In a boardroom at the state Treasury building on Tuesday, the city gets its final chance to argue why Gov. Rick Snyder should not appoint an emergency manager to reverse Detroit's financial crisis. No such appeals have succeeded before.
Darren A. Nichols of the Detroit News profiles the city council member who will be leading the charge -- JoAnn Watson
She doesn't mince words when it comes to state involvement in Detroit's affairs.
She's called the consent agreement an "unprecedented right-wing gangster move." She accused the state of wanting to turn Belle Isle into a "playground for the rich." And the prospect of an emergency manager? "Constitutional assault."
Watson — daughter of a Methodist minister, eldest of 10 children, lifelong civil rights activist — has become the public voice of Detroiters determined to hang on to self-rule as the city faces a prospect of a state takeover this week.
In a boardroom at the state Treasury building on Tuesday, the city gets its final chance to argue why Gov. Rick Snyder should not appoint an emergency manager to reverse Detroit's financial crisis. No such appeals have succeeded before.
