Local
Detroit hires ex-D.C. official to fix public schools’ deficit
By: Bill Myers
Examiner Staff Writer
January 27, 2009
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| Bobb |
He’ll be the new emergency finance chief for Detroit’s school system, Bobb told The Examiner on Monday.
Bobb will continue living in the District, to which he moved in 1999 when he became city administrator.
“It’s a year-one, very aggressive appointment, but my home is in the District,” Bobb said.
In 2006, Bobb won the election to become the last president of an independent D.C. school board. He brought in the accounting firm of Alvarez & Marsal to give the school system its first-ever forensic audit.
But he lost a turf battle with Mayor Adrian Fenty, who successfully took over the city’s schools and appointed Michelle Rhee as his chancellor.
Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm has declared the state’s $1.2 billion school system a “fiscal emergency.” Bobb is charged with rescuing the system from a $130 million-plus deficit.
As city administrator, Bobb acquired a reputation for efficiency -- and toughness. After a daring break from the D.C. Jail in 2006, Bobb ordered nearly two dozen guards fired. Asked whether he was worried that some of the guards might have been innocent of wrongdoing, Bobb said that they could appeal their firings if they liked.
“Let them swim back,” he said at a news conference.
He said he was looking forward to getting started in Detroit.
“We’re going to balance the budget, but we’re not going to balance it on the backs of children,” Bobb said. “At the same time, I’m not going to let people rip off the school system.”
