DETROIT (AP) — The city of Detroit could move to avoid a state-appointed emergency manager and craft a deal with the state to guide its troubled finances as early as Wednesday.
The Michigan Court of Appeals cleared the way for a state-appointed review team that would have to sign off on a so-called consent agreement between the state and city to meet Wednesday, dismissing a lawsuit that challenged the review team's right to do so. Detroit's city council also was scheduled to meet Wednesday, and it could vote on a proposed consent agreement with the state.
The city is faced with a nearly $200 million deficit and the unwanted prospect of having an emergency manager appointed if it doesn't act.
Gov. Rick Snyder set a Thursday deadline by which to decide whether the city is in a financial emergency. That would start a seven-day clock for the city to appeal and possibly avoid the appointment of an emergency manager.
"We are extremely pleased with the action of the Court of Appeals today and remain committed to a consent agreement," Snyder spokeswoman Geralyn Lasher said in a statement.
A consent agreement would give the city a plan to deal with its deficit and avoid a harsher version of a state takeover.
The Detroit case is the highest-profile yet involving a controversial, year-old Michigan law that gives the state more power to intervene in financially troubled cities and school systems. Emergency managers have the power to toss out union contracts and strip locally elected leaders of authority. A petition drive aimed at overturning the Michigan law is trying to qualify for the November ballot.
If the consent agreement is authorized in its current form, tentative new contracts featuring wage, benefits and pension concessions negotiated between Bing and about 30 unions representing city employees will be nullified. More concessions likely will be put on the table.
"Benefits, vacation, sick time, health care, that's all up in the air with the consent agreement," said Yolanda Langston, Detroit chapter president of the Service Employees International Union. "Those things we are very much concerned with. We're more concerned about the elimination of departments. We're concerned with our jobs."
Langston noted it is illegal for public employees to strike and said "we're not taking that position."
"It would be good to stand in solidarity, and it would also send a strong message if everybody was in unison," she added.
City unions are considering their options, said John Riehl, president of American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 207.
"All these things they are putting in front of us, whether an emergency manager or a consent agreement, if they think they are going to tear up our union rights, the skies the limit," Riehl said.
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