State Of The County: Warren Evans Looks To End Consent Agreement With State This Year

DETROIT (WWJ) - Despite the snowy night, a few hundred people turn out for Wayne County Executive's State of the County address Tuesday evening.

A warm reception of mostly staff, appointees and friends as Wayne County Executive Warren Evans delivered his first State of the County address at the Detroit Film Theater inside the Detroit Institute of Arts.

Evans, who spoke for nearly an hour, said the state of the county is stabilizing and improving. He drew a rousing applause when he said, "we will not need an emergency manager and we will not go into bankruptcy."

Wayne County has been under a consent agreement with the state and finished the last fiscal year with a positive fund balance for the first time in eight years according to Evans.

He said that he will be seeking release from that agreement this year.

Evans praised all county employees and its departments for making concessions and acknowledge the cooperation with county prosecutor Kym Worthy.

"One of the biggest issues for me, besides retaining my prosecutors and resources for the office was a county executive who will work with other officials - you can solve so much," said Worthy. "And it was just the opposite in the previous administration - very difficult to get through one meeting without confrontation. So, it's been just the opposite, they came over, they listened."

Evans also expressed the need to finish the partially built jail in the downtown area, but says there is no cost effective alternative saying it will cost hundreds of millions of dollars.