Detroit City Council nixes funding for new police headquarters

**begingri** · January-14-11, 01:53 PM

Pugh ties it to cable channel dispute; Bing slams move as political

By STEVE NEAVLING
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

Detroit City Council rejected a $100-million plan this morning to convert the temporary MGM Grand Detroit casino into a new public safety headquarters. Renovation was to begin Monday.

The 6-3 vote means Mayor Dave Bing loses $100 million in low-interest bonds to repurpose the vacant 75,000-square-foot building along the Lodge Freeway to house police, fire and EMS personnel and a state-of-the-art lab for Michigan State Police.

Council members ostensibly rejected the plan because the amount sought in bonds is $37 million more than the cost of renovation.

But that wasn't the deciding issue for everyone.

Council President Charles Pugh told the Free Press today he's freezing business with the mayor's office until Bing restores live council broadcasts and drops a lawsuit filed this week over the issue.

Pugh and Bing disagree over the broadcast times for council meetings.

"I voted 'no' on principle," Pugh said after the meeting. "This is the wrong time to come to me and ask me to vote 'yes' on any expenditure of tax dollars when a frivolous lawsuit is filed against this body."

The mayor, shocked by the news, struck back.

"It is obvious from today's vote that six of our council members have chosen politics over public safety," Bing responded. "Council President Pugh has indicated that all city business is suspended until the citizens are able to see council on television five days a week. It is unfortunate that he and some of his colleagues view media exposure as a bigger priority than public safety. A consolidated headquarters will increase efficiencies, and help address critical issues such as the response time that some council members have pretended to be a priority. Citizen safety should be non-negotiable."

Also voting no were council members Saunteel Jenkins, Kenneth Cockrel Jr., Brenda Jones, Kwame Kenyatta and JoAnn Watson.

"The extra money is just out there for the administration to use as they please," Jenkins said.

Not exactly, said the mayor. The $37 million surplus is for other future building projects, all of which must be approved by the council.

The low-interest bond rates came under President's Barack Obama's recovery plan and could have saved the city $19 million compared to other bond sales.

Detroit bought the MGM building this summer for $6.3 million.

Council members in support were former deputy police chief Gary Brown, Andre Spivey and former police public information spokesman James Tate.

"This headquarters needs to be built and done on time," Brown said. "Time is money, and delays mean more money."

Bing filed a lawsuit against the council Tuesday after it took control of the Cable Commission, which operates public-access channels 10 and 22.

The conflict is over when and how often to broadcast council meetings. Bing wants to limit council broadcasts to Tuesdays and Thursdays to make room for diverse programming about services, resources and events in the city.

The council wants live meeting coverage and repeated broadcasts, which often consume nearly a third of the airtime.

Source: http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/a...te=fullarticle

**Detroitnerd** · January-14-11, 01:58 PM

Good. I thought it was a honey of a deal for the casino to get millions and millions for a temporary structure.

**bailey** · January-14-11, 02:02 PM

Originally Posted by Detroitnerd

Good. I thought it was a honey of a deal for the casino to get millions and millions for a temporary structure.

They already did.

Detroit bought the MGM building this summer for $6.3 million.

All this did was stop Detroit from actually putting the building to good use.

**rhythmc** · January-14-11, 02:08 PM

Originally Posted by bailey

All this did was stop Detroit from actually putting the building to good use.

I find the politicking to be disgusting.

**Detroitnerd** · January-14-11, 02:08 PM

"Forget it, Jake. It's Chinatown!"

**Gistok** · January-14-11, 02:15 PM

Perhaps they could have gotten a pretty new 3,000 car parking structure and an existing remodeled building that had $212 million sunk into it for less than the $6.3 million that they paid....

... any other bargain locations come to mind??

muskie1 · January-14-11, 02:15 PM

I really don't know the whole story behind the council broadcast debate. I guess this is just another example of all talk and nothing happening. Maybe this project will move forward one day. The thing i find amazing is that Mayor Bing did not wait until after the vote was over to file the suit about the council broadcasts. Come on, he is supposed to be a business man and he showed his cards to early I think.

**daddeeo** · January-14-11, 02:24 PM

After all this city has gone through in the last few years and these guys can't get it together???
When will the pettiness end?
Come on guys let's get the city moving forward.
That police headquarters is long overdue.

**bailey** · January-14-11, 02:26 PM

Originally Posted by Gistok

Perhaps they could have gotten a pretty new 3,000 car parking structure and an existing remodeled building that had $212 million sunk into it for less than the $6.3 million that they paid....

... any other bargain locations come to mind??

Was there anyone else looking to take that anchor off of MGM's hands? Not that 6mm is all that much in the scheme of things, but c'mon, they shouldn't have paid more than a buck for it to take it off their hands.

There is a bright side here though. The longer DPD is prevented from moving out of Beaubien, the longer it stays occupied and safe from the wrecking ball.

**Detroitnerd** · January-14-11, 02:31 PM

Originally Posted by Gistok

Perhaps they could have gotten a pretty new 3,000 car parking structure and an existing remodeled building that had $212 million sunk into it for less than the $6.3 million that they paid....

... any other bargain locations come to mind??

For me, the poison pill is that it was a "temporary" building. In other words, they knew they didn't have to stay there forever. Makes me doubtful about the quality of the construction, frankly.

Anyway, there is no urgency to this. There's no need for Detroit to bond out money to sink money into a new police station. I believe 1300 Beaubien will do for a few more years. It would be nice if the new police station were located nearer the justice campus. It would also be nice if the main police station weren't in some far-off corner of downtown and had an approachable, pedestrian friendly entrance.

Besides, I don't know if you've noticed, but there are plenty of abandoned buildings downtown. Take your pick.

**drjeff** · January-14-11, 02:35 PM

Have you ever been in there? It's shockingly inadequate and has been for years.

**Gannon** · January-14-11, 02:36 PM

Hipster Hockey league forming now for the newly abandoned MGM building...Charlie LeDuff is waiting in the wings.

**1KielsonDrive** · January-14-11, 02:48 PM

A new police HQ at a time when the city is in debt for over a third of a billion dollars? And I'm not ordinarily one to champion straight-up, balanced budgets. There's all kinds of ways to spin this: a cheap building, a sweet deal on financing, the cops need it, federal funds are available, but the bottom line is the city shouldn't be spending money they ABSOLUTELY don't have on this. School debt is at least equal to the city debt, cops and firefighters can't, or aren't, responding properly. There's no such thing as city services; garbage pick-up, snow removal and abandoned building demolition. Yeah, Detroit needs lot's of things, but not additional debt to make the bureaucrats who don't give the citizens the basic respect they deserve more comfortable, as the rest of the city starves and freezes and bears insults. As with all politics, this needs to be wrangled over longer to achieve some type of accomodation. As soon as you hear all kinds of people screaming, 'hurry, hurry, it has to be done now, we're wasting time and we can't afford to waste time, it must be done now', think of the run up to war in Iraq and bailouts of every corporation and private entity in the US. Then think of what the citizens and little guys got out of it.

**bailey** · January-14-11, 02:48 PM

Originally Posted by Gannon

Hipster Hockey league forming now for the newly abandoned MGM building...Charlie LeDuff is waiting in the wings.

Is he filling the elevator shafts with water?

**Detroitnerd** · January-14-11, 02:51 PM

Yeah, I've been in there. And if it has been inadequate for years, a few more years won't hurt our brave officers of the law.

**Rocko** · January-14-11, 02:59 PM

Good. Maybe they should just renovate. Or maybe they should be responsible and come up with a plan for the old buildings before they vacate.

**1KielsonDrive** · January-14-11, 03:04 PM

Originally Posted by Rocko

Good. Maybe they should just renovate. Or maybe they should be responsible and come up with a plan for the old buildings before they vacate.

Yes..................

**Hypestyles** · January-14-11, 03:30 PM

more gridlock... i hope the city charter commission gets its job done quickly this year with a completely revised charter--

**maxx** · January-14-11, 04:15 PM

Does Detroit need new police headquarters? If yes, then someone who lives in Detroit should tell the Council what they think of their recent tiff with the Mayor.

http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/mi...e.headquarters

Just how many people watch the Council on tv? Bing thinks PA programming should include shows about other aspects of city gov.

**rb336** · January-14-11, 04:25 PM

EXACTLY the sort of moronic infighting that will keep this city in its dark-age doldrums for the forseeable future. Very disappointing

**Gistok** · January-14-11, 05:09 PM

The temporary MGM Building was one butt ugly IRS Center before it became the temporary MGM site... so the structure itself was already there. $212 million is a lot of money [[whatever MGM spent it on). But no matter where they decide to locate... having a new 3,000 space parking structure attached is not gonna be cheap.

Didn't the County pay more for the Parking structure than they did the Guardian Building??

But I can agree that it would be nice if the DPD HQ was in the Justice Campus... but I would be interested to see the final figures for a cost comparison between that site and a rehabbed MGM site.

**Detroitnerd** · January-14-11, 05:37 PM

Heck, I don't even like the idea of giving the police force a 3,000-space parking structure. I mean, once that light rail line gets up and running ... why tell Detroit public officials that they're too good for mass transit? Heck, that garage is just too effing big for even a police headquarters in New York.

MGM spent $212 million? On what? On one-armed bandits? On carpeting? How the holy hell can you put so much money into a building and have it look like a shapeless mess, slightly better than a truck warehouse by the side of the road?

This was a sweet deal for the casino to get any money back. Now that Detroit has had a good hosing, let's not go way in debt so was can spend lots of money repurposing a temporary building -- one without any welcoming pedestrian entrance, all cut off at the edge of the concrete moat -- so we can put our police headquarters all the way across downtown from the justice campus.

Anyway, I know, I know. We disagree. I think it's a good-faith disagreement ...

DetroitPole · January-14-11, 05:43 PM

Is it just me or is Detroit turning a corner...
and plunging straight into a flooded elevator shaft in an abandoned warehouse owned by a Grosse Pointe billionaire?

**mam2009** · January-15-11, 11:33 PM

I predict that this minor skirmish will be resolved within a week's time. No City business will be held up or otherwise neglected because of this political theater. Whenever I turn on Channel 10 lately all I see is scripted and/or recorded shows that feature the Mayor shown multiple times or the station ID screen. Is THAT why the airing of Council meetings was reduced?

**Ray1936** · January-16-11, 12:00 AM

Reminds me of a story I must share.

It was about 1980. I had the pleasure of hosting a group of Swedish police officers around 1300 Beaubien. As we entered the lobby, the place was looking kind of dingy that day, with, cigarette butts on the floor and a trash container overflowing. The floor was dirty from a morning rain that had been tracked in.

I gravely announced to the group that our building had perhaps seen better days; it was built in 1921. A moment of silence, then the Swedish group leader offered: "Ja. Ours was built in 1400."

Other than that, we got along famously. And damn, could they drink.