Detroit News: Marick Masters on new head of Detroit's Department of Neighborhoods

Mayor Mike Duggan has selected a former UAW-Ford executive to lead the city's Department of Neighborhoods. Ex-UAW-Ford vice president Jimmy Settles Jr. is to replace Charlie Beckham, who is retiring Sept. 1. “We have to keep going until every neighbor in every house feels like City Hall cares about them,” Duggan said at a press conference Tuesday. “Who could be the kind of great leader that could replace (Beckham)? I thought there’s one person in this town who for 50 years had made sure that everybody in his union was taken care of. Jimmy Settles was coming to an end of a 50-year UAW career.” Marick Masters, director of the Douglas A. Fraser Center for Workplace Issues at Wayne State University, said he'd intended to hire Settles at the university before Settles got a call from the mayor. "He can do a lot more good there," Masters said. "He is very good at connecting with people, but he’s also demanding. He expects a workforce to work. He realizes that you have to have high levels of productivity to compete."

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