Detroit’s elected officials failed to propose any significant cost savings before an emergency manager was appointed in March, a financial analyst said in a trial to determine whether the city can remain under court protection from creditors.

Gaurav Malhotra, a partner at Ernst & Young LLP who had advised the city since May 2011, was asked today by an attorney for Detroit union workers about savings contained in a restructuring plan developed before the state takeover. The lawyer, Jack Sherwood, sought to challenge the need for the city’s $18 billion bankruptcy filing.

Malhotra said he couldn’t remember any cost savings achieved by Detroit’s elected officials “that were of significance.” Selling property to raise money and reduce debt wouldn’t stop the city’s long-term overspending, he said.

Malhotra, who began testifying yesterday, was the first of five witnesses the city said it will present at the trial in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Detroit. Lawyers for retired and current city workers have attacked the decision by state-appointed emergency manager Kevyn Orr to put Detroit into bankruptcy, where creditors can’t try to seize assets or file suits that disrupt reorganization efforts.

Detroit will need to spend about $1.25 billion over 10 years to restructure operations, invest in decaying infrastructure and remove blight, a consultant told U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Steven Rhodes today.

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