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+ FollowEXCLUSIVE: Detroit Mayor Bing Talks Budget, Aiyana Jones and More
It’s been a little more than a year since Detroit Mayor Dave Bing took the helm of Detroit, winning a special election in May 2009 to finish the term of disgraced ex-Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick.
Voters elected Bing to a full term in November that same year, handing the former NBA star and stellar businessman a host of problems that the mayor is wading through.
In an exclusive interview with Politic 365, the mayor outlined his challenges and upcoming initiatives.
His number one concern? The budget.
Bing recently presented a $3.1 billion budget to the city council that had some $100 million in cuts, the mayor explained.
“We took six months of internal wrangling to put our budget together and we did it without a lot of fanfare,” Bing said. “We didn’t want to do it all out in public making a bunch of statements and taking a bunch of positions. We did our homework.”
But the budget was rejected by the council and Bing’s subsequent veto was overridden by a 7-to-2 vote last week as the council asked for an additional $31 million in cuts. Council members said they weren’t confident about Bing’s revenue projections.
“Our budget was bare bones and it was rejected,” Bing said. “And it’s unacceptable my vantage point because another $31 million cut means I have to reduce or cut services altogether and start to cut a lot of people. That’s where we are right now.”
Bing’s staff has already begun considering those additional cuts, which will reportedly include closing city parks, laying off police and reducing on-duty EMS units.
“That’s the worst thing we can do right now,” Bing said referring to the layoff of emergency personnel. “Detroit has obviously had our spate of crime. But the big picture, all the data says, that crime is going south. It’s going in the right direction.
“But over the last three weeks or so, there’s been an uptick, so we’re dealing with that,” he continued. “So I think it sends the wrong message to the citizens of Detroit that we’re going to accept this level of crime…when you’re cutting that particular area in public safety, it sends the wrong message.”
Aiyana Jones: ‘A tragedy’
The issue of public safety come on the heels of a fatal police shooting that shook the entire community. Seven-year-old Aiyana Jones was killed during a police raid on her family’s home May 16. Questions continue to surround the little girl’s death among claims of a botched raid while police were searching for a homicide suspect; as well as accusations that authorities’ behavior was affected by camera crews filming for A&E’s crime reality show, “The First 48.” The family has filed a lawsuit against the Detroit Police Department in state and federal court.
Bing said he’s not jumped to conclusions about Jones’ death.
“I want the facts to prove what happened,” he said. “You have a lot of people who get very emotional and I understand that. (But) you’ve got to control emotion and you can’t just jump off the deepen end because a tragedy happened. And this is obviously a tragedy.”
Detroit police, he said, are unfortunately “getting a reputation of not caring, of being a rogue police department and I don’t think that’s true. This particular incident we have to just let play out and see what the outcome of it is.”
Bing has urged unity in the wake of the shooting and an examination of the root of crime in the city.
“It’s bringing our community to the table so that we have to talk about the issues that have people acting they way they act,” he said. “And some of it has to do with unemployment. People don’t have jobs, they have time on their hands. They’re scared, they’re frustrated, they’re angry. And people make bad decisions when they’re feeling like that.”
Education: Headed toward ‘mayoral accountability’
Detroit had a 25 percent unemployment rate at the end of 2009. Bing is looking forward to creating an jobs and “an environment to make that happen” but the longterm plan included focusing on education as well.
“As a former business person, when I’m ready to hire somebody, they have to have skills, they have to have knowledge,” he said. “And we have to get our kids ready for the work world.”
Bing is keeping an eye on education systems in urban areas like Chicago, New York and Washington, D.C. “where mayoral accountability has taken place,” he said. “Therefore the mayor becomes responsible for educating its people in the city and I think that’s a direction we’re going here in Detroit.”
Bing has expressed interest in leading the city school district, which faced a $300 million deficit and declining enrollment last year, if Detroit residents want it.
“We’ve had big problems here,” Bing said. ‘It didn’t just start, but we’ve got to take the position that it had to stop.
“Am I ready to take it on?” He asked wryly. “Probably not. But by the same token, it’s something that has to happen. We can’t wait any longer.”
‘Good’ leadership team in place
The mayor is moving forward on plans to demolish dangerous city buildings and structural eyesores, an initiative that he said his predecessors didn’t “really get done.”
“And I’m committed to getting it done,” he added, noting that 800 structures have already been torn down and he projects that 10,000 will be demolished during his term.
Though Bing didn’t know the exact scope of what he would be facing, he knew when he stepped in to lead Detroit that there would a tremendous amount of challenges.
“Things had gone left undone for long periods of time,” he said. “So you’re always digging out of a hole to play catch up.”
Bing has praises for his administration, which he describes as a good team that works efficiently.
“I’m not the kind of guy that likes to micromanage,” he said. “I want to get the right people in the right positions and give the authority, the support system. People are not afraid to make a decision.
“Even if the make a mistake, we will sit and talk about it,” Bing added. “And then get back and go to work.”
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