ALLEN PARK — As Emergency Manager Joyce Parker draws up plans to stop the financial troubles here, a new audit shows the effort will be herculean.

The audit, conducted independently by a newly hired accounting firm, states that Allen Park's financial conditions "raise substantial doubt about the City's ability to continue as a going concern."

In addition, City Treasurer Carl Johnson sent a memo to city staffers Jan. 24 that the general fund will run out of cash by the beginning of March and that payments to vendors are to be delayed by as many as 60 days.

Most city residents anticipated a painful period when City Council asked the state to bring in a review team for emergency management. After weeks of investigation, Gov. Rick Snyder appointed Parker, who has served in this role in other cities in Southeast Michigan. Most recently she cleaned up finances in the City of Ecorse and worked on the books at Highland Park Public Schools.

The audit, conducted by Detroit-based Alan C. Young & Associates, paints a bleak picture of Allen Park's finances. The Wayne County city is in the red $857,000 despite a $2 million boost from a Tax Anticipation Note from the state. 

The problem can be boiled down to one thing: too much being spent and not enough being collected. Revenues are down 19 percent, and while the city cut spending 20 percent, the biggest drains on the budget are the $10 million it owes on property it bought for a movie studio that never materialized, rising public safety costs (up 6 percent) and increasing pension and retiree health insurance obligations. 

"It all needs to be on the table," said resident Tim O'Brien. "The city needs to take a serious look at public safety union contracts. We don't need all those workers at that expense to cover seven square miles.”

O'Brien was referring to an ongoing battle with the city’s fire department over minimum staffing requirements. 

Resident Bob Armstead said city taxpayers have reached the limit for any more tax increases. In November, residents passed a proposal requiring taxpayer approval for any city borrowing. Armstead said he thinks there is so much distrust over the movie studio that taxpayers will never agree to giving more money until they see criminal indictments regarding the matter. 

"The question I have for Ms. Parker is, 'would the city be best off filing for bankruptcy?' " he said. "Everything needs to be on the table and now that the state's emergency manager law has changed, maybe this is the best way to handling our problems."

Armstead said he thinks the city can get more money from studio property tenants, eliminating retiree health benefits and turning the city’s pension plan from a defined benefit plan to a defined contribution 401(k)-style plan.

Parker has been meeting with residents every Wednesday to get their input.

Before she can make any move, she needs to come up with a deficit reduction plan, which is expected any day.

The Taylor School District reached a five-year tentative agreement with the Taylor Federation of Teachers that would prevent its union employees from having the option of leaving the teacher’s union, the superintendent confirmed.

The contract is expected to be approved by the school board at a special school board meeting tonight. The contract will prohibit union members from exercising their right to not pay dues or fees to the union as a condition of employment thanks to Michigan becoming the nation's 24th right-to-work state late last year. The law takes effect March 28, so unions are scrambling to get agreements approved by schools boards and voted upon by members before the new law disallows such agreements.

While union officials routinely claim that workers are free to leave the union, they still require workers to support the union in the absence of a right-to-work law.

Union members in the Taylor School District have been kept in the dark about the details of the agreement, according to a memo released by Union President Linda Scott Moore. Michigan Capitol Confidential confirmed the contents of the memo with a union member.

"In an effort to preserve the tentative agreement the TFT negotiation team and executive board has chosen to withhold the tentative agreement until after the board of education ratifies," Moore wrote in the memo. "While frustrating, the TFT feels that this is in the best interest of our membership. We all have much to lose if we are prevented from moving forward with a ratification vote."

Instead, union members will see the contract for the first time Friday and then will vote on it Feb. 5, said Superintendent Diane Allen, who in an email confirmed the memo's statements.

"I think this tentative agreement will be instrumental in addressing and resolving the significant financial problems faced by the district and wish to thank the Taylor Federation of Teachers for their significant and substantial contributions to the fiscal health of the District," Allen said in a press release.

She did not explain how the school district's financial troubles would be eased. The Taylor School District reportedly is more than $20 million in debt.

Union President Moore and Union Officer Thomas Fulton didn't respond to requests for comment. 

The Taylor School District is the first public entity known to act on forcing union members to pay dues or fees by way of a contract extension, although similar 9-year contracts have been drafted by union representatives at Western Michigan University and Berkley Public Schools.

"Anyone trying to artificially extend a contract is clearly trying to circumvent a law the legislature passed and the governor signed," said Ari Adler, press secretary for Speaker of the House Jase Bolger, R-Marshall. "We would hope that governing bodies would do everything they can to follow the language and the intent of state laws to be good stewards of the tax dollars they are spending and protect worker freedom."

As of 2011, the Taylor School District paid two union stewards to spend more than half their time working exclusively on union business. The district paid Wayne Woodford $96,419 in total compensation and allowed him to spend 75 percent of his time on union business. The other 25 percent of the time he taught at Truman High School. Moore, who is the current union president, is a middle school science teacher in Taylor with $88,016 in total compensation and was allowed to spend 50 percent of her time on union business.

Last month, the Taylor School District was forced to close because teachers called in sick and took vacation days to attend a protest in Lansing against right-to-work legislation.