Does Mayor Bing need a deputy mayor, and, if so, who should it be ?

[Woodward's Cousin]

The Detroit News reported today that Mayor Bing had spoken with Jeff Collins and Benny Napoleon about becoming his deputy mayor, and then curiously quotes the Mayor as saying that he doesn't have the money anyway, which I'm not sure I buy as an explanation. Does Mayor Bing need a deputy mayor ? What do you think of the job qualifications of the individuals he has spoken to about taking the job ? And who do you think he should try to persuade to become deputy mayor [[ assuming that funding in actuality could be identified to fund the position) ?
Bing may go without deputy

Mayor says others in administration could fill city's No. 2 role

Leonard N. Fleming/ The Detroit News

Detroit - Mayor Dave Bing said Thursday that he may not seek to fill the open deputy mayor's job vacated by Saul Green last month
In an interview with The Detroit News, Bing said he has spoken with Wayne County Sheriff Benny Napoleon and former U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Collins about the deputy mayor's post. Collins, he said, was interested but not Napoleon.
"I haven't made any decisions in terms of whether or not I'm going to have a deputy mayor," Bing said in a telephone interview. "I'm not sure that's the direction I want to go in." He insists he has "made no commitments" to anyone about any positions in his administration.
Bing said he has a draft of a new organizational chart that does not include the position of deputy mayor, which Bing had used primarily as the point person to handle the police and fire departments but also the federal consent decree.
"It's not final but at this point the top person in the administration is Chief of Staff Kirk Lewis, and everybody is reporting up to Kirk," the mayor said.
"As it stands now I don't have the budget to bring on a deputy mayor. So I've got to keep what I've got in place, and that's what I'm going to go with for the near term."
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From The Detroit News: http://detnews.com/article/20110708/...#ixzz1RYV7dOc9