The judge has told the city to come up with a plan by March 1 to exit bankruptcy. Orr has said he would like to have one ready weeks earlier.
The city is so desperate for money that it may consider auctioning off masterpieces from the Detroit Institute of Arts and selling a water department that serves much of southeastern Michigan.
‘We need to recognize that this decision is a call to action,’ Gov. Rick Snyder, who supported the bankruptcy filing, said on Tuesday.
‘We are confronting fiscal realities that have been ignored for too long.’
Minutes after the ruling, a union lawyer said she would appeal. City officials got ‘absolutely everything’ in Rhodes’ decision, she told reporters.
‘It’s a huge loss for the city of Detroit,’ said Sharon Levine, an attorney for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which represents half of city workers.
Orr, a bankruptcy expert, was appointed in March under a Michigan law that allows a governor to send a manager to distressed cities, townships or school districts.
A manager has extraordinary powers to reshape local finances without interference from elected officials. By July, Orr and Snyder decided bankruptcy was Detroit’s best option.