Should the City Charter be amended to have qualifications for City Council members?

[Bigdd]

Bigdd, where are you getting the 65% illiteracy rate from?

I've seen 47% functionally illiterate which seems ridiculously high and unfortunate. Do you really need to add 20 pts to get your point across?

http://theweek.com/articles/484910/d...lliteracy-rate

Ahh,.. my bad. I got my numbers mixed up. I meant 65% literacy rate for the 24% of high-school freshman that end up graduating.

The literacy rate is substantially worse for the 76% that dropped out, which is why the overall rate is 47% and dropping.

[Bigdd]

As well as Charles Pugh, Gary Brown was also on a media-recommended slate
to be elected to City Council. I do believe he is now with the executive branch of the
City of Detroit, and good businessman that he is, is probably partly responsible
for bringing an improved street parking fee system

http://www.freep.com/story/news/loca...ment/71477366/

to a neighborhood near you.

I wouldn't call Mr. Pugh illiterate at all, at all. It wouldn't surprise me to learn that he has several degrees. He could post on here as well as anyone if he wanted to, I'm sure, and was a relatable and well-spoken television reporter far more talented than I could ever aspire to be.

Full disclosure: I am a City of Detroit water department employee headed to GLWA
as things stand now. I make more than $20 per hour.

I didn't mean to [[and don't think I did) describe Pugh as illiterate. But he couldn't balance a checkbook,.. or keep a simple townhouse out of foreclosure with 2 good paying media gigs. That describes someone that is so horrible with money that they couldn't be relied upon to come back from the corner store with milk,.. let alone run a $2 BILLION a year enterprise.

Weeks before he was elected, the papers [[one in particular) ran front pages with descriptions of each of the candidates. And then about 8 days before the election, on October 25th 2009,.. The Free Press dedicated the entire top half of the front page to an article withdrawing support for Pugh,.. and detailing how he had quit his jobs, gone broke and lost his town-house in a second foreclosure,..and that they were pretty sure he no longer had Detroit residency because of it. Pugh went on to garner THE MOST votes. In a nutshell,.. front page says "This guy can't handle money",... The result? Landslide win. Sigh.

I have an acquaintance in the water dept. He told me years back that they had to keep 2 sets of books,.. the ones for Mercado / Kwame,.. and the ones City Council and the public saw. LOTS of money being siphoned off. Like 7-8 figure amounts.

[MSUguy]

Bigdd, where are you getting the 65% illiteracy rate from?

I've seen 47% functionally illiterate which seems ridiculously high and unfortunate. Do you really need to add 20 pts to get your point across?

http://theweek.com/articles/484910/d...lliteracy-rate

Even those numbers questionable at best.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain...-questionable/

http://datadrivendetroit.org/danny-d...es-in-detroit/

[bailey]

I didn't mean to [[and don't think I did) describe Pugh as illiterate. But he couldn't balance a checkbook,.. or keep a simple townhouse out of foreclosure with 2 good paying media gigs. That describes someone that is so horrible with money that they couldn't be relied upon to come back from the corner store with milk,.. let alone run a $2 BILLION a year enterprise.

Weeks before he was elected, the papers [[one in particular) ran front pages with descriptions of each of the candidates. And then about 8 days before the election, on October 25th 2009,.. The Free Press dedicated the entire top half of the front page to an article withdrawing support for Pugh,.. and detailing how he had quit his jobs, gone broke and lost his town-house in a second foreclosure,..and that they were pretty sure he no longer had Detroit residency because of it. Pugh went on to garner THE MOST votes. In a nutshell,.. front page says "This guy can't handle money",... The result? Landslide win. Sigh.

The same can be said for virtually any election in this country. GWB never earned a real job... was placed in several roles where he ran several businesses either into the ground or was spectacularly mediocre at them. Was governor of a state with the weakest governorship in the country... and at least 50% of the news media in the country endorsed the other guy, both times. Why'd GWB get the nod? [[well, besides the SCOTUS intervention...lol) Because more people thought he'd be a "good guy to get a beer with". How did a first term obscure accidental senator win in 2008? because it was a "historic" thing and he offered "hope and change".
What you're asking is the people of Detroit be better educated electors than any other population in the country.

People, by and large, are very very stupid and will always vote with their "feelings" over any empirical qualifications. Case in point, Donald Trump. Just embrace the fact that we live in an Idoitcracy run by Kleptocrats.

[Bobl]

I'm ready for the incoming, but here it goes:
I would prefer that those who wish to have children be required to take a class in parenthood, and, even more extreme, encouraged to set up a household with two caring parents who begin their children's education well before they are sent to public school for kindergarten.
This might improve the City even more than a more educated City Council.