KEN  COCKREL JR. (RIGHT) with newly appointed deputy mayor Saul Green (left) and new police cheif James Barren. - Andre Smith photo

Former Detroit City Council President Kenneth Cockrel Jr. took the reigns of government Sept. 19 before hundreds of Detroiters inside the Coleman A. Young Municipal Building, promising to work hard to build the city. Cockrel was sworn in by U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Damon J. Keith following the resignation of embattled former mayor Kwame Kilpatrick.

“From this moment on, the past is the past as we as a community, as a city, and as a region are moving forward,” Cockrel said. “This is our time to breathe life back into the city.”

Later in the day, Wayne State University, his alma mater, hosted a public reception for the new mayor that was attended by hundreds of people from the political and business community. The reception allowed Detroiters and other stakeholders to have a first peek at the new first family. There will be a special election in February.

Cockrel, who has worked in city government for a dozen years, said he is competent to become Detroit’s chief executive officer. The City Council veteran whose father Kenneth Cockrel Sr., was a legendary activist lawyer, urged everyone in the city to begin working for progress. At his swearing in ceremony he called for hope and renewal in moving Detroit forward, a theme that has been the focus of many leaders after the resignation of Kilpatrick.

In the last two weeks since the change of government at city hall, Cockrel has made two major annoucements.

He named Saul Green, a former U.S. Attorney for the Eastern Disrict of Michigan, as his deputy mayor. The appointment of Green, a respected lawyer, came as a surprise but was generally well received. Cockrel said Green’s responsibilities will include overseeing the city law and police departments. Those departments have come under fire in the whistle-blower trial that finally led to the resignation of Kilpatrick.

The other appointment was naming police veteran James Barren to lead the Detroit Police Department. Barren’s naming to the city’s top police job also received wide community acceptance. Cockrel said each man has an impeccable record as a public servant and both would do their best to help lead Detroit to recovery.

The Detroit Police Department has been under federal monitoring. In the past, the department has had issues with compliance.

“It’s an important issue in this community and I think it’s something that has to be addressed forthrightly and effectively,” Green said. “We’ve stilll got a ways to go, and I need to sit down with folks in the police department and the Justice Department to get a handle on where we are.”

Green, 60, said the city’s law department has “fine attorneys” but whoever will lead as corporation counsel will do so with the understanding that it will be there to serve residents of Detroit.

Barren, who rose through the ranks at the police department until his 2004 retirement, said among his first assignments would be to ensure that police respond to crisis in the community. He emphasized community policing building trust between officers and residents as key to fighting crime.

Cockrel made it clear that he would not interfare with the work of the new police chief.

“The one thing that I’ve made very clear to Chief Baren is that it’s going to be his department,” Cockrel said. “He is the one that is going to be calling the shots. He’s the one that’s going to be leading that army.”

Further emphasizing that his administration would not interfere with internal police work that squarely belongs at 1300 Baubien, Cockrel said, “I do not see myself as the sort of mayor that wants to be reaching his hands into the inner workings of the police department.”

Barren, 57, is a licensed counselor, a quality some of his admirers say is needed in police work.

The new top cop would not respond to questions relating to the department, insisting that he has been away for a while and would need to be reacquainted. Once settled, he promised to answer any and all questions from the the media.