Wayne County Gets OK For Release From Consent Agreement On Finances

DETROIT (WWJ/AP) - Wayne County has received approval from the state of Michigan to be released from a 14-month agreement to fix its finances.

County Executive Warren Evans announced the update Thursday, two weeks after he made a formal request to the state treasurer.

Evans, who had asked for the financial help, said it was necessary, and the outcome is good for the people of the county.

"The first thing is we've avoided bankruptcy, which would have been extremely problematic," Evans said. "The second thing is, while we've been cutting our, liability we've been improving services."

"If you look at our health department...it's just process re-engineering. I mean, we've got a great team of people who understood two things. One is that we have to get out of the significant debt that we're in; but number two, we can't lose sight of the fact that our jobs is to provide services to people."

Evans' office says the county has eliminated a $52 million structural deficit and $82 million accumulated deficit while restructuring employee and retiree health care.

Evans said county is in its best fiscal position in quite some time, but there's "still a long way to go."

"We're not out of the water," he told WWJ's Laura Bonnell and other reporters, "but we're out of the level fiscal distress that got me to request the consent agreement in the first place."

"We've got significant financial challenges," he added, and it's going to take years and years of surpluses to try to pay those down before we ever get to the point where I can sit there and smile and say, you know, we're in good shape."

Gov. Rick Snyder confirmed in 2015 that a financial emergency existed in the county and the county entered into the consent agreement. The agreement required the county to eliminate its structural deficit and demonstrate that fiscal stability has been restored.

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