Detroit is NOT in bankruptcy. Not yet, anyway.
That's what the bankruptcy hearing, which started today, is all about.
The federal bankruptcy judge will decide whether the city is allowed to protect itself from close to 100,000 creditors under Chapter 9 bankruptcy laws.
We found out this morning that Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, the man who ultimately signed off on Detroit's bankruptcy filing, will testify in the Detroit bankruptcy trial on Monday.
Unions had served Snyder with a subpoena, but his live testimony appeared to be an unsettled issue earlier this week.
Gov. Snyder's lawyer argued that the Snyder's recent three-hour deposition should be enough.
But now his counsel says the governor wants to cooperate and will be available Monday afternoon.
Unions and pension funds want to question Snyder about approving Detroit's bankruptcy filing in July as well as other issues related to the case.
They will try to prove to the bankruptcy judge that Gov. Snyder and Detroit's emergency manager Kevyn Orr had bankruptcy in mind all along - that they did not negotiate in good faith with the creditors ahead of time.
Michigan Radio's Sarah Cwiek is live tweeting from today's hearing. Lawyers for the city have already argued in favor of bankruptcy this morning. Now it's time for those opposed to bankruptcy to argue. Here's how Cwiek sums up what their arguments will be:
They will all tell us why everything city lawyers just said is BS.
— Sarah Cwiek (@sarahcwiek) October 23, 2013
Essentially: city was always headed for Ch 9. "Negotiations" were a sham.
— Sarah Cwiek (@sarahcwiek) October 23, 2013
