By Laura Weber, Michigan Public Radio Network
LANSING, MI –
The role of emergency managers in cities that have gone broke is being questioned at the state Capitol. The governor has only had to appoint a handful of emergency financial managers to take over city finances in the past decade. But many of those appointments have been controversial.
Scott Schrager is with the Department of Treasury. He says appointing an emergency financial manager is never an easy decision.
"What you're dealing with here is not a point in time which has been reached lightly," he says. "There's no one in the Department of Treasury who looks forward to having a financial manager in place, for a whole variety of reasons. It's a very very difficult circumstance for everyone involved, and we recognize that."
A package of bills in the state House would require a timeline from an emergency manager to pull a city out of financial trouble. It would also require potential financial managers to have experience in city government.