FAQs and the Endorsement Process

Here are answers to some FAQs. Many of these are from these endorsement questionnaires. The  backstory to endorsement is often the candidate giving funds to organizations or promising them or their leadership things. It disgusting and it eats away at the integrity of unions, churches and the media AND the contribution they SHOULD be making to democracy. They SHOULD be giving all candidates equal chance so their group members will make their own decisions, but many do not. 

Detroit, even after emergency management, would face tremendous population and tax base erosion. List some concrete ways you might reverse those trends.

Yes, emergency management will drive people from the city. People all over the country feel badly for us. Not many people want to live without democracy in a city being stripped of the very assets that would play a key role in the revival of the city. So first and foremost the Emergency Manager must go. It didn’t work for any of the cities that they have put them in over and over. Emergency management didn’t really work out for economically distressed pre-World War II Germany (Weimar Constitution Article 48). It will bring down Detroit, Southeastern Michigan and eventually all of Michigan. It is Snyder’s Titanic for Michigan.

Long term change in Detroit needs to start in neighborhoods. See my second campaign priority, neighborhoods, for a detailed description of a simple long term plan for stopping the outflow of residents from Detroit.

Detroit government has suffered under a culture in which personal relationships mean more than merit. Talk about your approach to this issue. What will be the standards for hiring and contracting under your administration?

Politics damage all communities, being based on campaign contributions that are essentially favors that need to be repaid upon politicians being elected. The political system in the U.S. creates a culture in which personal relationships mean more than merit. I am not a politician and don’t have any political favors due. I will hire people who are qualified through a transparent and fair process. Contracting will be made transparent. Our public online city finances will connect any contracting companies and their owners with campaign contributions. Since I am not interested in personal gain and plan no political career, working and contracting with Detroit will take on an entirely different tone called…public service.

Economic development is starting to have a serious impact on downtown and Midtown, but neighborhoods are still struggling. List five specific ideas for translating the momentum from Woodward and Monroe to Mack and Bewick.

1. I will use the HUD money for neighborhoods as it is supposed to be used and NOT give it to mid-town and downtown to be delinquent on it like they have been. See your article below. http://www.freep.com/article/20130512/COL33/305120069/Detroit-Downtown-Midtown-loans-development

2. I will ask the people who have capital and have invested in downtown and midtown Detroit to support an entrepreneurship program for the people who live in Detroit’s neighborhoods, particularly: women, people at community college and people in high school. It would have to include real funding to make neighborhood Detroiter start-ups go. Access to capital, technical assistance, and the old boys’ network has always been lacking for brilliant and talented Detroiters. That must change if we want one united, economically healthy Detroit.

3. I will work against the gentrification of any neighborhood. It has already started in midtown with people being kicked out and rents climbing. Gentrification is an economic snowball that rolls down the hill taking poor people first, then people of higher and higher incomes because rent just goes up. I would not allow that kind of greedy developer momentum to drive longtime Detroiters from their homes and make Detroit, a city that prides itself on social justice, a place for the elite. We have already lost too many longtime Detroiters to predatory lending, the economic collapse, and people who have just had it, even though they still love Detroit and consider it home. I would like people who moved away to move back and new people to move into neighborhoods where there are empty homes because they like the neighbors who are there, not because they are driven there by developers or are seeking some fakey urban lifestyle. There are many golden neighbors to have in Detroit and I don’t think anyone moving here should be cheated of the opportunity to love a Detroit neighborhood for all the people in it. Wiping out whole swatches to get ready for a real estate boom of new Detroiters is something I will do everything in my power to prevent. Affordable home ownership for everyone is something I will do everything in my power to make a reality. A revitalized, economically just Detroit. Longtime Detroit businesses are part of a healthy Detroit and should not be eaten by gentrification. Helping them successfully navigate a changing Detroit is a priority for me.

4. There needs to be a second chance program for young adults to be trained for jobs that are currently available and to get the education they were denied. When I send, for example, the Dhive jobs newsletter to some of the young adults I work with, they say thank you, but I am not qualified for any of those jobs. This is a generation that was cheated by Detroit.

5. Housing is a serious issue in Detroit. I would institute a Community Land Trust which provides permanently affordable housing and home ownership opportunities for low-income people. It prevents gentrification and is one part of developing an economically just housing market.  

One of the most important relationships in Detroit is that of landlord to tenant. I would ask tenants and landlords, both regular and section 8, what needs to change in the city to make this relationship better on both sides. I will increase the amount of code enforcement for landlords and institute rent control. Neighborhood community mediation will be offered for landlord/tenant disputes. At the same time, I will be working toward getting Detroiters low-income home ownership in every way possible. Rehabbing houses should be a part of a training and jobs program, especially if neighbors went in on funding rehabbing the homes themselves.

Housing arson is a serious problem in Detroit. I will make investigating arson a priority. The 3am fire of the vacant house is always suspicious. Stripping houses of valuable metals and architectural treasures needed to stop years ago. The Detroit Police and community policing participants will work with suburban police to stop the scrap yards and other businesses who treat Detroit like a garbage can and harvest our housing stock, making our road to recovery much more difficult. I feel that these houses may be being purposefully destroyed through fire and harvesting. It costs much less to knock down a burnt down house than a standing one. Also destroying the housing stock, makes it possible that in the future when people want to live here, a new home would have to be built, which would benefit developers. I am always, always suspicious of anything that has to do with buildings, contractors, developers, investors and Detroit. There seems to be a culture of Detroit disrespect among them, an agreement that Detroit is to be taken advantage of by any means necessary for their own profit. That will stop.

The city's assets have been poorly maintained and neglected. How would you care for them better?

The city’s most important asset is children. Yes, they have been systematically neglected by the state, city and federal government and now suffer a 60% poverty rate. I would work with the schools and if I could exert any influence, increase the amount of social workers, food aid, uniform help, after school programs, and in-school tutoring . I would look into ways to get more children into pre-school and Head Start. I will actively encourage this generation of parents who were cheated of most opportunities to get their GEDs and higher educations through a number of creative programs. I have an endless list of what must be done to treat children and parents with the respect they deserve and will take every opportunity to address these needs. See the question about schools and crime for more information.

Many of the city’s physical assets, like Belle Isle and the eastside riverfront parks, are neglected on purpose to trick Detroiters into believing they are not worth anything. I have been to parks all over the world. I know Belle Isle is a gem of Earth, not just Detroit. It would be easy enough to keep up  parks with concessions, equipment rental, and event fees that are accurately accounted for and publicly known. Volunteers and those who need to do community service can provide additional assistance for clean-ups. Parks should be equipped with alternative energy lighting and garbage cans should be plentiful and strategically placed where people go, not just where it is easy for workers to pick up. (For example, garbage cans near fishing spots at all riverfront parks should be closer to the water’s edge instead of the road.) Please see my question about the state/feds to see what I would do about the water department.

What's a realistic set of promises Detroit can make to its workers about their retirement? Should health care be offered to retirees, and should they be asked to bear any of the financial burden?

First, the pension fund should be investigated by an entity outside of the state, the city, and Jones Day to determine what its actual funding is. I believe no one’s assessment.

If it is, in fact, under funded and is a part of the city’s financial issues, favoring bondholders over retirees is inhumane. The loss in an investment is far inferior to a loss of income for basic needs. It is nonsense to say that pensions should take the “haircut” bonds should get. That is not a haircut – it is cutting off limbs. Obviously muni bond holders have excess income to invest  but pensioners are living off their money AND it goes back into the economy. I would say sorry to the bondholders or really the bond insurers, but you are taking a loss. That is the gamble of investments and it makes me question why the pensioners want their money in the stock market. This is just one example of how no one with money ever really takes a hit in the financial world of 2013. The hit is passed on and on until it reaches the people who can pay for it the least.

Yes, healthcare should be offered to retirees because I do not think on their small incomes they CAN bear the burden. I would look into making the City of Detroit a less stressful place to work and a health plan for current employees with a focus on prevention and wellness so that future healthcare use would go down. Fitness programs at recreation centers will be offered and targeted to city employees. It is important to shop for the best deal, which may not have been done by the city. I am open to looking into ways to make the retirement system more secure for retirees and that there is much closer monitoring of the pension board and their investments.

Should Detroit maintain some kind of financial oversight board or adviser after the city exits emergency management? If not, describe how mayor and council can avoid the mistakes that led to emergency management in the first place.

Not from the State of Michigan as Orr indicated in his May “Threat Meeting to the Citizens”. It should watched over by Detroiters who will watch over the city and its authorities’ income, expenses, and grant opportunities. The finances should also be watched over more closely and wrongdoings caught much more quickly by local and federal authorities.

What led to Emergency Management was Snyder and his ultra conservative team cooking up a way for republicans to govern without being elected, which is all a part of a larger plan by them to take over what they have failed to take over through the democratic system. Its really quite sad, all these people with so much money opting to hurt people instead of joining together to help people, which is what life is about. I am open to helping them learn about community service and governance.

What should be done by the federal government and state government to help Detroit?

1. The state of Michigan and/or the federal government should get rid of the Emergency Manager, as the people of Michigan voted it down. Aside from being blatantly racist (most of the cities with an EM are predominantly African American), undemocratic and unconstitutional, it won’t work. The EM will drain us of our assets and leave. Detroit will be in even WORSE shape. It is indicative of a group of conservatives blinded by sheer greed and no concern for governance, Detroit, or the State of Michigan.

2. The state or federal government could give us funding for an open source (much less expensive than proprietary) software suite for collecting taxes, putting city, authority and school system finances online for the public up the minute connected to campaign contributions. I am certain the open source community will be willing to help Detroit with this and be an essential part of Detroit’s economic rebirth.

3. The federal government could either give us funding for a real independent audit, with macro and micro forensic auditing where it is needed along with money for prosecution of all guilty parties. A real house cleaning, not “restructuring” from a law firm like Jones Day, which also represents the Bank of America to whom we owe money.

4. Additional funding for the law department to pursue predatory mortgage lending, interest rate swap and any other financial wrongdoings to Detroit and its citizens

5. Additional funding for the department of administrative hearings (and all personnel in the departments that report the blight)  to aggressively pursue blight violations.

6. Funding to review our water department’s operations (NOT with the intention to privatize it – what a waste of money!) to make it more efficient, technology updates, find a way to produce our own energy for the water department, and a review of everyone’s rates – Detroit and the suburbs - to be sure it is correct and how we can work to take those rates down.

7. A jobs program connected to building/installing our alternative energy streetlights, knocking down, boarding up and rehabbing houses, mowing lawns of bank owned and absentee landlords and billing them, and establishing food co-ops. It would be connected to an education component that would include a college scholarship.

What is your Number 1 campaign issue?

Safety: Officers will be assigned to particular neighborhood clusters and will be known by name to the community through community group visits and school visits. Very few will be behind desks. Crime investigation will be a priority so the people committing crimes do not feel that Detroit is a free for all and the endless cycle of revenge that stems from a lack of real justice will stop. Community policing in every part of the city will reduce crime. Neighborhood mediators that would be trained to deal with minor disputes that the people involved in would be willing to sit down to for mediation. For example, teen-parent disagreements or next door neighbor non-violent disputes. Crime prevention like deterring truancy (the gateway to crime for young people) is a priority. Suspension should be abolished and detention at school established. Most youth who get suspended need help and detention is the opportunity to give that to them. This will be a partnership between schools, police, and the court system. When people who have committed crimes are let out of jail there is very little support for them to NOT end up back in. I would like to work with the courts to engage them in required, structured programs that finish their community service and get them a GED. There needs to be another number to call for non-emergencies instead of  911 and an education campaign about what an emergency really is. Partner police/mental health agencies/courts/rehabs to get the adults and youth who need help and end up involved with police the help they need. I would work with the county to find the funding for timely testing of the all the rape kits that are waiting and future rape kits to set up a model (putting it in our regular budget, as it should be!) that the rest of the country can follow.

Streetlights are a big part of  safety. I will work with or around DTE to provide alternative energy streetlights for ALL neighborhoods. The PLD has not maintained the electric lines in the City of Detroit and they are dangerous. If we stick with the lights we have, the lines will have be replaced because it is more expensive to fix the poorly maintained system than it is to just make a new one. However, we can use lights that do not need the wiring and can use existing poles- there are a variety of choices like solar, wind and others that would need to be weighed for their energy efficiency, durability, and inability to be stolen. I will have the alternative energy streetlights costed out and weighed against the plans to rewire the city. Ideally, I would like to produce the streetlights in the city to create jobs. There are many new production methods that could do this. My highest hope would be that we could then produce alternative lights for other cities. Lights would also be approved by the International Dark Sky Association , directing all light down, so we can see more stars. 

What is your Number 2 campaign issue?

Neighborhoods

I will give voice to every neighborhood. All districts will be divided into clusters of neighborhoods with city department workers, including police, assigned to them and known by name. The workers will be at community meetings each month to resolve issues. Clusters will have shared resources like lawn mowers and bouncy houses for block club parties. Help will be offered for organizing more block clubs, block club parties: children’s activities available, swimmobile, and help in blocking off the street safely, making block club signs and window stickers to show they are a group, as well as how to handle the funds they collect. Across the city there would be organized cook-offs and talent shows through these groups. These activities do not cost a lot of money, can use shared equipment and are essential to bringing Detroit back and capitalizing on the strong sense of neighborhood Detroiters have. The city would have a web page for each cluster that would serve as a contact directory of the department representatives and other important resources in the neighborhood (crime alerts, businesses, news, cultural institutions, etc.). Clusters will get together to make THEIR OWN plans for their areas then work with urban planners to figure out how to put it into action. Plans will be made swiftly from community input from a few, well organized meetings that are at community centers, online, at senior and youth centers, from neighborhood businesses and from door-to-door samples. Plans will then be carried out efficiently, quickly and honestly. They will NOT be made by outsiders and they will NOT just end up on a shelf.  Everyone will be asked to volunteer 1 hour each month for Detroit which means 700,000 hours a month or about 23,000 people per day. If even half that number volunteered to invest in ourselves, Detroit would be a different city.  

We will focus on financing ourselves through an insurance co-op, food co-ops and credit unions in every neighborhood, entrepreneurship focusing on women, investing in rehabbing homes in our own neighborhoods and a community land trust which provides permanently affordable home ownership for low income people while preventing gentrification. At libraries and community centers, there will be one-on-one help for entrepreneurs. I will encourage innovation, Detroit-owned small scale manufacturing that pays a living wage and crowd financing of new ideas. The Manoogian Mansion will become, among other public uses, a business welcome center. Each neighborhood would have a liaison for new and established businesses. As my team would work from the inside to improve our interaction with business, the liaison would work with businesses and start ups in the neighborhood to get the immediate help they need from the city without them interacting directly with downtown. We will get input from the liaisons on how to improve the processes, do research and look at other cities with successful systems and construct a healthy government-business relationship.

Unmowed grass, property not kept up, and illegal dumping will be aggressively pursued through the Department of Administrative Hearings. There will be a 311 app to report them, enter them onto a map, see if others have reported it, and progress being made. In addition to the 4 times/year or more if we can afford it, bulk pick-up would be on demand for community groups and seniors. We will  work to end evictions and foreclosures and get homeowners into the other vacant homes. We will sue the banks for their predatory lending and their part in the destruction of our neighborhoods. They will be held responsible for the property they own.

We also need to uplift ALL Detroiters through art and include the many creative people in Detroit who have never had a chance to explore their talents fully in the “creative class”. Through neighborhood talent/art shows, lessons/training and competitions, and adult education art classes there will be an outlet and structure for Detroiters to showcase their talents and find ways to make a living off these talents, with consulting to help negotiate the business side. 

Recreation builds up communities and neighborhoods. Having basically run a recreation center off my front porch for the past 15 years, I know of a million ways to bring recreation to neighborhoods with very little money. For clusters of neighborhood groups there will be: toy libraries, bike shares, senior walking clubs and block club parties. I would like to get a corporate donor to give us swimmobiles again. Neighborhood events for children are the best way to build community and to show children they are cared for by the community. I will work toward having transportation to the recreation centers for areas that no longer have them. I will work toward putting playleaders back in neighborhood parks to help them become community anchors again. Recreational and sports opportunities will be linked to reading programs. My focus would be on providing opportunities everywhere so children, adults and seniors in all parts of the city can access quality programming. Also, my administration will set a good record in writing and following through on grants, which usually brings more money. (And so much more!!)

I will help Detroiters heal the spirit of Detroit by having events in the faith-based community and at community centers in Detroit and the surrounding suburbs focused on healing Detroit. It is time to grieve our losses and to hope together for our future. 

What is your Number 3 campaign issue?

Finance.

I find it hard to believe that a city that is as behind technologically, neglected and understaffed could be held up to any kind of real numbers in the accounting world. Anyone who does business with the city knows that there are always problems, indicative of a much larger set of problems with bookkeeping and accounting. What actual facts would be sending us to bankruptcy and/or the bluffing or real plans Orr has for us? Crucial steps are missing here that need to be done without political bias on either side of the political spectrum that are in the best interests of the people of southeastern Michigan. These needed to be done years and years ago for the benefit of citizens, retirees, bondholders, and city workers. If this would have been done by the state when this started, we may have already been on our way to a certain future, whatever that may be.

1. We need an open source software suite (cheaper than proprietary) for collecting taxes, putting city, authority, pension funds and school system finances online for the public up the minute connected to campaign contributions. I am fairly certain the open source community would be willing to help Detroit with this. We need it to be customized to Detroit’s needs with training and ongoing security. It should have the capability to show our finances in an easy to understand format. Ann Arbor has a good online example but it would be better for us if it had one more level of depth. For example, under vendor payments, it breaks it down into "expense type". There needs to be a real description of how that money was spent. We could also add names of people who are in charge of the companies the city does business with. It would be better if a user could click the names and it would search the campaign contributions for local elected officials. I think just having that system would cut down on a lot of unethical and illegal activity. The most important ingredient in transparency is the details. 

2. We need to input all data into the systems. Who we really owe, how much and who owes us and how much needs to become crystal clear. Money owed to us needs to be collected, bills we owe need to be paid.

3. We need a real independent audit (NOT the city, the State or Jones Day), with macro and micro forensic auditing where it is needed along with money for prosecution of all guilty parties. A real house cleaning not “restructuring” from a law firm like Jones Day, which also represents the Bank of America to whom we owe money.

4. The law department should pursue predatory mortgage lending, the mass neglect of property owned by banks, interest rate swaps and any other financial wrongdoings to Detroit and its citizens.

5. The department of administrative hearings (and all personnel in the departments that report the blight)  should aggressively pursue blight violations. A 311app and a working 311 phone line would allow citizens to assist in identifying blight. The city should start billing for mowing lawns and boarding up homes that belong to absentee property owners and banks.

6. I would institute a Community Financial Watchdog Committee, a volunteer group of ethical, financially savvy Detroiters who will watchdog Detroit's finances. No more good ideas lost to idle chatter. Now is the time for all financial minds to help. They will critique my team’s transparency efforts and cleaning out of the city departments and authorities. They will help the city pursue all money owed to us from the institutions who victimized Detroit as a city or individual citizens. In addition they will give input if the see grants or job producing opportunities that Detroit should be taking advantage of. 

Then lets see where we are and go from this educated position into the future, whatever that maybe. Then let us as elected officials and citizens decide on the best path to take for the immediate future and for future generations.

Talk about how you would lead a city when an emergency manager is in place, which would be the case for at least your first eight or nine months.

Coming from a background of community service and being an advocate of democratic systems, I see myself as the relentless teacher of the EM and his team (banks, Snyder etc.) about compassion, the non-existent role of unelected, unconstitutional officials in a democratic government, and the strength of the 700,000 people of Detroit. If the EM and his team are not working with transparency for the good of all Detroiters I will use litigation, my formidable skills of making alliances and a plethora of non-violent methods to be sure that the future of Detroit is charted by Detroiters.

Schools and crime have been major deterrents to people staying in Detroit. What would your strategy be to reduce crime? And what can the mayor of Detroit do to make schools better? For crime, see my #1 priority answer. I am in favor of (not having the authority to do this, since sadly an EM is there and even the elected board has little influence) having the EAA schools and charter schools back into a renewed, revamped public school system where our successful schools partner with our failing schools to improve them. There should be public online financial information from each school and from downtown to increase accountability. There should be an increase in the amount, availability, transportation to and marketing of adult education/adult VoTech and pre-school education. Below are some more ideas, but I am open to the idea of sitting down to with community and staff to chart a better course for the schools. For all schools: one-on-one tutoring and advocacy for all children falling behind, physical fitness that suits many children's taste, healthy food, gifted programs and hands-on science. For elementary schools: Step by step phonics, memorization of basic math facts, close partnerships with libraries and revival of school libraries, child-initiated reading choices offered for group reading, more learning activities in a game format, screening for all children for glasses and hearing at school each year with a follow up of a mobile eyeglass shop coming to the school. For middle schools: developmentally appropriate reading content that addresses urban life issues, strict truancy rules, leisure reading time, focus on writing a good sentence, then a good paragraph, then a good essay (no more long papers copied from the internet!), growing up workshops such as etiquette & ballroom dance, and algebra. For high schools: Strict truancy rules and safety rules. Partnership with teen homeless shelters, health centers for teens at every school, clear cut grievance process for teacher complaints, seamless link between high schools and community colleges, a greater amount/different lengths of programs/variety of choices for VoTech, ambitious scholarship offices at each high school. Bring a federally funded free boarding school for alternative education to Detroit (the Coast Guard’s Michigan Youth Challenge Academy). Also create a strong relationship between high schools, JobCorps, youth homes and the Challenge Academy. Not even ONE more teen should fall through the cracks. Talk about some of the people who would be involved in your administration. Who would be your deputy, or your chief of staff? Describe the qualities you would look for in those people. My mayor’s office will staffed with people from community groups and longtime Detroiters who are qualified with the skills and education for their jobs, as it should be. The qualities I look for are that they share my vision for neighborhoods, are for Detroit financing ourselves, care that every decision they make affects children and they are honest and unbought. I am not fond of talkers, I love the doers. In the community, I see lots of community leaders, but I prefer the people who are consistently doing the volunteer drudgery of entering data, doing the bookkeeping and keeping these organizations afloat. There are many Detroiters like me and those who have worked longer than me at community work against all odds. A mayor’s office that comes from the community will be actually unbelievable to many of them because in community work in Detroit you just fight for your organization to survive, for your work to not be wrecked by the city or other starving organizations and it should not be that way. They deserve the chance to be a part of this incredible journey of revealing the Detroit all longtime Detroiters have in their hearts.  Have you ever been convicted of a felony?  No. Orr says he will lease Belle Isle to the sate and the water department to a regional authority. Do you support those moves? No. He is doing what EMs have done in other cities, which is a part of conservative’s plan to steal the assets of minority cities and leave them with nothing left to build on. It is all about the misguided conservative agenda to privatize government for their own profit, not for the good of the majority of American people.   Belle Isle Many of the city’s physical assets, like Belle Isle and the eastside riverfront parks, are neglected on purpose to trick Detroiters into believing they are not worth anything. I have been to parks all over the world. I know Belle Isle is a gem of Earth, not just Detroit. It would be easy enough to keep up  parks with concessions, equipment rental, and event fees that are accurately accounted for and publicly known. Volunteers and those who need to do community service can provide additional assistance for clean-ups. Parks should be equipped with alternative energy lighting and garbage cans should be plentiful and strategically placed where people go, not just where it is easy for workers to pick up. (For example, garbage cans near fishing spots at all riverfront parks should be closer to the water’s edge instead of the road.) Water Department One of the biggest lies told to the people of southeastern Michigan is that making an authority will fix the water department’s inefficacy and corruption. No. Investigation, good management, and employee input will fix the water department. The authority is just one step closer to privatization of the water department which in the end leads to a water department that is not accountable to citizens and rates that uncontrolled. I would review our water department’s operations to make it more efficient (not wasting money like was done previously to figure out how to privatize), update all technology, investigate all contracts, and find a way to produce our own energy to run it and do a review of everyone’s rates – Detroit and the suburbs - to be sure they are correct and how we can work to take those rates down. Crime is a top priority for Detroit voters. What is your solutions for bringing down the crime rate, particularly for violent crimes?   Officers will be assigned to particular neighborhood clusters and will be known by name to the community through community group visits and school visits. Very few will be behind desks. Crime investigation will be a priority so the people committing crimes do not feel that Detroit is a free for all and the endless cycle of revenge that stems from a lack of real justice will stop. Community policing in every part of the city will reduce crime. Neighborhood mediators that would be trained to deal with minor disputes that the people involved in would be willing to sit down to for mediation. For example, teen-parent disagreements or next door neighbor non-violent disputes. Crime prevention like deterring truancy (the gateway to crime for young people) is a priority. Suspension should be abolished and detention at school established. Most youth who get suspended need help and detention is the opportunity to give that to them. This will be a partnership between schools, police, and the court system. When people who have committed crimes are let out of jail there is very little support for them to NOT end up back in. I would like to work with the courts to engage them in required, structured programs that finish their community service and get them a GED. There needs to be another number to call for non-emergencies instead of  911 and an education campaign about what an emergency really is. Partner police/mental health agencies/courts/rehabs to get the adults and youth who need help and end up involved with police the help they need. I would work with the county to find the funding for timely testing of the all the rape kits that are waiting and future rape kits to set up a model (putting it in our regular budget, as it should be!) that the rest of the country can follow. Streetlights are a big part of  safety. I will work with or around DTE to provide alternative energy streetlights for ALL neighborhoods. The PLD has not maintained the electric lines in the City of Detroit and they are dangerous. If we stick with the lights we have, the lines will have be replaced because it is more expensive to fix the poorly maintained system than it is to just make a new one. However, we can use lights that do not need the wiring and can use existing poles- there are a variety of choices like solar, wind and others that would need to be weighed for their energy efficiency, durability, and inability to be stolen. I will have the alternative energy streetlights costed out and weighed against the plans to rewire the city. Ideally, I would like to produce the streetlights in the city to create jobs. There are many new production methods that could do this. My highest hope would be that we could then produce alternative lights for other cities. Lights would also be approved by the International Dark Sky Association , directing all light down, so we can see more stars.  Would you support selling the city's assents to lessen the sacrifice of retirees and current workers? I find it hard to believe that a city that is as behind technologically, neglected and understaffed could be held up to any kind of real numbers in the accounting world. Anyone who does business with the city knows that there are always problems, indicative of a much larger set of problems with bookkeeping and accounting. What actual facts would be sending us to bankruptcy and/or the bluffing or real plans Orr has for us? Crucial steps are missing here that need to be done without political bias on either side of the political spectrum that are in the best interests of the people of southeastern Michigan. These needed to be done years and years ago for the benefit of citizens, retirees, city workers, and even  bondholders. If this would have been done by the state when this started, we may have already been on our way to a REAL certain future, whatever that may be. 1. We need an open source software suite (cheaper than proprietary) for collecting taxes, putting city, authority, pension funds and school system finances online for the public up the minute connected to campaign contributions. I am fairly certain the open source community would be willing to help Detroit with this. We need it to be customized to Detroit’s needs with training and ongoing security. It should have the capability to show our finances in an easy to understand format. Ann Arbor has a good online example but it would be better for us if it had one more level of depth. For example, under vendor payments, it breaks it down into "expense type". There needs to be a real description of how that money was spent. We could also add names of people who are in charge of the companies the city does business with. It would be better if a user could click the names and it would search the campaign contributions for local elected officials. I think just having that system would cut down on a lot of unethical and illegal activity. The most important ingredient in transparency is the details.  2. We need to input all data into the systems. Who we really owe, how much and who owes us and how much needs to become crystal clear. Money owed to us needs to be collected, bills we owe need to be paid. 3. We need a real independent audit (NOT the city, the State or Jones Day), with macro and micro forensic auditing where it is needed along with money for prosecution of all guilty parties. A real house cleaning not “restructuring” from a law firm like Jones Day, which also represents the Bank of America to whom we owe money. 4. The law department should pursue predatory mortgage lending, the mass neglect of property owned by banks, interest rate swaps and any other financial wrongdoings to Detroit and its citizens. 5. The department of administrative hearings (and all personnel in the departments that report the blight)  should aggressively pursue blight violations. A 311app and a working 311 phone line would allow citizens to assist in identifying blight. The city should start billing for mowing lawns and boarding up homes that belong to absentee property owners and banks. 6. I would institute a Community Financial Watchdog Committee, a volunteer group of ethical, financially savvy Detroiters who will watchdog Detroit's finances. No more good ideas lost to idle chatter. Now is the time for all financial minds to help. They will critique my team’s transparency efforts and cleaning out of the city departments and authorities. They will help the city pursue all money owed to us from the institutions who victimized Detroit as a city or individual citizens. In addition they will give input if the see grants or job producing opportunities that Detroit should be taking advantage of.  Then lets see where we are and go from this educated position into the future, whatever that maybe. If at that point, someone needs to take a hit, I would never sell the assets. If it is true I would certainly put the burden on bondholders, (or really bond insurers), because they can afford it the most. What relationship do you envision with the EM? I am a compassionate person who has lived a life of service to the community of Detroit. Daily, he will need to ask himself what his relationship is to me and Detroiters, he being an unelected, unconstitutional anomaly and me being an elected official representing 700,000 people. A child once told me that courage is guts and love. I have both and so he may want to reconsider his current job choice. Would you be in favor of extending the EM's term? No. He should not be here in the first place. What are the core services the city of Detroit should be providing citizens and which if any should it stop directly providing itself? I am against privatization and the conservatives’ misguided plan to be rid of government. I don’t believe in looking at just core services. Through my cluster meetings in neighborhoods, I will see what the people of Detroit need and give it to them. Would you support merging DDOT into a regional bus system, even if it meant loss of direct city control? I would like to create a healthy partnership between Detroit’s own bus system and the suburbs. This is essential for the development of the region. Do you support proposals to lower the tax rate to attract and retain residents and businesses? I would consider this, but much research would need to be done before I would make a decision. What specifically qualifies you to be mayor? 1. My community work background of over 15 years affords me what no other candidate has – the knowledge of how to make things work in Detroit. This is the key and what had been missing from Detroit for decades. Detroit is not like anyplace else. There is a way to get things done and I know how from years of community organizing. 2. I am no nonsense about running our non-profit and will be with the city. Our organization won an award for organizational excellence. 3. I am ethical and honest. I surround myself with people who share those values. There are many people in Detroit who are, they just avoid participating in the government. I am not attached to material success in the way DeVos, the Koch brothers, Bradley Foundation and many other people are. My goals are for humanity as a whole, in particular for the future of children.  4. I have lived in Detroit my whole life, am a past citizen of the year, was educated by Detroit community leaders and professors. I love Detroiters, understand the Detroit that exists in longtime Detroiters hearts’ and the steps to get there. Detroiters have given me so much and being mayor is  my opportunity to give back.