Gov. and Kwame Meet

 

       Oh boy.  The governor and the Mayor of Detroit met face to face for the first time in a long time, but don't get excited.  It's not what you think.

       They did not talk about the Mayor's legal problems, which the governor by the way is reviewing. They did kick around the expansion of Cobo Hall and the desire to save the North American Auto Show from motoring off to Chic-town or some other locale.

      "It was a very productive meeting. We're on the right road.  We're close," an upbeat mayor told a handful of reporters after the 80-minute confab.

    0  He refused to give any details.  But here's part of what they discussed.

       There was a lengthy give and take on the politics of creating a new Cobo Hall Authority Board.  Under the pending legislation, Detroit would get three seats, and everyone else, including the guys who run Oakland and Macomb Counties would get only one.

        Kwame Kilpatrick figures his city deserves broader representation because it will foot the bill for the project's infrastructure, police and fire protection and other related costs.

        It's anticipated that L. Brooks Patterson and perhaps the folks from Macomb County will not be happy with one lousy seat.

        That issue remains in play.

        Another20bullet point was minority contracts. Would the new authority be sensitive to those concerns or would minority contractors find themselves with a fat goose egg when the expansion shovels go into the ground?

        The mayor says he's encouraged saying "It's the first time I've seen the entire region bring something to the table," and he feels with that "we can move forward."

        Patterson has said he can work with a scaled down $90 million price tag, but the authority composition and minority contract provisions are apparently a work in progress.

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