I agree with most of the posters. Consultants are a fact of life. The little town I serve on city council for is spending about 30k on a consultant to revise our building codes and land use/development statues. We also have legal and engineering consultants. No one man has enough smarts to do it all [[regardless of the opinion most politicians have of themselves) and good advice can go a long way towards making a job like Mr. Ott's easier.

Just don't expect miracles overnight. It's going to take time to completely understand Detroit's mess, much less solve it.