New leadership may mend Detroit’s image but not economy

DETROIT — The Motor City wants change. At least that was the message sent from the polls on Tuesday night’s general municipal election.

While some of the election results had been easily predicted, there were some minor surprises. City Council President Kenneth Cockrel Jr. was expected to come out second if not on top of the city council race. Instead, voters demoted him, placing the former interim mayor fourth behind three fresh faces to the council.

But as the polls predicted, Charles Pugh got the most votes, making him the new city council president. Gary Brown, who had been expected to be the third-most popular candidate came in second and Saunteel Jenkins, another newcomer, third.

Incumbents didn’t fair as well. Councilwoman Alberta Tinsley-Talabi was not re-elected and councilwoman JoAnn Watson barely made the list. All in all, the city council now has a majority of newcomers: a 5-4 split between fresh faces and familiar ones.

While these changes are significant, they won’t have an immediate effect on city residents, according to one political science expert. “I think that the changes that we saw were symbolic changes in terms of turnover and good for the democracy,” said Ronald Brown, a political science professor at Wayne State University. “But the large question is that the economy in our state is terrible.”

Brown said that he is “optimistic” that new leaders will bring stability and help the city move past it’s smeared national image brought on the former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick’s text-message scandal. “I’m hoping that Detroit is no longer a joke for the rest of the world,” Brown told Michigan Messenger. But new leadership doesn’t mean the economy will change.

“In a city that’s one of the poorest in the country … that reality of voters may not change that much,” he said. “I will say that it is special in a larger national picture but it may not change that many things on the ground for voters. I think people want things to change but I’m not convinced that it will.”

On the mayoral front, incumbent Dave Bing emerged victorious despite losing many union votes since the primary due to layoffs and pay cuts he imposed.

Bing’s challenger, accountant Tom Barrow, who chose an industrial loft marked with gang graffiti to throw his election night party, said the results were “inconsistent to what we saw and felt on the street” because many people did not exercise their right to vote. “Folks just didn’t get out and vote,” he told Michigan Messenger in an interview. “That’s hard to imagine because those who don’t vote are most impacted by policies.”

This time Barrow isn’t disputing the election results like he did in the primary. “All you can do is try. I tried, I was rejected and I have to accept that.”

Barrow, who ran against Coleman Young twice unsuccessfully in the 1980s, said he won’t be running for office again but plans to stay in Detroit and to work with city leaders to help the city in the future.

Although Barrow lost, the theme of change and new leadership that surrounded the election was strong at many election night parties.

Saunteel Jenkins celebrated with a diverse group of supporters from AFSME union leader Al Garrett to councilwoman Sheila Cockrel. Both Barrow and Bing supporters attended her election night party. The excitement was apparent with supporters warmly greeting Jenkins throughout her media interviews. Jenkins said the promise of change this election brought will affect all parties involved. “This is absolutely a change election, even for incumbents,” Jenkins told Michigan Messenger. “The voters sent out a clear message that they don’t want the same old politics.”

One example of the change Jenkins envisions is better cooperation and teamwork among council members. During the campaign she built strong relationships with her fellow candidates, she said. In fact, she made a pact with Charles Pugh, Andre Spivey, Gary Brown and James Tate to work on policies and programs to curb youth violence.

According to Jenkins, it’s all about electing the right people. While some believe that the successful ballot measure, Proposal D, that calls for council members to be elected by districts will solve many of the city’s ills, Jenkins thinks real change will come from those in charge, not how they’re elected. “The only thing that gets better leadership is electing better leaders,” she said.

As was expected, all three ballot proposals passed, including the controversial school funding proposal that will use $500.5 million in federal grants and loans to re-build and renovate 18 Detroit Public Schools.

Also, voters decided that in the future they want to elect council members by district. Now it’s up to the Charter Revision Commission — a nine-member board that was also elected last night — to decide how a districts format will be implemented in the city charter.

Former mayoral candidate and deputy mayor Freman Hendrix topped the list of charter commissioners followed by former state Rep. Teola Hunter and journalist Ken Coleman.

In many ways the election of charter revision candidates plays on with the theme of change running through the election. Over the next three years, the board of charter commissioners will work to revise the charter and if the commissioners carry out plans outlined in their campaigns, the city’s governing document will see some deep, significant changes. Some things that could change under this charter revision commission is a shift in power between the mayor and city council and the creation of an ethics board that has the power to punish and removed elected city officials from office.

The election also shifted leadership for Detroit Public Schools. A new set of faces will join the Board of Education table. State Rep. Lamar Lemmons (D-Detroit) and analyst Carol Banks successfully challenged the four incumbents for at-large seats on the board. Incumbents Ida Short and Rev. David Murray will return while Marie Thornton and Margaret Betts were not re-elected.

While talk of change may boost morale for many Detroiters, real change for Detroiters will have to come from the streets, Brown said, and elected officials should recognize this by engaging those who are apathetic and cynical about the election process. “What about the people that don’t vote?” He asked. “The 18-65 [year-old] black males … not working, not in school — how do you keep these folks encouraged? That is the bigger issue that confronts our city.”

The voter turnout in this election was 22.5 percent, lower than it was four years ago. “Council members have to find some way for all of us to work together to pull the city forward,” he said.