Wilce Cooke grew up in Benton Harbor, Michigan. He was elected as the city's Mayor twice. Here's his account via "Mayor of Benton Harbor Sets The Record Straight About Takeover By Emergency Financial Manager", in the Rochester Citizen on April 28, 2011:
"The Mayor said that over the years the city of Benton Harbor has lost its tax base of retail and agricultural businesses. 'At one time we were called the Shenandoah of southwest Michigan. We had seven or eight different foundries. We had the largest outdoor fruit market in the world and we had all the retail stores downtown here in Benton Harbor. Urban renewal came in and displaced a lot of individuals and white flight, we lost our tax base. So with no tax base, you can't run a city on property taxes alone when your residents are unemployed.' Cooke said.Read the Rochester Citizen article by Bruce Fealk.
"During Cooke's first term as Mayor from 1982-1989, Cooke said the city was in a similar position financially, but he said there was one difference; he had control of city council. When Cooke left office, there was a million dollar surplus. The city had a very aggressive marketing program and brought in a new financial manager and the city was on the rebound.
"The city's government has been portrayed in the media as being incompetent. Cooke responded to that charge saying, 'It's stupid to even say that. You can't say that this council is incompetent. The theory that Benton Harbor's city council members have absconded with money is that. You have never read yet where they said that we have stolen anything. The council doesn't have any money. That's handled by the finance department, the finance people, not by the city council. We do approve bills, but we don't handle money.'
"'When I was Mayor in 1980, we did bring in a new finance director, a new city manager, an economic development person. We brought in all new people to handle what we had to do and we did a great job. In 50 years this city hasn't run so smooth. I was out of office for 17 or 18 years, the city got right back in the same position.'"
"Cooke was re-elected in 2004. When Cooke was re-elected, he says he set up a meeting with Governor Granholm showing her his plan to solve the problems in Benton Harbor, 'What did they give us, a faith-based director and a financial manager.'
"When asked what is the biggest misconception about what has happened in Benton Harbor, Cooke replied, 'The corporate media has gotten it all backwards. They don't want to tell the truth. THEY SAY MILLIONS OF DOLLARS HAVE COME TO THE CITY OF BENTON HARBOR. MILLIONS OF DOLLARS HAVE BEEN SENT, BUT IT DIDN'T COME TO THE CITY OF BENTON HARBOR. IT WENT TO NON-PROFITS WHO RECEIVED THE MONEY. KELLOGG'S SENT IN $25 MILLION. IT DIDN'T COME TO BENTON HARBOR. IT WENT TO AN AFFILIATE OF THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE. (emphasis added)
They had the money. They received the money and they disbursed the money. Millions of dollars came through, but not through the city government itself, never seen any of it. And that's a matter of record and I dare them and challenge them to go and prove otherwise.'"
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