Neighborhood city halls fail to help

Created to make government responsive, leaders lack power to solve problems

David Coates/The Detroit News Jerome Cabell went to a neighborhood city hall to get a stop sign placed on a busy street. The manager of the local city hall, Horace Sheffield III, told him to take his request downtown to the Department of Public Works.

By Darren A. Nichols / The Detroit News

    DETROIT — Southwest Detroit resident Jerome Cabell wants a stop sign at the corner of Liddesdale near Leonard.

    “They drive like the Indianapolis 500 here,” said Cabell, 44. “One day a child is going to get hurt.”

    Two years ago he made his request at the South Schaefer neighborhood city hall. But Horace Sheffield III, the manager of the city office, told him to go downtown to the Department of Public Works. Cabell said he hadn’t the time or the patience to do so.

    “I should be able to go around the corner to the neighborhood city hall, and they should do the work,” Cabell said. “They should be able to help you with your problem.”

    Launched 30 years ago to make city government more responsive to residents, Detroit’s neighborhood city halls can’t help fix problems for people. They do little more than issue dog licenses and zoo passes, handle property-tax appeals and help organize volunteers for the annual Angels’ Night and Clean Sweep programs. Consequently, they are little used.

    “I don’t think neighborhood city halls are set up in the best possible way to be as effective as they need to be,” said Mike Fisher, president of Detroit Community Initiative, an east-side activist group.

    Detroit’s 10 neighborhood city halls have a combined budget of $3.3 million and a total staff of 47. The budget for the offices has nearly doubled in Mayor Dennis Archer’s eight years. The staff members are appointed by the mayor’s office, which has sought to use the positions to groom budding politicians. Neighborhood city hall managers’ salaries range from $52,200 to $78,200 a year.

    Officials of the program weren’t available to comment. Neighborhood city hall director Barbara Jean Johnson didn’t return phone calls. Sheffield, the manager of the South Schaefer office, wasn’t in his office and didn’t return calls.

    Mayoral spokesman Greg Bowens acknowledged that neighborhood city halls aren’t designed to solve residents’ problems.

    “Neighborhood city halls play an important function ... as a starting point to resolve disputes and fix complaints,” Bowens said. “Neighborhood city halls are essentially a police mini-station. They were not designed to be the final stop or word, but as a starting point toward getting things done.”

    One role of the neighborhood city halls is to act as advocate for residents who are having problems with city services, Bowens said. But Robert Davis, a former aide to Archer, said the neighborhood city hall managers aren’t given the power to ensure that other city departments act effectively on complaints. Davis ran for a seat on the City Council but lost in the primary.

    The neighborhood city hall managers “have not been fully empowered,” Davis said. “If the next mayor gives them juice, it would go a long way in satisfying concerns taxpayers have.”

    Giving more power to the neighborhood city halls alone wouldn’t necessarily serve residents better, said Charles Beckham, a city official in the administration of the late Mayor Coleman Young who lost a bid for mayor in the primary.

    For example, when Archer sought to improve code enforcement in 1998, citizens could take complaints about violations of city codes to their neighborhood city halls and a citation could be issued. But the district court assigned only one judge to handle the 17,000 cases that resulted, and the judge asked police not to issue so many citations.

    “You just can’t work on neighborhood city halls,” Beckham said. “You’ve got to work on all departments and make them do the job they are intended to do.”

    For James and Dolores McHale, the Northeast City Hall two years ago did help get a tree removed and concrete repaired outside of St. Raymond Catholic Church on the east side. They credited Gary Pollard, manager of the office.

    “He was pushing for us, and it came to completion. It made everything look better,” said James McHale, 72. “It’s worth it to have neighborhood city halls and someone like him who can reach out to the people. He’s working for us.”

You can reach Darren A. Nichols at (313) 222-2396 or dnichols@detnews.com .