Bing There

     When I talked to Mayor Dave Bing up on Mackinac Island at the beginning of June, I could see that his education on what being the Mayor of Detroit is all about was underway in pretty intense fashion.  He seemed bemused and a bit startled at the same time by the endless demands of his time and attention.  While many want to suggest that running a city is the same as running a business, the difference between being a CEO and an elected official is roughly the difference between a sandwich and a monkey wrench.  (That’s what keeps people like Dave Brandon from jumping into politics.)  And these past few days, we’ve seen the Mayor hit the bumps that don’t exist in the private business world.

     When he decided to get rid of James Barren and appoint Warren Evans the city’s new police chief, he did it in a way that would’ve barely caused a ripple at the Bing Group; he had a “supervisor” (his deputy mayor) deliver the news that Barren’s services were no longer needed and figured he’d make a nice and tidy official announcement three days hence.  Not quite the way it works outside the Bing Group.  Running off a popular chief without a personal face-to-face (especially one you had vowed to keep) seemed insensitive among the city’s police officers who largely adored Barren.  And expecting that it would stay under wraps until Monday was fantasy.  Once the news did break, we needed a mayor in front of the cameras instead of a kind of South-Carolina-Governor-who’s-in-charge-around-here? style weekend.  

     The first few e-mails I received about the switch mentioned first and foremost the affect on morale in the department.  While that’s terribly important, we can’t expect that to be a dealbreaker for Bing.  I suppose he may be looking to the impact Robert Bobb has had on the school system in a short period of time; he may doubt that real revolution can come from within and must be delivered by someone with an outsider’s view.  (Yes, claiming that Warren Evans is an “outsider” may be a stretch.)  But while Barren has been a strong and very credible voice for the department, the fact remains that most of the murders on the city’s off-the-chart crime count go unsolved, and done in a “head on” way, many Detroiters would be on board with their popular mayor from the start.  But voters have trouble with secrecy and disorganization, and to some, this had hints of both.

     Bing has enjoyed a pretty turbulence-free ride thus far.  (Who’s going to argue with ethics initiatives, dress codes and earlier work hours?)  But he may be on the clock now.  And so is Evans.

-Devin