On Thursday, Mayor-elect Mike Duggan announced the first choices for key roles in his upcoming administration.
The results, according to the an unsigned editorial in the Free Press?
"Definitely a mixed bag."
Former Detroit Police Chief Ike McKinnon will serve as deputy mayor; former state Rep. Lisa Howze — who ran against Duggan in the mayoral primary — will be chief of staff; attorney Tom Lewand will manage jobs and economic growth, and Bryan Barnhill, who ran Duggan’s campaign and was rumored to be in line for the chief of staff spot, will become chief talent officer, a newly created cabinet role.
The Free Press writes:
Most of these appointees are respectable choices. But in most cases, none has formal work experience that directly relates to the jobs that they have been hired to do. And taken in concert, they’re far from the game-changing team we had hoped Duggan would produce.
The City of Detroit is a $3-billion business. Despite Howze’s success with the transition team, managing the administration of an organization of Detroit’s size is new ground for her. And during the mayoral campaign, Howze displayed a profound misunderstanding of the city’s debt structure.
The paper asks if Lewand, in his role as special master in the oversight of the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department during the Kwame Kilpatrick years, should have spotted the outrageous shenanigans that took place in the department. And it asks if Lewand is the right person to replace George Jackson as development czar.
In the Detroit News, Nolan Finley reported earlier this week that Butch Hollowell, former co-chair of the state Democratic Party, will be appointed as Duggan's chief legal counsel, and Charlie Beckham, who has been an aide to five mayors, including Dave Bing, also will be among Duggan's inner circle. Duggan did not mention those two appointments Thursday. Whatever their gifts, Hollowell and Beckham would carry baggage to their posts. It will be interesting to see what the Free Press says about them.
