Detroit Mayor-elect Mike Duggan meets with Obama

WASHINGTON, Dec. 14 (UPI) —

Detroit Mayor-elect Mike Duggan met with President Obama in Washington and got some words of encouragement, officials said.

On Friday, Obama and Vice President Joe Biden met with 16 newly elected mayors in the capital, the Detroit Free Press reported.

Duggan didn’t reveal much about his meeting with the president, but said he wasn’t seeking a federal bailout.

“I didn’t come up here asking for money,” he said.

In the summer, the city of Detroit filed the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history.

Other mayors showed support for Detroit at the meeting Friday.

“Detroit is something we care about. We need Detroit to succeed. We need Detroit to pull through,” said New York City Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio.

Meanwhile, the president urged the new mayors to address inequality and social services in their cities.

“I’ve always said that mayors don’t have time to be ideological, and they don’t really have time to be partisan, because they, every day, are held accountable for concretely delivering the services that people count on all across the country,” Obama told the group. “And I think it’s for that reason that when we think about mayors, we think about folks who actually get stuff done.”