Wayne County Circuit Judge Isidore Torres ruled Thursday that Detroit interim Mayor Kenneth Cockrel Jr.’s veto of a city council resolution rejecting a new plan for Cobo Hall is unconstitutional.

Torres ruled that the state law enacted to allow transfer of Cobo from Detroit to a regional authority allows the city council to disapprove of the transfer, but does not allow the mayor to veto the city council’s disapproval, according to the Detroit Free Press.

 

The law explicitly states the council may disapprove of the transfer by passing a resolution, Torres said, but it does not say the mayor may veto such a resolution. Torres said the law is silent about mayor’s power to veto, but because it does delinate his powers to act within the process of approving an authority, the legislature did not intend for the mayor to be able to veto council’s disapproval. Therefore, Cockrel’s veto is not legal under the law that sets up the regional authority for Cobo.

In December, the legislature and regional leaders agreed to create a five-member regional authority with representatives from the governor’s office, Wayne, Oakland, Macomb counties and Detroit. The authority would then expand and renovate Cobo with $288 million. In exchange for this authority owning Cobo, the city would be given $20 million for the hall and relieve it of its operating expenses.