A deficit of leadership cost detroit millions in unpaid taxes

http://www.freep.com/article/20120318/COL33/203180471/Stephen-Henderson-A-deficit-of-leadership-costs-Detroit-millions-in-unpaid-taxes

Just another reason why Detroit is in the situation it's in today.
Lack of leadership and lack of responsibility costs money.

It's much easier for Bing and the Clownsil to demand City employees give up more and more every day in the form of pay concessions, benefits, pensions; and ask them to bite the bullet, than to do what they can to collect these taxes.

Every City employee will qualify for food stamps and bridge cards because their wages will be under what is considered poverty and they will qualify.

Who is going to keep working when they cry "payless paydays"? Believe me, if that should happen, the City will implode because it will be deserted. I know that I would want to help get the City back on its' feet, but my family and their needs would certainly come first and there is no way that I would work and not get paid.

The same deficit of competence exists down @ Wayne County. We have had to run down to Randolph to execute changes on property taxes [[change of ownership, change of address, etc) no fewer than three times.....FOR THE SAME PROPERTY. It's as if the trips down there never occurred. This has happened on more than one property, all in Detroit. .

Slighty related, is the money DWSD is hoping you don't notice with the meter switch-over. When your meter is swapped out, and the reading on the old meter indicates you have been over-billed, of course, you should receive a credit. But they will not indicate the credit on your statement. When you do finally realize the readings were way out of whack, by actually examining the statement, you then spend a day or two on hold, [[trying to find someone helpful), and then they will only issue a check, after months, for $300.00 increments, which sucks if you have a much larger credit. Then you have to go thru the same process, on hold for several hours, finding someone competent, and wait several more months for the money you are owed.

Lack of leadership, lack of competence, lack of confidence. It has become the standard around here. It's funny, sad, embarrassing, all rolled into one disfunctional region.

^^^^....and there doesn't seem to be a damn thing anyone can do about it. Just keep getting screwed by the system.

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Originally Posted by Buy American

^^^^....and there doesn't seem to be a damn thing anyone can do about it. Just keep getting screwed by the system.

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It always does amaze me how people are so eager to have the government involved in more and more things [[jobs, planning, etc.) when there's so little evidence that they are capable of delivering results.

I suggest two changes:

1) Scope: We ask too much of our public sector. Minimize their scope, so they can do what they must do well.

2) Transparency: If people could see what happens in city government, it would then be possible to work towards change. I think Julian Assange is an idiot, but I wonder why anything needs to be 'leaked' from government. It should all be publicly accessible. There's very little information that needs to be kept for the public. Every email sent every day by the city should immediately accessible. Every check written by the city, and every deposit made should be immediately posted to a public website, along with backup. Then you might have a chance to learn, understand, and then act on what our public sector is doing.

[[Note that I do understand that there is some need for privacy. Much information should be delayed for release. Court records, for example, or police investigation files. Its obvious that in the moment, they need to be able to work without disclosure. You can't say "today we're going to head over and bust that crystal meth lab on Seward'. But you sure can disclose that the next day, week, or month.)