In late February, cash-strapped Detroit received a $1 million check from the local school system that wasn’t deposited. The routine payment wound up in a city hall desk drawer, where it was found a month later.
Chris Christoff spins a tale of the lost $1 million check as a parable of how, in many ways, Detroit city government eased the way toward bankruptcy.
“Nobody sends million-dollar checks anymore -- they wire the money,” Orr spokesman Bill Nowling told Christoff. "Except in Detroit."
“We have financial systems that are three, four, five decades in the past,” Nowling said. “If we can fix those issues, then we’ll be able to provide services better, faster, more efficiently and cheaper.”
One problem: Detroit doesn’t have a central municipal computer system, and each department bought its own machinery -- much of which never worked properly, according to Orr, 55, who took over in March. The last such acquisition, 15 years ago, was of a system based on Oracle Corp. technology that wasn’t fully put to work.
