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Firefighters Wait For Smoke To Clear On Job Cuts

Council President Says Delay Violates State Law, City Charter

POSTED: 8:06 pm EDT August 16, 2005

City officials held a news conference on Tuesday afternoon to announce that it would reveal its restructuring plans for the fire and police departments at later dates, Local 4 reported.

Deputy Mayor Anthony Adams said the details of the police restructuring plan would be released on Aug. 26, and set Sept. 1 as the date in which cuts to the fire department would likely be announced, the station reported.

Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick had originally said that cuts would be outlined by 45 days after the end of the city's fiscal year, but that period ended on Monday, according to Crain's Detroit Business.

Adams told the newspaper that delays in announcing and putting into effect the changes were caused by the administration's seeking advice from "outside, independent, third-party" municipal fiscal experts.

City Council President Maryann Mahaffey told Local 4 that the Kilpatrick administration is playing with numbers and that the delay violates state law and the city charter.

The City Council voted 8-0 to adopt a budget calling for nearly $70 million in cuts from the police and fire departments to offset a projected deficit of more than $300 million. Kilpatrick vetoed that budget, but the council overrode his veto by a similar unanimous vote, Crain's reported.

Adams told the newspaper that the amended budget will call for "substantially less" than the 654 police layoffs originally projected by Chief Ella Bully-Cummings.

Adams said that the restructuring plan will have to include concessions from unions, changes in pension and health care costs, and some layoffs, Local 4 reported.

"Unless we get those types of changes, we will continue to be at a crossroads of financial calamity," Adams said.

Detroit firefighters gathered last week for a protest march that started at the Hotel Pontchartrain and ended at the City County Building.

The demonstration was an attempt to convince city officials that cutting money from the departments could be harmful to the welfare of Detroit's citizens, the station reported.

Jeff Pegg, a spokesman for the Detroit Firefighters' Association, said last month that a total of 59 firefighters had already had been laid off leading up to July 1.


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