By ANDREA POTEET
Sunday Times Newspapers
ALLEN PARK – The city’s new emergency financial manager will answer questions from the public at a town hall meeting scheduled for 6 p.m. Tuesday.
The meeting, to be held at the Allen Park Center for the Arts, 19001 Champaign, will be the first public appearance in the city for Joyce Parker since Gov. Rick Snyder appointed her EFM of the city in late October.
Parker is to give a presentation and answer resident questions at the event, the first of several planned. She hosts similar events in Ecorse, where she is also EFM.
The Nov. 27 meeting is to begin at 6 p.m. instead of the normal 7 p.m. in council chambers and will be run by Parker, who will discuss financial items and plans with the council and present a preliminary budget for the city.
Appointed under Public Act 72, Parker is responsible for all financial decisions for the city. At the city council’s first meeting since her appointment Tuesday, the agenda, which at some times has taken up two pages, was limited to three items, since the city council may no longer make any decision that involves money.
“Under act 72 emergency financial manager laws, we are not entitled to consider financial manners and act on them,” Mayor William Matakas told the audience, “which is why you see an agenda that looks very different than we have in the past. But we will have an opportunity to discuss with her financial manners to budget.”