Strong management and unified vision

Mike Duggan is the current head of the Detroit Medical Center and today announced his candidacy for mayor of Detroit. Two days before in Sunday's Free Press he wrote an editorial with his reasons why an Emergency Manager is the wrong solution for the city. He lists his credentials has having brought three organizations back from the brink of bankruptcy -- Wayne County, the SMART (suburban) bus system, and the DMC. His reasoning:

A successful turnaround (and he points to the Big Three auto companies) needs a "strong management team unified around a long-term vision of success." An EM, there only for the duration, would not leave such a team behind. And that team would have little incentive to support the EM's vision.

The record of EMs isn't good. Elsewhere in the paper were stories of how well EMs have done across the state. Some have alienated the city gov't that must take over after the EM as well as alienating the residents.

The example Duggan uses, however, is the Detroit School Board, which has been under an EM for five years now and the district is in a worse position than before. Why would we expect an EM for the city to fare any better?

The state doesn't have to take over the city. Instead, it can provide the city with an array of consultants to audit and improve every aspect of city gov't.

Or the governor can say the Detroit voters can't be trusted. Let's try democracy.