← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · Davey Crockett
Thread ID: 16200 | Posts: 4 | Started: 2005-01-05
2005-01-05 18:14 | User Profile
[url]http://www.freep.com/news/locway/finances5e_20050105.htm[/url]
Detroit's budget crisis could force massive cuts, Kilpatrick warns
January 5, 2005
BY MARISOL BELLO FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and his administration sent a sobering and frank message on Tuesday about a city that is going broke and is laying the groundwork for crucial cuts that likely will take place in next fiscal year's budget.
City officials, economists and national municipal finance experts outlined Detroit's growing crisis -- the result of insufficient revenue to pay for increasing expenses -- during the first of a two-day economic conference with the city's business, political and community leaders.
Detroit is facing a $214-million shortfall in fiscal year 2005-06, which begins on July 1. To make up for the deficit, the city may have to cut up to 2,000 employees.
"If this were a business, you would be in federal court filing for bankruptcy protection," said Van Conway, president of Conway MacKenzie & Dunleavy, a Birmingham-based firm that advises financially troubled companies.
Conway said the city must develop a plan to reduce its costs and consider whether other options may be cheaper, such as using outside companies to do work currently being done by city workers.
If Detroit continues on its current path, the result may be state receivership, panelists said Tuesday. The mayor opened the forum by telling the almost 100 attendees that Detroit is not alone in its crisis. Cities around the country, from Pittsburgh to Chicago to Toledo, have had to lay off workers and cut services.
He said Detroit's problems have become worse as the population has declined.
The city has lost almost a million residents since its peak growth period during the 1950s. Estimates show that the city may lose another 50,000 in the next five years. Many of those leaving are higher-income residents.
"We really need to plan for the depopulation Detroit is in so we can grow again," Kilpatrick said. "Some of the solutions are going to be tough."
The mayor urged the Detroit City Council -- which shapes and votes on the city's $1.4-billion general fund budget -- and the city's unions to join the discussion.
Kilpatrick will face a battle with the 54 unions that represent the city's 17,000-member workforce. The unions have the backing of several City Council members, including President Maryann Mahaffey and council members Barbara-Rose Collins, Sharon McPhail and JoAnn Watson. The group opposed layoffs the mayor tried to make earlier.
Watson and McPhail, along with colleagues Sheila Cockrel and Alberta Tinsley-Talabi, attended Tuesday's session. The council members said the fiscal crisis is the most important issue facing the city this year.
Watson and several union officials said they met in November, along with Mahaffey, to look at ways to deal with the shortfall.
Contact MARISOL BELLO at 313-222-6678 or [email]bello@freepress.com[/email].
2005-01-05 22:26 | User Profile
And yet another example of Blacks inability to comprehend the principles of civilization:
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[url]http://www.wgcltv.com/Global/story.asp?S=2762361[/url]
Judge orders sheriff to rehire employees
January 5, 2004
JONESBORO, Ga. (AP) -- Clayton County's new sheriff -- has been ordered to rehire more than two dozen people he fired on his first day in office.
Victor Hill, who started as sheriff in suburban Clayton County Monday, called 27 department employees to the jail. He stripped them of their guns and badges and had his new chief deputy hand them photocopied dismissal papers.
Sheriff's department snipers stood guard on the roof of the jail as the fired workers were escorted out.
Because they were NO longer allowed to use their county cars, some former deputies were driven home in vans normally used to transport prisoners.
Today, a judge ordered the new sheriff to immediately rehire them.
Clayton Superior Court Judge Stephen Boswell wrote that it appears the officers were terminated without cause.
Hill said he has armed guards protecting him and his home after firing the officers -- including four of the high-ranking sheriff's employees.
Newly elected County Commission Chairman Eldrin Bell -- a former Atlanta police chief -- promised yesterday to help the employees get their jobs back.
The 39-year-old Hill -- a former Clayton County police detective and a one-term state legislator -- ousted Sheriff Stanley Tuggle.
Clayton County -- long a mostly white area south of Atlanta -- was led for the first time by black elected officials when county offices opened for business yesterday.
Hill says the firings were carried out to -- quote --"maintain the integrity of the department."
(Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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2005-01-12 00:00 | User Profile
A civilized negro? Is that an oxymoron? See today's story below:
2 die as $10 debt leads to arson
Suspect held for charges of murder January 11, 2005
BY AMBER HUNT MARTIN FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
Enraged that a neighbor stiffed her for a $10 rock of crack cocaine, a 46-year-old Detroit woman left her apartment, bought gasoline, returned home and set fire to her building's stairwell, police said Monday.
That single piece of crack now has a body count: A 3-year-old boy and a 19-year-old woman, who died when the blaze raged through the complex, on Merton near Palmer Park.
The targeted drug debtor walked away unscathed.
The suspect is expected to be arraigned today on two counts of first-degree murder, as well as several other felonies, including arson and attempted murder for the two people who were critically injured in the Sunday fire.
Detroit Police 2nd Deputy Chief James Tate said the crime was as senseless as they come.
"She did express remorse and said she didn't mean to hurt anyone," Tate said Monday. "This is the result of drugs. A lot of people complain when our officers go out and arrest someone for what might seem like a small amount of drugs, but this is the effect of it."
The two victims, Derrick Wilbourn Jr., 3, and Robin Abraham, 19, were found in separate apartments. Derrick's father, 25-year-old Derrick Wilbourn Sr., was upgraded from critical to serious condition Monday.
His girlfriend, Jashara Clark, remained in critical condition at Detroit Receiving Hospital. The other critically injured victim is a 3-month-old, who is being treated at Children's Hospital of Michigan in Detroit, Tate said.
One-year-old Derica Wilbourn, also Clark and Wilbourn's child, and 7-year-old Acacia Bennett, Clark's daughter from a previous relationship, also were treated at the hospital. A third adult was in temporary serious condition at Henry Ford Hospital.
Wilbourn's family members gathered at his grandparents' home in Detroit, where Derrick Wilbourn once lived with his young son.
"We're staying strong," said Lakira Wilbourn, Derrick Wilbourn's cousin. "I just can't fathom how you do something like this for crack."
She said her cousin was strongly sedated and didn't yet know that his son didn't survive.
A total of 12 people were taken to area hospitals, with injuries ranging from smoke inhalation to fractured bones.
Police said the suspect lived in the 46-unit complex.
Before she confessed, she was questioned three times and was implicated by some of her neighbors, Tate said.
The woman allegedly had started smaller retaliatory fires in the past. Those were minor, however, and neighbors did not notify the Fire Department or police.
Sunday's blaze was reported about 6:30 a.m. By the time firefighters arrived, flames were shooting out of the apartments' windows. At least one man reportedly escaped the building by jumping from a window.
Tate said fire officials immediately suspected arson. Trained dogs tracked the scent of an accelerant, while the blaze's pattern in the stairwell indicated it was intentionally ignited.
"I tell you something: Satan is busy, and he'll use whomever he will," said one neighbor, who refused to give her name for fear of retaliation.
"What a useless loss of life. There are sick people out there."
2005-01-12 00:04 | User Profile
I think that now we are getting closer to the truth of Detroit's impending bankruptcy:
Detroit analyst expects big job cuts
January 11, 2005
BY MARISOL BELLO FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
Detroit's deficit for the next fiscal year may reach as high as $400 million and could mean the majority of city departments may have to cut their budgets in half to deal with the crisis, the City Council's fiscal analyst said Monday.
"In order to move forward and address a potential deficit of $400 million, we have to take drastic measures," Irvin Corley Jr., the council's fiscal analyst, told council members Monday during a session to find ways to reduce the city's deficit.
In a sobering memo, Corley said the city may have to cut 2,300 jobs from departments that rely on the city's $1.4-billion general fund. The cuts would mainly occur among the city's 7,500 general employees because Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick said he would not cut uniformed police and fire employees.
Cutting about a third of the general city employees and taking other measures could save up to $322 million, Corley said. For example, regionalizing the city's transportation department could save $79 million. However, that option is highly unlikely this year.
Corley estimates the city will face an $128-million deficit carried over from the 2003-04 and 2004-05 fiscal years; a $167-million projected shortfall for the 2005-06 fiscal year, which begins July 1; $19 million in payments to city authorities struggling with their own finances; $40 million for a new communications system and $80 million in potential pension payments.
The administration will meet with council members Friday to discuss the deficit. The council members and Corley are calling on the administration to explain the shortfall.
Howard Hughey, a mayoral spokesman, said the report "underscores what our financial team has been studying and evaluating for quite some time."
Hughey said that he has not read the report. The mayor's office has projected a $214-million shortfall for 2005-06 and has not said whether the city will run deficits for 2003-04 and 2004-05. The city is finalizing its budget numbers for 2003-04.
Administration officials met Monday night with five of the city's largest unions. The city employs about 17,000 workers.