The Detroit City Appointments Project (DCAP) is a collaborative effort to scout, vet, and recommend effective and diverse candidates for service into Detroit city government who are committed to the public good. The project works with organizations from around the city, state and country, to cultivate a robust list of candidates for over 100 mayor appointed or mayor nominated positions. Additionally, DCAP works to inform agendas for key agencies, leveraging the power of organized people throughout the city.

In November of 2024, Mayor Mike Duggan made his long expected announcement that he will not seek reelection to the office he held since 2013. The announcement could not have come at a more important time for the city. The city faces several challenges from population loss, massive investment and development, the severe need for expanded transit, crime and education just to name a few. A new mayor will take office in 2026 tasked with enacting a vision that can tackle these challenges.

​Detroit hasn’t welcomed a new mayor into office for over a decade and much has changed since then. The wake of emergency management, the charter commission, and the leadership style of Mayor Duggan means that Detroit’s strong mayor system is stronger than ever. The Mayor’s agenda and policy quickly become the city’s agenda and policy.  We must ensure that the Mayor’s policy is the policy of the people.

Personnel Is Policy

Frontline elections and community campaigns are critical to pushing forward policy in local government. But the ability to implement and enact those policies goes beyond the initial win, and is a result of who is actually in city government. The ability to actually achieve any of the goals set forth and won in campaigns shows that “Personnel is policy”. For years supporters of good representative government infrastructure have found themselves in an uphill battle competing with those forces who want to limit their voice.

As a result, local organizers could tell you the name of the mayor, but likely not the name of their chief of staff, appointments to the planning department or head of finance - and it’s likely that they do not have access to those staff members. Some assume that staff appointed by the mayor are simply an extension of the mayor.

History tells us that these positions are powerful and more than task managers. Staff hires come from different often unpredictable backgrounds that have an impact on how they work. How the finance director prepares the initial budget for the mayor’s review can help determine what programs are funded and which are not. How the chief of staff prioritizes access to the mayor could be the difference between a representative group of residents having their needs heard or an outside corporate entity being the policy focus. 

Personnel is not just policy, it’s the ability to enact a vision of good government that delivers for residents.