Charles Pugh
The people have spoken. Charles Pugh, TV journalist and radio personality, becomes the first openly gay president of the Detroit City Council. Gary Brown, a former executive of the Detroit Police Dept., is council president pro tem.
The other new faces on council are Saunteel Jenkins, Andre L. Spivey and James Tate. They will join incumbents Ken Cockrel Jr., Brenda Jones, Kwame Kenyatta and JoAnn Watson.
The decisions made on Tuesday ought to be respected by everyone who believes in the currency of absolute democracy.
One of the great values of the ballot box is that it affords even those who feel like their voices do not count an opportunity to demonstrate what they believe in by voting their choices.
South Africa demonstrated the sacredness of the ballot box with the nearly unending long lines to polling booths, shown all over the world, to elect Nelson Mandela in1994 as the first democratically elected president of that nation. This historic election sent a powerful message to the world, well as to those who take the power of the vote for granted.
And so here at home on Election Day, Detroit, etched further into the grand possibility of becoming a city where everyone who lives or is invested here can have an effectively functioning government.
The possibility that a new Detroit City Council for the first time in recent memory will include many new faces is what drove many voters to the polls.
Yes, there have been times — too many, in fact — when voter turnout was shamefully low in Detroit. Indeed, there are those who still feel that Tuesday’s demonstration of democracy was low and disappointing.
But while that argument is justified and significant and shows a need for an increase in civic participation, we cannot dilute the fact that what happened on Tuesday represented hope for a beleaguered and maligned city.
Detroiters and everyone who has a stake here hoped for a city where the local government would not be an embarrassment or the subject of national ridicule.
We hope for a city that would not provide the latitude for biased and unresearched national reviews that imposed a deeply skeptical future over this city.
That a new City Council, a new mayor and a charter commission will now work to address crucial structural problems that are inherent within the body politic is nothing short of cause for real hope.
For that voters ought to be commended.
Should we have expected a bigger turnout?
Yes.
But still the belief in the possibility of change taking place is what is of paramount importance to me.
Now that a new council has been elected with the forceful face of change plastered all over the face of city hall, Detroit cannot rest. A new era is beginning.
This new legislative body must begin work in earnest right away, even though it will be formally seated in less than three months.
The new members must begin assigning and assembling their teams to work on the myriad of crucial issues facing Detroit.
Patience has run out for the days when council members hardly did any research and voted on proposals without understanding the policy implications of what they were voting on.
The new council members I recommended a week ago on a radio program each ought to have a laptop on the council table during sessions. Not to be technologically fancy, but to make use of the computer to dig deeper on matters being tabled before this august body.
The new charter commission must demonstrate a great sense of professionalism and independence in the execution of their duties. Each member of the commission must study the Michigan Constitution and its application to the matters Detroit is confronting.
These new members must be thinkers to help Detroit chart its way out of the rubble of political paralysis to a new level of engagement.
Despite the fact that the recommendations of the charter commission will be subject to a referendum, the onus is still on the members to carefully study the issues that this city is faced with.
The charter commission, consisting of Freman Hendrix, Teola Hunter, Ken Coleman, Jenice Mitchell Ford, Reggie Reg Davis, Rosemary C. Robinson, Ken Harris, John Johnson and Cara J. Blount, sits at the crucible of history because the next Detroit City Charter will either embody the ideas that will make this city work or be hindered from moving forward.
That is why residents and everyone who has a stake in this city’s progress must monitor the commission to ensure that members are demonstrating their civic duty.
But we in the media cannot leave the job to the people alone. We have a deep obligation to do our part to make the charter commission accountable to the needs of the people who elected them into office.
We cannot allow Detroit this time around to make a wrong turn on the highway of progress, especially after voters made it clear that they want change, that the status quo will no longer do.
We have an obligation to inform and empower people with relevant information that allows them to see through the prism of the charter commission.
Mayor Dave Bing’s reelection signals a willingness on the part of voters to keep him in this most powerful position as this city’s problems increase.
Bing, in turn, has a tremendous responsibility to give back to voters their civic investment. That means he as mayor must show that he is in touch with the average Detroiters and their concerns.
The attempt to paint him as an outsider because of his previous residence apparently did not work on those who wanted a different kind of leadership.
Bing must show that he can be trusted on the question of good judgment in the next four years, on decisions that are at the heart of this city’s future.
These are troubling times and the economic recession has made things that much worse for residents and businesses.
But Detroit has always survived hard times, and thrived, because of the tenacity of its people who refuse to give up on the city.
Tuesday’s vote showed that.
And the city at this time needs its leaders both, in the executive and legislative branch, to work together in close collaboration. That is not calling for a rubber stamp council because it must perform its civic duty in checking the excesses of the executive office.
Yet we cannot afford a gridlock on issues that are dictating the survival of hard-pressed taxpayers.
The mayor’s office and the city council, come January, must enhance their communication links to ensure the smooth running of government.
The old ways of doing things cannot be tolerated in a new era that calls for change, accountability and probity.
Detroit has been afforded this opportunity to right the wrongs of the past. The mayor can and must play a key role in that. The city council has the ability to be a major factor in turning things around. The charter commission has the power to give us something tangible that would not mortgage the future of Detroit’s children.
All hands must be on deck.
It is a new
day. Let us wake up to that reality.
Watch senior editor Bankole Thompson’s weekly show, “Center Stage,” on WADL-TV38, Saturdays at 1 p.m. This Saturday, Nov. 7, the discussion will center on the new Detroit City Council, including an interview with newly elected president Charles Pugh. E-mail Thompson at bthompson@michronicle.com.