DETROIT — Mayor-elect Dave Bing may be a political novice, but after nearly 30 years running a steel manufacturing enterprise, he is at home keeping budgets balanced and making tough personnel decisions along the way.
DETROIT — Mayor-elect Dave Bing may be a political novice, but after nearly 30 years running a steel manufacturing enterprise, he is at home keeping budgets balanced and making tough personnel decisions along the way. The professional basketball Hall-of-Famer and successful Detroit businessman must use all his talents to right a city full of all types of wrongs. Voters chose the 65-year-old in Tuesday’s mayoral runoff over incumbent Ken Cockrel Jr. to serve out the remaining months of Kwame Kilpatrick’s second term. Bing surprised his more politically savvy opponent by taking 52.3 percent of Tuesday’s votes to Cockrel’s 47.7 percent. Both are Democrats. Just prior to a Wednesday afternoon lunch gathering for volunteers and other members of his campaign team, Bing told reporters he and Cockrel are expected to meet Wednesday or Thursday to discuss his transition to mayor. Cockrel had been expected to hold a news conference Wednesday, but his spokesman later said there were no such plans. One of Bing’s first tasks will be digging into Cockrel’s proposed city budget and likely making extensive layoffs his predecessor was hesitant to do. "That potential does exist," Bing said of giving pink slips to more than the 334 city workers proposed by Cockrel. Consolidating city operations "is the first thing you look at," Bing told The Associated Press Wednesday morning. "We can’t afford to have all these departments operating the way they are. But I want to look at that before I make decisions to lay anybody off. There definitely has to be some negotiations with all the unions." Bing later said he also wants to look at a proposed 10 percent pay cut to city workers and cuts to public safety. The city’s budget deficit is believed to be between $250 million and $300 million, according to Cockrel’s calculations. The current budget ends June 30. The council has to make a decision on the budget by May 24. It then will go to Bing by May 27 and he has three business days to approve, reject or make changes. The council then has one final chance to act on Bing’s response. Cockrel could vote on his own plan if he returns to his seat as council president as called for in the city charter. Making "big changes" to the budget may be difficult for Bing to do, said Councilwoman Sheila Cockrel, widow of Cockrel’s father, Ken Cockrel Sr. "If he had specific issues he wanted to raise … on the revenue and appropriations side, I would be one member who would want to entertain the new mayor’s priorities," she said. "I hope that he would use a scalpel and not a sledgehammer." Bing said he will wait until the vote is certified before meeting with the city council. A board of canvassers was to meet Thursday afternoon to begin its work, said Rachel Jones, deputy director of the city elections department. After the board completes the canvassing process, it has two weeks to certify the election, a process Jones doesn’t expect to take that long. Ken Cockrel Jr.’s efforts to reduce the deficit suffered a setback when the council defeated a state plan calling for the expansion and renovation of aging Cobo Center, home of the lucrative North American International Auto Show. Detroit would have received $20 million in the deal. The city also would have lost the burden of Cobo’s annual $13 million to $15 million operating debt, while suburban taxpayers picked up the cost of expanding and upgrading the center. But Councilwoman Monica Conyers, who filled the council president’s seat when Cockrel moved up to the mayor’s office, led a revolt against turning over Cobo’s operation to a regional board. That decision has blurred the auto show’s future in Detroit. Organizers have said it will return to Cobo in 2010 but are looking at other options after that, including moving it to Novi in Oakland County, about 21 miles northwest of Detroit. "We cannot afford for the city of Detroit to lose that," said Bing, who plans to meet with all parties involved with the negotiations to resurrect the deal. Outside of Detroit’s budget problems, the city is suffering through the national economic downturn. It is among the nation’s leaders in unemployment and home foreclosures. Continued restructuring by the area’s three automakers likely will mean more jobs cuts and hits to the local economy. The city’s public schools are among the worst in the nation and in such bad shape that the state appointed an outside financial manager earlier this year. Bing’s short term runs through 2009. He plans to run for a full, four-year term beginning with the regular Aug. 4 nonpartisan primary. On Wednesday, he announced that ex-city official Freman Hendrix and prominent businesswoman Denise Ilitch will lead a team of 31 advisers who will help him during his first 100 days in office. Hendrix finished third behind Bing and Ken Cockrel Jr. in a February mayoral primary and once served as deputy under former Mayor Dennis Archer. Ilitch is the daughter of Detroit Tigers and Red Wings owner Mike Ilitch. None of the team will get a salary from the city, Bing said. "None of them are looking for a job," he said. "They want to see the city get turned around." Bing was the No. 2 overall pick by the Pistons in 1966 out of Syracuse and has been inducted into the basketball Hall of Fame. He went on to open his Bing Steel company in Detroit in 1980 and also founded The Bing Group, which employs about 500 workers. ______ Copyright 2009 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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