The Social Club Grooming Co.
Detroit’s Own:
cuts deal with NFL for Super Bowl LIII
Joe Crawford has jersey retired at Renaissance
ROOTS. B5
Game. C3
“Shop Talk”
Michigan Chronicle Vol. 82 – No. 21 | Jan. 30 - Feb. 5, 2019
Powered by Real Times Media | michiganchronicle.com
President announces end to Shutdown By Stacy M. Brown The longest government shutdown in American history is over – and President Donald Trump did not get his Wall. Trump announced on Friday a short-term deal to temporarily reopen the government. NBC News was the first to report that a stop-gap agreement with congressional leaders will last three weeks, until Feb. 15, and would allow talks to continue over security on the southern border. The deal includes no money for his border wall. “In a short while, I will sign a bill to reopen the government for three weeks until Feb. 15,” Trump said in the Rose Garden, according to NBC News. “I will make sure that all employees receive their back pay very quickly or as soon as possible.”
Warren C. Evans was sworn into his second term as Wayne County Executive during a community celebration at Detroit’s Second Ebenezer Baptist Church by the Honorable Freddie G. Burton Jr., Chief Judge of the Wayne County Probate Court. The event was free and open to the public. The event featured a presentation of flags by the Renaissance High School Junior ROTC, musical performance by the Detroit School of Arts Male Ensemble, performances of the National Anthem by Chiara Clayton and the Black National Anthem by state Rep. Sherry Gary Dagnogo, an invocation by Bishop Edgar Vann, and remarks from LA SED Chair Jane Garcia.
After Four Years of Steady Recovery Wayne County Exec Evans Says It's Time to Rebuild Trump announced the deal 35 days into the longest-ever partial government closure that has left an estimated 800,000 federal employees without pay and created a host of problems. On Thursday, the president said that if Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., were about to reach a reasonable agreement to end the shutdown, he would support it. The shutdown began just before Christmas and has left approximately 400,000 workers home from work without pay, while another 400,000 were required to be on the job without pay. The workers will receive back pay, under the agreement. Trump and congressional Democrats have been at a standoff over the president’s demand for $5.7 billion to build his wall along the southern border. The news was met with joy from government workers, including the thousands of African Americans who have gone without pay since the shutdown began. “Are you serious?” Sharon Clifford, a TSA worker who sought babysitting jobs during the shutdown, told NNPA Newswire. “Thank God,” said Clifford, who said she was visiting her parents in North Carolina to ask for a loan to get her through the end of the month.
WHAT’S INSIDE
By Trevor W. Coleman By any reasonable measure, the last few years have been a time of great progress for metro Detroit. Hardly a week goes by it seems without more indications of the city’s robust economic recovery. Rising household incomes and property values, investments in downtown development now accompanied by steep financial commitments to neighborhood revitalization, even the leveling off the crime rates. The Motor City is on the move. Yet, the city is not the only local government seeing progress after years of financial instability and stagnation. Quietly, and without much fanfare, Wayne County government has been experiencing its own recovery. It follows years of financial instability, tumbling credit ratings, and organizational woes that saw it on the brink of bankruptcy and harshly criticized from all quarters for the long-stalled jail project on Gratiot near Greektown burdened by such profound cost overruns that it was decided not to continue with the project. The fiasco came to symbolize the dysfunction in the Wayne County Executive’s Office at the time, and felt eerily like what had been going on in Detroit City Hall not too much earlier. “In my mind, Detroit was just coming out of bankruptcy,” said Wayne County Executive Warren Evans. “If the county
defaulted and ended up in a rough financial way all that negativity would be pushed upon other communities. So, it was really important to have a good recovery plan.” He said thanks to the ingenuity of his young Chief Financial Officer Tony Sanders, who crafted his financial plan, the county was able to ride out the tide and is now on a firm financial footing for the first time in many years. “We have $100 million in our rainyday fund in case of a downturn. When I first took over, we only had enough money in that account to last a week,” Evans said. “Our pension fund was in terrible shape; 43 percent funded, but now at 56 percent. Eighty-percent is the standard, but we’re getting there.” To reach that goal the county will need surpluses for several years to keep paying into retirement in order to ensure payout to its retirees. “So, we can’t just put everything we have into getting out of debt,” he said. “We still have to be disciplined enough to put some money against the deficit.” Reflecting back on his first term during his second inaugural address last week at the Second Ebenezer Church, Evans said among his major achievements were: • Striking a $533M deal with businessman Dan Gilbert’s Rock Ventures to build the County a new state-of-theart criminal justice center, with Rock
responsible for any construction cost overruns. Abatement work underway, other work starting soon. Completion 2022. • Demolishing of the failed jail at Gratiot, one of the region’s most notorious signs of government failure. Now ready for Rock to invest $250M plus in a mixed-use project at a gateway to the city of Detroit. • Closing of the sale of the former McLouth Steel Plant in Trenton. The complex deal took, great collaboration with locals. Named Real Estate Deal of the Year by Crain’s Detroit Business. • Approval of the agreement to transfer the Downriver Sewage Disposal System (DSDS) from the County to the Downriver Utility Wastewater Authority (DUWA) for $57.5 million, funds from transaction to go to unfunded liability Bishop Edgar L. Vann, pastor of Second Ebenezer Church who hosted the inauguration said because of Evans low key style he does not get the credit he deserves for putting the county back on the right track. “The most important things he did was bring Wayne County back from the brink of bankruptcy,” he said. “Just like Detroit went down, GM went down, Chrysler went down, and Wayne County was on its way down. But Warren was
Chemical Bank and TCF $3.6B Merger Creates Banking Powerhouse in Downtown Detroit By Trevor W. Coleman
Homegoing celebration for Bishop Isaac King
Roots. B6
In a move that shook up the Detroit’s banking community and drew cheers from city officials Monday, Detroit’s Chemical Financial Bank and TCF Financial Bank in Wayzata, Minn., announced a merger to create a Detroit-based $45 billion-asset institution with $34 billion of deposits and more than 500 branches in nine Midwestern and Western states. The new mega-bank will operate under the TCF brand name and be headquartered downtown on Woodward Avenue. Under the all-stock union between the two banks, TCF shareholders receive about half of a Chemical share for each TCF share owned. The acquisition price is estimated to be close $3.6 billion.
$1.00
See EVANS page A2
In a company press release,
Chemical Chairman Gary Torgow said the new bank will leverage the strengths of Chemical's community banking and wealth management capabilities with TCF's large deposit franchise and expertise in wholesale lending on a national basis. "With a shared strategic vision and increased scale and capabilities, our two complementary banking platforms will be positioned to better serve our customers and communities," he said. "The combination of TCF and Chemical creates the largest midcap bank in the Midwest, poised to deliver double-digit EPS accretion for each set of shareholders, significant cost synergies, top-tier return metrics, a more diversified balance sheet and a lower risk profile. We also share a deep commitment to sup-
See MERGER page A2