How Powerful Is Duggan?

Questions linger on how much power mayor-elect will have to carry out voters’ mandate
 
Come January 2014, former Detroit Medical Center CEO Mike Duggan will be sworn in as mayor of Detroit at a time when the city is facing so many challenges and is in a financial transfix as it goes through bankruptcy.
When Duggan takes the oath of office, he will also become the city’s first White mayor in 40 years, since Coleman A. Young became Detroit’s first African American mayor.
The beginning of Duggan’s tenure will usher in a new era. Duggan is eager to begin to address some of the intractable social and economic problems that have long hindered Detroit’s ability to grow.
Just last week Duggan joined 15 other mayors from across the country for lunch with President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden at the White House, an invitation Duggan considers significant because it demonstrates that the White House is paying attention to the Motor City in its transition.
“This is an outstanding group of both mayors and mayors-elect, representing some of our largest cities.  They have a shared vision of cities as being critical hubs in which we’re creating jobs, bringing businesses, seeing startups develop, making sure that there are pathways, gateways for opportunity for people from the surrounding areas, the surrounding states, the regions, and in many cases, the world, because I think you’ve got a lot of immigrant populations that naturally gravitate towards the diversity and dynamism of the city,” President Obama said in his welcome remarks.
Duggan, who has since returned from his White House trip, has indicated that he looks forward to returning for several other meetings because of the fruitfulness of this special trip.
But it does not change the reality that Detroit has an emergency manager, Kevyn Orr, who wields more influence than the elected mayor, and the city’s new CEO on paper (Duggan) would virtually have to answer to Orr who holds the purse strings.
So far, Orr, appointed by Gov. Rick Snyder, has signaled a willingness to work with Duggan and even said he is waiting to be fired by the new mayor and city council. He approved $275,000 for Duggan’s transition cost.
Contrary to Duggan’s predecessor, the outgoing Mayor Dave Bing, who complained to the media about the emergency manager stepping beyond his specified financial role and meddling into the operational side of government, instead of letting Bing and his team handle operations, the relationship between Orr and Duggan promises to be different.
“In this time of important change for the city, Detroiters have come together to voice their desire for progress. I look forward to working with Mayor-elect Mike Duggan to build the vibrant and strong future the citizens of Detroit deserve,” Orr said on the night of Duggan’s victory.
Words matter, but action matters most.
“I think he (Duggan) will have a substantial amount of power operationally. Even though Orr has Stacy Fox (deputy emergency manager) they will let Duggan run most of the city operation,” said Detroit political consultant Eric Foster. “Additionally, I think Duggan will be able to get a lot of his plans into Orr’s overall Plan of Adjustment that he needs to submit to the bankruptcy court, especially some of the financial items that need to be addressed.”
Foster said that moving forward, Duggan is going to have an input into the bankruptcy plan.
For some, the White House visit is a strong public indicator that Washington is listening. But Foster cautioned against making a overstating the significance of the visit.
“The optics seem like the Obama administration is reaching out to him and it looks good,” he said. “But there needs to be more specific funding from the federal government as part of the restructuring than they originally proposed.”
Orr is expected to leave in September of next year when his term officially ends, but Foster said that is not mandatory.
“It depends on when he wants to leave. He may leave but the state may appoint another emergency manager, and regardless of what the city does in a request to get rid of the emergency manager, the state could say no,” Foster said.
On the power relations between Orr and Duggan, Foster said, “Orr has been through this on the corporate side and he is going to still want direct relational impact on what Duggan can do. That is why I don’t believe Orr will just give up all power.”
The impact of next year’s governor’s race has been repeatedly mentioned in the discussions about Detroit’s financial stability.
“The governor’s race has no impact. The Detroit vote is going to be the Detroit vote and that vote by itself does not impact or swing the governor’s race,” Foster said. “The core issue would be whether the financial crisis in Detroit and the installation of an emergency manager plays favorably for Democrats in the swing four counties of the state: Oakland, Macomb, Monroe and Kalamazoo.”
He said if Democrats can’t win any of those counties it would be hard to unseat Snyder.
“Democrats have to find a way to make what is happening in Detroit relatable in those counties, but I don’t see a metro connection for it to matter. It doesn’t impact life in their communities. They will be voting based on which candidates will improve their communities.”
Emmett Moten, former economic development chief under Mayor Coleman Young who is currently a partner in the Doubletree Hotel downtown Detroit, said come next year, there shouldn’t be a battle between the new mayor and the emergency manager over who is in control of the city.
“We have two smart people in the positions, let them hopefully use their talents for the betterment of Detroit,” Moten said.
“I think that Duggan has the ability to get things done because he is a big project kind of guy who is able to execute,” Moten said. “If they let Duggan deal with the key issues of operation including the police, as a former prosecutor he will be helpful.”
Moten, who has been involved in many business projects including serving as vice president at Little Caesars for Ilitch Enterprises, also was an informal advisor to Mayor Dave Bing.
“The city (under Orr) ought to take advantage of Duggan’s talents because there are a lot of things on board that need to be administratively executed,” Moten said. “We would be better off if he is able to do that. But if we put him and Orr in a confrontational position, that would not benefit the city.”
Another key element for Duggan has begins to build his team, according to Moten, is his appointees.
During a transition team announcement, Duggan named Bryan Barnhill, his campaign manager, as the director of talent recruitment for the incoming administration.
What kind of individuals will be selected is the buzz on the political grapevine because, according to some, that will determine the kind of team Duggan is assembling to address issues facing the city.
“The other part to this is how Duggan is able to concentrate on the people he puts around him,” Moten said. “How do you get folks that could help you execute when it comes to big projects like public lighting? But he understands how to get things done.”
Another critical issue is population of the city with the recent Census numbers showing Detroit’s population has dwindled from a million to 700,000.
“How do we begin to retain people in the city? What kind of city we would have is going to be the most critical for our new mayor,” Moten said, adding that Bing “did a good job getting a lot of things done but, unfortunately, he never talked about it in a constructive way.”
Sandy Baruah, president and CEO of the Detroit Regional Chamber, is upbeat about 2014 for Detroit and said Duggan and Orr need each other.
“Everything that I’ve heard from Mike Duggan and Kevyn Orr is that the negotiations are going very well,” Baruah said. “They both know that they need each other. I expect them to hammer out a final resolution in the next month or so even though there is still some legal wrangling (over what the emergency manager can legally do).”
Asked what to expect in the first six months of the new year, Baruah said, “We are going to have clarity on bankruptcy, then you are going to see the new mayor take control of some set of city operations and how the new mayor will prioritize projects whether it is public safety or public lighting. And then you are going to see the acceleration of outside business investment in the city.”
He said the chamber has been working with “outside investors actively looking at investment in Detroit,” despite the negative perception a state of bankruptcy creates.
“These outside investors understand that Detroit is not necessarily a poster child for safe money bets, but certainly it is a smart money bet,” Baruah said.
Bankole Thompson is the editor of the Michigan Chronicle. Email bthompson@michronicle.com.