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

[Caliga]

Is this thread really still "temporary" or should we promote it to permanent status? 

[Kaeso]

Here's some good news for people who fret about the size of the US prison population 

Why are the jail cells empty?
Sheriff, prosecutor say crime isn't dropping but arrests by police are
BY JEFF GERRITT • FREE PRESS EDITORIAL WRITER • May 28, 2009

They should give the Public security to a private company... like OCP. 

[Savonarola]

Luckily they were able to save some money by eliminating the internal audit division four years ago:

DPS audit: $1.7M in taxes lost, sloppy bookkeeping
BY CHASTITY PRATT DAWSEY • FREE PRESS EDUCATION WRITER • June 3, 2009

Detroit Public Schools Emergency Financial Manager Robert Bobb released audit findings this morning that show sloppy bookkeeping at 189 of 194 school buildings and a suspected loss of $1.7 million in taxes the tax-exempt schools should not have paid.

The audits showed loans made to school officials using school funds, missing funds from activities, school funds diverted to personal accounts, principals writing and signing checks, untimely deposits and money taken home by staff.

Three cases involving high schools and two involving elementary schools have been turned over the district's inspector general, former FBI official John Bell.

"We have a reason to believe some of them probably will" be turned over to the prosecutor's office, Bobb said.

"How do you justify making loans to school officials?" he said.

Over a period of 21 days, 35 auditors investigated 194 schools that handle $2.5 million to $4 million in funds. Only five had "entirely proper bookkeeping," he said.

"My own assessment is it's not multimillions, it's just petty thieves and over time it adds up" Bobb said.

Major sporting events are the source of many complaints, Bobb said. For example, in instances where there are $5 ticket fees for major sporting events, $2 allegedly may make it to the school, he said.

Internal auditors will be posted at major events to ensure proper procedures are followed, Bobb said.

Odell Bailey, the district's auditor general, called the 21-day audit sweep "unprecedented." Bailey said it is the first district-wide, school-level audit in the four years since an internal audit department was eliminated.

While saying the financial problems may have cost the district $1.7 million in sales taxes, the district has not estimated the losses to the district due to misappropriations.

"We've audited every level of school," Bailey said. Auditors found "an environment devoid of basic controls...You could be looking at organized chaos," where staff try to cover theft.

Bobb called a $510,000 contract to a local firm to create an internal audit process "a waste of money that did not produce anything," but credited the school board for being "on the right track."

The school board hired the firm before Bobb took office in March. The process the auditor general created took less than a day, according to a statement Bobb released.

In an effort to show how some waste occurs, Bobb showed media nearly a dozen food-handling bins that were found unused at Schulze Elementary where a news conference was held this morning. Other such equipment is piling up at other schools, he said.

Also found were music facilities for keyboard classes, but no keyboards.

Furthermore, debris from the school that was demolished to build the current Schulze is under a mound with grass now growing over it. Bobb called the mound a hazard that could attract and injure playful children.

"That's a problem that must be corrected," he said.

Bailey said bookkeepers will receive annual training and those who handle the largest budgets will now report to the chief financial officer.

If there is anything that defines Detroit City Government it's the half a million dollar given to a Detroit-based firm to create a process that was never used; and a process that a state official could put together in a day.

[saskganesh]

annual training for bookkeepers sounds expensive. 

[The Brain]

Is this thread really still "temporary" or should we promote it to permanent status? 

They made Detroit permanent. I rest my case.

[Savonarola]

Finally, the Detroit Public Schools offer vocational training:

Mom says son, 11, handcuffed to door at Detroit school
Mark Hicks and Jennifer Mrozowski / The Detroit News
Detroit -- A Detroit Public Schools parent is considering legal action against the district after her son allegedly was handcuffed to a door at Sampson-Webber school for several hours Monday.

"It was really unnecessary to be done on a little boy," said Charmaine Hunt, whose 11-year-old son told about her about the incident Monday. "I'm not accepting that."

Hunt said about 11:40 a.m. Monday, her son, Antonio Hobson, a fourth grader at the school, was involved in a fight with another student.

She said he told her he suffered a bloodied nose and was restrained by a school security officer. But when he was deemed unruly, the principal, Regina Randall, ordered him to be handcuffed to a door in another room, Hunt said.

Randall, reached at home today, had no comment.

Hobson tried telling school officials he was hungry because he had not eaten lunch and had to use the restroom, Hunt said, but his requests initially were ignored.

"They fed him cereal and milk later on, like he's in prison or something," Hunt said, adding that her son's nose was struck when someone tried to reopen the door to the room.

The boy was released when school ended at 3:30 p.m., she said. Since learning of the incident, Hunt said she has kept her son at home, and is reluctant to send him back for the rest of the year.

"My son doesn't want to go back there. He's actually scared," Hunt said.

District spokesman Steve Wasko said he had no immediate information on the alleged incident. Hunt said two school officials -- a social worker and curriculum leader -- met with her Tuesday about the incident, saying they planned to file a complaint with the district. A call to the Detroit Public Schools' Department of Public Safety has not been returned.

An acting administrator at the school told a reporter: "There's a department at central office you contact for news," and hung up.

It also was unclear whether the other student involved in the alleged fight was disciplined.

Hunt said she plans to file a complaint, obtain an incident report, seek legal counsel and voice her concerns at a school board meeting today at the district's headquarters.

After hearing of the incident, school board member Marie Thornton said she met with Sampson-Webber staff on Wednesday to learn more.

Randall was absent, she said, and staff told her they were "fearful" of her. Thornton said the school's assistant superintendent, Sharon Appling, told her Monday's incident was being investigated.

Thornton said district officials have received complaints about Randall's conduct in the past, and Randall recently learned she would lose her position as part of emergency financial manager Robert Bobb's restructuring plan for DPS.

Thornton said she was "appalled" by the allegations and has contacted Bobb, acting district superintendent Teresa Gueyser and DPS general counsel about investigating and possible disciplinary action.

"You don't even handcuff a dog to the door," Thornton said. "It's not right."

[Neil]

"They fed him cereal and milk later on, like he's in prison or something,"

Detroit's public school system is doing an excellent job of preparing the children of Detroit for their future lives.

[charliebear]

We're #1! We're #1!   

http://realestate.msn.com/article.aspx?cp-documentid=19959696

[Savonarola]

Court records show ex-Cobo contractor bribed city official
Paul Egan / The Detroit News
Detroit -- A former Cobo Center contractor made illegal payments to an unnamed city of Detroit official and an associate of that official at the same time he was bribing former Cobo Center Director Lou Pavledes, according to court records released today. 

Karl Kado, 68, of West Bloomfield Township, was expected to enter a guilty plea to a charge of filing false tax returns before U.S. District Judge Marianne O. Battani.

According to a plea agreement, Kado "intentionally omitted ... about $130,000 in cash (income) for tax year 2002 and about $140,000 in cash for tax year 2003."

"One of the reasons defendant did not report these monies ... is that defendant used some or all of this unreported cash to make illegal payments to a city of Detroit official, an associate of that official and ... Pavledes," the plea agreement says. "Some of these payments were requested of defendant by the city official and the associate of that official."

The plea agreement suggests that other city officials are implicated in the Cobo scandal besides Pavledes and another former Cobo director, Glenn Blanton.

Both Pavledes and Blanton recently pleaded guilty to corruption charges and have admitted to taking bribes from Kado.

Kado faces federal sentencing guidelines of 12-18 months, but is expected to get less because he is cooperating with authorities.

Kado appeared for his arraignment today with his wife, Julie, one of his children and his attorney, Chris Andreoff.

The Cobo charges are part of a longstanding and wide-ranging FBI investigation of Detroit City Hall contracting.

Filing false tax returns is a three-year felony.

Kado held exclusive and lucrative electrical and janitorial contracts at the Cobo Center and also had a share of Cobo catering through his Metro Services Organization LLC and related companies.

Pavledes, who was Cobo director from 1996 until 2004, last year admitted to taking about $100,000 from Kado when Pavledes pleaded guilty to a felony financial charge related to the way he tried to conceal the bribe payment from federal authorities.

Blanton, who was Cobo director from November 2004 until February 2007, admitted to taking about $15,000 from Kado when he pleaded guilty in October to an obstruction of justice charge.

Both Pavledes and Blanton await sentencing before Battani.

It's unfair to jail him; bribing city officials is a legitimate business expense in Detroit.

[MadImmortalMan]

Is this thread really still "temporary" or should we promote it to permanent status? 

Done. At the time, we thought the board wasn't permanent.

[Savonarola]

At night, crews let Packard Plant burn
BY BILL MCGRAW • FREE PRESS COLUMNIST • June 9, 2009
That big plume of black smoke that filled the sky Monday night and was visible from downtown to the eastern suburbs?

It was just the Packard Plant burning.

Again.

And that fire is likely to be burning this morning, because the Packard Plant is too dangerous for Detroit firefighters to enter after dark, so they had to let it burn Monday night.

Fire crews are called to the massive and mostly abandoned complex about once a week, said Lt. Steve Kirschner of Engine Co. 23, which is stationed a few blocks west of the plant.


The fires stem from scrappers and their acetylene torches and people, many of them young, who like to explore the Packard Plant and think it's cool to set fires to the huge mounds of trash and other dumped debris in the complex's large rooms.

On Monday night, the black smoke came from thousands of wooden pallets, garbage and plastic tubing on the fourth floor of a six-story building a few hundred yards north of E. Grand Boulevard.

"We're going to let it burn itself out," Kirschner said. "We never go in at night. It's just not safe."

The Packard complex, designed by Albert Kahn starting in 1903, is located near Mt. Elliott and I-94. It consists of 3.5 million square feet of space in 43 interconnected buildings. Many of the buildings are filled with trash and dumped articles, including old pleasure boats and shoes. There is one small business that remains in the complex, a chemical-processing concern.

Kirschner said Engine 23 and other fire companies responded to a fire recently during the day and discovered about 25,000 square feet of shoes burning. The smoke, partially from the shoes' rubber and glue, was dangerous for the firefighters and anyone in the neighborhood who might have breathed it.

Hazardous-materials crews monitored the air Monday night and found no need for evacuations. The cause of the fire was not known, but firefighters were certain it was set. They called for an arson car, but none was available.


The Packard site is filled with tunnels, open sewers and collapsing walls and ceilings, often the result of scrappers cutting out I-beams. Last fall, two scrappers fell one story in a cloud of dust, cement slabs and bricks when they cut out a beam and the lower part of a covered bridge collapsed into an alley-like street, Bellevue Avenue. The scrappers limped away. The debris remains where it fell.

In 2007, the fire department warned its personnel about the Packard's dangers and had fire crews from across central Detroit tour the site to try to understand it, in case they were ever called to fight a blaze there.

A memo from the chief of department said the complex's roadways could collapse due to the weight of the rigs. It advised that fires should be fought from the outside of the building, shooting water inside.

While it is technically not abandoned, the Packard Plant is mind-numbing in its vastness, decay and the large trees growing from its roofs. It is totally open to trespass.

The complex is owned by a company called Bioresource Inc., which emerged with the title after a lengthy court battle with the City of Detroit. City officials say the firm has failed to pay Detroit taxes since it bought the plant in 1987. State records show Bioresource has not filed an annual report since 2000 and was declared dissolved by the state in 2003.


Contact BILL McGRAW at [email protected].

The Packard Plant is mammoth; it goes on for over a mile.  Packard shut down operations there in 1956 and it's been more or less deserted since then.   It's sad, but not surprising, that no other use was ever found for the complex beside trash dump and homeless shelter.

[Savonarola]

Meanwhile in the lifestyles of the pimp and infamous:

Kilpatrick's new home bigger than Manoogian
1st home left for one in gated community
BY JIM SCHAEFER and M.L. ELRICK • FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS • June 9, 2009

Kwame Kilpatrick, who claimed that he could spare only $6 a month for restitution to the City of Detroit, moved into a million-dollar home over the weekend that dwarfs the Manoogian Mansion.

At 5,866 square feet, Kilpatrick's new digs, which he is leasing in tony Southlake, Texas, are nearly 50% larger than the city-owned mansion he used to occupy as Detroit mayor, before the text message scandal cost him his job and his freedom. The Detroit mansion is just 4,004 square feet.

Kilpatrick's home is in a gated community and is listed for sale at $1.1 million. It has five bedrooms, five and a half baths, a game room, a study, a formal dining room and an inground pool.

Jim Carlisle, who owns the home, would not say how much the former mayor is paying to lease it. The Kilpatricks moved in Saturday, leaving their 2,839-square-foot rental home 3 miles away.

Kilpatrick's lawyer said there is a perfectly good explanation.

Why Kilpatricks moved to a new place
Kilpatrick's 6-month lease was up.

He was uncomfortable with people walking up and knocking on his door.

And someone else -- name withheld -- is helping him pay his new lease.

Those are reasons why Kilpatrick moved Saturday from a 2,800-square-foot home to one more than twice that size in a gated community about 3 miles away in Southlake, Texas, his lawyer, Michael Alan Schwartz, said Monday.

"His lease came up, what am I going to say?" said Schwartz, who didn't know about his client's move until informed by the Free Press. "Yeah, it would have been better at a different time ... but he's got to go on with living. He's got to go on with his life."

The timing refers to a Wayne County prosecutor's motion, filed last week, that asks Wayne County Circuit Judge David Groner to convene a hearing to dig into why Kilpatrick was late last month with his $6,000 restitution payment to the City of Detroit.

As part of his probation for his crimes in the text message scandal, Kilpatrick is under court order to repay $1 million to the city. As the Free Press first reported last week, Kilpatrick was $3,500 shy until he paid the balance Monday morning. He also made his full June payment one week early.

That, Schwartz said Monday, should be enough to stop any further proceedings against Kilpatrick.

Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy demanded to know, in her court filing, why the former mayor hasn't been charged with several probation violations related to his finances and an "alarming" travel request he made to go to the Middle East. Kilpatrick said it was for work, but his employer, Covisint, a subsidiary of Detroit-based Compuware, said he had no business for them in the Middle East. The trip never happened.


The Kilpatricks paid about $3,000 for the home they had been leasing in Southlake. It's unclear how much the new lease will cost.

Schwartz is appealing Groner's order earlier this year that Kilpatrick pay $6,000 a month to the city, saying that the former mayor has just $6 left over each month after expenses like a $900 car lease and his rent. Schwartz said Kilpatrick will be paying the same amount for his new lease, with a person Schwartz wouldn't identify paying the balance each month.

Peter Henning, a Wayne State University law professor and former federal prosecutor, said Kilpatrick's new posh digs are "a problem for prosecutors. They're not going to be happy with it. But when will the court step in, ultimately? That's really the question. And has he crossed the line?"

Worthy wasn't backing off Monday, setting up a potential showdown in court soon.

"We're awaiting a court date from the judge to discuss many issues related to defendant Kilpatrick," her spokeswoman, Maria Miller, said.

In a court motion in February, assistant prosecutor Robert Moran wrote that Kilpatrick "can reside in a more modest home until he meets his obligations to the court and the City of Detroit."

After his February jail release, Kilpatrick began work as an account executive at Covisint. His first-year salary is roughly $180,000, with the possibility of sales-related bonuses, company officials have said.

Neighbors already have noticed the Kilpatricks moving in. There were reports of vans at the home Saturday and new furniture deliveries.

"He has a 6-month lease on a house. That's my understanding," said Stuart Wood, president of the local homeowners association. "Our expectation and my expectation is that we will be good neighbors, and he will be a good neighbor. Hey, this is Texas. Everybody's friendly around here."


Rhonda Krupp, who lives across the street, said Monday, "I met their children, and they are delightful."

Wood, who also lives across the street but had not yet met the Kilpatricks, sent out an e-mail recently encouraging neighbors to welcome them. He said the street, which has 13 houses, is in one of the few gated communities in the area.

The new Kilpatrick home is in the same school district, so the three boys will be able to attend the same schools.

"Apparently, there are a lot of people there who just walk up to his house," Schwartz said of Kilpatrick's first Texas home. No threats have been made, but "it got to be a bit much" for the family.

"Why don't we give the man a fair chance," Schwartz pleaded, "to just do what he's got to do?"

Contact JIM SCHAEFER: 313-223-4542 or [email protected]

[Savonarola]

And another travel with Charlie:

American dream fades at Axle plant in Hamtramck
Charlie LeDuff / The Detroit News
Hamtramck

As the world focused on the collapse of General Motors Corp. and the goings-on at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and 1 Wall Street, a sad but not unrelated scene played out this week at 2140 Holbrook St.

At 5:57 a.m., Bill Alford, the president of UAW Local 235, shambled up the street to punch in for work at the American Axle & Manufacturing plant No. 8. He cut a pathetic figure Monday, one shoe untied and dressed in a hockey sweater with a large C embossed on the chest. C is for captain, but Alford is now the captain of almost nobody.

  As GM declared bankruptcy, more than 500 UAW workers employed at the plant here quietly received a letter by FedEx informing them that they were indefinitely laid off. Normally presidents of local unions do not go to work at the plant, as management prefers not to have labor agitators on its factory floors. But when there are too few employees to do the work, Alford is required by contract to return to the plant.

And so Alford had the task of operating a forklift, loading crates of tools and machinery onto a truck bound for Texas, he said.

"They don't want a middle class," said Alford, 34, standing in the rain, the shoe still untied, referring not only to the managers of American Axle, but also the owners of industry in general. "I see that in the future people will have to move to Mexico for a job. This is a dark day for the American laborer."

General Motors may be entering a new chapter in its life, but the American worker still confronts the little problem of NAFTA and the cheap Mexican and subsidized Canadian labor he cannot compete with.

The plant, which straddles Detroit and Hamtramck, is the largest in Axle's sprawling worldwide manufacturing complex. It mainly produces axles for GM's heavy-duty pickups, which accounts for about three-quarters of its sales. American Axle management plans to keep operations running at its plant in Guanajuato, Mexico, while all but shutting down in Hamtramck.

Since American Axle was spun off from General Motors and reconstituted in 1994, the union negotiates with American Axle, not GM, and does not get the sweetheart deal other UAW workers will get. In fact, Local 235 went on strike for three months last year and lost. It was a cold, bitter dispute, complete with fires in the oil drums. The unionized workers, numbering nearly 2,000 at the time, gave in to deep wage cuts, in some cases from $28 an hour to $14, in exchange for keeping their jobs. Apparently it was not enough. Fewer than 300 union members were working in the plant Monday.

In the meantime, Dick Dauch, the CEO and chairman of American Axle, was given an $8.5 million bonus by his board of directors after the strike and gave assurances to the workers and the city of Hamtramck that he would keep production here.

Dauch, who at least until the strike had a reputation for believing in the competitiveness of U.S. manufacturing, could not be reached by telephone. But he told The Detroit News in April that he was fed up with the absenteeism and entitlement-mindset of the Michigan worker. The union calls the claims a bald-face lie, an excuse to move south of the border.

Chris Son, the director of communications at American Axle, called late Wednesday to say that the layoffs are "fallout from the GM and Chrysler shutdowns." He also confirmed that the Mexicans will continue to work as the Americans are out on the street.

"For logistical reasons, a level of production will continue in Mexico," said Son. "At the same time, there will be lower production requirements in Detroit. Other than that, I have no further comment on that matter."

Automobile jobs are still an underpinning of the American economy. One auto factory job creates as many as eight or nine others, according to the Center for Automotive Research. Cars and car parts contribute most greatly to the American trade imbalance along with electronic merchandise.

And, according to the Economic Policy Institute, Big Three motor vehicle production in Mexico increased by 4 percent while falling in the United States and Canada by 25 percent in 2008. As of 2006, Michigan has lost more than 61,000 jobs due to NAFTA -- and counting, the institute says. Household income in Michigan continues to fall and American workers are left to wonder where it all fell off.

"I'm not ever going to buy another Chevy," said Jeff Johnson, who came to the union hall to get an explanation. Johnson received the layoff notice on his birthday, mistaking the FedEx package for a present. "I'm not buying another new car because I'm not ever going to be able to afford a new car."

"Who knows," said Bill Cooper, the flamboyant city manager of Hamtramck, outside city hall. "American Axle is going to cost anywhere from a half-million to $2 million dollars in revenue to the city if it shuts down completely. It would just kill us. Somebody turn out the lights."

Beleaguered Hamtramck -- an industrial hamlet of 22,000 people that is completely surrounded by the city of Detroit -- is increasingly becoming a town with too many mice and not enough men. A welfare office is scheduled to open on Joseph Campau Street, once a difficult concept in this working class town.

The mayor had her car stolen last month and two weeks ago an elderly city councilman, Al Shulgon, tried to beat off a carjacker with a cane. He failed and the carjacker made off with his jalopy.

"If they're carjacking junkers now, imagine what the future's going to look like around here without American Axle," Cooper said. "If you see Dick, have him call me, I can't get a hold of him."

[Berkut]

Damn those Canadians and their subsidized labor!

Who in the hell signed that damned NAFTA crap anyway?

[Savonarola]

Damn those Canadians and their subsidized labor!

I'm guessing he's refering to socialized medicine; a CAW laborer is cheaper than a UAW one because the company provides the American laborer with health care while the government provides the Canadian laborer with the same.  This isn't a fair comparison because the taxes in Ontario are higher than those in Michigan in part in order to provide socialized medicine.