  Quinn Member Username: Quinn Post Number: 431 Registered: 01-2005 Posted From: 68.42.170.20 |
Thursday, July 7, 2005 Sharon McPhail: 'People have lost hope in this community' The Detroit News Wayne E. Smith / The Detroit News Detroit mayoral candidate Sharon McPhail says she will assign teams to areas of the city so that "when it's a mess you have accountability." Sharon McPhail Current position: Detroit City Council member Other experience: Assistant U.S attorney, division chief, Wayne County Prosecutor's Office, member of Detroit Board of Police Commissioners Comment on this story Send this story to a friend Get Home Delivery The following are edited excerpts from an interview with Councilwoman Sharon McPhail, who is running for mayor of Detroit. Q: Why should Detroit voters pick Sharon McPhail? A: I have demonstrated a willingness to take on the hard tasks that the other people don't want to. And to get things done without having to spend money to do it. In the condition which this community finds itself, that kind of thinking has to take place. Q: In this campaign voters will be looking for very specific answers for very specific problems, chief among them is the financial crisis. What should be done? A: First of all, for the last 12 years we've lost 150,000 people and it's had a devastating impact on the city's budget. We have a plan to retain population and to repopulate the city. Government has to do some things and do them really well but there's a lot of stuff we don't have to do and should not be doing. Q: Such as? A: There are a bunch of departments that have been added over the years that are a duplicate of what else is being done in the city. For example, I think we've got four departments now doing economic growth issues. You see this burgeoning bureaucracy with all of these many, many high priced positions, tons of management in each place and all doing the same thing. Q: Did the council's budget cut too deeply from the Police Department? A: It cut dollars and it cut them across the board. Council doesn't cut jobs, we cut dollars. What (the mayor) could have done is first move the 550 people eligible for disability retirement or early retirement off of the table. Another 125 positions could be civilianized immediately. So now you're down to only 100 you have to worry about. We have seven deputy chiefs where we used to have one. And he says all that wouldn't matter because that's only $3 million if you get rid of all of them. No it isn't. It's them, the seven or eight people that work for each of them, the cars the Blackberries - when you add it up it's a lot more than that. Q: There's always a tug of war over whether to focus on downtown or the neighborhoods. Where should the priorities lie? A: Well, nobody's ever done the hard work in the neighborhoods and I understand why it's hard. When you start talking about repopulating the community, you begin to get at that problem. Because the city cannot go to a neighborhood and fix all the houses and rent them out. That's not what cities do. But if you do things that cities can do, that cause people to want to move back, when you get out of their way and don't cause them to stand in long lines to get permits and do all those other things, you're in a position then to begin to make your neighborhoods look better. Q: What image do you want the rest of the country to have of Detroit? A: I want the rest of the world to look at this city as a miracle turnaround. And I think you create it by building a process that enables people to see it as the place they want to be again. That's why we have this retain and repopulate program. Q: And the details of that are? A: To retain the population and repopulate you've got to look at why people left. And that's not hard because they tell you why. So first of all, you have to get a handle on the crime situation. Detroit's overrun with crime and drug dealers. It's just horrendous. If you live here you know it, you see it. So we need to reduce drug dealing in this community by attacking the economic base of the drug dealers. If you take their stuff every day, if you raid them over, over and over again then they can't really make money, they don't stay where they can't make money. Secondly, the school situation. It's horrendous. The schools are segregated and they're full of poor black children. That doesn't work. It's not going to work. It has to be changed. You can't be shy about dealing with that. The city needs to be a diverse, ethnically diverse and economically diverse, city. Thirdly, the tax situation. Yes, you're going to have less money if you reduce taxes but you have to do it. We're looking at about 20 mils and we're going to try to make it equal to surrounding communities so that you're not actually saving money by moving out of here. And I think that we have to change the way city services are delivered. Detroit's a big place, you have to break it up, you have to have teams of people responsible for certain areas of the city so that when it's a mess you have accountability. Q: How would you make the city more attractive to business? A: One of the first things we want to do is to bring in 100 or so retired engineers to go through everything. And in 6 months we have no waiting period (for permits). We also need to have a much better control over the real estate in the city, what gets used for development. There are some companies that want to come into the city, they don't want to come now until we have new leadership. Q: The mayor would like to spin off the transportation department to a regional authority. Do you support that proposal? A: There has to be cooperation in terms of transit because it doesn't work well otherwise. I think you should do an authority for light rail. And then I think you have to begin to move other things. The buses need to be safer, there needs to be officers on them, they need to be cleaner, and they need to run instead of sitting in the yard. Q: The other nagging issue is Cobo Center. The organizers of the auto show want a bigger center to keep that important event. What should happen? A: I don't think you can expand the Cobo Hall just for one show, as important as the auto show is. I think you need to make an assessment first of all of what they really do need and how to provide it without doing too much of that. Because the research reflects that convention business is not following expanded convention facilities. Q: The last time we spoke you talked about a one third reduction in the size of the Detroit workforce. Is that a good target? A: We have to really look at how many people you need to deliver the services. And I'm not really prepared to say how many you need to deliver the services, especially in the process of attempting to repopulate the city. Because there will be more people coming in. I think what you don't need is excessive management. We have department after department in the city where you've got - in one in particular you have 25 managers for 100 people. And that's not unusual across the city. Q: Are there services that should be contracted out? A: I think everything pretty much is contracted out these days, lawn cutting, secretaries, clerks, parking tickets. There's not much left really. And the problem with some of the contracting out is that it has resulted in incredibly higher costs to the city. For example, we're paying over $100 an hour for a clerk now. And you've lost control of the jobs. And there's gotta be some work that the city has that it has to keep control of for the purpose of making sure the service is delivered. Q: What would you do with the surplus land in the city? A: First of all you put aside those parcels of land that you want to use for development. And the rest of it you have a huge sale and you sell it to people or you give it to people to get it back on the tax rolls or give it to non-profits or churches, the pieces that people don't want developed. You have to have an agreement that the development will be done in a certain time and then you have to make sure it happens. You have to also, on the issue of blight, follow up on these landlords that own property and don't take care of it. Q: One of the ways that has been suggested to bring more accountability to city government is to elect council members by district so that people know who to bring complaints to. There may be a proposal on the ballot this fall to create a district system. Do you support it? A: Well I don't support it and I don't not support it. There are problems with both systems. We had districts, it was rampant with corruption and that's why they went to at-large. As a citizen, if I'm going to nine people, and I've got nine people I can call, I like that better than if I've got one person. Q: Has the personal behavior of this current mayor hurt the city and hurt his effectiveness? A: I think no community rises above the image of its leadership and, therefore, I'd have to say it has. I just don't think this is something that he really wants to do. He certainly wants to be the mayor, but being the mayor carries with it the responsibility to do the work the mayor has to do. Q: What's the biggest failing of the current administration? A: For the first time in a very long time people have lost hope in this community. Detroiters just hang in there no matter what. I see a lack of hope in the eyes of so many people here. We're even beginning to lose neighborhoods where they were pretty solid. Q: How important is it to move this police department out of federal oversight? A: I was on the compliance committee for awhile and I eventually just resigned from it and asked them to appoint someone else because every month when I would go, it seemed like there was no compliance on 90 out of 98 or whatever it was - it was a very small number where there had been any movement. I don't think we should have signed (the consent decree). We should have forced the issue on the things that really were problematic in the department, dealt with them, and that should have been the end of it. This consent decree is just another opportunity for the city to be spending millions of dollars it just doesn't need to be spending. Q: Will you replace the current police chief? A: Benny (Napoleon) and I will convene a group of officers both on the command and the patrol level and we will ask them to screen the resumes for providing whatever number of names we come up with. That decision will await that process. We don't believe you should ask people to report to someone that they don't respect. http://www.detnews.com/2005/ed itorial/0507/07/A11-239295.htm | ||
Lurker Member Username: Lurker Post Number: 1160 Registered: 10-2003 Posted From: 63.115.63.131 |
A: Well I don't support it and I don't not support it. Spoken like a true politician. | ||
Danny Member Username: Danny Post Number: 2528 Registered: 02-2004 Posted From: 141.217.173.169 |
You tell her Lurker. | ||
Ilovedetroit Member Username: Ilovedetroit Post Number: 805 Registered: 02-2005 Posted From: 69.246.4.46 |
Oh yeah you guys really told her. The interview is damn good and you Hendrix people are scared! Don't worry the News will endorse Hendrx - all those Republicans stick together no matter how stupid they are. | ||
Brian Member Username: Brian Post Number: 2932 Registered: 10-2003 Posted From: 67.37.83.157 |
She has provided excellent information. More than any other candidate can provide. http://www.findarticles.com/p/ articles/mi_m1077/is_n4_v47/ai _11851043# | ||
Ltorivia485 Member Username: Ltorivia485 Post Number: 1237 Registered: 08-2004 Posted From: 69.212.33.157 |
Sharon McPhail has my vote. | ||
Ilovedetroit Member Username: Ilovedetroit Post Number: 824 Registered: 02-2005 Posted From: 68.40.226.188 |
Thanks Ltroriva! We appreciate it! |
