GRDC has been trying to get the special assessment district ordinance passed for the past two years. They first had to lobby the Michigan state legislature to authorize the city of Detroit to pass such an ordinance. This leg of the campaign was relatively painless, and Governor Snyder signed the amended legislation in 2011. Ever since then, the ball has been in the Detroit City Council’s court.
After almost a year of no movement, GRDC decided to have its own pro bono attorney draft a sample ordinance. Since then, the GRDC has just been waiting for the Council and Mayor’s Office to respond with either their approval of the language or their proposed edits. And waiting. And waiting.
Well, a few weeks ago, things were finally looking up. The Mayor’s office called to schedule a meeting with my supervisor to discuss the ordinance and any questions he or his attorney had. This was a really exciting opportunity and my supervisor generously invited me to attend. She first had to double-check with the Mayor’s office whether or not she could bring her intern. Sadly, they said no.
In the end, it didn’t matter because THEY DIDN’T SHOW UP. The meeting was at 9am and someone sent my boss an email at 9:47 to inform her that the meeting was cancelled. Excuse me?! In what world is that appropriate or professional?
The icing on the cake was when my supervisor emailed the city’s attorney yesterday. At the (rescheduled) meeting, he had said he would have the ordinance done in three weeks and to contact him if we hadn’t heard back. So exactly three weeks later, my supervisor emailed him a polite message requesting a status update. He responded that he was “sorry if we took what said as fact.” Oh yeah, when you told me that you would be done in three weeks, I was meant to think that was a lie, not a fact. Got it.
Of course, this was all going on amidst the crazy antics of the City Council. As you may already know, the Council has seen better days. The president is MIA, two members have resigned, and there are not even enough council members to establish a quorum for committee meetings. Yet they have told my supervisor that they will have their edited version of the ordinance ready by September. I hope for everyone’s sake that they are able to keep this promise.
Woo what a great line though. Consistency is definitely not the mayor’s office’s/city attorney’s strong point… here’s hoping professionalism returns by September
Wow!! I didn’t know this happened!? They are extremely unprofessional its kind of embarrassing. And honestly who says things like that ..I guess that was just their excuse for not having it done on time …. such shame!