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

[Savonarola]

Democracy at its finest:

Detroit council hears complaints about Cobo Center plan
Darren A. Nichols / The Detroit News
Detroit --The City Council has begun to discuss plans to expand Cobo Center this morning, reviving an often-controversial debate about the future of the facility and the North American International Auto Show.

About 100 residents are in the City Council's 13th floor auditorium for a public hearing that began at 10 a.m. The council isn't expected to make any decision today, just hear debate.

The first speaker was Annivory Calvert, a council candidate, who said she was speaking on behalf of her son, state Rep. Coleman A. Young II. She said there's been no appraisal of the land. Like most of the 20 speakers, she had a problem with the plan.

"It seems to be a hobby for them (in Lansing) to step on home rule," said Theo Broughton of Hood Research, a community group. "It seems to me there are whose who are circumventing the power of the City Council."

City resident Sylvia Williams called it "share cropper" legislation.

"This was lousy," said Williams, who has owned her home for 31 years. "It is of no benefit to the residents of Detroit."

The council shot down a plan earlier this year that would have transferred ownership to a regional authority that would oversee nearly $300 million in renovations to help keep the auto show in Detroit. Mayor Dave Bing has expressed confidence in a new plan that would allow the city to retain ownership and lease it to the authority for 30 years.

Bing isn't taking the proposal to the council, and members would need to muster six votes to defeat the proposal by Aug. 1. Otherwise, it goes into effect. Tom Barrow, a mayoral candidate in the Aug. 4 primary, criticized Bing for refusing to take the plan to the council.

"This slick, disrespectful grab of our jewel will devastate our city financially," Barrow said. "The cunning Oakland County Executive (L. Brooks Patterson) and his out-state friends do this now while we have a leadership that is weak and a council under duress and our citizens uninformed. In short, they display a heart thumping disregard for the people of Detroit. We cannot let this happen!"

If the council rejects the plan again, Oakland County will get funds to renovate a facility, publicly outlined as the Rock Financial Showplace in Novi, to host the show.

"Cobo Hall is the line in the sand," said Lester Little of the grassroots Call Em Out Coalition. "We need to expand Cobo Hall, but we need to vote this deal down. We don't need to regionalize (the facility)."

But some speakers favored the deal, including union representatives who said 7,000 members are dependent on a new deal for Cobo.

Home rule?  Is Detroit Michigan's Ulster? 

I'm pretty sure this deal will pass with Shrek Cockrel Jr. back on the council and Monica off it; but I think this article provides an illustrative example of why the council has the members it does.  The city loses money on Cobo Hall every year and has no ability to expand the facility; yet vocal community activists carry on like the state has given them a raw deal.

[Ed Anger]

Ohio should send some of its fine politicians to Michigan and help our brothers out. Youse can have Bob Taft, Sharrod Brown and Rhine McLin.

[Savonarola]

Ohio should send some of its fine politicians to Michigan and help our brothers out. Youse can have Bob Taft, Sharrod Brown and Rhine McLin.

Can we have Dennis Kucinich and Jerry Springer too?  They could join Bing and create a Mayoral Dream Team.

[Ed Anger]

Ohio should send some of its fine politicians to Michigan and help our brothers out. Youse can have Bob Taft, Sharrod Brown and Rhine McLin.

Can we have Dennis Kucinich and Jerry Springer too?  They could join Bing and create a Mayoral Dream Team.

Oh course! We wouldn't deny you our finest minds.

Rhine McLin could be in charge of funny hats.

[Valmy]

City resident Sylvia Williams called it "share cropper" legislation.

Well at least it is not slavery legislation.

Pretty soon they can move on to cheap industrial labor legislation.

[Savonarola]

Monica Conyers' wrist slap is wrong message
BY STEPHEN HENDERSON • FREE PRESS COLUMNIST • July 16, 2009

Someone in the local U.S. Attorney's Office may have some 'splainin to do.


They have it all backward in the ongoing city hall corruption probe.

Here's why.

Based on the indictment handed down Wednesday of political consultant Sam Riddle, it seems prosecutors believe Riddle and former Detroit City Councilwoman Monica Conyers were running a pretty robust shakedown operation.

The documents say they hit up a strip club owner for $25,000, extorted $20,000 each from a technology company and a restaurant, and tried to put the arm on a real estate developer.

Riddle's facing a slew of charges related to each of those acts, as well as his involvement with Conyers on the rotten Synagro sludge deal and some other stuff. By statute, he could face a sentence in excess of 100 (yes, one hundred) years.

But Conyers, if you'll remember, copped a plea a few weeks ago to one count of conspiracy in the Synagro deal. And even though she's mentioned about as often as Riddle in his indictment, she isn't being charged for any of the non-Synagro schemes they allegedly hatched. She faces 5 years max in federal prison -- one-twentieth of the time Riddle could get.

Sorry, but that doesn't make sense.

Conyers was the public official involved here, the one who took an oath to serve the public faithfully, and the one who had the power to deliver on any favors she and Riddle concocted to sell.

Small fish faces biggest punishment
At best, in the indictments Riddle appears as a glorified bagman, the go-between who did the face-to-face strong-arming and ferried the cash.

Of course, I understand how deals get made with prosecutors. The U.S. attorney reportedly had been trying to pinch Riddle for some time to get him to cooperate with the investigation. He told them to leap from the Belle Isle bridge.

Conyers obviously cooperated (though it's not clear to what extent) with prosecutors, in exchange for a plea deal.

So they'll try to pound Riddle for his obstinacy. And Conyers will get, by comparison, a wrist slap.

It may often be about who rolls first. But what kind of public message does that send in this case?

Federal prosecutors say this corruption probe is about clearing the crooks out of local government -- in Detroit and other jurisdictions.

"This is a battle against public corruption," thundered Andrew Arena of the FBI, in his best Eliot Ness intonation, when Conyers' plea was announced.

But if the public officeholders get better deals than the private citizens caught up in their shenanigans, it seems the battle has a fuzzy focus. In some ways, the message the feds send here is as important as the results they achieve.

If prosecutors believe, according to Riddle's indictment, that Conyers was at the center of a galling criminal enterprise, her plea deal should have reflected it.

I thought this editorial was interesting.  I thought it was strange that Monica wasn't charged when so much of the charges dealt with her wrong doing.

[charliebear]

Better to disband Detroit...

I wish I had a dollar for every time I said that very thing.  I'd be a wealthy woman by now.

[Savonarola]

Detroit's finest again on the case:

Police official: Escort for toys left in Jackson's memory is 'unacceptable'
Santiago Esparza / The Detroit News
Detroit -- Police officials criticized the use of a four-car police escort for two hearses jammed with stuffed animals in memory of Michael Jackson on Friday morning as it headed to Woodlawn Cemetery.

Detroit police officials couldn't say how much the escort cost the city, and Detroit Police 2nd Deputy Chief John Roach criticized the decision to provide it.

"There's no way to defend it," Roach said. "It's unacceptable. Clearly, this is not something that never should have happened."


The escort guided the hearses from the funeral procession through red lights.

Mourners had left the toys and other items at the Motown Museum on West Grand Boulevard since the singer died June 25. He was 50. After sitting outside for three weeks, the toys were not safe to donate to a children's museum or orphanage, museum CEO Audley Smith said.

"We have now concluded that it would be best to bury the items," Smith said Friday morning.

Roach said the decision to provide the escort was not made by senior command staff and is an example of changes that need to be made within the department.

Once at the cemetery, the toys were unloaded from the tops of the hearses and from boxes inside the vehicles. They were then placed into clear plastic bags and then inside donated vaults. The cemetery donated the equivalent of three graves for the vaults.

A donated gravestone detailed the singer's impact on the music industry and the world.

Jackson's songs from more than 40 years of performing played over speakers as a service was held. "Don't Stop Til You Get Enough" played as the hearses arrived and "Ben" as the service ended. About 50 people were present, but some were staff from the museum, Cole Funeral Home and the cemetery.

Lisy Henderson could not stifle tears when she looked at the gravestone.

"That is so nice," she said. "I am a devoted fan from back in the Jackson 5 days. He left a mark on my heart."

An exhibit will be established at the museum honoring Jackson and some of the items left in his memory will be put on display as part of it, Smith said.

Timothy Michael Vick of Ferndale was happy for the effort. He brought a photo he took of the singer in 1989 when Jackson visited Detroit with businessman Don Barden. Vick included photos of himself then and now in a frame containing the Jackson photo. The Ferndale man said his wife thinks he is crazy, but Jackson left a mark on his life he cannot forget.

"It just doesn't seem like he is gone," Vick said. "I think I cried more for him than when some family members passed."

Aunna Chamberlain of Detroit called Jackson's passing sad.

"I am 21 years old, and I look at him as a role model," she said. "He shaped the lives of so many."

Chamberlain's 6-year-old brother, Colin, amused the crowd with an array of Jackson's signature dance moves from the "Thriller" music video.

"I know all the songs," Colin said, showing his fancy moves. "Look, 'Thriller.' "

I demand we find a scapegoat for this outrage.  Detroit PD should not rest until they fire innocent officers or city council candidates find a way to blame this on white suburbanites.   

[Savonarola]

Apparently crime does not pay:

Tax debts, money woes hound Detroit council members
Members face trouble, but experts torn on what it means for city
BY M.L. ELRICK • FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER • July 19, 2009

Read Comments(136)Recommend(6)Print E-mail this article Letter to editor Share Del.icio.us
Detroit City Council members are paid about $81,000 a year and have free use of a Ford Crown Victoria, but the money and perks don't go very far when you're saddled with liens for more than a quarter-million dollars in back taxes.

Paying off her tax bill had been a challenge for Martha Reeves even before she was elected to City Council in 2005. She is one of several council members who have faced financial difficulty.

The lead singer of Martha Reeves & the Vandellas was slapped with an Internal Revenue Service lien amounting to $69,565 in 2003. Late in 2006, after taking a seat on the City Council, Reeves was hit with another federal tax lien for $193,167. The Michigan Treasurer joined the act in 2008, putting a lien for $7,392 on Reeves. And on May 27, the IRS tacked on another lien for $9,470.

The grand total? Nearly $280,000.

It's not clear how much of that Reeves still owes because neither the IRS nor the state Treasury Department will discuss a taxpayer's situation. When the taxes are paid up, a lien release will be filed.

It's also not clear how much Reeves earns from singing engagements at home and overseas. She did not return calls seeking comment.

More than just Reeves
A Free Press investigation of Detroit's City Council reveals that Reeves is one of five council members who have had trouble at times managing their own budgets.

With the city's $1.6-billion general fund budget facing a deficit as high as $300 million, the council members' own lack of financial savvy raises questions about their ability to help steer the city through these difficult times.

Consider:

• Barbara-Rose Collins, a longtime elected official who has served in Congress and on the Detroit school board, had federal and state tax liens totaling nearly $108,000 placed on her home after she was elected to the council in 2001. She has since paid the back income taxes.

• Alberta Tinsley-Talabi, a 15-year council veteran, has a history of failing to pay all of her taxes on time. While on the council in 2004, she paid $2,800 to a collection agency the city hired to recoup delinquent taxes. Some of Tinsley-Talabi's unpaid taxes dated to 1995. The Wayne County Treasurer initiated forfeiture proceedings on two buildings she owns, but the councilwoman was able to retain them after paying back taxes.

• Monica Conyers, who recently resigned from the council after pleading guilty to a bribery charge, had an east-side home she owns enter forfeiture proceedings in April. Conyers kept the home after paying $465 in back taxes and penalties.

• Kwame Kenyatta, elected in 2005, walked away from his home on Bretton after his family's income dropped and his mortgage increased, resulting in a default.

Council President Ken Cockrel Jr. said he wasn't aware of his colleagues' problems, but said significant financial woes could be a concern for Detroiters.

"I think anybody can relate to having some financial difficulties that cause you to fall behind on certain bills, including a house note or property taxes," Cockrel said.

"When the outstanding debt begins to rise into the tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands, that does become a problem in my view. Because as council members, we're responsible for overseeing a budget of hundreds of millions of dollars.

"I think a valid question for voters to ask is, 'Can we trust certain people to be good stewards of tax money when they're not being good stewards of their own?' "

Experts weigh in
Two experts offer different views on how members' personal financial troubles may affect their ability to work through Detroit's fiscal crisis.

"It's a warning sign that citizens and voters should be at least considering," said Eric Scorsone, a Michigan State University professor of state and local government who runs workshops for newly elected county commissioners.

"While I don't think it's impossible that someone who has financial problems could successfully manage a government ... one does need to have some financial literacy ... and actually government is far more complicated because of the way it's managed," said Scorsone, who has also worked as an economic adviser at the state and local level in Colorado.

Joe Harris, a former city auditor general who served as the city's chief financial officer in late 2008 and early 2009, said he isn't so sure -- despite his past frustration in getting the council to enact financial reforms.

Harris said the council has resisted some of the strong medicine he prescribed to help alleviate the city's budget ills.



"That went over like a lead balloon," he recalled.

But while he questioned the wisdom of a couple of council members, he cautioned against concluding that they were unable to help balance the city's budget because of their individual financial problems.

"Each situation is different. To generalize about a set of people based on different circumstances for each one is probably unfair," Harris said.

Tinsley-Talabi attributed her tax problems to renters who fell behind on their payments. She said she has empathy for people who have trouble making ends meet.

"You probably could find reporters, you probably could find lawyers, you probably could find accountants who've had challenges," she said. "In a perfect world, none of us would have any of those. But we don't live in a perfect world. Does it mean we're human? It sure does."

'I pay my taxes on time'
Collins attributed her tax woes to a misunderstanding over what would happen when she withdrew her 401(k) money. She said the IRS wasn't very sympathetic when she tried to work it out.

She attributed the city's budget problems to the mayor's office, which she said is responsible for drafting the budget. Council members do not have the expertise to do that, though they can rely on their staff for guidance, Collins said, adding that Detroiters are well-served by the council.

"I don't believe in the elitist-type government where you can't elect anybody to serve unless they have a CPA degree," she said, referring to certified public accountants. "I think our founding fathers wanted someone who lives next door to you -- peers. And that's what we" have.

Conyers denied that her east-side property had been forfeited for unpaid taxes, despite a document from the Wayne County Treasurer showing that the property was forfeited on March 1 for unpaid 2007 taxes, and another document showing that Conyers retained the property after paying $465 on June 16.

"It was never forfeited. I pay my taxes on time," she said before refusing to discuss the matter further.

Kenyatta said the circumstances that cost him his home are no different than what many people are experiencing.

He declined to discuss the specific problems of his colleagues, but said those problems, coupled with recent allegations of public corruption -- most notably Conyers' guilty plea to accepting a bribe for her vote supporting a 2007 city sludge-hauling contract -- could affect the public's confidence in the council.

"That could be a concern that maybe because of personal finances people would be more susceptible to taking money under the table," Kenyatta said. "But I think it depends on the individual council person and how they take care of ... the people's trust."

True public servants?
He said the biggest problem council members have had in assessing the city's budget predicament is gaining access to accurate information from city officials who work for the mayor and do not answer to the council.

As for council members' personal financial problems, Kenyatta said it may just be a matter of priorities.

"True public servants," he said, "take care of the people's business quicker than they take care of" themselves.

I hope Detroiters re-elect Monica, the news won't be half as amusing without her.   

[Ed Anger]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSp2KGMQEk8

[MadImmortalMan]

"I think a valid question for voters to ask is, 'Can we trust certain people to be good stewards of tax money when they're not being good stewards of their own?' "

Well now that's a pretty valid question to ask I think. Yes, voters should probably contemplate asking themselves that question.

[Savonarola]

We're gearing up for another gold medal:

Detroit murders up, police chief says

Evans vows accurate tally, better police response

Charlie LeDuff and Santiago Esparza / The Detroit News
Detroit crime numbers, already among the highest in the nation, are expected to balloon this year as a result of dramatically increasing homicides and chronic underreporting of violence in previous years, said Warren C. Evans, the new chief of police.

The growing homicide rate -- already nearly 20 percent higher in 2009 than even revised totals from last year -- and the disturbing revelation that perhaps as many as 20 percent of violent crimes are not logged by the Detroit Police Department are his top priorities, said Evans, who took command two weeks ago.

"It's the Wild West out there," said Evans in an interview with The Detroit News about the city's violent crime problem.

According to Evans, 216 people had been slain in Detroit this year as of Thursday, putting the city on pace for as many as 450 for the year. Over the same period in 2008, there were 181 homicides and 375 for the year, giving Detroit the highest murder rate in the nation.

As a comparison, New York City had suffered 200 homicides through July 1. New York City has nearly 10 times the population of Detroit and 17 times more police officers.

Evans said he has noticed an unacceptable undercounting of violent crimes in a random sampling of police records.

The problem, Evans said, is an overwhelmed force that does not respond in a timely fashion to emergency calls.

"It usually happens at shift change," Evans said. "Guys come in the afternoon, and there is a backlog of 25 runs. If they don't get to those calls and don't write a report, the crime never gets counted. That's got to change. That's going to change."

As a consequence, citizens should expect to see a spike in crime statistics even if actual crime goes down under his stewardship, said Evans.

Undercounting crime is a chronic problem with the department. Earlier this month, the city changed its 2008 homicide tally from 306 to 375 after a Detroit News investigation showed that the Police Department has systematically undercounted murder for years.

"I do agree that homicides are up and crime reporting is down," Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said. "I am buoyed by the fact that the numbers are being examined. It is also my earnest hope that they will also take a long hard look at the (homicide) clearance rate as well."

The Rev. Nicholas Hood III, a former city councilman who called for, but never received, a federal investigation into the city's crime statistics in 2000, called the push for an accurate count of crime "a very healthy development."

"For too long, we've pretended that things are better than they really are," said Hood. "The minute we have a true acknowledgement of the problem is the minute we can take appropriate measures to address the problem."

Evans inherited a department that is underfunded and dispirited. He is the city's third chief of police in less than a year and serves Dave Bing, the city's third mayor in less than a year.

What is more, the department has been under federal monitoring since 2003, after a Justice Department investigation documented violations of civil rights through police brutality, detention of homicide witnesses and unsafe holding cells where many prisoners died. A federal judge Friday blasted the department's lack of compliance as "grossly inadequate" and extended monitoring beyond 2011.

Evans unveiled new policies to the Board of Police Commissioners last week.

One of those policies takes effect today: towing the vehicles of unlicensed drivers in high-crime areas. Evans said that at least 3 in 10 murders are committed during a drive-by shooting.

"Because we don't have the beds to put them in, we can't arrest them," Evans said of unlicensed drivers. "They know it's catch-and-release. They know we're not taking them to jail, and we know we're not. But if you take their car, who wants to walk home through a strange neighborhood in the middle of the night? Make it so they can't drive around causing mayhem. It's low-hanging fruit."

Evans said one of his plans to dampen crime is to get more officers on the streets. He wants the department to contract with the Wayne County Jail to handle prisoners, allowing him to close city jails and partially crawl out from federal supervision.

"It would put 90 officers on the street," Evans said. "That is almost a full precinct's strength."

Evans was the Wayne County sheriff when he ran unsuccessfully against Bing earlier this year for mayor. Weeks later, Bing appointed him as Detroit's chief of police, succeeding James Barren.

IIRC in the worst days of Prohibition and The Purple Gang Detroit had under 50 muders (and about the same population as today.)

[Valmy]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSp2KGMQEk8

The best part of that is the comments where the Michganers are all like 'LEAVE DETROIT ALONE!  YOU ARE LUCKY THEY EVEN LEAD THE NATION IN MURDERS FOR YOU BASTARDS!'

[Ed Anger]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSp2KGMQEk8

The best part of that is the comments where the Michganers are all like 'LEAVE DETROIT ALONE!  YOU ARE LUCKY THEY EVEN LEAD THE NATION IN MURDERS FOR YOU BASTARDS!'

Best one:

i went there this past weekend and it was pretty much like that LOL

It was also scary being the ONLY white person inside of the mall. Im not a racist person, but I knew that I was not wanted there. I got so many bad looks from people.

[Neil]

That was before Detroit fell to a culture that embraces crime and honour killings.