Duggan turns to cronies first.

**Honky Tonk** · January-02-14, 10:08 AM

Damn! I KNEW we should've voted for Napolean, no issues there......

**bailey** · January-02-14, 11:00 AM

Originally Posted by nain rouge

It amazes me how much people trot out that old axiom "it's not what you know, but who you know", but then they're surprised when politicians surround themselves with cronies. What, do you think human nature changes when you become a politician, that you're turned into some sort of elevated being that selects coworkers in a 100% impartial manner?

The issue raised is not that he's appointing people he knows... its the issue of the WHO of those he knows that he's appointing. Also rans, hangers on, and gadflys all.

Duggan's choices reflect his personality....

Exactly. Remains to be seen if that is a positive.

Hey, maybe it'll be great. They'll all shake off a few decades of impotence and all they really needed was Duggan to bring them together to make something happen.

Just saying that the whole "this time it'll be different" meme that Duggan and his backers were yelling from the roof tops seems to be anything but.

**aj3647** · January-02-14, 07:23 PM

Originally Posted by bailey

Just saying that the whole "this time it'll be different" meme that Duggan and his backers were yelling from the roof tops seems to be anything but.

And with the EMF still in place for the foreseeable future, just how much power can he and his pack of old-school political machine cronies really wield? All the major decisions are made by the EMF and this isn't likely to change anytime soon.

It was never going to be "different", regardless of who is in the Mayor's office. It's a neutered position. Duggan and Napoleon were running for a figurehead title.

**Gistok** · January-02-14, 07:36 PM

Originally Posted by aj3647

And with the EMF still in place for the foreseeable future, just how much power can he and his pack of old-school political machine cronies really wield? All the major decisions are made by the EMF and this isn't likely to change anytime soon.

It was never going to be "different", regardless of who is in the Mayor's office. It's a neutered position. Duggan and Napoleon were running for a figurehead title.

Did you miss the news articles??

http://michiganradio.org/post/duggan...eement-detroit

http://www.freep.com/article/2013121...ht-detroit-orr

**motz** · January-03-14, 10:36 AM

Originally Posted by rb336

Snyder hires his cronies, hides a bunch of crap in a black hole, has his cronies in the tech industry re-work the award winning SOM website into an unwieldy mess and re-work the MW jobs board into a useless piece of crap and gets away with it

That website and the MW jobs board were always roughly on par with a late 90s Geocities site in terms of functionality. If it was updated to an early to mid 2000s corporate site, I'd call that a stumble in the same direction. I can't imagine it has gotten any better.

**Wesley Mouch** · January-03-14, 11:02 AM

Originally Posted by aj3647

And with the EMF still in place for the foreseeable future, just how much power can he and his pack of old-school political machine cronies really wield? All the major decisions are made by the EMF and this isn't likely to change anytime soon.

It was never going to be "different", regardless of who is in the Mayor's office. It's a neutered position. Duggan and Napoleon were running for a figurehead title.

Even before Duggan's agreement with Orr, the office had a lot of power. Not everything is about money. Leadership certainly isn't.

**rb336** · January-03-14, 11:14 AM

Originally Posted by motz

That website and the MW jobs board were always roughly on par with a late 90s Geocities site in terms of functionality. If it was updated to an early to mid 2000s corporate site, I'd call that a stumble in the same direction. I can't imagine it has gotten any better.

both systems were more functional 4 years ago, and compared to other state websites, Michigan's was very functional, esp. the SOS portal