Mike Duggan

Detroit City Council President James Tate led tributes to former Mayor Mike Duggan during Tuesday's council session, marking the end of his 12-year tenure. Duggan took office in 2014 amid the city's bankruptcy and later mounted a run for Michigan governor before dropping out; he has since joined law firm Honigman as a partner. Council members credited him with spurring new development, expanding job training programs and helping stabilize the city's finances. Council member Coleman Young II said Duggan's lasting legacy would be "the spirit of cooperation" he fostered.

Duggan thanked the council, noting he will soon speak at Harvard University about Detroit's community violence intervention program, which Harvard's Kennedy School of Government has studied as a national model. Not all reaction was positive: some public commenters pushed back on the praise, pointing to the city's persistent poverty rate as an unresolved issue from his time in office.

Separately, current Mayor Mary Sheffield appointed Kyla Williams, a former leader of the Detroit police domestic violence unit, as a domestic violence specialist in her office.