Krystal Crittendon, the top city lawyer who challenged the consent agreement meant to return Detroit to fiscal stability, said today she never wanted all the attention that her action brought.
“It was unnecessary,” Crittendon said this afternoon just before she went into a closed session with the City Council. “This was never about me. ... This is about the City of Detroit, the city of Detroit’s charter and doing what the people of Detroit wanted the corporation counsel to do when they revised the charter” in 2011.
They were her first public remarks since she filed suit against the consent agreement, saying that because she believes the state owes Detroit tens of millions in unpaid bills and revenue sharing, the deal violates state law and the city charter.
An Ingham County judge tossed out her challenge Wednesday. The judge said Crittendon didn’t have legal standing to file the lawsuit without approval from Mayor Dave Bing, who said he opposed the move, and the council, which never voted to authorize the suit.
Crittendon said today she has not decided whether she will appeal. That issue was expected to be part of the conversation she would have with the council in the closed session that began at 2:30 today.
Council members praised Crittendon for taking a brave, principled stand even as media critics heaped scorn on her and said she had gone rogue. Some called for her to be fired or resign.
Crittendon said Ingham County Judge William Collette, who tossed out her legal challenge, didn’t interpret the full city charter, and his ruling appeared not to consider parts of the charter that give her the authority to pursue -- with legal action if necessary -- violations of the charter, even without approval of the mayor or the council.
Crittendon said she disagrees with people who called her rogue.
“I’ve been called much more than rogue,” she said, “but I do disagree with that term. I was doing what the charter requires that I do.”
Council members noted that the charter was revised last year to give much more autonomy to the city’s corporation counsel, or lead city attorney, after allegations that the city’s law department was compromised under former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick amid corruption investigations of his office.
Councilman Kwame Kenyatta thanked Crittendon for standing up against enormous pressure.
“You did what you were supposed to do,” he said, adding that the council stood with her and would not call for her to step aside.
Council President Charles Pugh said some of the criticism of Crittendon has been “extremely disrespectful for somebody who has conducted the business of corporation counsel so excellently.”
http://www.freep.com/article/20120614/NEWS01/120614054/Krystal-Crittendon-speaks-out-on-challenge-to-consent-agreement?odyssey=nav|head
So much for the spin from the MT righties. 
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Topic: Top Detroit City Attorney Krystal Crittendon socks it to City Council & State (Read 737 times)
