Reinventing Detroit: The Politics of Possibility - Google Books. How corruption deepened Detroit's crisis. DETROIT -- Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick was a spender, a schemer and a liar. And taxpayers paid for it, by the millions. Over seven years, Kilpatrick's public corruption schemes, lavish lifestyle and ethical missteps cost taxpayers at least $20 million, a tab the financially strapped city was in no position to pick up but did anyway — usually without knowing. On Thursday, Kilpatrick will be sentenced for 24 corruption convictions. As he heads to federal prison for what could be decades, one important question lingers: How much did his extortion, kickback and bribery rackets contribute to the city's financial crisis and its filing in July for the largest municipal bankruptcy in the nation's history? "Kilpatrick is not the main culprit of the city's historic bankruptcy, which is the result of larger social and economic forces at work for decade," federal prosecutors said in court documents.
In purely monetary figures, the cost of Kilpatrick's ring of corruption is staggering: A must read from Detroit. The state of the fire department's infrastructure. A trail that shows money allocated & spent, but facilities not fixed. - Statter911. Read & watch the March, 2009 story of firefighters taking storm door (mentioned in LeDuff’s article)Read more about reporter Charlie LeDuff By Charlie LeDuff, The Detroit News (Pictures by Max Ortiz): Why is Detroit broke? Why are its books an unmitigated disaster? Why do things never seem to change no matter who occupies City Hall? Three firefighters were caught last year scavenging a screen door from an abandoned house.
The men were caught on video tape and disciplined. I took a trip to the Detroit Building Authority, which oversees city construction projects and dispenses city monies to pay for them. Then I went to the firehouses and listened to the complaints of the people who do the real work of putting out fires. A meeting with fire officials was arranged. “What specific questions do you have?” Among the paperwork: Firefighters at Ladder 19 on Detroit’s east side can’t park their fire trucks in the main house because the floor is structurally unsound and condemned. Detroit police feel pain of city's financial collapse.
Feb 23, 2014 By Sharon Cohen Associated Press DETROIT — It has come to this: Even some criminals sympathize with Detroit's cops. Baron Coleman thought he'd heard it all in his 17 years patrolling the streets. But then came the city's bankruptcy, a 10 percent cut in police salaries, followed by support from a most unlikely corner — the bad guys. "When they saw us take a pay cut they were in shock. We were arresting guys ... and they were like, 'I can't believe your city would do you like this.' ... Detroit police officers have long known adversity: They've worked in crumbling station houses with busted pipes, driven run-down cars, tangled with balky radios. As Detroit tries to rebound — a plan to emerge from bankruptcy was filed Friday — few groups, if any, have been feeling the pain of the city's financial collapse more than the police.
Baron Coleman knows it's hard being a police officer anywhere. The bankruptcy erased all that. He is the fifth man to hold the position in five years. Detroit retirees to see pension cuts starting Monday. City of Detroit retirees covered by the general retirement system are beginning to see pension cuts take effect with their March check. Retirees reported that they received notices in the mail on Friday. The March checks, as well as paperwork for those who use direct deposit, show that the cuts are taking place now. The March 1 date had been targeted as the time to begin the cuts, though some earlier reports suggested the move might have been delayed until April 1. Following the city's exit out of bankruptcy, retirees who had worked for the water department, bus system and other general city departments, will now see at least a 4.5% cut to their pension checks.
A group of retirees who are giving back some interest earned as part of an annuity savings fund, dubbed as a clawback, will see their pension checks reduced by up to 20% each month. Some retirees agreed to pay a lump sum of several thousand dollars upfront to cover the clawback and would avoid the deeper cuts. Fewest cops are patrolling Detroit streets since 1920s. Detroit — There are fewer police officers patrolling the city than at any time since the 1920s, a manpower shortage that sometimes leaves precincts with only one squad car, posing what some say is a danger to cops and residents. Detroit has lost nearly half its patrol officers since 2000; ranks have shrunk by 37 percent in the past three years, as officers retired or bolted for other police departments amid the city's bankruptcy and cuts to pay and benefits.
Left behind are 1,590 officers — the lowest since Detroit beefed up its police force to battle Prohibition bootleggers. "This is a crisis, and the dam is going to break," said Mark Diaz, president of the Detroit Police Officers Association. "It's a Catch-22: I know the city is broke, but we're not going to be able to build up a tax base of residents and businesses until we can provide a safe environment for them.
" Police Chief James Craig acknowledges he doesn't have as many officers as he'd like. Staffing challenges Deployment shuffle. Few feel Detroit's struggles like police officers; High crime, poor equipment challenge department. By SHARON COHEN AP National Writer DETROIT (AP) - It has come to this: Even some criminals sympathize with Detroit's cops. Baron Coleman thought he'd heard it all in his 17 years patrolling the streets. But then came the city's bankruptcy, a 10 percent cut in police salaries, followed by support from a most unlikely corner - the bad guys. "When they saw us take a pay cut they were in shock. We were arresting guys ... and they were like, 'I can't believe your city would do you like this.' ...
Detroit police officers have long known adversity: They've worked in crumbling station houses with busted pipes, driven run-down cars, tangled with balky radios. As Detroit tries to rebound - a plan to emerge from bankruptcy was filed Friday - few groups, if any, have been feeling the pain of the city's financial collapse more than the police. Baron Coleman knows it's hard being a police officer anywhere. The bankruptcy erased all that. He is the fifth man to hold the position in five years. A lack of ambulances continues to impact emergency response in Detroit.
Detroit (WXYZ) - "There is no crew available. " Those are the words firefighters heard from dispatchers when they asked for EMS to respond to a burning home where a woman was trapped. They went inside the smoke filled home, looking for her. When they found her, she wasn't breathing. "We brought her out, started CPR, and waited for the EMS to show up," said Sgt. Sgt. EMS still wasn't there. Firefighters asked if they could put her in a police car, and rush her to the hospital.
They were told to wait, an ambulance was now on the way. The EMS crews would arrive 28 minutes after the original 911 call, and 19 minutes after firefighters. "We are doing the best we can with limited resources," said Detroit Fire Commissioner Donald Austin. He says the overall problem is a lack of funding. Austin says a city the size of Detroit needs 23 to 25 reliable ambulances, but only has about 17. Another big obstacle to quick response times is outdated dispatch software. No money in firefighter fund, despite 2015's passage. STERLING HEIGHTS, Mich. (WJBK) - More than a year after the firefighter's fund was passed by state lawmakers in Lansing, the fund - which was supposed to cover health costs - is empty.
When the flames flare up, the men and women from the fire department run in. But the danger doesn't end when the fire is out; too many heroes end up battling cancer years after the fires have all been put out. People like Doug Batty, who fought fires for 20 years in Sterling Heights. He never had a problem, until last year. "I'm normally like the Energizer bunny. It's their job to run in when you run out, but doing so takes a toll. "My cancer was covered under the bill. When he filed his claim, he was denied. "I said the state passed a law back in January. Funding for the firefighter cancer fund was cut out of the budget last year. "We never thought we'd be fighting this fight to get our guys covered," Docherty said. After being cut last year, it wasn't included in Snyder's budget for this year either. Manpower Crisis In Detroit Fire Department: 40 Percent of Rigs Out of Service Today – Deadline Detroit. The city's budget crisis landed suddenly on the Detroit Fire Department this week as officials took far more rigs out of service than ever before.
On paper, the city has had 66 rigs; about eight rigs are usually "browned out" on any given day for budget reasons, leaving around 58 fully staffed fire vehicles, or "companies," stationed across Detroit. On Thursday, the department de-activated 25 rigs, leaving only 41 vehicles to respond to calls across the 139-square-mile city, which has one of the busiest fire departments in the nation. On Friday, officials sidelined 21 rigs, plus the HazMat unit. On Wednesday, 18 rigs were shut down. The moves endanger both residents and fire fighters alike, critics charge.
Some de-activated units have protected the city for more than a century. "I never thought the city would allow this to happen," said Dan McNamara, president of the Detroit Fire Fighters Association. "We're trying to do the best we can," Austin said, "within the budget restraints. " Is bankruptcy a good option for Detroit? Detroit plans to sell off closed fire stations. By Bryan Dyne 5 June 2013 Eight vacant buildings once operated by the Detroit Fire Department─seven fire stations and the former firehouse headquarters─are being sold by the city of Detroit to private investors and developers to be transformed into restaurants, wineries or micro-distilleries in an effort to raise money for the city.
The minimum bid for the fire stations are $637,000 while the former headquarters is being sold for $1.25 million. It is not yet clear who has bought the fire stations or for what price, though it is known that Southfield, Michigan developer Walter Cohen has plans to purchase the former headquarters and turn it into a boutique hotel. He plans to have eighty upscale rooms and a Cajun restaurant on the first floor. Cohen has previously been involved in the gentrification of the Park Shelton residential buildings. The stations to be sold include Ladder Nos. 8, 12, 16 and 38 and Engine Nos. 10, 18 and 49. The Vinewood fire station which once housed Engine No. 10. Detroit Fire Department, already struggling, will have to "do more with less" Detroit's Fire Commissioner says his department is at the end of its resources due to budget cuts.
Donald Austin spoke to a Detroit City Council committee meeting on Monday. Even with the cuts, Detroit’s Police and Fire Departments take up well over half of the city's budget. And both departments regularly go over-budget, mostly because of overtime. Austin says it’s proven almost impossible to cut overtime, when he has to fight so many fires in vacant buildings--which total 30-60% of all department runs, depending on the shift. “We have to find a way to reduce what’s working my department into the ground," Austin said. "And that’s get rid of these vacant dwellings. And until we can address that, we’re just re-visiting them over and over and over again.”
Austin wants to implement what he calls a “less aggressive” approach to fires, especially in vacant buildings, to save resources. “It’s not fair. Benefits for council staff included in Detroit budget. The Detroit City Council approved the city's $1-billion annual budget today with some changes to Mayor Mike Duggan's original proposal, including an additional $1.5 million allocated to the council and its policy division. The extra money will allow City Council to provide full-time employment and benefits to 69 council staffers.
City Council's employees became contractual workers without benefits during the city's bankruptcy proceedings. Councilman Andre Spivey said council staffers without benefits were an exception among city workers, leaving them to pay more for health care. "We fought for those who needed it," Spivey said. "I don't think there's an issue with the mayor that he'll have any problem with. Hopefully he'll approve it. " The Financial Review Commission, given oversight of city finances post-bankruptcy, also must approve the city's budget. Duggan must decide whether to approve the council’s changes before the budget is sent to the Financial Review Commission. "Lack of accountability, poor management" source of Detroit Fire Dept. problems. Our conversation with Steve Neavling The news site Motor City Muckraker took it upon itself to track every fire in the city of Detroit for a year.
When you take on a project like that, you begin to see and hear about the problems faced by one of the most overworked fire departments in the nation. Steve Neavling runs Motor City Muckraker. He tells us the Detroit Fire Department was “a bureaucracy that was literally in shambles.” Neavling found that fire hydrants across the city were broken, the firefighters didn’t have purified air in their tanks, their trucks were breaking down, the whole system was a mess. “The city was literally burning down, and we had neighborhoods where houses were going up every night,” he says.
Neavling tracked an estimated 3,600 fires in Detroit, which he says is about average for the city. Instead, Neavling says he found the problems stemmed more from “a lack of accountability [and] poor management.” “And he took it on like a calling,” Neavling says. Broken fire hydrants contribute to more Detroit buildings burning. Listen to the story. Detroit has one of the busiest fire departments in the nation. One problem in the city causes fires to be worse than they should be: broken fire hydrants.
It’s a problem city hall doesn’t want to talk about. Steve Neavling founded the online journalism site Motor City Muckraker. Right now he’s working to document every fire in the city for a year. We drove to a neighborhood where he says that’s happened. “We’re on 28th Street. Neavling says he asked people at city hall about the broken hydrants. “With the 15%, we found 279 broken hydrants. If you extrapolate that, it means more than 1,800 broken hydrants. The Fire Commissioner’s office did not respond to a request for an interview about the problem. Steve Neavling filed a Freedom of Information request with city hall to see how bad the problem is.
I caught up with Shawn McCarty at a fire call. “The problem is more so when it’s colder outside. That’s because some of the hydrants have small leaks that cause the freezing.