Bing vs. Duggan? Detroit's business leaders facing a dilemma

**begingri** · July-21-12, 08:13 PM

The gist of their common concern:

• Many of the region's top corporate leaders begged Bing to run for mayor in 2009, seeing the pro basketball Hall of Famer as a pro-business, high-integrity guy who could be a healing figure in a city wracked by the chaos and scandal of ex-Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's demise.

• After Bing moved to Detroit from suburban Franklin, won the election handily and inherited a fiscal and organizational nightmare, the big business leaders and campaign donors don't want to seem ungrateful now. And they definitely want to appear supportive while Bing is still mayor.

• However, many of these same corporate leaders regard Bing as a disappointment in office: indecisive when clear vision and urgent action were needed; clumsy in handling relations with the Detroit City Council and state government, and ineffective at stemming the city's fiscal crisis and deterioration of city services. Turnover of executive talent at City Hall has been a glaring problem.

• Now, 15 1/2 months away from the next mayoral election Bing, 68, is making noises like he intends to run again. At a $300-a-head fund-raiser last week for about 200 people at the Detroit Athletic Club, Bing sidestepped a direct question about his re-election intentions, saying only that fixing Detroit will take more than four years and that he needs continued support.

http://www.freep.com/article/20120720/COL06/207200440/Tom-Walsh-Bing-vs-Duggan-Detroit-s-business-leaders-facing-a-dilemma?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|FRONTPAGE

**JBMcB** · July-21-12, 08:48 PM

When taking over a failing organization, the plan of attack is:

1. Do a top to bottom audit of the organization. Ferret out the big problems, what's broken, what works and what doesn't. Get input from inside and outside of the organization.
2. Get a group of domain specialists together and give them the power to fix things. This is essential - you need competent people working for you.
3. Get a plan together with milestones, deliverables and a timetable. Pick the top dozen problems and focus on those first. Make sure everyone is aware of the plan, and get their buy in.
4. If anyone works against the plan, get rid of them. Clean house. You're the boss.
5. Execute.

Sounds buzzword-y, but this is how you do it. Every corporate and municipal turnaround incorporated some variation of this formula. Which of these has Bing done?

**illwill** · July-21-12, 09:20 PM

It will not come down to the business leaders. I'll come down to the individual voters of the city. I think Duggan's run is an experiment.

**firstandten** · July-22-12, 09:39 AM

Originally Posted by JBMcB

When taking over a failing organization, the plan of attack is:

1. Do a top to bottom audit of the organization. Ferret out the big problems, what's broken, what works and what doesn't. Get input from inside and outside of the organization.
2. Get a group of domain specialists together and give them the power to fix things. This is essential - you need competent people working for you.
3. Get a plan together with milestones, deliverables and a timetable. Pick the top dozen problems and focus on those first. Make sure everyone is aware of the plan, and get their buy in.
4. If anyone works against the plan, get rid of them. Clean house. You're the boss.
5. Execute.

Sounds buzzword-y, but this is how you do it. Every corporate and municipal turnaround incorporated some variation of this formula. Which of these has Bing done?

Bing may know this but he hasn't acted on these points. Why would he, he had his hand held by the big 3 when he had his businesses. His business organization was like a revolving door as he consistantly looked for upgrades over what he had. Which btw he took over to city government. He has probably been told that politically he can't stand any more
revolving door movement within his organization.

So while your points are the way a business oriented mayor should attack problems within the city, I don't believe Mayor Bing is the man to make it happen.

GUSHI · July-22-12, 09:43 AM

Detroit is not ready for a white mayor, no chance he wins,

**Gannon** · July-22-12, 11:58 AM

Detroit doesn't need any more McNamara legacy.

Duggan is tainted, I don't care how strong his teflon is...

**eastland** · July-22-12, 05:46 PM

Originally Posted by Gannon

Detroit doesn't need any more McNamara legacy.

Duggan is tainted, I don't care how strong his teflon is...

Detroit doesn't need 15 consecutive balanced budgets? That's McNamara's legacy, along with a world-class airport, the downtown stadiums, saving the SMART bus system and much more.

**jpbollma** · July-22-12, 06:11 PM

Duggan still hasn't even announced his candidacy. I still question whether he actually will or not. Is Duggan the only serious candidate Bing would face? I know Pugh has thrown about the idea, but I don't consider him to be a serious candidate. He's a joke.

**Detroitej72** · July-22-12, 06:31 PM

I certainly don't think Duggan would be any worse than what we've had the last 12 years. Besides, he did a pretty good job as Wayne County Prosecutor which, as far as I know, was the only elected office he has ever held.

**Wheels** · July-22-12, 06:41 PM

Originally Posted by eastland

Detroit doesn't need 15 consecutive balanced budgets? That's McNamara's legacy, along with a world-class airport, the downtown stadiums, saving the SMART bus system and much more.

Its the much more part that hurts. He was a big reason Kwame got elected and he spawned Jennie from the block.

**jpbollma** · July-22-12, 08:18 PM

Originally Posted by Wheels

Its the much more part that hurts. He was a big reason Kwame got elected and he spawned Jennie from the block.

Bing could be worse. He doesn't have the corruption other mayors have had in the past. I think Duggan could have some potential as well.

**firstandten** · July-22-12, 08:30 PM

Originally Posted by jpbollma

Duggan still hasn't even announced his candidacy. I still question whether he actually will or not. Is Duggan the only serious candidate Bing would face? I know Pugh has thrown about the idea, but I don't consider him to be a serious candidate. He's a joke.

I don't think Duggan moves to Palmer Woods unless he is going to run. I think Gary Brown if he runs would be a serious candidate. Along with Bing they could present their vision for the city and we can see where the voters fall.

**stasu1213** · July-22-12, 09:02 PM

Originally Posted by firstandten

Bing may know this but he hasn't acted on these points. Why would he, he had his hand held by the big 3 when he had his businesses. His business organization was like a revolving door as he consistantly looked for upgrades over what he had. Which btw he took over to city government. He has probably been told that politically he can't stand any more
revolving door movement within his organization.

So while your points are the way a business oriented mayor should attack problems within the city, I don't believe Mayor Bing is the man to make it happen.

Bing is still kissing the big 3's behind. I think Duggan will make detroit especially downtown detroit more worker/family friendly. Woodward will be a thriving from Jefferson all the way up under Duggan.

**jpbollma** · July-22-12, 10:26 PM

Originally Posted by stasu1213

Bing is still kissing the big 3's behind. I think Duggan will make detroit especially downtown detroit more worker/family friendly. Woodward will be a thriving from Jefferson all the way up under Duggan.

I'm not saying you are wrong, but what evidence do you have that Duggan could do this? What would be his plan to achieve this goal? I haven't heard him make any comment on the direction he thinks the city should go. Whoever wins, I just hope the mayor's office continues with some integrity. I don't know if someone else could do better than Bing or not, but at least under Bing there hasn't been scandal after scandal like with that jackal Kwame. As long as someone competent is elected I will be happy.

**Hypestyles** · July-23-12, 01:13 PM

...what would the likes of a Duggan offer in terms of vision for improving city services? What would he "boost", besides downtown/midtown like the previous mayors? would he be willing to be aggressive with blight? with absentee property owners, especially the bigger structures? Would he exclusively focus on trying to attract "big business" to the city, or try to focus on encouraging/nurturing "small business" as well? What about streamlining city bureaucracy, getting more forms online, ensuring response time from departments? what would be his take on dealing with the likes of Matty Moroun's operation, or suburban county executives? The city council would possibly have 50% new people under the new district-based elections.. no way to predict who will be the new regime there or the political sensibilities reflected..
He won't be controlling DPS, so that's out.. the consent agreement would likely still be in play by january 2014..

**firstandten** · July-23-12, 02:42 PM

I believe when the time comes Duggan will give his vision of Detroit along with the other candidates. I would be most interested hearing his vision along with Gary Brown if he should run. The other minor candidates will give us a lot of pie-in-the-sky, and Bing will have to run on his record.

**mwilbert** · July-24-12, 09:51 AM

People should not overestimate what the mayor is likely to be able to do. A bad mayor can be a big negative influence, but a good mayor is still constrained by the resources he has available to deploy, and the mayor of Detroit doesn't have a lot at his disposal, certainly not until the city gets better control of its costs and does a better job of collecting revenue. I would expect the next mayor to spend most of his time just trying to figure out what the city can and should do within its budget constraints and restructuring the city workforce to actually be able to do that. But it takes time to build the capacity to actually do things.

**Danny** · July-24-12, 10:54 AM

I rather go for Mike Duggan than Bing!

**firstandten** · July-24-12, 11:52 AM

Originally Posted by mwilbert

People should not overestimate what the mayor is likely to be able to do. A bad mayor can be a big negative influence, but a good mayor is still constrained by the resources he has available to deploy, and the mayor of Detroit doesn't have a lot at his disposal, certainly not until the city gets better control of its costs and does a better job of collecting revenue. I would expect the next mayor to spend most of his time just trying to figure out what the city can and should do within its budget constraints and restructuring the city workforce to actually be able to do that. But it takes time to build the capacity to actually do things.

You are correct in what you say, but mayors need to craft a vision of where they want to city to be. Without going into a lot of specifics, Bing crafted in my mind a vision of short-term pain, long-term gain. Knowing that politically pursuing a strategy of that nature will not make you a lot of friends, he countered by saying he would be a one-term mayor[[if he had done the things he stated I would have voted for him again).

In large part because of that and the honesty factor I voted for him [[ even though I would have been comfortable with Cockrel as far as honesty is concerned)

At some point Bing started to put his finger in the air to see which way the wind was blowing, I knew then we weren't going to see the systemic change the city needed to see and that he tried to promise.

So, if we are going to settle for incremental change then there are a lot better candidates we can choose from with Duggan being one of them.

**mwilbert** · July-24-12, 12:56 PM

Originally Posted by firstandten

You are correct in what you say, but mayors need to craft a vision of where they want to city to be. Without going into a lot of specifics, Bing crafted in my mind a vision of short-term pain, long-term gain. Knowing that politically pursuing a strategy of that nature will not make you a lot of friends, he countered by saying he would be a one-term mayor[[if he had done the things he stated I would have voted for him again).

I agree with this, and I thought Bing might do the right things, but from what I can see, to the extent he has vision, he hasn't done much of anything to implement it; I have complained before on this forum about his lack of urgency in dealing with what appear to be urgent problems.

I believe a mayor needs to know where he wants to take the city, but I also believe that to do it, he needs the apparatus of city government to be both aligned with those goals and competent in general, and I strongly suspect that getting there will take the next mayor most if not all of his first term.