Robert C. Bobb is a former appointed official who was the Emergency Financial Manager for the Detroit Public Schools until 2011. In addition to having been employed by the school district, he received a salary from private foundations that promote school choice and privatization, and he owns a private/public sector consulting firm. Bobb's previous position was president of the Washington, D.C. board of education from 2006 to 2009. Before that he was the longest-serving African-American city manager in the United States, with a total of 30 years employment in the field. Early life and education Bobb was born in New Orleans, Louisiana and grew up on a plantation in southwest Louisiana where his grandmother worked as a maid. He worked his way through college buffing floors during the school year and laboring in sulfur pits during the summers. He received a bachelor's degree in political science from Grambling State University and an MS in business studies from Western Michigan University in 1978. He is also a 2005 graduate of the Broad Foundation's Superintendent Academy, a ten-month-long course similar to an executive training program. Career City manager He acted as a city manager for a total of 30 years for the cities of Kalamazoo, Michigan (1977–1984 ); Santa Ana, California; Richmond, Virginia (1986–1997); Oakland, California (1997–2003); and Washington, D.C.(2003–2006). During Bobb's tenure at Oakland, California, the city was governed under a new and unique hybrid system which combined a strong, elected mayor with a full-time professional city manager. Critics had warned of stalemate if the mayor and city manager were to lock horns, but the system appeared to be working for the first two years as the city's bureaucracies were restructured and new policies were adopted. However, in 2003, during a dispute regarding a new stadium for the Oakland Athletics baseball team, Bobb, who was a major stadium advocate, was dismissed by then-mayor Jerry Brown, who believed housing should be built on the site instead. From 2003 until 2006, Bobb held the position of city manager and deputy mayor in Washington, D.C. under Anthony A. Williams where he managed 20,000 employees and an $8 billion budget. He traveled to China in 2004 to represent Washington at the World Mega Cities Economic and Cultural Development Conference. In 2006, a cabinet-level employee was erroneously overpaid $75,000 over a six-month period and asked to keep the overpayment. The District, under an obscure rule, can