Lessons for Baltimore, from Detroit

Baltimore has been used as an example many times by Detroiters about what it did as a city to turn around its downtown, to revamp its waterfront and breathe life back into a city. Now, with its Mayor recently convicted of taking gift cards as bribes and using gift cards that should have been used as gifts for the needy, Baltimore can and should learn from Detroit.

The Mayor of Baltimore refuses to resign after her conviction last week, saying she still has Baltimore's interest at heart. If the Mayor truly had Baltimore's interest at hear she would step down as Mayor, end the drama and let the city move forward without her. If she does not step down, then a cloud will continue to hover around the city.

With the Mayor staying in office, the city cannot move forward. Businesses will not want to do business with the city, its bond rating could be in jeopardy due to the volatile situation in the city, with a lack of uncertainty as to what may happen with or with out the Mayor, and the continued scrutiny of the Mayor.

There is no doubt that the Mayor's attorneys are advising the Mayor to stay put. It provides leverage in negotiating a settlement and a platform for her to speak. But her speech will be limited by what her attorneys tell her she can or cannot say, pending the legal action against her.

Now it is easy for me to sit here in Detroit and be critical of a Mayor who I don't know in a city that I have only visited. But, I can speak from experience about what a city needs to do to move forward and beyond the negative stories that have traumatized a city, a region and a state.

The Mayor of Baltimore and the President of Baltimore's City Council should learn from Detroit. Step down as Mayor. If she is not going to step down, then the President of Council should ask for her resignation, being to create a transition plan, meet with local business, community, labor and faith-based leaders. Travel to Annapolis and meet with the state legislative and executive leadership and begin to make the plans for taking Baltimore back and shift the focus from scandal to hope and opportunity, faith and transparency, accountability and action.

Restoring stability, gaining trust and rebuilding Detroit’s future.

By Daniel Cherrin

One year ago, then Detroit City Council President Ken Cockrel became Detroit’s 61^st Mayor, after Kwame Kilpatrick resigned. Then Mayor Cockrel, assumed the leadership of a city very much in trouble. At the time, the magnitude of Detroit’s budget problems were unknown, people sat in city hall pushing paper, our auto industry’s infrastructure was crumbling, the Nation was about to elect its first African American President, America’s economic climate worsened, and the world would soon be coming to Detroit for the NCAA Final Four Men’s Tournament.

Ken Cockrel inherited a city in shambles, not as the “elected mayor,” but as a public servant, called to duty and asked to serve. At the time, his 11-year political-career as a Wayne County Commissioner, City Council Member and City Council President prepared him to assume his new role as Mayor. As Mayor, Cockrel, looked forward to creating an open and transparent culture, stabilizing a city, restoring trust in city government and the office of mayor.

In the brief eight months he served as Detroit’s Mayor, Cockrel was often criticized for moving to slow. But moving slow was the most appropriate strategy for coming into the middle of an established administration at a time when he had to campaign for office twice, while still trying to run the city. Slow, calculated and strategic moves, based on facts and sound public policy, rather than politics or pressure, was how Cockrel stabilized the city. It took time to get a handle of the city’s finances and come up with a plan to not just reduce the deficit, but to eliminate it, balance the budget and turn in all of the city’s financial reports in on time, to help restore Detroit’s credit rating lost due to so much uncertainty in the city.

He began to create a process to repair and rebuild a fractured and aging city government and change the corporate culture, to restore stability in our city and restore our tainted image.

As we have all seen, as city council president, as mayor, and again as city council president, Cockrel is a person with tremendous integrity. As Mayor, he put substance before showmanship and worked to secure meaningful reform for Detroit.

Cockrel served as our Mayor at the perfect time. As mayor, he shifted our region’s focus from the scandals of the past to rebuilding for our future. At the time he became mayor, he did not seek the position, and yet he rose to the challenge.

As Cockrel’s Communications Director and Press Secretary, I was given the opportunity to participate in a number of discussions and decisions affecting our city. I was always impressed, when Cockrel made decisions not because of politics, but because it was good public policy … Not because it would get him elected, but because it made sense … Not because it was what someone wanted, but because it was what the city needed.

This past May, the voters (or lack thereof) did not give Cockrel the opportunity to act on his plans to restore financial stability to the city, to restore the trust back in the Office of Mayor and to find new hope and opportunity to secure Detroit’s future for the next generation.

Although Cockrel’s work continues as President of the Detroit City Council, there is no doubt in my mind of Ken Cockrel’s place in Detroit’s history. He became Mayor not out of desire, but out of need. He served as Mayor with honor, integrity and class. His agenda is Detroit’s agenda. Cockrel remains at the base of Detroit’s foundation and best represents the City’s future. Ken Cockrel was the right person at the right time to lead this city and created the process by which fiscal stability could be restored, trust, and set the tone for Detroit’s new beginning.

Daniel Cherrin is the former Communications Director/Press Secretary for the City of Detroit and to Detroit Mayor Kenneth V. Cockrel Jr. He is now President of North Coast Strategies, which provides cutting edge practical advice where government action or inaction, litigation vulnerability or complex regulatory requirements will impact your reputation and bottom-line. You can reach Cherrin at dcherrin@NorthCoastStrategies.com or (313) 300-0932.