Applicants ranging from New York municipal finance expert Richard Ravitch to a local law professor bid to help Judge Steven Rhodes evaluate Detroit's financial restructuring plan, but Rhodes ended the recruitment session on Friday without naming his choice, Reuters reported on Saturday. "The expert witness will be my expert and is limited to an examination of the city's plan and the reasonableness of assumptions that go into it," Rhodes said. Detroit, with $18 billion of debt and other obligations, filed the biggest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history in July 2013 and in recent days has reached settlements with several major creditor groups. Ravitch, who during the 1970s advised on New York City's successful effort to avoid bankruptcy, bemoaned Detroit's woeful financial circumstance. Ravitch offered to work without pay, though he proposed just under a $1 million budget for work by his non-profit firm, the Ravitch Group. Other applicants for the job included William Brandt Jr. of Development Specialists, Prof. Peter Hammer of Wayne State University, Martha Kopacz, of Phoenix Management Services LLC in Boston and Dean Kaplan, a managing director of PFM Group of Philadelphia, which has advised on financial restructuring in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh and also worked with the Detroit Public Schools. Full story: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/04/19/usa-detroit-bankruptcy-idUSL2…
For further analysis on the Detroit chapter 9 filing and to hear a keynote speech by Detroit Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr, make sure to attend this week’s Annual Spring Meeting in Washington, D.C.! Not able to attend? Orr’s keynote speech will also be live-streamed on the ABI website.