The financial adviser for Detroit's two pension funds testified in federal court yesterday that the city did not negotiate prior to filing the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history in July, Reuters reported yesterday. The adviser's testimony came on the eighth day of an eligibility trial as Detroit tries to prove to Bankruptcy Judge Steven Rhodes that it is insolvent and that it acted in good faith when it deemed negotiations were just impractical. Bradley Robins, who is advising the funds, said he viewed a June 14 city report, which proposed offering unsecured creditors, including the pension funds, pennies on the dollar "as a shot across the bow…. I took it as the city putting the creditors on notice that it wanted to begin the process of wanting to have a discussion," he said. But Robins said no negotiations transpired, despite a handful of meetings between the creditors and the city before it filed for bankruptcy on July 18. Lawyers for the city, the unions, the retirees and the pension funds opposed to the bankruptcy are set to begin their closing arguments today.
