Detroit City Council Hits Stage 3

As predicted, the Detroit City Council quickly reached Stage 3 on the Kübler-Ross model regarding dealing with grief or impending demise:

The Detroit Free Press: Detroit City Council appeals financial manager decision, requests modified plan

In other words, let's have the state let us keep doing what we're doing that got us into this mess, only harder.

Detroit city officials this morning asked the state to agree to an updated, aggressive restructuring plan rather than appoint an emergency financial manager.

The plea was part of an appeal of Gov. Rick Snyder’s declaration that Detroit needs an emergency financial manager.

Detroit officials want a modified version of the consent agreement they reached with the state in April. The agreement laid a framework to fix the city’s financial mess.

“Our position is stay the course, continue the current consent agreement,” said David Whitaker, director of City Council’s research and analysis division. “In my neighborhood, where we grew up, we were taught a deal’s a deal.”

Of course to Detroit "A deal's a deal" doesn't mean what you think it means. Instead in Detroit it seems to mean that the City can breach its part of the agreement, but the state must uphold its end of the deal no matter what the city does.

But the state does not seem inclined to agree to another consent agreement. Frederick Headen, a lawyer representing the state at this morning’s hearing, recalled the city’s legal challenge to the April consent agreement.

“We took issue with the unwillingness of city officials to abide by its terms,” Headen said at the hearing.

Bring popcorn, for as noted in the article, the City Council's and the usual suspects and interest groups' antics aren't over yet.