Detroit mayor accepts emergency decision

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DETROIT, March 7 (UPI) -- Detroit Mayor Dave Bing says he won't fight a state decision to send an emergency financial manager to his struggling city.

Bing's comments came Wednesday, just after the Detroit City Council voted 7-1 to appeal Gov. Rick Snyder's decision to appoint an emergency financial manager for the city, the Detroit Free Press reported.

"We need to stop BS-ing ourselves, quite frankly, and get on with it," Bing said. "It is simply a fight we cannot win at the 11th hour in a 30-minute appeals hearing."

"We need to end the drama and infighting and understand that whether we like it or not, an emergency financial manager is coming to Detroit," Bing said. "Although I continue to be opposed to the appointment ... I must be realistic in accepting the fact that the governor more than likely will appoint an EFM."

The City Council's appeal will likely take place March 12, The Detroit News reported.

"Without Bing's vocal support at the council table, this [appeal] resolution has very little impact," Council President Pro Tem Gary Brown said in a statement. "Any alternative plan to address the financial crisis that is presented to the state would need to be implemented by the Bing administration. I don't support an appeal the mayor does not fully endorse publicly."

Meanwhile, Detroit residents opposed to emergency management gathered for a rally with Councilwoman JoAnn Watson, an opponent of emergency management, as well as mayoral candidate and former Detroit Corporation Counsel Krystal Crittendon.

"We pray there will be divine intervention. What council can't stop, legislation won't stop and the court won't stop, almighty God can stop," the Rev. Robert Smith of New Bethel Baptist Church said at the rally. "There are so many things we are not in charge of. We ought to at least be in charge of self-determination."

In a statement, former state House representative and Detroit mayoral candidate Lisa Howze called for Bing to resign.

"As the mayor of Detroit, you find a way to make things better for those that elected you rather than turning over leadership to someone else," Howze said.