Wednesday, December 10, 2014

Snyder approves ending Detroit's emergency status, Orr's resignation

This article contains a number of source documents regarding the bankruptcy.

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…Detroit's fiscal crisis brought on state intervention in 2012 when city leaders approved a consent agreement with the state that required financial reforms that, ultimately, weren't enough to stave off appointment of an emergency manager and later the filing of the nation's largest-ever Chapter 9 municipal bankruptcy petition.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Steven Rhodes approved Detroit's emergence from bankruptcy in early November, but the effective date — when the city is officially considered to have exited Chapter 9 – could only come once lawyers for the city and creditors wrapped up final details of the deal that shaved $7 billion of Detroit's $18 billion in debts and liabilities.

Orr has said it's largely up to the city to decide the effective date of the bankruptcy exit, and it's unlikely Rhodes won't accept the date.

Orr's departure gives full control of city government back to elected leaders, although he had ceded most of those powers back to the mayor and the city council in recent months. While Orr's departure signals the end of a divisive era of state intervention into the governance of Michigan's largest city, Detroit will remain under state oversight for at least a decade.

Under the grand bargain that spared the Detroit Institute of Arts from liquidation and eased cuts to city pensioners, state lawmakers required a largely state-appointed Financial Review Commission to act as a fiscal watchdog over the city, with broad powers to reject contracts, spending, borrowing and labor agreements. Duggan and City Council President Brenda Jones sit on the commission, along with Clinton and other Snyder appointees…..

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