Allen Park saga continues

ALLEN PARK, Mich. – Karen Folkes' days as Allen Park City Administrator are coming to an end.

As I write this she is in talks with her attorney inside her office over her severance. It is likely to be six months of salary which Allen Park will have to eat, something just short of $50,000.

Recommended Videos



Folkes took over when Allen Park's emergency manager left last September. Folkes' management style rubbed Allen Park's City Council the wrong way. They claimed she acted as if she were the emergency manager the emergency manager left behind. She negotiated deals, applied for grants and didn't let the City Council in on the details until the last minute when she wanted a vote.

She told Local 4 her management style was open and transparent. The council voted to oust her a few weeks ago and at that time the state of Michigan backed Folkes. In a conference call Thursday afternoon, the state agreed with the council that it was time for Folkes to move on. Council members, hoping to gain some modicum of local control, were happy they prevailed. A search for a deputy administrator, with $25,000 in state funding, has been made available and will start in earnest next week.

Folkes told Local 4 she was proud of what she has been able to accomplish in Allen Park. One of the projects Folkes attempted was to build a new City Hall, a worthy project to say the least.

Local 4 was given access to the Allen Park Police Department's offices. The detective's bureau is positively a disgrace. As we show in our exclusive video Thursday, the roof leaks like a sieve. The inventive cops have assembled golf umbrellas, plastic tarps and water catching hose assemblies to drain water into buckets. The smell is overwhelming and none of this can be at all healthy. We want to make it clear Folkes did not make these deplorable conditions. In fact, she tried very hard to get them fixed.

Remember that Allen Park is all but destitute. Its budget is sapped and future financial prospects decimated by what was called "Hollywood 48101," the now failed movie studio project. Folkes' mistake was filing a 120-page grant proposal that, among other things, sought to essentially combine three local governments: Allen Park, Ecorse and Lincoln Park. City Council members say this idea, and the grant application eventually given thumbs down by the state, were sprung on them minutes before a vote and they believe there was little input from Ecorse and Lincoln Park. They took this evidence and other concerns about Folkes to the State Treasurer and it became clear over time even to the state this was not working. Thus, the state is now helping replace Folkes.

Ultimately, this is a classic example of what messy municipal governance looks like and the devastating aftermath of poor decision making that leads to emergency management. To need an EM means you are already so poor there is little meaningful help available. One needs to go on bended knee to the cash strapped state for assistance. Then getting control back from the state once the EM "finishes" his or her job is a bureaucratic nightmare as well.

None of this is simple, smooth or tenable. Looking at this and what Detroit went through in bankruptcy court should serve as a distant warning signal to other municipalities to avoid this problem as all costs.


About the Author:

Rod Meloni is an Emmy Award-winning Business Editor on Local 4 News and a Certified Financial Plannerâ„¢ Professional.