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

[DontSayBanana]

It's a low cost high volume business, like McDonald's.  One of our former councilwomen allegedly sold her votes once for a day at the spa and another time for a case of sausage.

[Darth Wagtaros]

Yeah, it is sad how little they received.

I blame whitey.

[jimmy olsen]

Speaking of Urban schools, Kansas City is closing half of theirs down.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35806883/ns/us_news-education/

[Savonarola]

I can almost here Eazy-E narrating:

Brawl erupts at sentencing of mom who gave gun to son
By JOE SWICKARD
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

A murderer and her supporters battled in a Detroit courtroom this morning as she was ordered to serve more than 22 years in prison for giving her teenage son a gun that he used to kill another teen at a recreation center.



Tarranisha Davis "basically just went ballistic," said Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Daniel Ryan who presided over her trial with her son and co-defendant Tremain.


The woman "was punching yelling and screaming" as court security officers and Detroit policemen who were in the courtroom tried to control her, Ryan said.


"Then these other people jumped over the railing and start fighting, too," Ryan said. "It spilled into the hallway."


Other security officers rushed to the fifth floor of the Frank Murphy Hall of Justice.


The brawl ended with four people in custody – facing potential contempt and assault charges – and with a Wayne County Sheriff's lieutenant and a deputy slightly injured.


Ryan said there have been other incidents "but absolutely nothing like this before."


The uproar came as Ryan ordered Tarranisha Davis to serve 221/2 –to-40 years for second degree murder and an additional two years for using a firearm in the commission of a felony.


Her son Tremaine, 15, was ordered to serve 10-to-25 years for second degree murder plus another two years for use of a firearm. He will be in a juvenile facility until he is 21.


"I gave him that sentence because he has been respectful and remorseful since Day-One," Ryan said. "His mother, though, has shown no remorse at all."


The mother and son were charged in the fatal shooting of Dmitri Jackson, 19, at the Considine Little Rock Family Center in October.


Authorities charge that Tarranisha Davis supplied a gun to her son, who had fought with another youth but killed Jackson by shooting in a crowd of teenagers at the center.


Witnesses said the mother drove to the center and unlatched the hood of her van so her son could get a revolver.

[Darth Wagtaros]

You Detroiters are fucked.  Fucked and dragging the rest of the country down with you.  We need to throw up a wall around that shithole and prevent anyone from entering or leaving.  Except Kurt Russell. 

[garbon]

You Detroiters are fucked.  Fucked and dragging the rest of the country down with you.  We need to throw up a wall around that shithole and prevent anyone from entering or leaving.  Except Kurt Russell. 

thx, letticia

[Darth Wagtaros]

You Detroiters are fucked.  Fucked and dragging the rest of the country down with you.  We need to throw up a wall around that shithole and prevent anyone from entering or leaving.  Except Kurt Russell. 

thx, letticia

Lolz can I be: Army of Northern Virginia?

[Savonarola]

The man, the myth, the legend is on come back trail again:

Kwame Kilpatrick sets out to rehab his image

The doctor is in.

Kwame Kilpatrick's new spokesman, Mike Paul, is a high-profile New York public relations man who touts himself as "The Reputation Doctor" and specializes in crisis management.

Paul has an extensive list of clients listed on his Web site, from Jesse Jackson to Aretha Franklin to Dr. Laura Schlessinger.

In Detroit's ex-mayor, though, Paul has surely latched on to one of the more challenging cases of his career: The once-electric politician whose private scandals and public crimes continue to metastasize. Might it be too late to rehabilitate the Kilpatrick aura?

"Not at all," says Paul, who prescribes his own six-point cure for Kilpatrick's image woes: daily doses of truth, honesty, transparency, accountability, humility and consistency. To rehabilitate Kilpatrick in the public eye, he must embrace those qualities, Paul says. Kilpatrick must openly become the person he says he now is, in a way that we can all see, honestly, and without shortcuts.

"Spin won't work," says Paul, who says he was hired by Kilpatrick's lawyers and addressed reporters on the Wayne County courthouse steps Thursday.

"The goal is for people to understand who the real Kwame Kilpatrick is ... the nonmayor, the person who has admitted he has done wrong."

But the devil's always in the details, isn't it?

For starters, those Kilpatrick legal pleadings of poverty, coupled with revelations of secret loans, a leased Dallas-version of the Manoogian and expenditures on luxury goods and elective surgery, emerged only in court.

Paul is Kilpatrick's second high-profile spokesperson. Two years ago, in the heat of the text message scandal, Kilpatrick enlisted Washington, D.C.-based public relations powerhouse Judy Smith, who had advised Clarence Thomas and Monica Lewinski. She didn't return calls.

"We've been down this road before," says Adolph Mongo, a former Kilpatrick political consultant. "Two years ago, you could make these arguments and they'd resonate. Now people just want all of it to go away."

Paul sees a "very different Kwame, not the hip-hop mayor" but a man now trying to do right by his family but caught in a political maelstrom.

Paul is trying out the new truth about the new Kwame Kilpatrick: "I'm spending time with the man, and we're in high-level strategic meetings and he says, 'I've got to say goodbye to my boys,' or 'I've got to go home for dinner now.' "

Other "truths" you may expect to hear from Paul: Unfairness from the courts and the media. Political shenanigans on the part of Wayne County Circuit Judge David Groner and Prosecutor Kym Worthy.

"One of the things I find amazing ... in this case is that it's very political. But Kwame Kilpatrick isn't the one being political," Paul says.

Fresh on the case, Paul may not realize how toxic the Kilpatrick aura has become. The public's already been trotted through multiple apologies, vows of humility and assurances of good intentions to pay off the city, work hard and move on.

"Why are you hiring a PR agent instead of paying restitution?" asks Eric Foster, a Detroit political consultant.

He noted that if Kilpatrick was such a good family man when he was mayor, the city would have avoided the prolonged text-message scandal over his affair.

Paul says he and Kilpatrick met years ago and were recently brought together by a mutual friend. Paul wouldn't reveal his fees or how he's being paid, but industry sources say fees for his line of work typically are $250 to $500 an hour or higher.

Cynics, or even realists, may wonder why Kilpatrick newly feels the urgent need to improve his public aura. Could it be, as Nolan Finley suggested Thursday in The Detroit News, that Kilpatrick's worried about federal investigators closing in?

Paul sounds upbeat and confident, as he talks about the bias Kilpatrick faces from judge and prosecutor.

"For every person who thinks (harshly of him) there are others who believe he's earned the opportunity for a second chance," he insists, describing strong support for the ex-mayor. Paul says he hears from plenty of Kilpatrick supporters. "They're saying, 'How can I help and do more?' "

He makes an enigmatic promise: "Soon you'll be hearing more about that."

The reputation doctor has made his diagnosis: It's a reworking of the ancient Greek PR guy, Socrates, whose advice for gaining a good reputation was: "Endeavor to be what you desire to appear."

As advice, it's sound. But taking the medicine -- living an honest, ethical and open life with humility -- hasn't been a cinch for Kilpatrick over the last few years. He has to "take it one day at a time," says Paul, the fly-in reputation fixer.

Please don't be offended, doctor, if most of us do the same.

Hardly a day goes by when I don't wonder "How can I do more to help Kwame Kilpatrick?"

[Savonarola]

Have you ever stopped to think what an awesome debt we owe to community activists?

Control of Detroit Public Schools splits community

Marisa Schultz / The Detroit News
Detroit -- The battle for control of Detroit Public Schools spilled into the open Thursday as opponents of a mayoral takeover expressed outrage at a key provision of an overhaul plan.

A coalition of 15 diverse groups unveiled sweeping reforms that would set standards for all schools, launch 70 new programs and recruit leaders from around the country. But the most divisive component is to dissolve the school board and give control to a superintendent appointed by the mayor.

Union and community activists at a school board meeting Thursday night said they were outraged by the plan to get rid of the board, while many parents were divided, and Mayor Dave Bing said he'd only take on the responsibility if voters agreed.

"It's a sad day," said Ruby Newbold, president of the Detroit Association of Educational Office Employees. "We are saddened by what is going on in the city of Detroit. How dare you dismantle our school district!"

"This community is not going to take it anymore," Newbold said, igniting a standing ovation and cheers from the crowd.

"What have we done that is so egregious to get rid of our board?" said board member Tyrone Winfrey between meeting sessions.

No legislative body in the country -- from county commissions to state legislatures -- can be dissolved like an elected school board, he said. "The board will continue to fight."

But earlier, parent Claudia Williams, 33, while picking her children up after school, said she wants one person held accountable for the district. She said she'd vote for a measure to abolish the school board.

"Everything has to come to an end," she said. "Maybe this will be good. Maybe the mayor will go ahead and show some other incentive for Detroit Public Schools."

Some activists vowed to fight any plan that undermines Detroiters' control over their children's education.

"The people of Detroit have repeatedly rejected all forms of state takeover, including mayoral takeover of the Detroit Public Schools," said Donna Stern, national coordinator for the civil rights group BAMN, By Any Means Necessary.

"As recently as 2004, Detroit voters defeated a well-financed effort to place DPS under mayoral control by a vote of 2 to 1."

Father Terry Smith, 39, said: "I think the mayor has a little bit too much on his plate to try to take over that. He can't concentrate on the schools with everything else he has on his plate."

Plan requires unity
The ambitious education plan -- presented by the Skillman Foundation CEO Carol Goss, DPS Emergency Financial Manager Robert Bobb, Detroit Parent Network Executive Director Sharlonda Buckman, University Preparatory Academy founder Doug Ross and New Detroit President Shirley Stancato -- calls for the creation of an independent accountability and standards commission.

That panel will issue report cards on all city schools -- public, private or charter -- and move to close ones that are failing. The coalition wants to open 70 new school programs by 2020 and establish a nationwide recruiting initiative to bring the best teachers and principals to Detroit.

Under the plan, by 2020, 90 percent of city students will graduate from high school, 90 percent will go on to some sort of higher education and 90 percent would succeed without remediation.

Leaders of the coalition said they are united in their outrage of the poor educational opportunities in the city, but they acknowledge their plan needs community support to be successful.

"The most important part lies ahead and that is implementation," said Stancato, whose New Detroit is one of 15 organizations in the coalition. "We cannot do it alone."

Mayoral control seems to be the part of the plan facing the largest uphill battle. Lawmakers in Lansing can pass such legislation, similar to the state takeover from 1999-2005. But many residents are still bitter about the takeover years, noting that the quality of the district worsened during that period, and a district with a financial surplus ended with a deep deficit.

The coalition is advocating for a ballot referendum in November.

"The mayor, as the top elected official in the community, should assume full authority over the most important asset and that is the education of children in the community," said Bobb, whose term as emergency financial manager expires in March 2011.

Success debated
Jack Jennings, president and CEO for the Center on Education Policy, has studied the results of mayoral control in places like New York, Boston, Cleveland and Los Angeles. Overall, the results have varied but on average mayoral control has resulted in "modest improvements," he said.

"In general, it's led to schools being put on the path of improvement. But there's nothing dramatically better. It's just incrementally better and in some situations there hasn't been much improvement at all."

The school board didn't address the coalition's proposal directly during their meeting, but members of the audience expressed outrage. Many in attendance were bus drivers from Safeway Transportation who are expected to lose their jobs since Bobb announced he's privatizing the transportation department.

"They took our jobs and now they are trying to take yours," Janice Mayers, a Safeway bus driver, told the board. "We are going to stand up and fight."

Some community members said they were upset the school board wasn't invited to be part of the education plan.

"I've never seen anything so brazen or offensive than to say we are going to disband an elected body," said Russ Bellant, a member of the DPS Board Advisory Council and parent of a 2009 DPS graduate. Mayoral control, Bellant said, "satisfies politicians but it has not necessarily met the needs of the children. The continuing education challenge for all of us is to take more responsibility and more involvement in our schools. Solutions can't be imposed from the top."

Politicians locally and in Lansing seemed to agree that mayoral control would only be successful if Detroiters want it.

"The governor supports mayoral control but she does not have the authority to make it happen," said Liz Boyd, spokeswoman for Gov. Jennifer Granholm. "Any such effort will require strong support by community members and leaders in Detroit."

Bing told a group of media executives Thursday he would accept control of the school district if offered, but he won't lobby for it. He said it would be better if the community bought into the idea, rather than have it imposed by the governor or Legislature.

Said House Education Committee Chairman Tim Melton, D-Auburn Hills: "If the people of Detroit vote and say they want mayoral control, we would support it. The Legislature should not do it without direction from city residents."In other news Thursday, the Detroit Federation of Teachers voted to join the school board's lawsuit against Bobb that alleges he's overstepping his authority by making academic decisions.

Also, Bobb's negotiating team agreed to come back to the bargaining table with unions for secretaries and custodians. Last week, his team declared an impasse and imposed a 10 percent wage cut and health care premiums, which sparked outcry from union members.

On the one hand Bing isn't going to be mayor forever; and I shudder to think that someone like Kwame could appoint the school board superintendent.  On the other hand the current system drove our schools to bankruptcy twice and students have achieved among the worst test scores in the nation.  If the school system is to improve something needs to change but, this being Detroit, I fully expect things to return to the way they were and the state of Michigan seizing control of the school district again in 2017.

[Savonarola]

DETROIT: Woman charged with WIC fraud
The U.S. Attorney's Office in Detroit on Thursday charged Jacqueline Taylor, 40, with fraud and theft of government funds on charges that she illegally sold benefits from the Women, Infants and Children program (WIC) designed to serve low- and moderate-income pregnant, breast-feeding and postpartum women.

"Conservative estimates of loss attributable to Taylor range from $432,000 to $648,000," Mark McClutchey, special agent for the USDA, wrote in an affidavit.

Taylor's preliminary examination is scheduled for March 31 in U.S. District Court in Detroit.

Half a million dollars in WIC fraud is an accomplishment; maybe even a miracle in the field of crime.  Auric Goldfinger can rest in peace now.   

[Scipio]

Have you ever stopped to think what an awesome debt we owe to community activists?

Control of Detroit Public Schools splits community

Marisa Schultz / The Detroit News
Detroit -- The battle for control of Detroit Public Schools spilled into the open Thursday as opponents of a mayoral takeover expressed outrage at a key provision of an overhaul plan.

A coalition of 15 diverse groups unveiled sweeping reforms that would set standards for all schools, launch 70 new programs and recruit leaders from around the country. But the most divisive component is to dissolve the school board and give control to a superintendent appointed by the mayor.

Union and community activists at a school board meeting Thursday night said they were outraged by the plan to get rid of the board, while many parents were divided, and Mayor Dave Bing said he'd only take on the responsibility if voters agreed.

"It's a sad day," said Ruby Newbold, president of the Detroit Association of Educational Office Employees. "We are saddened by what is going on in the city of Detroit. How dare you dismantle our school district!"

"This community is not going to take it anymore," Newbold said, igniting a standing ovation and cheers from the crowd.

"What have we done that is so egregious to get rid of our board?" said board member Tyrone Winfrey between meeting sessions.

No legislative body in the country -- from county commissions to state legislatures -- can be dissolved like an elected school board, he said. "The board will continue to fight."

But earlier, parent Claudia Williams, 33, while picking her children up after school, said she wants one person held accountable for the district. She said she'd vote for a measure to abolish the school board.

"Everything has to come to an end," she said. "Maybe this will be good. Maybe the mayor will go ahead and show some other incentive for Detroit Public Schools."

Some activists vowed to fight any plan that undermines Detroiters' control over their children's education.

"The people of Detroit have repeatedly rejected all forms of state takeover, including mayoral takeover of the Detroit Public Schools," said Donna Stern, national coordinator for the civil rights group BAMN, By Any Means Necessary.

"As recently as 2004, Detroit voters defeated a well-financed effort to place DPS under mayoral control by a vote of 2 to 1."

Father Terry Smith, 39, said: "I think the mayor has a little bit too much on his plate to try to take over that. He can't concentrate on the schools with everything else he has on his plate."

Plan requires unity
The ambitious education plan -- presented by the Skillman Foundation CEO Carol Goss, DPS Emergency Financial Manager Robert Bobb, Detroit Parent Network Executive Director Sharlonda Buckman, University Preparatory Academy founder Doug Ross and New Detroit President Shirley Stancato -- calls for the creation of an independent accountability and standards commission.

That panel will issue report cards on all city schools -- public, private or charter -- and move to close ones that are failing. The coalition wants to open 70 new school programs by 2020 and establish a nationwide recruiting initiative to bring the best teachers and principals to Detroit.

Under the plan, by 2020, 90 percent of city students will graduate from high school, 90 percent will go on to some sort of higher education and 90 percent would succeed without remediation.

Leaders of the coalition said they are united in their outrage of the poor educational opportunities in the city, but they acknowledge their plan needs community support to be successful.

"The most important part lies ahead and that is implementation," said Stancato, whose New Detroit is one of 15 organizations in the coalition. "We cannot do it alone."

Mayoral control seems to be the part of the plan facing the largest uphill battle. Lawmakers in Lansing can pass such legislation, similar to the state takeover from 1999-2005. But many residents are still bitter about the takeover years, noting that the quality of the district worsened during that period, and a district with a financial surplus ended with a deep deficit.

The coalition is advocating for a ballot referendum in November.

"The mayor, as the top elected official in the community, should assume full authority over the most important asset and that is the education of children in the community," said Bobb, whose term as emergency financial manager expires in March 2011.

Success debated
Jack Jennings, president and CEO for the Center on Education Policy, has studied the results of mayoral control in places like New York, Boston, Cleveland and Los Angeles. Overall, the results have varied but on average mayoral control has resulted in "modest improvements," he said.

"In general, it's led to schools being put on the path of improvement. But there's nothing dramatically better. It's just incrementally better and in some situations there hasn't been much improvement at all."

The school board didn't address the coalition's proposal directly during their meeting, but members of the audience expressed outrage. Many in attendance were bus drivers from Safeway Transportation who are expected to lose their jobs since Bobb announced he's privatizing the transportation department.

"They took our jobs and now they are trying to take yours," Janice Mayers, a Safeway bus driver, told the board. "We are going to stand up and fight."

Some community members said they were upset the school board wasn't invited to be part of the education plan.

"I've never seen anything so brazen or offensive than to say we are going to disband an elected body," said Russ Bellant, a member of the DPS Board Advisory Council and parent of a 2009 DPS graduate. Mayoral control, Bellant said, "satisfies politicians but it has not necessarily met the needs of the children. The continuing education challenge for all of us is to take more responsibility and more involvement in our schools. Solutions can't be imposed from the top."

Politicians locally and in Lansing seemed to agree that mayoral control would only be successful if Detroiters want it.

"The governor supports mayoral control but she does not have the authority to make it happen," said Liz Boyd, spokeswoman for Gov. Jennifer Granholm. "Any such effort will require strong support by community members and leaders in Detroit."

Bing told a group of media executives Thursday he would accept control of the school district if offered, but he won't lobby for it. He said it would be better if the community bought into the idea, rather than have it imposed by the governor or Legislature.

Said House Education Committee Chairman Tim Melton, D-Auburn Hills: "If the people of Detroit vote and say they want mayoral control, we would support it. The Legislature should not do it without direction from city residents."In other news Thursday, the Detroit Federation of Teachers voted to join the school board's lawsuit against Bobb that alleges he's overstepping his authority by making academic decisions.

Also, Bobb's negotiating team agreed to come back to the bargaining table with unions for secretaries and custodians. Last week, his team declared an impasse and imposed a 10 percent wage cut and health care premiums, which sparked outcry from union members.

On the one hand Bing isn't going to be mayor forever; and I shudder to think that someone like Kwame could appoint the school board superintendent.  On the other hand the current system drove our schools to bankruptcy twice and students have achieved among the worst test scores in the nation.  If the school system is to improve something needs to change but, this being Detroit, I fully expect things to return to the way they were and the state of Michigan seizing control of the school district again in 2017.

Don't do it, Detroit.  Without you, Mississippi's schools are the worst in the nation!

[Savonarola]

I love the phrase "Cesspool of Corruption," it can be used to describe so much about the 313:

DPS: Scam cost $57M
FBI investigates ex-risk manager; district sues to recover money
BY JENNIFER DIXON
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

A former department chief at Detroit Public Schools and his assistant used secret offices and their own computer system to improperly divert more than $57 million in school funds to vendors who provided little, if anything, in return, according to sworn records reviewed by the Free Press.

Documents in a Wayne County Circuit Court lawsuit brought by DPS allege that Stephen Hill of Detroit -- director of DPS risk management from 2001-05 -- received luxury vehicles and other kickbacks. Some of the vendors who benefitted were friends or associates of Hill's or relatives of Hill's assistant, Christina Polk-Osumah of Detroit, court records allege.

When Hill left the district in September 2005, he received a champagne-and-tenderloin farewell bash that cost the impoverished school system $40,000, according to the suit.
The FBI now is investigating the alleged fraud scheme.

Robert Bobb, the district's emergency financial manager, said in a statement that the case is another example of how "DPS has been a place where people use the district as their personal banker and where there has been a cesspool of corruption, and in cases such as this one, both national corporations and local individuals took advantage of Detroit Public Schools."
Hill could not be reached for comment. His former attorney denied that Hill acted improperly and said he will be vindicated.

DPS filed the lawsuit against Hill, Polk-Osumah and others in June 2008, claiming the vendors, who were paid through wire transfers, knew the payments violated district policies when they accepted them. The suit seeks to get the district's money back.
Polk-Osumah declined to comment.

Costly payments trigger DPS lawsuit, FBI probe

As chief of risk management for Detroit Public Schools, Stephen Hill's job was to save the district money.

But as Hill left his post in September 2005, saving money was not on the menu.
The 200 guests at his going-away bash, a golf-themed affair atop a parking deck, feasted on Chilean sea bass, grilled petite tenderloin of beef and bananas foster, washing it all down with champagne, Jack Daniels, martinis and imported beer.

The tab: $40,000.

Who paid: Detroit's impoverished public schools.
The allegations about the party are contained in thousands of pages of documents in a DPS lawsuit that portrays Hill and Polk-Osumah, as running a shadowy side operation outside the scrutiny of district leaders.

As the lawsuit proceeds to trial in July, the $40,000 reportedly spent on Hill's party is hardly the worst of it.

DPS says it can prove Hill and his aide, using secret offices and computer systems, diverted more than $57 million in illicit wire transfers to vendors who did little or no work. The vendors -- friends or business associates of the pair -- knew the payments were improper, but accepted them anyway, the district contends, while Hill received luxury automobiles and kickbacks from at least two of them. Two other vendors later hired Hill.

Filed in Wayne County Circuit Court in June 2008, the suit names Hill; Polk-Osumah; two international insurance companies; Detroit insurance executive Lawrence Long and his firm, Long Insurance Services, and Detroit businesswoman Sherry Washington and three partners, among others.

Bobb said the suit, which seeks to get the district's money back, is "moving too slowly, and we look forward to it being resolved and those responsible being held accountable for their actions as quickly as possible."

Long's firm received the most money -- roughly $25 million in wire transfers. Although most of that, $15 million to $17 million, was for insurance premiums, the district claims the rest was for work that was "woefully inadequate" given the tab. DPS contends that Long also paid Hill a $115,000 kickback.

The FBI has been investigating the alleged fraud scheme since at least 2007, according to federal court records.

Hill could not be reached for comment. Attorney Benjamin Whitfield Jr., who represented Hill until earlier this month, said that Hill did nothing improper. Whitfield said that he has told by federal authorities that Hill is under investigation.

Polk-Osumah declined to be interviewed Friday.

Other records indicate that Washington and her partners also have come under scrutiny. Washington's Detroit office was raided by the FBI in 2007, as was an office run by her and her partners. She referred questions to her attorney, who did not return calls.

Two of the insurance companies say they are cooperating with federal investigators.

Randall Phillips, a Bingham Farms lawyer who represents Long Insurance and Lawrence Long, said Hill was paid for consulting work, not as a kickback. He said the allegations against Long and his company are false and they will be "vindicated when the case is brought to trial."

An expanding empire circumvents rules

Hill, who had performed risk management work for DPS in the mid-1990s, returned in 2001, when DPS created a separate department of risk management and named him director.
His office, at district headquarters in the Fisher Building, had fewer than five staffers, who primarily handled worker's compensation claims and district insurance policies.

Once on the job, Hill created two other offices: One was next door to Long's insurance office; another inside the offices of a second vendor, according to the school district's lawsuit.
Hill then began building his staff, eventually hiring 25 contract workers from Long's insurance office, the suit alleges.

Rather than using the district's information technology department, Hill created his own computer system that he used to hide improper financial transactions, the suit alleges.
Hill was able to circumvent the district's purchasing rules to approve more than $57 million in spending for unauthorized contracts through wire transfers, the suit alleges; often, the vendors were paid in full before they had performed any work.

Wire transfers were supposed to be used only for insurance payments, but Hill "falsely" convinced the district's cash management office that he had the authority to pay millions of dollars in wire transfers to vendors, the suit contends.

Delores Brown, who was in charge of the cash management office, has told district lawyers that she assumed that the payments were proper because they had been authorized by a department head. When she had questions, her boss, then-DPS chief financial officer Dori Freelain, approved the deals.

Freelain, who was also Hill's boss, had a sexual relationship with Hill at one point, Hill said in his deposition.


Freelain left the district in 2007. She has not given testimony in the lawsuit and her attorney did not return phone calls this past week.

Big vendors get millions in deals

Among the vendors who received millions of dollars in wire transfers were two large insurance and risk management companies: Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. of Itasca, Ill., and Marsh & McLennan Cos. of New York, court records show.

Hill awarded Gallagher more than $6 million to provide an emergency management information system to the district. Gallagher then converted the system to an electronic format that the district has never used. The district's chief of police testified that the system was obsolete.

The lawsuit alleges Gallagher had no written deal to provide these services, and knew Hill lacked the authority to approve such a contract.

The district alleges Hill approved some payments to Gallagher as he was seeking employment with the company and after he got the job.

In a statement to the Free Press, Gallagher said it earned what it was paid, and did not engage in any wrongful conduct.

Marsh received more than $17 million from 2002-08 for insurance and consulting services. The suit contends that Marsh intentionally billed inflated rates or commissions, and was paid for services the district didn't need. DPS contends Marsh's own records show that the company was paid for work that was never done.

Company spokesman Al Modugno said Marsh does not comment on pending litigation.

Trading up on jobs -- and cashing in

By 2005, Hill had a large staff, a $124,000 salary, and one very large honor. He was named risk manager of the year by the Public Risk Management Association, based in suburban Washington, D.C.

Around this time, Hill decided to leave DPS to take a series of lucrative jobs with vendors who had benefitted from his district contracts.

Court records show that in October 2005, Hill became an executive vice president at Gallagher & Co. in St. Clair Shores.

Before leaving, Hill attended the $40,000 going-away party.

Hill's new job paid well, a $200,000 salary with a $350-a-month car allowance.

But Hill found a way to boost his earnings even more. While working for Gallagher, he was paid $115,000 by Long Insurance to write a 15-page report on school security for then-Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick.

DPS calls the $115,000 payment a kickback for the lucrative contracts to Long's firm, which Long's lawyer disputes.

Within a year, in May 2006, Hill left Gallagher to become a senior vice president at Marsh & McLennan in Detroit, again making $200,000 a year.

While he was under salary to Marsh, the company loaned Hill back to DPS as an unpaid consultant; for a time, he resumed running the risk management department.

The arrangement created a classic conflict of interest, DPS attorneys now contend, particularly when Hill turned in a procurement form ordering the district to pay Marsh -- his employer -- a $450,000 "casualty consultant fee."

The lawsuit contends there was no approved contract for such a fee and that neither Hill nor his company intended to provide such services.

Hill left Marsh in June 2007, as DPS's investigation of risk management was under way.

A shower of gifts, an admitted affair

Meanwhile, Polk-Osumah -- Hill's alleged cohort in the wire fraud -- remained with the district until October 2006, when she was discharged, according to lawsuit records.

But she was not without work.

The suit contends she was given office space by New Bridge Multimedia Inc., which Hill had brought to the department for its IT work. From New Bridge's office, Polk-Osumah was able to access the school district's risk management database, and continue to perform risk management duties, the district claims.

At one point, New Bridge subcontracted with companies connected to Polk-Osumah's relatives, with Polk-Osumah dictating the language of the bills, the suit contends.

At various points in their working relationship, Polk-Osumah showered Hill with gifts, lawsuit records show.

Hill acknowledged in a deposition that in July 2005, when both were still at DPS, Polk-Osumah bought him a fully loaded 2005 Ford Mustang GT convertible, costing $47,000.


Six months later, in January 2006, after Hill left for Gallagher, she bought her former boss a $40,000 Dodge Durango.

At his deposition last September, Hill was asked why she would do that.

"I've asked that question myself many times," Hill answered. "She was very supportive and wished to provide me with that token." He testified that he also had an affair at one point with Polk-Osumah.

Court records show that in September 2006, Hill traded in the cars for a lease on a $112,000 Cadillac XLR with $5,990 in custom accessories.

Files disappear as suspicions grow

In February 2007, a Grand Rapids law firm was hired by the district to investigate risk management.

That month, an assistant to the executive director of risk management, Brenda Foster, suspected something was not right with the office.

When she arrived at work one morning that February, she said, she discovered a wire dangling from the ceiling in her office and connected to her computer hard drive. Her files had been deleted, and hard copies of correspondence and invoices that she considered questionable had been removed, Foster said in a sworn statement. She said the wire was gone the next morning, but she couldn't log on.

The next month, the Free Press reported that DPS had put Hill's former boss, Freelain, and Brown, the cash manager, on administrative leave, as it investigated irregularities in the risk management department. Freelain later was notified that her contract would not be renewed because of unspecified job performance issues. She sued for wrongful termination and settled a year ago, her lawyer, Jason Hegedus, said.

Patterns revealed as trial looms

The district eventually concluded that "Hill engaged in a pattern of abuse and waste of the school district's funds."

In addition to alleged kickback from Long Insurance, DPS contends Hill received kickbacks of up to $30,000 from Associates for Learning, a wellness company connected to downtown businesswoman Sherry Washington and her business partners.

According to the suit, Associates for Learning received $3.3 million to educate and motivate school district employees on the benefits of healthy living.

The suit contends Hill chose Washington's company without competitive bidding or a contract, to conceal the fraudulent scheme. The centerpiece of the wellness program was to have district employees participate in a health assessment survey. Fewer than 150 did so.

Today, Hill doesn't have a lawyer and is under federal investigation.

His former attorney, Benjamin Whitfield Jr., said Hill may end up representing himself at the trial, set for July.

"He's very intelligent, and he can handle himself very competently with respect to these allegations," Whitfield said. "Mr. Hill will be vindicated."
Contact JENNIFER DIXON: 313-223-4410 or [email protected]

The budget of the Detroit School System is just over a billion dollars so 57 million dollars over a five year period is about 1 percent of the budget.  Corruption had been rampant in the school system and there was very little oversight, but that's an awful lot for one man to steal without anyone catching on.

[Darth Wagtaros]

So we have to figure that at least 500 million dollars of the rest of the budget was also stolen and/or wasted. 

[Darth Wagtaros]

By a conservative estimate.

[HisMajestyBOB]

So we have to figure that at least 500 million dollars of the rest of the budget was also stolen and/or wasted.

So how exactly does Sav make all his money?