Ready, Aim, Fire!

Come on Dave Bing!

This is the opportunity that the citizens of Detroit have needed for decades. Now is the time to fire municipal employees that put themselves ahead of the citizens that they are charged with serving.

From the Detroit News:

Mayor Dave Bing met for three hours with leaders of the city's largest union, but reported no progress and warned that more layoffs could be coming.

Bing said the city has presented its final offer to the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 25, which represents about 3,500 of the 13,000 workers. But he said the union has rejected any concessions, including his call for a 10 percent pay cut.

"They won't agree to it," he said, adding six other unions have ratified similar concession agreements.

Catherine Phillips, the lead negotiator for AFSCME, acknowledged the city had presented its "last best offer," but she believes her members still have some leverage.

"We think there is still some negotiating we can do," said Phillips, who refused to say on exactly what issues the city and the union are in agreement.

The citizens of Detroit suffer some of the worst urban blight in the country. Their most basic city services are too often delivered poorly and those that are delivered come at a hugely inefficient cost. Detroit's schools fail. It's landmarks crumble. It has become the most vacant of American cities not ravaged by hurricane mega-disaster.

Detroit is a shell of a city just waiting to collapse upon itself as the remainder of its social and physical infrastructures weaken. The problem that is Detroit today will never be solved until someone finally has the guts to draw a line in the sand and say enough is enough.

Dave Bing has nothing to lose except a city that has long been lost.