Category: City Hall
Posted by Laura Berman (The Detroit News) on Thu, Mar 26, 2009 at 3:31 PMKen Cockrel's revealing portfolio
Any suspicions that Mayor Kenneth Cockrel Jr. is a shrewd real estate speculator, or a reckless gambler, or an astute investor can now be shelved.
His newly released financial statement is instead touching in its humanity: The mayor's portfolio reflects the earnest and well-meaning aspirations of a man even his opponent called "a good guy" in Wednesday night's debate: He and his wife have invested in 529 plans for their children's college educations (totaling over $100,000), in the manufacturing industries that once made Detroit great (Johnson Controls, Ford and General Motors stock) and in the cool technology (Sony Corp.) you'd expect a self-described geek to love.
They've put their money where their hearts and lives are -- a strategy that's been painfully unprofitable. The house, bought in 1992 for $62,000, now carries a $132,973 mortgage: testimony to in-the-bubble thinking that's now gone bust. The stock? Well, we know where those companies are now.
The Cockrel ledger shows the mayor to be a man who heeded conventional wisdom and the dictates of common sense. He is a Detroit Everyman, a good one, who backs his community with dollars, and invests in his children's education. Still only 43, and despite $180,000 in income last year, he's very much the working stiff. With college for five looming, he and his wife are still fighting for current financial security. And maybe this isn't the right time to grade on financial acumen: Bernie Madoff seemed really smart last year.
