No.4 Focus on a Common Goal
THE FUTURE OF A CITY AT STAKE
The city of Detroit was $ 18 billion in debt when it filed for bankruptcy in 2013. A team of mediators worked to help the city create a debt-reduction plan—a process expected to take years. The city’s most valuable asset, and the one creditors were most interested in, was the $800 million collection at the Detroit Institute of Arts. The city didn’t want to lose this piece of its history. Retirees and union workers wanted to keep their pensions intact. Months into the negotiations, Darren Walker, the president of the Ford Foundation, reframed the discussion. “We were talking about preserving pensions,” says Eugene Driker, an attorney at Barris, Sott, Denn & Driker who was one of the mediators. “Walker said, ‘That’s thinking too small. What you’re talking about is preserving the city of Detroit.’ ” The mediators took that mindset into their negotiations, and soon the pieces began moving into place. State legislation, donors, and foundations gave $816 million to purchase the art and prevent it from being taken by creditors. Pensioners, who had previously rejected cuts to their benefits, agreed to 4.5 percent reductions. “Everybody laid down their swords,” Driker says. “It became about seeking a resolution for the common good.” After 16 months, the parties reached agreement. The judge who OK’d the city’s debt-repayment plan wrote that the bargain “borders on the miraculous.”