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Topic: Can Genesee County corruption match Wayne County

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untanglingwebs
El Supremo

http://www.mlive.com/news/detroit/index.ssf/2015/02/feds_conclude_wayne_county_inv.html

Feds conclude Wayne County investigation with no new corruption charges


An investigation that led to prison time for several top aides of former Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano came to a close Monday, Feb. 9, 2015.

Khalil AlHajal | kalhajal@mlive.com By Khalil AlHajal | kalhajal@mlive.com
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on February 09, 2015 at 10:49 AM, updated February 09, 2015 at 3:59 PM


Federal prosecutors announced Monday that an investigation that led to prison time for several former top aides of former Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano has ended.

(File photo)

DETROIT, MI -- U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade announced Monday that a years-long investigation that resulted in prison time for several former officials and employees of Michigan's largest county has come to an end.

Five people went to prison for bribery, wire fraud and obstruction of justice in the county corruption probe, including to two top aides of former Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano, who denied wrongdoing during his 12 years in office and was never charged.

(Gallery: A look back at the corruption investigation that sent five employees of Michigan's largest county to prison)

McQuade has long made clear that more charges were a possibility, and she said late last year that the investigation was winding down with final decisions being made on whether additional charges would be filed.

Monday's announcement means there won't be any more indictments stemming from that investigation.

Ficano ran for re-election again last year, but lost to current County Executive Warren Evans, who has been reviewing finances and preparing for dramatic cost-cutting moves.

(Related: Michigan's largest county is 15 months from running out of cash, executive says)

The following Wayne County government workers were sent to prison as a result of the corruption investigation:




•Michael Grundy, a former assistant county executive who was fired in 2011 when the investigation came to light, was sentenced to seven years, six months in prison last July after pleading guilty to wire fraud.

•Tahir Kazmi, Wayne County's former chief information officer, was sentenced to four years and nine months in prison after pleading guilty to accepting more than $70,000 in gifts and bribes.

•Keith Griffin, a former county contractor, was the first plead guilty in the case and was sentenced to seven years in prison for wire fraud.

•Zayd Allebban, a former county employee in the technology department, was sentenced to three years, five months in prison in September 2013 after being convicted of obstruction of justice in connection with the investigation of a computer software contract.

•David Edward, a former deputy chief information officer, was sentenced to a year and one day in prison in September of 2013 after pleading guilty to accepting more than $13,000 in bribes from a county software contractor.


Last edited by untanglingwebs on Wed Jun 03, 2015 11:03 pm; edited 1 time in total
Post Wed Jun 03, 2015 10:13 pm 
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo

When the Genesee County Commissioners proposed the no bid contract for Phil Shaltz's company to study Procurement in the county it was opposed by Commissioner Ted Henry (8th). At the time Henry correctly realized the stage could be set for this company to theoretically study the issue and then make a bid for the contract.

If you look at the previous article most of the violations involved contract and procurement services. In my opinion allowing an outside entity with possible conflicts of interest to control procurement is tantamount to creating an environment conducive to fraud and kickbacks. The county was supposed to be looking at merging procurement with Oakland County or another government entity.
Post Wed Jun 03, 2015 10:25 pm 
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo

Failed Wayne County jail still costs $1 million a month

May 23, 2015 ... Two years after construction was halted because of ballooning expenses, the
failed Wayne County jail project is still costing taxpayers more ...

http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/wayne/2015/05/23/costs-adding-fail-jail/27849475/ - 269k - Cached - Similar Pages
Post Wed Jun 03, 2015 10:29 pm 
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo

Two years after construction was halted because of ballooning expenses, the failed Wayne County jail project is still costing taxpayers more than $1 million a month.

The county broke ground on what was supposed to be a $300-million state-of-the-art jail in downtown Detroit four years ago. But today the site is still a pile of steel and concrete — fenced and guarded — with construction costs of $151 million.

And the tab for taxpayers only grows, with no end in sight.

Related: Time line of the jail project development

The jail project costs Wayne County an average of $1.2 million every month. That's quite a burden for a county struggling to corral a financial crisis that has prompted speculation about eventual state oversight or bankruptcy, a county that is struggling to correct a $52-million structural deficit and a pension system funded at only 44%.

Related: Some cost numbers on the failed Wayne County jail project

How close is County Executive Warren Evans' administration to making a decision on what to do with the jail project?

Not close, according to Lloyd Jackson, a spokesman for Evans.

"Due to the county's financial state, anything done on the Gratiot jail will just add to the deficit. Once the deficit has been solved, the county can move forward with options on whether to finish the Gratiot site or renovate the three existing jails. As the county makes progress on its recovery plan, it will better be able to solve the jail issue," Jackson said via e-mail.

The proposed recovery plan unveiled in April envisions $230 million in cuts over four years, including changes to pensions, health care, wages and other benefits, which union leadership calls draconian.

Still, the county has burned through much of the money that was borrowed to build the jail, and it spends $1.2 million each month from its general fund. Officials say $49 million is left from the $200 million in bonds the county issued for the unfinished project at Gratiot and St. Antoine overlooking I-375 in downtown Detroit. It's a number that appeared to stun Wayne County Commissioner Abdul (Al) Haidous, D-Wayne, this month as commissioners discussed jail costs.

"Wow, we're running out of the money, and we don't have the jail," Haidous said, adding that he needs help understanding what's going on.

So just where is the money going?

The county spends an average of $54,610 each month on so-called service costs, including security ($10,849), sump pump maintenance ($12,852), and electricity to the site ($4,000).

Part of that total ($15,000) also pays for lease on storage space for 111 precast jail cells that are being stored on private property in River Rouge. The county even pays insurance each month ($4,652) in case work restarts at the Gratiot site, according to the county.

But the major expense is the $1.1 million the county pays each month in interest and principal payments toward the bonds.

There's also concern that the county could be required to pay back the $3.9-million yearly federal tax subsidy it receives on the annual debt payment because of the type of bonds involved — Recovery Zone General Obligation bonds — if the jail is not built.

Regardless, the county is scheduled to continue payments on those bonds at 6.22% interest until December 2040.

But ending the bleeding is complicated.

Evans has suggested that finishing the jail at the Gratiot site might turn out to be the most cost-effective option, but as his spokesman indicated earlier, that decision will take time.

Earlier options have been sidelined. A proposal to instead create a justice complex at the former Mound Correctional Facility on Detroit's east side was rejected because it was considered cost-prohibitive. And an offer to sell the Gratiot site — an offer of $20 million from billionaire businessman Dan Gilbert — was considered too low.

How county got here

After years of suggesting the current jail facilities were outdated, decrepit and overcrowded, the Wayne County Commission approved the jail project in late 2010. The board immediately turned control over to the five-member Wayne County Building Authority board, which oversees the county's property holdings. Ground was broken for the new jail in September 2011 under the leadership of former sheriff and then-County Executive Robert Ficano.

The Building Authority board members, who are not paid, were appointed by Ficano.

But oversight soon began to unravel as one authority member never attended a meeting, according to meeting minutes, and another left the board in December 2011, leaving it to just three members.

On Feb. 9, 2012, Steven Collins, then-assistant corporation counsel for Wayne County, asked the three members to approve a resolution delegating much of their authority to the county's then-Chief Financial Officer Carla Sledge.

Soon after, scandals enveloped the Ficano administration — unrelated to the jail project — involving alleged fraud, bribes and at least one generous severance payment to a former employee. An FBI probe resulted in the eventual indictment and conviction of some of Ficano's appointees. Ficano was never charged with a crime.

Meanwhile, questions soon arose as to how much the new jail would end up costing taxpayers as cost overruns began to pile up. And, at the same time, many of the Building Authority's monthly meetings where construction managers would give updates on the project's progress were being canceled.

After construction managers said the jail could cost as much as $391 million — $91 million over budget — a 60-day halt in construction was ordered in June 2013, and construction was officially stopped two months later.

An audit ordered by the county concluded, among other things, that project manager AECOM was required to design the project within the initial $220-million guaranteed maximum price. But bids received for work on the project made it apparent that the $220 million would be exceeded. (The remaining $80 million was for furnishings and other costs associated with the jail).

Based on the contract, AECOM was to work with Walbridge, the construction manager of the project, to redesign or scale back elements to bring the cost in under $220 million. Hubbell, Roth & Clark, the firm that conducted the audit, said it did not find evidence that such efforts occurred. It also said $42.3 million in construction expenditures approved by project managers AECOM and Ghafari Associates were not approved by the Building Authority.

An internal audit, performed by former Auditor General Willie Mayo's staff at the request of Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy has not been released, something county commissioners and others have been challenging. Worthy has said the audit could be considered evidence in any criminal case resulting from the project. A judge ordered that the audit's findings be kept secret.

In September, Sledge and Collins and former construction manager Anthony Parlovecchio were indicted in Wayne County on charges related to the jail project. All three are awaiting trial.

Forging ahead

Decrepit conditions at the jails have been well-documented.

A crumbling and uncleanable kitchen floor, drain fly larvae and "organic matter" in cramped inmate showers, nonfunctioning elevators and cooling problems in the summer are a few of the issues Wayne County Circuit Judge Timothy Kenny detailed in an opinion in January.

Those kinds of problems festered because preventive maintenance was effectively stopped in anticipation of the new jail opening in 2014 that would feature, among other things, a tunnel that would connect it to the Frank Murphy Hall of Justice.

With the new jail unfinished, county commissioners on Thursday approved up to $333,555 for a study of conditions at the three existing jail facilities and the Frank Murphy Hall of Justice. That expense was promptly met with criticism from union officials.

"What kind of world do we live in where county politicians take money from working people to spend on contractors to do another study on a jail system we already know is broken and sits unfinished in the middle of downtown Detroit," Al Garrett, president of Michigan American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 25, said in statement issued to news media. "The county is just throwing more money away on studies where we already know the answers. One plus one will equal two every time. We don't need to spend $300,000 to tell us the jails need to be upgraded when there is one that sits half built and rotting away in downtown Detroit," said Garrett.

The study would direct contractor DLZ Michigan of Melvindale to "determine the remaining life of each building component" and set up a preventive maintenance schedule and cost estimates to extend the life of the facilities for five, 10 and 20 years, according to information provided to the commission.

Still looming is the internal audit of the failed jail project.

Officials like Commissioner Raymond Basham, D-Taylor, question how they can be expected to make appropriate decisions about the future of the jail without access to an audit completed in 2013 that has been under wraps because of a criminal investigation.

"There are a million questions and very few answers," Basham said.

Contact Eric D. Lawrence: elawrence@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter: @_ericdlawrence.
Post Wed Jun 03, 2015 10:32 pm 
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo

The new Metroplex Plan put forth by Genesee County Commissioner Jaime Curtis could encounter similar cost overruns. While some plans are already drawn up and cost estimates are in the preliminary stages, things could change quickly.

There is so much construction going on in southeast Michigan that the largest concrete company is not bidding jobs here. Additionally there is a shortage of some of the main ingredients needed to make concrete. This issue could lead to cost overruns.

If anyone really looked at government projects in the city and county, they would realize there are a lot of failed projects.
Post Wed Jun 03, 2015 10:45 pm 
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo

The new Metroplex is supposed to go east from the current Circuit Court. But f there is to be a tunnel to the jail for prisoners, this makes no sense. I suspect another site.
Post Wed Jun 03, 2015 10:48 pm 
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo

Failed Wayne County jail still costs $1 million a month

May 23, 2015 ... Two years after construction was halted because of ballooning expenses, the
failed Wayne County jail project is still costing taxpayers more ...

http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/wayne/2015/05/23/costs-adding-fail-jail/27849475/ - 269k - Cached - Similar Pages


Two years after construction was halted because of ballooning expenses, the failed Wayne County jail project is still costing taxpayers more than $1 million a month.

The county broke ground on what was supposed to be a $300-million state-of-the-art jail in downtown Detroit four years ago. But today the site is still a pile of steel and concrete — fenced and guarded — with construction costs of $151 million.

And the tab for taxpayers only grows, with no end in sight.

Related: Time line of the jail project development

The jail project costs Wayne County an average of $1.2 million every month. That's quite a burden for a county struggling to corral a financial crisis that has prompted speculation about eventual state oversight or bankruptcy, a county that is struggling to correct a $52-million structural deficit and a pension system funded at only 44%.

Related: Some cost numbers on the failed Wayne County jail project

How close is County Executive Warren Evans' administration to making a decision on what to do with the jail project?

Not close, according to Lloyd Jackson, a spokesman for Evans.

"Due to the county's financial state, anything done on the Gratiot jail will just add to the deficit. Once the deficit has been solved, the county can move forward with options on whether to finish the Gratiot site or renovate the three existing jails. As the county makes progress on its recovery plan, it will better be able to solve the jail issue," Jackson said via e-mail.

The proposed recovery plan unveiled in April envisions $230 million in cuts over four years, including changes to pensions, health care, wages and other benefits, which union leadership calls draconian.

Still, the county has burned through much of the money that was borrowed to build the jail, and it spends $1.2 million each month from its general fund. Officials say $49 million is left from the $200 million in bonds the county issued for the unfinished project at Gratiot and St. Antoine overlooking I-375 in downtown Detroit. It's a number that appeared to stun Wayne County Commissioner Abdul (Al) Haidous, D-Wayne, this month as commissioners discussed jail costs.

"Wow, we're running out of the money, and we don't have the jail," Haidous said, adding that he needs help understanding what's going on.

So just where is the money going?

The county spends an average of $54,610 each month on so-called service costs, including security ($10,849), sump pump maintenance ($12,852), and electricity to the site ($4,000).

Part of that total ($15,000) also pays for lease on storage space for 111 precast jail cells that are being stored on private property in River Rouge. The county even pays insurance each month ($4,652) in case work restarts at the Gratiot site, according to the county.

But the major expense is the $1.1 million the county pays each month in interest and principal payments toward the bonds.

There's also concern that the county could be required to pay back the $3.9-million yearly federal tax subsidy it receives on the annual debt payment because of the type of bonds involved — Recovery Zone General Obligation bonds — if the jail is not built.

Regardless, the county is scheduled to continue payments on those bonds at 6.22% interest until December 2040.

But ending the bleeding is complicated.

Evans has suggested that finishing the jail at the Gratiot site might turn out to be the most cost-effective option, but as his spokesman indicated earlier, that decision will take time.

Earlier options have been sidelined. A proposal to instead create a justice complex at the former Mound Correctional Facility on Detroit's east side was rejected because it was considered cost-prohibitive. And an offer to sell the Gratiot site — an offer of $20 million from billionaire businessman Dan Gilbert — was considered too low.

How county got here

After years of suggesting the current jail facilities were outdated, decrepit and overcrowded, the Wayne County Commission approved the jail project in late 2010. The board immediately turned control over to the five-member Wayne County Building Authority board, which oversees the county's property holdings. Ground was broken for the new jail in September 2011 under the leadership of former sheriff and then-County Executive Robert Ficano.

The Building Authority board members, who are not paid, were appointed by Ficano.

But oversight soon began to unravel as one authority member never attended a meeting, according to meeting minutes, and another left the board in December 2011, leaving it to just three members.

On Feb. 9, 2012, Steven Collins, then-assistant corporation counsel for Wayne County, asked the three members to approve a resolution delegating much of their authority to the county's then-Chief Financial Officer Carla Sledge.

Soon after, scandals enveloped the Ficano administration — unrelated to the jail project — involving alleged fraud, bribes and at least one generous severance payment to a former employee. An FBI probe resulted in the eventual indictment and conviction of some of Ficano's appointees. Ficano was never charged with a crime.

Meanwhile, questions soon arose as to how much the new jail would end up costing taxpayers as cost overruns began to pile up. And, at the same time, many of the Building Authority's monthly meetings where construction managers would give updates on the project's progress were being canceled.

After construction managers said the jail could cost as much as $391 million — $91 million over budget — a 60-day halt in construction was ordered in June 2013, and construction was officially stopped two months later.

An audit ordered by the county concluded, among other things, that project manager AECOM was required to design the project within the initial $220-million guaranteed maximum price. But bids received for work on the project made it apparent that the $220 million would be exceeded. (The remaining $80 million was for furnishings and other costs associated with the jail).

Based on the contract, AECOM was to work with Walbridge, the construction manager of the project, to redesign or scale back elements to bring the cost in under $220 million. Hubbell, Roth & Clark, the firm that conducted the audit, said it did not find evidence that such efforts occurred. It also said $42.3 million in construction expenditures approved by project managers AECOM and Ghafari Associates were not approved by the Building Authority.

An internal audit, performed by former Auditor General Willie Mayo's staff at the request of Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy has not been released, something county commissioners and others have been challenging. Worthy has said the audit could be considered evidence in any criminal case resulting from the project. A judge ordered that the audit's findings be kept secret.

In September, Sledge and Collins and former construction manager Anthony Parlovecchio were indicted in Wayne County on charges related to the jail project. All three are awaiting trial.

Forging ahead

Decrepit conditions at the jails have been well-documented.

A crumbling and uncleanable kitchen floor, drain fly larvae and "organic matter" in cramped inmate showers, nonfunctioning elevators and cooling problems in the summer are a few of the issues Wayne County Circuit Judge Timothy Kenny detailed in an opinion in January.

Those kinds of problems festered because preventive maintenance was effectively stopped in anticipation of the new jail opening in 2014 that would feature, among other things, a tunnel that would connect it to the Frank Murphy Hall of Justice.

With the new jail unfinished, county commissioners on Thursday approved up to $333,555 for a study of conditions at the three existing jail facilities and the Frank Murphy Hall of Justice. That expense was promptly met with criticism from union officials.

"What kind of world do we live in where county politicians take money from working people to spend on contractors to do another study on a jail system we already know is broken and sits unfinished in the middle of downtown Detroit," Al Garrett, president of Michigan American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 25, said in statement issued to news media. "The county is just throwing more money away on studies where we already know the answers. One plus one will equal two every time. We don't need to spend $300,000 to tell us the jails need to be upgraded when there is one that sits half built and rotting away in downtown Detroit," said Garrett.

The study would direct contractor DLZ Michigan of Melvindale to "determine the remaining life of each building component" and set up a preventive maintenance schedule and cost estimates to extend the life of the facilities for five, 10 and 20 years, according to information provided to the commission.

Still looming is the internal audit of the failed jail project.

Officials like Commissioner Raymond Basham, D-Taylor, question how they can be expected to make appropriate decisions about the future of the jail without access to an audit completed in 2013 that has been under wraps because of a criminal investigation.

"There are a million questions and very few answers," Basham said.

Contact Eric D. Lawrence: elawrence@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter: @_ericdlawrence.
Post Wed Jun 03, 2015 10:51 pm 
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo

Wayne County Jail criminal case appears to be faltering

May 8, 2015 ... The criminal case against two officials involved in the botched Wayne County Jail
construction project appeared to be faltering Friday, with the ...

http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2015/05/08/wayne-county-jail/26996669/ - 266k - Cached - Similar Pages
The criminal case against two officials involved in the botched Wayne County Jail construction project appeared to be faltering Friday, with the judge doubting if they did anything wrong.

The county's former chief financial officer Carla Sledge and assistant corporation counsel Steven Collins are charged with misconduct in office and willful neglect of duty for their roles in the project, which was halted in June 2013 amid cost overruns.

"I don't know what they did wrong," Circuit Judge Vonda Evans said at a hearing this morning. "I can't tell from here."

Harold Gurewitz and James Thomas, lawyers for Sledge and Collins, respectively, want the case dismissed without a trial, arguing their clients did nothing wrong.

Evans didn't rule on the request to dismiss the case but scheduled hearings later this summer to decide. She repeatedly voiced skepticism about the case.

The partially built jail sits idle, surrounded by construction fencing, at the corner of Gratiot and St. Antoine in Downtown Detroit. It was proposed as a way to use new techonology to reduce incarceration costs, but construction was halted in June 2013 after it was projected to run $100 million over budget.

The project failure has created new problems for the cash-strapped county and is credited with contributing to the ouster of former county executive Robert Ficano.

A one-man grand jury indicted Sledge and Collins in September after reviewing evidence for a year. Prosecutor Kym Worthy said at the time that the case involved the review of more than 140,000 pages of documents and 26 witnesses.

Evans asked repeatedly to see what duty the pair had violated. Jennifer Douglas of the prosecutor's office said Sledge had a general duty for management and control, including an obligation to inform the county commission of how the project was progressing. Evans asked where that duty was spelled out.

"It's in evidence that was presented to the grand jury," Douglas said.

"Where is that in here?" Evans shouted holding up the indictment. "I can only go by what's presented."

Evans hasn't seen all the evidence presented to the grand jury, which is conducted in secret. Some of it would likely be presented at trial, but Evans is trying to determine whether there is enough evidence to warrant one.

Douglas said that prosecutors could provide additional details in what's known as a bill of particulars, a more detailed accounting of the case. Gurewitz objected.

"A bill of particulars can provide information about what the nature of the charge is but it cannot correct a deficient indictment," Gurewitz said.

Evans asked lawyers on both sides to submit additional briefs on that point. She also appointed a lawyer, known as a special master, to review thousands of emails sent by Sledge and Collins and submit a report to the court under seal, on their contents.

She wants the report to the court completed by June 28.

Sledge and Collins sat through more than 90 minutes of arguments in front of Evans but didn't speak.

Details about what went wrong have been withheld from the public. The criminal probe began after an audit uncovered possible wrongdoing.

Worthy told then-auditor general Willie Mayo to withhold his findings from the public or risk facing obstruction of justice charges. Worthy later convinced Circuit Judge Timothy Kenny to create a one-man grand jury to review the case.

Grand jury secrecy rules prevented any disclosure of evidence. After the indictments, Evans issued a gag order on the case, barring any potential trial participant from discussing it.

The Free Press has sued to overturn the gag order.

Contact John Wisely: 313-222-6825 or jwisely@freepress.com.
Post Wed Jun 03, 2015 10:54 pm 
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo

Wayne County officials indicted over jail project - Detroit Free Press

Sep 16, 2014 ... A grand jury indicted three county officials over the stalled Wayne County Jail
fiasco.

http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/2014/09/16/wayne-county-officials-indicted-jail-project/15741655/ - 233k - Cached - Similar Pages


A grand jury indicted three people in the investigation into the Wayne County Jail fiasco.

Indicted are former chief financial officer Carla Sledge; Steven Collins, a top Wayne County lawyer; and former construction manager Anthony Parlovecchio.

Sledge and Collins are both charged with misconduct in office, a 5-year felony and willful neglect of duty, a one-year misdemeanor. Parlovecchio is charged with willful neglect of duty.

The three were at the center of the construction of a new $300-million jail that was halted amid cost overruns of nearly $100 million and a grand jury probe.

The indictments charge that Sledge and Collins lied to the Wayne County Commission and the Wayne County Building Authority about the costs of the jail project.

“This has been a long and arduous undertaking,” Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said in a news release announcing the indictments. “The one man grand jury was necessary to ensure that the process was impartial, fair, and free from politics.”

Worthy said that grand jury secrecy prevents her from discussing the case further but added: “The details will come out in court.”

Former sheriff Warren Evans, who is a heavy favorite to be the next county executive after winning the Democratic primary, called the indictments “another sad day for Wayne County government.”

“As far as I’m concerned it’s another example of why it’s so important to have complete transparency,” he said.

Beyond the indictments, Evans said criminal case could complicate the county’s efforts to resolve the jail issue.

“It doesn’t help you believe the numbers,” Evans said. “You try to make a decision based on real numbers and real projections and this shows, those are the easiest numbers to get your arms around.”

An internal audit done on the project last summer by Auditor General Willie Mayo’s office was sent to Worthy before it was sent to county officials, which is protocol when fraud allegations surface in the process.

In September 2013, Worthy convinced Wayne County Circuit Judge Timothy Kenny to establish a one-person grand jury to look into any misconduct by public officials in the planning and construction process. He also ordered the audit from Mayo’s office kept secret.

Ben Gonek, an attorney for Parlovecchio, said news of the indictment was a surprise. Parlovecchio was hired as the county’s representative in February 2011 but was out by December of that year. The Wayne County Building Authority terminated Parlovecchio’s contract in December 2011 at Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano’s request. Ficano argued that because Parlovecchio’s contract wasn’t put out for bid, he should be removed and have the deal rebid.

“When Mr. Parlovecchio was the owner’s representative for the jail project, he maintained everything under budget and had the project ahead of schedule,” Gonek said late Monday morning. “When he was fired by Bob Ficano is when the project went to hell.”

Sledge’s lawyer, Harold Gurewitz, said he was very disappointed in the charge and was looking forward to fighting it vigorously. He called Sleged “an honorable former employee” and said he’s concerned that officials are seeking a scapegoat.

“Why is this even a crimnal act at all?” Gurewitz said. “Every construction failure doesn’t become a criminal act.”

Collins didn’t respond to an email seeking comment.

Both Sledge and Collins offered testimony “which contained materially false and/or misleading information,” when they met with county commissioners and members of the Building Authority, according to the indictment.

Deputy Wayne County Executive Jeffrey Collins said Monday that it was premature for him to respond fully to the charges as county officials have not received the formal charges or indictments.

“We take the allegations seriously,” Jeffrey Collins said. “Once we’re able to eyeball the charging documents, we’ll be in a better place to respond.” Jeffrey Collins and Steven Collins are not related.

Jim Saros, a member of the Wayne County Building Authority, said he was surprised by the charges. He, too, declined to comment further on the matter before seeing the indictments.

Wayne County Commissioner Raymond Basham, D-Taylor, said he hopes the action by the grand jury means progress to the point that the audit report detailing the missteps in the jail project will surface.

“I applaud the judge and his grand jury investigation, and I hope it means we’re in the process of moving the county forward,” he said. “But I still want to see that audit report.”

The indictments are the latest criminal charges involving the administration of Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano.

Four former Ficano appointees and a vendor already have pleaded guilty or been convicted of various corruption-related crimes in a scandal that began in September 2012 when Ficano acknowledged paying a $200,000 severance to former chief development officer Turkia Awada Mullin, when she left her county job to become CEO of Metro Airport.

The scandal touched off a federal grand jury investigation to look at corruption charges and later a one-man grand jury convened in Wayne County Circuit Court to investigate the troubled jail project.

The grand jury reviewed more than 140,000 pages of documents and 150 evidence exhibits as well as interviewing 26 witnesses.

The jail indictments come as the county is trying to decide what to do with the project, which sits idle on Gratiot and St. Antoine. The company in charge of the project, AECOM, has offered to shave $40 million off the final price tag to complete the project at that site.

Downtown Development magnate Dan Gilbert blasted the idea as bad for a downtown that is just now rebounding from decades of decline.

Come back to freep.com for updates to this developing story.
Post Wed Jun 03, 2015 11:10 pm 
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo

Cronyism and politicians looking the other way for campaign donations means there will probably not being any prosecutions for corruption here. If those in power fail to indict and look the other way then the wrongdoers only get emboldened.

I have read some of the Sheriffs investigative reports. They were well written and investigated, but there was a failure to prosecute. The feds picked up the Career Alliance case with some disappointing prosecutions.
Post Wed Jun 03, 2015 11:21 pm 
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo

http://flinttalk.com/viewtopic.php?t=12244

This Burton topic reflects on past corruption, some of which was on the county level,
Post Thu Jun 04, 2015 9:15 am 
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo

http://www.mackinac.org/4002

Detroit Metro Airport Scandal: We Told You So



Published on Jan. 16, 2002



DETROIT-The Detroit News published a December exposé on Detroit Metro Airport, charging that $331 million-worth of the 44 service contracts placed out for bid last year, or 86 percent of the total, were awarded to political contributors of Wayne County Executive Edward H. McNamara. Even worse, McNamara contributors were the sole bidders or faced only one other bidder in 60 percent of the contracts awarded to them.

While privatization saves money and generates better services-it has to be done right. Doing it wrong can be worse than not doing it at all.

As far back as 1997, MPR published The Ten Principles of Successful Contracting, in which we clearly laid out safeguards that any public entity must be willing to put in place to avoid the kind of problems being exposed at Detroit Metro.

In the case of Executive McNamara, there appears to have been serious lack of oversight of his running of the bidding process on the part of the Wayne County Commission. Yet, the bidding process is practically the whole ballgame when it comes to the success or failure of a privatization plan.

Had the Commission insisted on implementation of our Ten Principles, it's not only highly unlikely that corruption would be ruining both the reputation and the success of a major privatization venture, but Detroit Metro Airport might also be well on its way to being one of the most highly rated instead of being rated by customers as one of the nation's worst.

Allowing the bidding process to be corrupted gives ammunition to those who oppose any privatization plan.

One example of what shouldn't happen is the contract awarded for the airport shuttle. A $37.2 million, three-year bus contract was signed with Commuter Express, a company associated with Anthony Soave, an alleged "crony" of County Executive Edward McNamara. The winning bid, in other words, came not from the lowest bidder, but, as the Detroit News opined, "from the best-connected bidder."

The bid from Commuter Express was more than double the $15.2-million offer from low bidder Detroit Motor Coach. The Soave proposal is also $19.6 million higher than the bid from Central Parking System, one of two national firms that submitted bids.

In fact, critics question whether a new contract was needed for shuttle service at all. Shuttle service was already being provided for just $6 million per year by two companies, Commuter Express and Ampco/System Parking Inc. Under the new contract, the county will pay twice that amount to just one company.


SKU: MPR2002-01


NATIONAL PERSPECTIVE


In the case of Executive McNamara, there appears to have been serious lack of oversight of his running of the bidding process on the part of the Wayne County Commission.


Last edited by untanglingwebs on Sun Jun 07, 2015 6:25 am; edited 1 time in total
Post Sun Jun 07, 2015 6:04 am 
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo

The Spark : Corruption? Kilpatrick Is a Small-Time Hustler!

Feb 18, 2013 ... These people learned their chops in Wayne County government under ... Former
Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox saved McNamara from a ...

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Post Sun Jun 07, 2015 6:19 am 
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo

Last Updated: Feb 18, 2013


Issue no. 933

Pages 6-7

Corruption? Kilpatrick Is a Small-Time Hustler!

Corruption?
Kilpatrick Is a Small-Time Hustler!

Feb 18, 2013

The federal prosecutor in the corruption case of Kwame Kilpatrick, his father Bernard Kilpatrick, and his close friend Bobby Ferguson says they used the mayor’s office as a private source of profit for themselves.

They well may have, but they didn’t invent municipal corruption. These people learned their chops in Wayne County government under a famous corrupt white politician: Ed McNamara.

Former Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox saved McNamara from a state investigation into the matter. No surprise! Cox also got his training in McNamara's administration, as did, incidentally, Bernard Kilpatrick, who was McNamara’s front in Detroit. Two of McNamara's aides were, in fact, convicted of extortion, bribery and money laundering for work they did for McNamara. McNamara himself escaped federal prosecution – he died of cancer before the charges came down!

Public corruption comes to light occasionally – especially when officials like McNamara or Kilpatrick are so arrogant they think they can take whatever they want and never get caught.

But their corruption is nothing compared to the real corruption going on: the plundering of cities around the country by big corporations and the banks.

Why, for example, did Compuware chief Peter Karmanos, Quicken Loans head Dan Gilbert, racing magnate Roger Penske, and chemical company executive Jim Nicholson rush to hand Kilpatrick $150,000 after he was indicted? Why did Karmanos give him a job – in Dallas? Were they hoping to keep their links with him from coming out into the light?

All four of them received enormous handouts from Kilpatrick when he was in office. The city “sold” Karmanos and Compuware the land for its new headquarters for $1. And it gave Compuware 70 million dollars in tax breaks. Dan Gilbert and Quicken Loans got one and a quarter million dollars from the city for a parking structure. Penske got the use of Belle Isle for his Grand Prix; the city tore up some of the nicest areas of the island for him. Nicholson's company PVS Chemicals got a 13 million dollar contract in 2011 from the city water department.

Should Kilpatrick be prosecuted? Sure! But what about prosecuting the big thieves behind him? What about prosecuting those corporations that benefitted for decades from tax breaks, subsidies and work the city did for them – during Kilpatrick’s administration and before him?

General Motors, for example, got money to build a new plant, money to tear down an old plant, money so it could move its headquarters – and it still has its hand out. Chrysler got tax breaks on plants that have practically stopped production. The Fisher family real estate interests not only got 100% tax breaks on new investments, the city then paid to take their “investments” off of their hands. The Ilich family, with all its “entertainment” holdings, has practically turned the city into its own private checkbook.

Some of the biggest banks in the country threatened that Detroit’s bond rating would be reduced if the City Council didn’t sign on to one of these “exotic” loan deals – a deal which will cost the city four times what it borrowed in the first place.

Corruption? Kilpatrick is a small-time hustler when it comes to corruption. The big guys are all those respected CEO’s who have turned the city’s budget into their very own paymaster.
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