Last September, after fires destroyed dozens of homes in a handful of neighborhoods, the Bing administration promised to get to the bottom of what happened and provide city council -- and the public -- with a report. Eight months later, there has been no report, and apparently no serious investigation, according to the Free Press.

The failure to explore the reasons for such a catastrophe would be inconceiveable in any other major city. For Detroit, it's business as usual. The truth would probably hurt -- lack of fire personnel and equipment almost certainly played a major role -- but inability to follow through says a lot about the Bing administration's effectiveness and its sense of responsibility toward citizens. That evening's fires clearly signaled that something is seriously wrong in the DFD, and the public clearly has a need to know as much as possible about this vital city service.

The state's public service commission managed to investigate and issue a report on DTE wires and DTE's response. But at the city level, the main response is the puzzling decision to lay a new sidewalk on a block were the fire-damaged houses have been demolished.

Following up on an incident like this is the municipal government equivalent of hitting the cutoff man in baseball -- it's fundamental. Basic. How can we expect Bing and his aides to carry off an immensely complicated, revolutionary concept like shrinking the city if they can't let taxpayers know why fires surged out of control on one afternoon in September?

http://www.freep.com/article/2011051...xt|FRONTPAGE|p