Detroit's Newly Elected Mayor Gets an Actual Job Description

As with many headlines out of Detroit, this one from Tuesday's Detroit News seems surreal: The city's emergency manager is now set to give its newly elected mayor a "major role in Detroit operations."

Of course, we'd expect the mayor to have a major role in running the city, were this any other city. But Mike Duggan was elected last month amid awkward uncertainty about exactly what his job would entail. In Detroit, at least these days, the big decisions about the city's budget and operations – and its pending bankruptcy – are made by Kevyn Orr, an outside (unelected) emergency manager appointed by the governor earlier this year.