Detroit thread. Post Kwame, Monica, and $1 houses here.

[Savonarola]

The vast cultural wasteland gets vaster:

Council president Conyers to debut TV talk show Tuesday
Controversial leader will do interviews, take calls on city politics
Leonard Fleming and Mark Hicks / The Detroit News
Controversial City Council President Monica Conyers is getting into the talk show business.

On Tuesday, "Ask the Councilwoman With Monica Conyers" debuts on WHPR-TV (Channel 33) from 3:30-4 p.m. It will be filmed at the station's studios in Highland Park, the same day the council has its weekly sessions.

Conyers, the wife of U.S. Rep. John Conyers, will interview guests, offer two minutes of commentary and take calls from the public.

She's hoping her first show will feature interviews with Mayor Kenneth Cockrel Jr. as well as his mayoral opponent, businessman Dave Bing. Neither has confirmed.

"It's not her objective to slam anybody," said Conyers spokeswoman Denise Tolliver. "This is a tool for her to make sure people know what's going on in council."

A 13-week contract is being negotiated, Henry Tyler, the station's program director, said Sunday. She joins fellow council member JoAnn Watson and state Rep. Coleman A. Young Jr., who both have air time, he said.

"They're able to open those phone lines and let the public call in to the station. ... It's a way people can talk to their public officials."

The show follows a tough week for Conyers, who had a shouting match with a colleague and fired a contractual employee for telling The Detroit News about troubles gathering signatures to appear on the Aug. 4 ballot.

She also denied hiring her ex-convict brother for a City Hall job but said she recommended him only because she believes in second chances.

[Savonarola]

Impeach Conyers before it's too late

Detroit is saddled with too many handicaps to tolerate a time bomb as head of its City Council.

Monica Conyers is not only dysfunctional as a leader; she's also dangerous to the city's image. She's erratic and volatile and is a public threat.

We've all been waiting to see if the Justice Department has the evidence and the courage to indict the wife of its connect-the-dots boss, House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers.

But the feds are taking too long making up their minds in the City Hall corruption probe, and the seven months until the November election are an awfully long time to risk Conyers' bizarre behavior.

She's got to go now.

The Detroit News reported last week that Conyers intervened to get her brother a city job, telling the building department Reggie Esters is a "good guy," but neglecting to mention that he'd just got out of prison. Esters lasted two years, was fired for not showing up for work and then was arrested on 10 felony counts, including brandishing a shotgun.

When asked about her role in his hiring, Conyers denied everything, including that Esters is her brother. There's a pattern here. After pitching a fit in the lobby of a Denver hotel last summer, she claimed it never happened, despite confirmation by the hotel and police. There's no polite way to say this: Conyers can't tell the truth.

But that's not her most disturbing character flaw. She also has a hair trigger temper and a foul mouth she can't control.

Last week, Conyers gave a good cussing to fellow Councilwoman Sheila Cockrel, telling her to "shut the (expletive) up" and asking the longtime widow if she "needed a man." Cockrel became the third colleague Conyers has verbally assaulted. Previously, she called Ken Cockrel Jr. "Shrek" at the council table and made fun of Kwame Kenyatta's poor hearing.

Heap onto those incidents a bar fight, the firing of an employee for talking to the press, failure to account for her travel expenses and abuse of her bodyguard privilege, and it adds up to all the reason needed to declare her unfit for office.

Conyers can't figure out why all the fuss. "I don't regret nothing. I ain't done nothing worth apologizing for," she told The News, blaming her woes on racism. "They say all black women have mental problems."

No, just the ones who get into bar brawls, curse their colleagues and, despite holding a law degree, suddenly can't string together two grammatical sentences. Here's your sign, Madam President: You may have mental problems.

Kenyatta suggests the council should formally reprimand Conyers. That isn't enough.

The city Charter is murky on what it takes to impeach an elected official, as we learned from the Kwame Kilpatrick scandal. But council should test its ability to remove Conyers. At the least, it should replace her as president. Let her sue.

If her fellow council members fail to act, when Conyers finally blows, they can't say they didn't see the warning signs.

That won't happen; I'll be surprised if even the censure motion goes through. 

City elections are in November.  All councilmen are elected at large, and the person with the most votes is the council president.  Monica got the second most votes last time, so when the former council president, Shrek Cockrel Junior, became mayor she became council president.  She probably won't return as council president (though I wouldn't rule it out) but she probably will return to the city council.  If nothing else Monica has the advantage of name recognition.

[DontSayBanana]

A voting member on the city council sets up a talk show on council voting issues, and nobody has the heart to tell her it's a conflict of interests?

[Savonarola]

Council: Tear down Central Depot at owner's expense
BY NAOMI R. PATTON • FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER • April 7, 2009

The Detroit City Council passed a resolution requesting the emergency demolition of the Michigan Central Depot at owner Matty Moroun's expense.

Moroun, a billionaire who owns the Ambassador Bridge and has plans to build a second bridge next to it, has 30 days to respond to the council's resolution

"I want it down now," said Councilwoman Barbara-Rose Collins, who introduced the resolution to raze the structure, sitting vacant since 1988. "It's obviously a public hazard."

Mayor Ken Cockrel, Jr. has allotted $3.6 million to demolish the depot in his proposed federal economic stimulus funding list.

But, Collins said, "The city should have no obligation whatsoever to tear it down."

She also said the $3 million could be used to build homes on the east side, or to "improve the quality of life for Detroit citizens . . . It should not go to a billionaire."

"It should've been down years ago," Council President Monica Conyers said, citing a city blight ordinance that would allow the city to take over the neglected property. Conyers, who also opposes using federal stimulus money to tear it down, also said she would be willing to consider other options if Moroun "came up with some type of plan to make it viable," like a shopping outlet.

Councilwoman Sheila Cockrel voted against the resolution.

Collins called Moroun a "sweet person," but said, "It's as though he's a king in his own little kingdom."

City attorneys are drafting a report for the council about how to enforce the resolution.

I didn't see that one coming.  Matty Moroun must not have paid off enough council members.   

[Savonarola]

The return of "Ghetto Court."

Detroit lawyer sues over demotion
She alleges reverse discrimination for her 'ghetto court' comment
BY BEN SCHMITT • FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER • April 8, 2009

The City of Detroit's former top lawyer sued the city Tuesday, saying that she was illegally demoted when she described the 36th District Court as a "ghetto court."

Kathleen Leavey, who is white in a court where most judges are black, said in the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court that she was not talking about race when she criticized the courthouse Jan. 14.

Leavey told the Free Press at the time that she got into a heated discussion with a court administrator about the court's handling of a lawsuit against it, in which it asked the city to pay a $400,000 judgment without warning. "I told her people regard this as a ghetto court because of the way they treat people," Leavey said, adding that she was referring to long lines and slow service.

In her lawsuit, Leavey, a Detroit resident, alleges reverse race discrimination, retaliatory defamation and First Amendment retaliation in the lawsuit. She is seeking damages in excess of $75,000.

"The Slang Dictionary defines 'ghetto' as 'backwards and messed up,' " Leavey's lawyer, James Fett, wrote in the suit. "Leavey's African-American colleagues have never been subject to discipline, admonishment or ridicule for using the term 'ghetto.' "

Leavey, who is on leave, said she was forced to resign her post as interim corporation counsel after 36th District Chief Judge Marylin Atkins contended in a letter that the remarks were racist. Atkins is named as a defendant in the lawsuit.

"There are few things worse than being called a racist," Fett said.

"I don't have a comment at all," Atkins said Tuesday.

Cockrel's spokesman, Daniel Cherrin, said he could not comment on a pending lawsuit.

Only $75,000?  Kwame is suing Skytel for $100,000,000; she's entitled to at least half that amount.

[charliebear]

I must have missed something.  I read the article twice and didn't see Monica's name in it.  She's always involved with these goofy-assed things.

[Savonarola]

Not to worry, she shows up in the next article:

Cobo deal dies as judge sides with city council
By Zachary Gorchow • Free Press Staff Writer • April 9, 2009

A judge has blocked a regional authority for Cobo Center, ruling today that Detroit Mayor Ken Cockrel Jr. had no right to veto the City Council's nullification of a state law creating the authority.



After almost two weeks of trying to get Cockrel and the City Council to strike a deal in the council's lawsuit, Wayne County Circuit Judge Isidore Torres said the talks had failed.

"For whatever reason it didn't happen, and that's fine," he said.

Torres then handed out a written copy of his ruling to each side, and Council President Monica Conyers' reaction left no doubt about the result.

"Yes! We won!" she said, slapping a nearby table exultantly.

Meanwhile, glum city attorneys filed out of the courtroom.

Conyers said she hoped Gov. Jennifer Granholm would reopen negotiations on how Cobo should be governed.

Aging, dingy and in severe need of more space and renovations, Granholm, the Legislature and regional leaders agreed in December on a five-member regional authority to run Cobo and the extension of hotel, liquor and cigarette taxes to pay for $288 million in upgrades.

But there was a caveat – the City Council had the opportunity to reject the plan.

Saying they objected to the city giving up ownership to Cobo with no guarantees that Detroit businesses would receive contracts from the regional authority, a 5-3 majority of the council voted to nullify the state law.

But then Cockrel vetoed the council's rejection resolution. The state law appeared to give the council the final say with no power to the mayor, so the council sued and Torres agreed with it.

"Throughout the act, the powers and duties of the legislative body and the local chief executive officer are delineated in plain language, but none of these creates under the act a veto power in the chief executive officer over a resolution disapproving the transfer," Torres wrote.

Congratulations, Monica.   

[jimmy olsen]

Cobo deal dies as judge sides with city council
By Zachary Gorchow • Free Press Staff Writer • April 9, 2009

A judge has blocked a regional authority for Cobo Center, ruling today that Detroit Mayor Ken Cockrel Jr. had no right to veto the City Council's nullification of a state law creating the authority.



After almost two weeks of trying to get Cockrel and the City Council to strike a deal in the council's lawsuit, Wayne County Circuit Judge Isidore Torres said the talks had failed.

"For whatever reason it didn't happen, and that's fine," he said.

Torres then handed out a written copy of his ruling to each side, and Council President Monica Conyers' reaction left no doubt about the result.

"Yes! We won!" she said, slapping a nearby table exultantly.

5-3 majority of the council voted to nullify the state law.

But then Cockrel vetoed the council's rejection resolution. The state law appeared to give the council the final say with no power to the mayor, so the council sued and Torres agreed with it.

"Throughout the act, the powers and duties of the legislative body and the local chief executive officer are delineated in plain language, but none of these creates under the act a veto power in the chief executive officer over a resolution disapproving the transfer," Torres wrote.

How can the state allow a municipality to nullify a state law? Where's Zombie Andrew Jackson when you need him?

[Savonarola]

How can the state allow a municipality to nullify a state law? Where's Zombie Andrew Jackson when you need him?

I think it's because the City of Detroit owns Cobo Hall; and the state council would have transferred control of Cobo Hall to the regional governing board.  Transferring authority required approval of the city council.

[Savonarola]

And it's never a dull day in the D:

Kilpatrick paid lawyers $1M from election fund
Action could violate campaign finance laws
By M.L. ELRICK, JIM SCHAEFER and JOE SWICKARD • FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS • April 8, 2009


Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick used his re-election fund to pay lawyers nearly $1 million for their ultimately futile efforts to keep him out of jail -- a move that possibly violates state campaign finance laws.

Kilpatrick's lead attorney, James Thomas, defended tapping the campaign account but Maurice Kelman, a retired Wayne State University law professor, said it was improper. Kelman has been calling on Kilpatrick to disclose his spending.

A spokesman for state Attorney General Mike Cox said Wednesday that such matters are typically referred to local prosecutors.

Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy's spokeswoman Maria Miller declined comment on the legality of tapping the fund but said prosecutors will look at the $215,000 that Kilpatrick said he had left in the fund at the end of 2008.

"We're interested in any money that can go toward the mayor's restitution," she said.

The former mayor owes the City of Detroit more than $900,000 in restitution as part of the deal he reached last year when he pleaded guilty to two counts of obstruction of justice stemming from the text message scandal.

Other details that emerged from the campaign finance report — which was filed nearly two months late — show that Kilpatrick received only six contributions after the Free Press revealed the text message scandal in January 2008.

No one contributed to the fund after Worthy brought eight felony counts against Kilpatrick in March 2008.

[Savonarola]

Charity, family got checks from Kilpatrick campaign fund
Lawyer fees could mean huge fines, expert says
BY M.L. ELRICK, JOE SWICKARD and JIM SCHAEFER • FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS • April 9, 2009

While Kwame Kilpatrick sat in a Wayne County Jail cell, his campaign fund kept working.

Among those collecting checks during the former mayor's incarceration were the Next Vision Foundation -- run by his sister, Ayanna, and his cousin Jacquelyn Watts, who took over as treasurer of the re-election account.

The Next Vision Foundation, the Kilpatrick family charity, received $5,000. Watts, who had worked in the mayor's office until Ken Cockrel Jr. replaced Kilpatrick, got $3,000 for her accounting services.

Besides small payments for items including bank service charges and credit card fees, the fund's only other expenditures after Kilpatrick entered jail on Oct. 28 were $3,000 to Emma Bell, his longtime fund-raiser, and $600 to Philip Thomas, a lawyer hired as part of a failed bid to help Kilpatrick keep his law license.

But the bulk of the more than $1.1 million spent over the course of 2008 went to lawyers -- most of whom defended Kilpatrick against criminal charges stemming from the text message scandal and his assault on a detective from the Wayne County Sheriff's Office.

Maurice Kelman, a retired Wayne State University Law School professor and election law expert, said those expenditures could lead to fines of up to $1 million for the former mayor.

"You cannot spend campaign money for personal use," Kelman said Wednesday. "A lawyer doing purely criminal work should not be paid with campaign funds."

He said that under state law, the former mayor can be fined "dollar-for-dollar for everything that Kilpatrick improperly spent."

But first, he said, someone must file a complaint with the Michigan Secretary of State, which could trigger a hearing at which Kilpatrick would have to be found in violation of campaign finance law.

Kilpatrick attorney James Thomas disagreed.

"Obviously this was something that was well-researched before the funds were received," he said, adding that Kilpatick's campaign fund was established to keep him in office. If Kilpatrick were convicted of a crime, he would be forced to resign as mayor.


"If he did not defend himself he would not have been able to stay in office," James Thomas said.

Kilpatrick ultimately pleaded guilty to two counts of obstruction of justice stemming from the text message scandal. As part of the deal, he resigned from office, agreed to serve 120 days in jail and five years on probation, relinquished his law license and agreed to pay the City of Detroit $1 million in restitution. He also agreed not to run for office for five years and pleaded no contest to an assault charge for shoving a deputy trying to serve a subpoena.

Of the lawyers paid from the re-election account, James Thomas received the most: $284,251.

He also received $85,000 from the Detroit Justice Fund, a legal defense account Kilpatrick established, according to IRS documents the fund filed.

James Thomas said Wednesday that the nonprofit Kilpatrick Civic Fund also has paid him for preparing documents requested by federal investigators.

Kelman conceded that some of the campaign expenditures for attorneys may be permissible, citing legal work related to the Detroit City Council's efforts to unseat Kilpatrick and removal hearings Gov. Jennifer Granholm held in September.

But Kelman said there is no justification for paying Philip Thomas to help Kilpatrick try to retain his law license.

"There's nothing that says you have to be a licensed attorney in order to hold the office of mayor," Kelman said.

[Savonarola]

The Freep has expandide their article now that some of the prominent state Republicans weigh in on the Cobo Deal:

Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson, who resisted earlier, more expensive Cobo renovation plans, but agreed to the one rejected by the council, said he would follow through on his promise to lure the North American International Auto Show to Oakland County.


"In-friggin'-credible!" Patterson said in a statement. "If they're popping champagne corks in Detroit City Council chambers this afternoon, I would suggest to you it's terribly premature. What City Council has done is overturn five years of hard negotiation that was Detroit's last best chance to secure long-term funding for Cobo Hall and frankly the North American International Auto Show.


"I have no stomach, no appetite, no interest in going back to the table to rewrite a piece of legislation that would be satisfactory to Monica Conyers."


The city won't be able to count on the state Legislature to help craft a new plan for Cobo, said Senate Majority leader Mike Bishop, R-Rochester.


"I don't see this coming back to the table any time soon," he said. "It's hard to tell somebody from Traverse City or Grand Rapids that extending our good graces to the city of Detroit is great for them, but they all understood that it was a good thing to do for the state."


When the city council rejected the Cobo compromise, a process that took five years, getting outstate lawmakers back on board will be difficult at best. A different solution will wait until at least after the city elections in November.


"I've seen a lot of things come out of city council that make me shake my head, but this is Exhibit A on why we need massive change," Bishop said. "The legislature is going to have to wait to see what the next election brings."

It's a sad situation; but we got some quality sound bites from L. Brooks Patterson, so that makes it worthwhile.   

[DontSayBanana]

How can the state allow a municipality to nullify a state law? Where's Zombie Andrew Jackson when you need him?

Read before you paste, Tim. The state explicitly put the council's assent as a caveat.

[jimmy olsen]

How can the state allow a municipality to nullify a state law? Where's Zombie Andrew Jackson when you need him?

Read before you paste, Tim. The state explicitly put the council's assent as a caveat.

I read it the first time. It just makes the situation more horrifying in my opinion. It's an absolutely insane situation, and the legislature that passed the law should have been impeached. A city council should have no ability whatsoever to nullify state legislation.  That the city council in question is Detroit's just makes it 100 times worse.

[Savonarola]

I read it the first time. It just makes the situation more horrifying in my opinion. It's an absolutely insane situation, and the legislature that passed the law should have been impeached. A city council should have no ability whatsoever to nullify state legislation.  That the city council in question is Detroit's just makes it 100 times worse.

The bill was a compromise between the State of Michigan, the counties surrounding Metro Detroit and the City of Detroit.  From reports now it looks like the language requiring council approval was put on there at the insistence of the current mayor.  Shrek really should have known better, since this same sort of brouhaha took place when the Kwame tried to give the zoo to the Detroit Zoological Society.