Opponents of Cobo transfer deal claim federal stimulus can fund expansion

Cobo Hall, Detroit, Mich. (Photo: Mike Russell, Wikimedia)

DETROIT — City Council President Monica Conyers, one of the fiercest critics of a plan to transfer control of the Cobo convention center to a five-member regional board, has said that federal economic stimulus money could be tapped to fund the facility’s needed $288 million renovation and expansion. “If you want to help us, just give us the money,” Conyers said to a crowd of more than 500 people on Saturday at an east-side church.

When the City Council president’s husband, U.S. Rep. John Conyers, D-Detroit, spoke to the crowd, he urged everyone involved in the heated debate to “be reasonable,” saying that there should be additional talks with Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano and Gov. Jennifer Granholm. The congressman said that state and regional leaders risk losing any future support from supporters inside the city limits.

“Don’t turn your back on your friends now,” Conyers warned the governor.

But as the Detroit Free Press reported Tuesday morning, the congressman, who said Saturday that stimulus funds “more likely than not” could be be tapped for Cobo’s expansion, may have been ahead of the facts as his office on Monday was working to figure out if that were actually the case:

A Free Press analysis of the bill could not locate any such funding source and agencies tasked with doling out the money said it was unclear whether Cobo would qualify and, if it did, whether there would be enough to cover the $288 million needed.

Nevertheless, the stimulus theme played out during Saturday’s highly charged rally.

City Council member JoAnn Watson said Detroiters should fight for stimulus funds for Cobo’s expansion. “Some folks think we’re stupid and don’t read,” Watson told the cheering crowd. “You can google ‘economic stimulus plans’ and ‘convention centers.’ You’re going to get more than 50 cities — including Lansing.”

Granholm has said there is no money for convention centers in the federal stimulus package. “There is not a category of money for large public buildings or anything like that,” the governor said last week when the question of whether Cobo was a viable project for stimulus funds arose.

During the rally, Monica Conyers blasted Democratic U.S. Sen. Carl Levin for requesting an appropriations earmarks to preserve the remaining portion of Tiger Stadium instead of funding Cobo’s expansion. Other officials who are pushing the Cobo transfer deal, like Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson, were booed when their names were uttered before the crowd. David Stephen, a radio producer for WCHB’s “Mildred Gaddis in the Morning” show, accused elected officials who were pushing the Cobo deal of robbing Detroit “at gunpoint.”

MORE:Photo slideshow from Saturday’s rally:

Cobo Center inside and out: