By Steve Neavling (Reuters) – Michigan Governor Rick Snyder on Friday formally declared Detroit in a fiscal emergency and said he had identified a top candidate to take over financial management of the destitute city.

The declaration virtually assures that the state of Michigan will assume control of Detroit’s books, though Snyder was careful to say there is still a window of 10 days for city leaders to convince him otherwise.

“I believe it’s appropriate to declare the city of Detroit in financial emergency,” Snyder told a forum of community leaders at a Detroit public television station.

Detroit has faced the steepest population decline of any major American city in recent decades. Once the fifth largest U.S. city, which shone as the birthplace of the U.S. automotive industry and Motown music, it now ranks 18th in size with about 700,000 people – after suffering a 25 percent decline in population between 2000 and 2010.

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