Mayor Talks Labor, Focus, Future of Detroit

Detroit (WWJ)  -- Detroit's newly re-elected Mayor says now that the voting is over, Detroit's remaining unions must get on board with the concessions already taken by salaried workers and other unions.

In an interview Wednesday with WWJ Newsradio 950, Mayor Bing said that right now it is hard to answer how many will be layoffs there will be in the city in the coming year. 

"One thing is for sure: The longer the unions really tries to fight and hold out, and don't make some concessions, layoffs will result from that," he said. Bing said the city just can't afford the overhead with the revenue shortfall they are looking at.

HEAR THE INTERVIEW: 

The Mayor says that his priorities have not changed and that they still remain the same as when he was campaigning.

"The financial situation that the city is in is still my primary focus. Following that would be public safety; and following that would be education and [the Detroit Public Schools]," Bing said.

The Mayor then went on to say he is pleases that Robert Bobb has decided to stay on for another year and that Prop-S passed because it will help the children and that quite a few jobs will be created.
 
Detroit Mayor Dave Bing says he's looking forward to getting down to work with the new City Council.

"I had a pretty decent relationship with the existing council. And, with four holdovers, I still think the relationship will be pretty solid," the mayor said.

"I am very pleased with the five newcomers because four of the five I know pretty well. The only one that I'm not very close to is James Tate -- but everything I hear about him is top shelf. So, I'm looking forward to working with him," Bing said.

The Mayor also addressed the issue as to whether or not he would run for re-election. Bing says that while nothing is concrete, he never said one term would be his limit, but that he can can only be re-elected one term at a time, and his job is to go in there and do the very best job that he can.

Bing concluded the interview on a hopeful note: "I will tell you, while Detroit has it's problems -- absolutely no doubt about that -- there is an underbelly here that's positive also. There are a lot of good people here, a lot of good things going on," he said.

"I think we've got a good future. We've just got to make sure that we circle our wagons and we do the things that we can control. And I do think we'll get some outside help," Bing said.