Published: March 23, 2008 09:56 am         

Op-Ed: Walking a very fine line

DETROIT -- Detroit City Council President Ken Cockrel Jr. is a serious, rational man who looks nothing like a certain famous and now-dead country-western singer. Nevertheless, he said wryly, "I've felt a lot like Johnny Cash these last six weeks."

That means, of course, "You've gotta walk a certain line." For him, the rope is especially tight. If embattled Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick leaves, or is convicted of a felony, Cockrel would become mayor -- at least until a special election is held three months later.

He does not want to seem too eager or grasping for the job. It is far from certain that the mayor, who has yet to be charged with any crimes, will leave, voluntarily or otherwise. And as head of council, "I have to make everything I do put the city first and foremost."

"So there's a very fine line I have to walk," said the 42-year-old Cockrel, who was the youngest councilman in Detroit's history when he was first elected in 1997. Two years ago, he became council president when he racked up far more votes than anyone else.

He isn't all that sure that he wants to be mayor. But he is sure that Kwame Kilpatrick shouldn't be. The tone of disgust in his deep baritone when he talks about the current executive indicates that.

Last Tuesday, the Detroit City Council voted 7-1 to ask the mayor to resign. The council president has no doubt that the resolution was justified. But he went through agony trying to decide whether to vote at all. He knows he is a "party at interest."

"I know someone could say, 'Hey, Mr. Council President. Weren't you just voting that way because you want him to resign so you could get to be mayor?' But then I asked myself, how would you vote if you were the ninth (lowest-ranking) council member?"

He decided no, and voted with the majority. The resolution, he is quick to note, covers a whole lot more ground than the infamous "sex and lies" text messaging scandal. The mayor, he says, has been derelict in his duty in many other ways. The tunnel, for example.

"They've been promising a deal on selling the Detroit-Windsor tunnel for a year, and nothing has happened."

On the tunnel, as on so many other issues, the Detroit City Council feels it has been kept in the dark by Mayor Kilpatrick's administration.

The mayor brushed aside the council's demand that he quit, calling it "irrelevant." Cockrel, voice heavy with disdain, said "I'm not surprised, given who he is and how he has chosen to handle things."

Things may be different, however, if Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy, as expected, charges Kilpatrick with one or more crimes Monday. "I don't see how a mayor can function effectively when he has been charged with a crime," Cockrel said.

"Especially if he is charged with multiple crimes. Who is going to want to deal with you? Are business leaders who are thinking of coming into the city going to want to deal with a mayor who is under indictment?"

In many ways, Cockrel is sort of the anti-Kwame. Both men are large and powerful looking. He often appears stoic and a bit intimidating, but insiders say what seems like aloofness is really a touch of shyness. His father, a legendary battler for civil rights and city councilman himself, was the flamboyant one.

Ken Cockrel Sr. was widely expected to be mayor, until his untimely death from a heart attack in 1989.

The elder Cockrel's son and namesake started out as a newspaper reporter, then became interested in government.

Generally, he is seen as a consensus-builder and business-friendly. While some have doubted whether he had enough of a vibrant personality to be a leader, nobody has questioned his honesty, intelligence or integrity.

While the current mayor is a famous party animal, Cockrel seems more comfortable at home with his wife, Kimberly, and his five children, Kenneth, Kyle, Kennedy, Kendal and Kayla.

Does he think, at the end of the day, that he will end up as mayor? "I hesitate to try and look into that crystal ball," he says.

What he does intend to be is ready -- if that day comes. "I am focused on my role as city council president, but if I have to step into that role (mayor) it is something I am prepared to do."

Increasingly, on the streets and offices and Detroit's barbershops, the feeling is that the word "if" may really be "when."