Lessons from Pontiac for the Rest of Michigan

[XLFD]

In July, Detroit declared bankruptcy, becoming the largest city in the USA to ever do so, and bringing critical focus on southeastern Michigan from the nation's media outlets.  Lesser reported was the news in that area the very next month, that the nearby City of Pontiac, which had been ran by a State-appointed Emergency Financial Manager (EFM) since Jennifer Granholm appointed one in March 2009, was stable enough to transition back to local control. 

Even less widely reported is the methods the EFMs of Pontiac used to achieve that objective.  Lou Schimmel, EFM since September 2011, worked under laws that gave him far more power far longer than previous EFMs, which made it easier to make important fiscal changes and attempt to improve services by increasing efficiency in Pontiac.

Pontiac's audited General Fund budget was $54.2 million in 2008. By the time Schimmel took over in 2011, it had dropped to $42 million. His efforts lowered that figure drastically again for fiscal 2013 to an audited budget projected to be just $30.6 million; that's a total decline of 43.5 percent.  One would think that must come at a great cost to city services.

Au contraire.  By any standard, public safety was improved through competitive contracting of police, fire, 911-dispatch and ambulance services. The contract for policing with Oakland County and fire with Waterford Twp. is saving $5.8 million each year while improving response times.

According to Undersheriff McCabe of the Oakland County Sheriff's office, police response times in Pontiac plummeted from longer than 76 minutes in 2010 to 6 minutes, 22 seconds in 2013. There are 25 more police officers patrolling Pontiac now, too. Waterford has also invested $548,000 from its own resources improving Pontiac fire stations, according to Fire Chief Ron Spears.

Local note:  Ludington Chief of Police Mark Barnett and errant assailer Officer Aaron Sailor were serving in the very troubled Pontiac Police Department before finding a home on Ludington's force.  Serial innocent bystander batterer Sailor was likely released at the time the PPD was disbanded and found no takers of his brand in the other departments.  Barnett in his time serving as chief here, has started his own secret police force of reserve officers, helped create a letter of trespass for public buildings, ran a public-funded dating service for high schoolers, harassed local businesses, surveilled boaters and restrooms, etc.  With Sailor's legal problems and Barnett's administrative record, it is little wonder why the PPC was considered expendable.

Back to topic, the City of Pontiac now also is contracting out for trash collection, cemetery management, insurance administration, animal control, street light maintenance and more. In effect, Schimmel has turned Pontiac into a contract city, where most services are provided under contract instead of through city staff. Since fiscal year 2009, official city employment dropped from 495 to a proposed 20, excluding district court employees.  The work is getting done, but the bloat has been trimmed.

Schimmel furthermore cut the debts owed by Pontiac from $115 million in 2011 to 28 million as of the middle of last year.  He did that by selling off and monetizing other assets to reduce debt and avoid a court imposed property tax increase. Some of the sales included ($55 million) for unused water and sewer capacity; a city-owned theatre ($135,000); a golf course ($700,000); old public works equipment ($1.5 million) and assorted vacant lots. Most of the sold property now produce tax revenue for the city. 

If EFM Orr in Detroit was able to cut the City of Detroit's budget by the 43.5% that was achieved in Pontiac, there would be a savings of just under a half of a billion dollars each year, and many new jobs in the private sector generating more tax revenue for the city.  However even though Pontiac and Detroit are close geographically, Detroit, and other troubled Michigan communities like Scottville, will have their own special challenges for resolvency and fiscal discipline.  Pontiac should serve as a template for what can be done by the state when a local government forsakes its duties to the public it serves.

For further reference:   Detroit Should Look to Pontiac

[Willy]

A very impressive job by Mr. Lou Schimmel. We could help Ludington and Pontiac at the same time by sending Shay southeast.

[XLFD]

Congratulations to Scottville Commissioner Hahn for bringing forth the Pontiac Experiment when trying to rationalize why less is sometimes better. 

http://wmom.fm/item/1075-scottville-considers-disbanding-police-dep...

Hahn: “From what I’ve been able to gather from the vast number of residents is the fact that… they feel that by eliminating the police department and recouping that $180,000 a year, and the fact that Mason County [Sherriff’s Office] is so good at what they do, we would be just as well off without [the police department] as we would with them.”

Mason County Sherriff Kim Cole has assured Scottville residents that his office would respond to their 911 calls and address concerns brought to their attention. The commissioner pointed out that other cities in Michigan have made similar changes with positive results.

Hahn: “Pontiac disbanded their police department, Oakland County took it over. Their crime rate dropped 21% in 18 months… and from everything that I’ve been able to find and read, the residents there are completely satisfied with that."

Hahn worries that people have taken his proposal as a tirade against the police department rather than as a solution for the city’s needs.

Hahn: “It’s really a financial issue, it truly is. And it’s been brought up in a number of meetings… and we’re always told the same thing, 'we just don’t have the money for it, we just don’t have the money for it,' so if we don’t have the money for it then what we need to do at this point is try to find a way to generate the money for it.”

Here's the latest crime info on Pontiac:  Crime keeps Declining in 2015