DETROIT (AP) — Detroit’s new emergency manager offered a “sincere olive branch” Monday to local leaders who fought against creating his job, but a crowd of protesters rallied outside City Hall as the bankruptcy attorney and turnaround specialist began work trying to revive the city’s beleaguered finances.

Kevyn Orr, a Washington attorney who represented automaker Chrysler LLC during its successful restructuring, met with Mayor Dave Bing and at least two City Council members Monday during his first day of an 18-month term as emergency manager, which makes Detroit the nation’s largest city ever put under state control.