efforts to enter into a consent agreement with Detroit tried to stop the process from going forward - arguing in front of an Ingham County judge that the state did not comply with Michigan's Open Meetings Act.
The judge agreed and ordered a halt to the process, but in an appeal by the state the Michigan Court of Appeals put a stay on the judge's decision.
Union activist and Highland Park school board member Robert Davis appealed all the way to the Michigan Supreme Court.
Today, the Michigan Supreme Court said it won't take up Davis' appeal.- - By Stephen Boyle
-
- Robert Bowman, Darrell Burks and Ken Whipple are the first of nine appointees called for under an agreement between Detroit Mayor Dave Bing and Gov. Rick Snyder.
- The advisory board will monitor how the city manages its limited resources and report back to the state. It also will make recommendations to the mayor and help the city in preparing its 3-year budget.
- Board members are required to have at least 10 years of experience and have their qualifications confirmed by the Michigan Association of Certified Public Accountants or the Michigan Government Finance Officers Association. They will receive $25,000 in annual compensation.
- Bowman was jointly appointed by Bing and Snyder. Burks is a Snyder appointee, while Whipple was appointed by Dillon.
- Snyder, Bing and the Detroit City Council each will pick two additional board members.
-
- The mayor plans to cut $160 million from the general fund and about $600 million more from the overall budget. Tough measures for a mayor who refused, just last year, to make enough cuts to avoid emergency management.
- The five council members who voted in favor of the CA tried to assure citizens it would make things better. The mayor’s proposed budget, which has to be approved by the state, has already shown it to be a farce.
- Bring back the unions’ plan or let the new nine-member board, CFO and program management director reveal the budget process is for show and the state is Detroit’ s new boss.
-
- Over 260,000 Michigan citizens signed a petition demanding the question of emergency manager be put before the voters on the November ballot. It is expected then the Secretary of State will announce within a week that there are enough valid signatures. The minute the signatures are validated, PA 4 is suspended. No more EMs; democracy is restored to Benton Harbor, Detroit Public Schools and anyone else under the state-imposed dictatorial rule of PA4.
- There is no need for the agreement. What may be needed are technical advisers helping Bing run the city — a job he has demonstrated is beyond his abilities. What the state could also do is pay the $220 million revenue-sharing owed this city since a 1990s-era agreement; restore the $400 million lost in city tax revenue when the city kept its side of that bargain.
- Why isn’t council listening to lawyers who can advise them of the feasibility of suing the state for the money owed? Why don’t they realize Snyder has double-crossed the unions, and they are now as vulnerable?
Posted from Diigo. The rest of Occupy Detroit Knol group favorite links are here.
No comments:
Post a Comment