Patterson: Detroit A 'Tinderbox' Headed For Unrest, Bankruptcy
AUBURN HILLS (WWJ) - Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson believes Detroit will end up in bankruptcy.
"Detroit -- I'm looking only at Detroit -- couldn't survive without a manager," Patterson told attendees at a Chamber of Commerce breakfast at Oakland University on Wednesday.
"The very people who got them in that mess ... without them being in control. And there's absolutely no thoughtful management versus crisis management in the city.
"They don't want a consent agreement which buys them some time, then they're gonna get a manager. And a manager could say it's hopeless and flip them into Chapter 9 bankruptcy, which is where personally think it's gonna end up," he said.
Patterson told the crowd Detroit is a "tinderbox" facing the prospect of civil unrest given the opposition to the state's involvement. "....and then I lose my Triple-A (insurance) and all hell breaks loose.
"You had that black minister a couple days ago saying we're not letting the governor take this city over -- we'll burn it down first. That's what you're gonna see, I think, people fomenting that kind of disorder," he said.
Patterson said the city needs an emergency financial manager to right the finances, but efforts to stop the state's EM law might hamper that.
He said he doesn't see how additional debt -- the $135 million in bonds approved by City Council on Wednesday -- will help the city out of its fiscal crisis.
