 
Lmcdet
Member
Username: Lmcdet
Post Number: 36
Registered: 06-2007
| | Posted on Friday, February 08, 2008 - 1:18 pm: |    |
I'm surprised I have seen this posted yet...
6:17 a.m., February 8, 2008
State of the County: Oakland still won't back Cobo plan
By Chad Halcom
An incentive package to trim at least 150 county employees, delays in the Wireless Oakland project and renewed questions about the plan for Cobo Center highlighted Oakland County's State of the County address Thursday evening by county executive L. Brooks Patterson.
Patterson told an invitation-only crowd of nearly 500 local officials and business owners at the MSU Management Education Center in Troy that even a trimmed-back Cobo plan will get no support or cooperation from Oakland.
“We in Oakland County have yet to sign onto this plan because, frankly we have got questions that have yet to be answered. It’s just that simple,” Patterson said of the latest plan proposed by Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano, which calls for the city of Detroit to sell the building to regional authority for $20 million. “(U)ntil we get answers to these and many more questions, Oakland County will continue to resist the Ficano plan.”
That plan, unveiled Jan. 17 as a modification of Ficano’s original 2006 proposal, would require Detroit City Council approval to sell Cobo Center for $20 million to a proposed regional authority, which would be composed of officials from the city, state and Oakland, Wayne and Macomb counties.
Gov. Jennifer Granholm has pledged the state would help to refinance and restructure city and county debt, freeing up about $150 million for the project. In addition, the revised plan calls for a 120,000 square-foot expansion in lieu of the original 270,000 square-foot addition proposed in the 2006 plan. Cobo Center is host to events including the North American International Auto Show, which is estimated to generate about $600 million a year for the local economy.
In a set of responses to the speech and Cobo questions late Monday, Ficano noted that his office has incorporated some of Patterson's suggestions into the modified plan and believes his Cobo questions already have been addressed.
He also said the funding model has the support of Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, despite Oakland's assertion that the city is on the sidelines in the Cobo dispute. He added that $209 million in projected renovation costs is much more than simply picking up the tab for Detroit's deferred maintenance as Patterson has suggested.
"The question placed before the region is how to proceed to protect more than 16,000 Michigan jobs and an economic engine responsible for approximately $600 million in annual economic impact," the Ficano response states. "It is simply unproductive to play Monday morning quarterback with the Detroit Civic Center’s departmental budget for the past two decades."
Patterson’s questions and objections Thursday were largely a reiteration of past concerns the county has raised about the Cobo plan, including the lack of a transparent financial plan and a possibly disproportionate share of the total cost falling on the suburbs.
Those concerns continue unabated, despite some of the recent modifications by Ficano, said Assistant Deputy County Executive Robert Daddow.
LBP is truly an A$$ wipe!••• |
Lmcdet
Member
Username: Lmcdet
Post Number: 37
Registered: 06-2007
| | Posted on Friday, February 08, 2008 - 1:20 pm: | |
I'm surprised I haven't seen this posted yet! |
6nois
Member
Username: 6nois
Post Number: 640
Registered: 11-2006
| | Posted on Friday, February 08, 2008 - 1:24 pm: | |
At least he is in good company! LOL
City aims to do away with droopy pants
Brendan Asante wears his pants low and a little saggy.
But the 15-year-old may soon have to hike up his pants if some Auburn Hills officials get their way.
City Council members -- tired of seeing young men in saggy pants with exposed underwear and girls in low cut tops -- are looking into whether the city can implement a sort of citywide dress code to keep such clothing out of public places.
Councilman Henry Knight said a dress code could potentially be enforced under the city's indecency ordinance. The issue, discussed at Monday's City Council meeting, is not yet slated for a council vote.
The backwardness of it all is so amusing. |
Lmcdet
Member
Username: Lmcdet
Post Number: 38
Registered: 06-2007
| | Posted on Friday, February 08, 2008 - 1:27 pm: | |
LOL! That's a good play on words! Too funny! |
Johnlodge
Member
Username: Johnlodge
Post Number: 4996
Registered: 10-2003
| | Posted on Friday, February 08, 2008 - 1:32 pm: | |
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