By Zachary Gorchow and Naomi Patton
Free Press Staff Writers
May 2, 2008

A top aide to Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick warned the City Council today that Kilpatrick will implement “drastic cuts” in services [NB: What services? We don't have any services anymore, you witling!] if the council doesn’t approve a proposed deal to sell the city’s half of the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel.

Deputy Mayor Anthony Adams told the council the mayor would not support selling bonds to patch the $65-million hole in the 2007-08 fiscal year budget if the city doesn’t sell its half of the tunnel to a new authority run jointly by the cities of Detroit and Windsor. Under the deal, the city would transfer title on its half of the tunnel to the authority and the city of Windsor would in turn provide Detroit with $75 million.

But Councilwoman Sheila Cockrel said she wouldn’t bow to scare tactics. Cockrel said the deal may make sense, but is so complex and said the administration continues to provide information about it in a piecemeal manner at the last minute.

“I’m not going to get bullied into a transaction no matter how conceptually great it may be,” she said.

Adams responded that he wasn’t bullying anyone.

“I’m speaking to the hard fiscal realities in our city,” he said.

That prompted Cockrel to retort that instead of threatening to cut city services, the mayor should start “with all the family and friends with all the contracts in city government.”

Adams said he wanted to know what contracts to which Cockrel was referring.

“We’ll have that for you real soon,” Cockrel shot back.

In other work on the budget, Auditor General Loren Monroe told the council today he is concerned the budget's projected revenues are based on revenues such as the tunnel sale; a $25-million credit from the Police and Fire Retirement System pension fund; $22.3 million for the sale of surplus city-owned property; and $194.8 million in casino taxes.

The sales transactions have not be finalized, city officials have not completed negotiations for the pension fund credit, and the projected casino revenues were "overstated" by about $12.9 million, Monroe said.

When asked by Cockrel if the inclusion of these projected revenues in to the mayor's proposed budget really "translate in to a possible deficit," Monroe was noncommittal. The mayor’s office has said it expects the 2007-08 budget to end balanced, but the council’s Fiscal Analysis Division has projected a $113-million deficit.

Monroe said the budget "would be kind of risky based on those assumptions."

Chunks of concrete drop onto streets, sidewalks, but little is done about it
BY BILL McGRAW
FREE PRESS COLUMNIST
May 2, 2008

It was a nice spring day last week when John Irvin walked past the hulking old Packard plant on East Grand Boulevard in Detroit.

Irvin, 52, passed the shattered glass, garbage and other debris that has spilled out of the eviscerated building. But as he approached Concord Street, he came upon the most ominous sight of all -- hundreds of chunks of concrete scattered across the sidewalk, lawn and street.

The concrete falls from the covered bridge that connects the north and south sections of the giant plant. Some pieces are as small as pebbles. Some are 4-foot slabs too heavy to lift. Most are in between.

Irvin looked around and came to a logical conclusion: "It's a dangerous situation," he said. "Somebody's going to get hurt."

PATRICIA BECK/DFP

The bridge spans East Grand Boulevard. The city's department of Public Works had sectioned part of the street, but cars and people pass with no warning of the danger.

The bridge, made of brick and concrete, is about 150 feet long and 35 feet wide. It spans the boulevard one story above the roadway and contained the Packard assembly line until the auto company departed in 1956. Much of the concrete appears to have fallen from the raggedy edge at the top of the bridge, but cracks and signs of wear are evident on many other sections.

The bridge interior is rusting and rotting, like the rest of the plant. Firefighters from the nearby engine house say scrappers have cut out some support beams from inside the bridge, and they fear it could collapse someday.

After some chunks fell in December, the city's Department of Public Works sectioned off part of the boulevard with yellow caution tape. The chunks continue to fall, though, and cars and people pass every day with no warning. One tiny piece fell while the Free Press was on the scene last week.

Is falling concrete a problem? Is anyone concerned about the cracks? Does someone in a position of authority worry that a pedestrian or motorists might get conked or crushed? Is the owner of the plant concerned about liability?

Just asking.

"It's on our radar," said James Canning, a spokesman for Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick.

City officials have completed an inspection of the plant and are preparing to issue violation and correction orders, Canning said. They could go before the City Council to ask that the plant be put on a demolition list.

"The owner needs to redevelop or tear down this dangerous building," Canning said.

The owner is Bioresource Inc., which emerged with title to the property last year after a long and complicated legal battle. Bioresource's attorney, Barry Steinway, did not respond to phone calls and e-mails. In a previous interview, he said negotiations are under way that could result in a sale and transformation of the property but provided no details.

State records show Bioresource has not filed an annual report since 2000 and was declared dissolved by the state in 2003. The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 1997. Canning said Bioresource has not paid city taxes since it bought the plant in 1987.

The Packard plant is immense: 47 buildings on 38 acres and 3 1/2 million square feet, the equivalent of five Cobo Centers. Today, it is home to one business, a small chemical-processing firm.

The plant is a major attraction, mainly for young urban explorers. But it also is dangerous: Roofs and floors in some buildings have collapsed, and girders and I-beams have been stolen by scrappers. Water seeped out of the building's east side last week.

Some passersby suggested nobody in power cares because the plant is in a poor neighborhood.

"I think they need to tear it down before it hurts somebody," said Michole Bacon, 26. "I see the pieces in the street. That's crazy."

Key fundraisers have city contracts, but deny conflict of interest.

Christine MacDonald and David Josar / The Detroit News

Thursday, April 24, 2008

DETROIT -- Key players on Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's legal defense fundraising team have at least $5 million in current or pending city contracts, and others stand to make much more from the mayor's proposed $300 million economic stimulus project if he remains in office.

Of the 13 known committee members on Kilpatrick's Detroit Justice Fund, at least five have Detroit contracts or other financial ties to city business or the mayor. Fund members, four of whom live in Detroit, are raising money to pay lawyers who will seek to exonerate Kilpatrick of felony charges stemming from the text-message scandal and whistle-blowers' lawsuits.

Attorney David Baker Lewis is one of the fundraisers with the strongest City Hall financial interests. Kilpatrick wants Lewis' law firm as a counsel on his stimulus bond sale. Another is banker Donald Davis, who has two proposed contracts, including one for $4.6 million to lease computer software to the city.

Some critics say it's a conflict of interest to tap city contractors for help in raising money to cover the mayor's legal fees.

"By any standard definition ... about what a conflict of interest is, this is one," said Wayne Norman, an ethics professor at Duke University, who added that just the perception of a conflict, without evidence of wrongdoing, can undermine citizens' trust. "He is supposed to do what is best for the city. ... The fact that a citizen can reasonably wonder about that undermines the trust in the office and institution."

But some of the fund's members say they've done city work for decades -- long before the scandal and $8.4 million whistle-blower settlement. They say they just want to assure that Kilpatrick can afford to mount a good defense.

"My motive is not to get rich," said the Rev. Horace Sheffield III of New Galilee Baptist Church, denying a connection between fundraising and his $220,000 in current city contracts. "I think (Kilpatrick) is a gifted young man and needs support.

"If I am in trouble, I am not going to expect people I haven't helped to help me. That's the way it is."

Of Sheffield's two city contracts, he said one is for about $100,000 to teach people how to create nonprofits, and he said he has held the annual contract for more than 20 years. A more recent $120,000 contract is intended to teach young adults job skills.

Councilwoman Sheila Cockrel said the connections create at least the appearance of a troubling conflict, and she plans to grill Kilpatrick staffers about upcoming contracts in the budget committee she heads.

"The question is what is the relationship between the award of these contracts" and the Detroit Justice Fund, Cockrel said.

The defense committee members were picked in an "organic process" facilitated by the mayor, said Marcus Reese, a spokesman from Strategic Impact Strategies LLC, an East Coast-based company hired by the mayor to shape his side of the story.

"Most, if not all, of these people are strong supporters of the mayor who think he will be vindicated," Reese said.

As for conflicts of interest, Reese said there is "none."

The fund will become vital for Kilpatrick, a career politician who makes about $176,000 a year, as he racks up legal and public relations bills. Privately some of his advisors have estimated that tally will reach $2 million.

By comparison, President Clinton raised about $6 million through his defense fund but faced about $10 million in legal bills when he was under fire in the Monica Lewinsky controversy.

Who has ties

Among the Detroit Justice Fund members who have financial ties to the city:

• Lewis' law firm billed Detroit more than $300,000 for representing the mayor in the whistle-blower suits, and Kilpatrick is recommending the firm as counsel for the bond sale that would finance the mayor's economic stimulus plan. James Canning, a Kilpatrick spokesman, wouldn't provide the contract value.

The Lewis & Munday law firm has long-standing ties with the mayor, representing him personally in a recount challenge to the 2005 general election, as well as helping with police discipline cases and providing legal advice to the Detroit Building Authority, which manages capital improvements.

Lewis, who declined comment when contacted by The Detroit News, has done city work with his various firms since the 1970s.

• Davis runs two companies with pending contracts before the Detroit City Council, including the software proposal.

He is chairman of First Independence Bank, which already manages some city money, and chairman of Minority Alliance Capital, a joint venture between First Independence and two other minority banks.

Kilpatrick, who proposes contracts generally for council approval, wants the bank to be an investment manager for the stimulus bond sale and would be "managing money" for the city, Canning said. He wouldn't provide figures Wednesday on how much the city would pay Independence Bank for that service.

The mayor's office would not answer questions on how or why they selected First Independence Bank to help with the bond issue. Documents that Kilpatrick submitted to the council listed the bank as a trustee but Canning said that wasn't accurate.

Davis sees no conflict of interest with either contract. He said the five-year, $4.6 million Minority Alliance Capital software contract was an open bid and his proposal was the best. He did say his work with the bond project wasn't competitively bid by the city.

Davis said he is a part of the mayor's defense fund effort because he believes in the "constitutional right of due process."

"I don't think due process is a conflict of interest," he added.

• A. Gregory Eaton, of the high-powered Lansing-based lobbying firm of Karoub Associates, has a business partner who recently sold property to the city. Eaton's partner in Metro Cars, Cullen Meathe, bought a warehouse near Tiger Stadium in 2002 for $3.5 million and then sold it to the city two years later for $8.6 million. The building now will be used for the city's forensic crime lab, which would be funded through the mayor's proposed bond sale.

Eaton said his job is to solicit donations. "Some people say 'No,' some say 'Hell no,' some say 'Yes,'" he explained.

Kilpatrick served five years in the state House; Eaton's lobbying firm is among the most influential in the capital.

"It's like your son is in trouble, tells you he's made mistakes and you want to help," Eaton said.

• Donald Watkins, a Birmingham, Ala., lawyer considered to be among the nation's wealthiest African Americans, was recruited by Kilpatrick to open a branch of his bank, Alamerica, to fill the void created when Comerica, which has provided City Hall banking services, moved its headquarters to Texas.

"He was not what the media portrayed ... he wasn't the hip-hop mayor or wearing an earring," said Watkins, who met the mayor once."I've not started fundraising yet but I've helped suggest some legal counsel," said Watkins, who got HealthSouth Chief Executive Officer Richard Scrushy acquitted of 36 charges in 2005.

Watkins said he convinced Kilpatrick to hire James W. Parkman III as part of his legal team. Parkman helped represent Scrushy.

Watkins hasn't decided whether to open a branch of Albama-based Alamerica Bank in Detroit.

"We're waiting to see what will happen with the current situation, if it will blow over," he said.

'Why should I?'

Among prominent CEOs contacted by The News, Roger Penske, Jim Nicholson and Dan Gilbert declined to say whether they'd contribute, or even if they have had recent discussions with Kilpatrick.

In fact, they've been silent throughout the unfolding scandal.

Former Piston and successful entrepreneur Dave Bing said the fund won't see a dime from him.

"Why should I?" asked Bing. "I don't think there's a reason.

"I have money invested in the city. I've invested my money where I want to, where it's most needed."

A spokesman for Compuware CEO Peter Karmanos, who gave $100,000 to one of the mayor's Political Action Committees in 2005, said the businessman hasn't been approached as a donor. But he'd "probably give" if asked

"The mayor deserves a good defense and that's not showing prejudice one way or the other," said Karmanos spokesman Jason Vines.

Reese, the spokesman for Kilpatrick's PR firm, says no running total of contributions is available.

Updates on committee members and how much has been raised will be disclosed according to the IRS reporting requirement for a tax-exempt 527 group, he said.

BY ROCHELLE RILEY
FREE PRESS COLUMNIST
April 24, 2008

Quit playing.

The mayor and his chief of staff, according to the county prosecutor, use a city two-way to discuss a fired cop and steamy hookups?

I know I've been gone for eight months, but stop me when I'm lying.

They both then take the stand when the officer sues and say they did not fire him and they never had an affair? And the mayor rejects calls to resign from residents and the Detroit City Council, but then declares that his chief of staff's resignation was appropriate? And he thinks he can still govern in the coming months while spending all day, every day, in court?

In the next week or so, the lawyer the council has hired to make heads or tails of this mess is to release his findings. Those findings could lead the council to try to remove the mayor or at least recover the $8.4-million cop trial settlement it was duped into OK'ing.

Meanwhile, the city sits in two paralyzed camps, its renaissance in jeopardy. What should the city do?

Leave the mayor alone.

Kwame Kilpatrick, facing the biggest scandal of his scandal-plagued administration, is the leader Detroit deserves. If a city of 900,000 people who have survived fire and national scorn and crushing poverty and bad leadership wants to be led by a man who finds it hard to admit that he has done something stupid, then leave the mayor alone.

If we crave a nationally televised trial -- and additional text messages we haven't seen -- that will damage lives and destroy progress, then leave the mayor alone. But during the trial, let us lament what might have been. Kwame Kilpatrick was Barack Obama before Barack Obama was Barack Obama. If Kilpatrick, the spirited and inspired young lawyer-teacher, had headed to Washington instead of trying to turn his hometown into a fiefdom, he might have become president one day. But instead of becoming Obama, he is O.J. Simpson with a legal Dream Team set for a trial where the glove will eventually fit.

The circus comes to town

The trial will be part of a traveling circus of dishonor that began with New Jersey Gov. James McGreevey standing with his wife to announce that his gender preference did not include her and continued with New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer standing with his wife to announce that his sexual preference did not include her. Both men dishonored their families, their positions and their states. And they quit. Kilpatrick also has dishonored his family, his position and his city. Then he appeared on TV to apologize without saying why and said he wouldn't leave even though his presence risks the progress he claims the city deserves.

And that is at the heart of the Kilpatrick Khaos that envelopes Detroit now. Six years ago, Kilpatrick became more than mayor. He became Detroit, its persona, its symbol. When he became the hip-hop mayor, Detroit became the hip-hop capital, a place that drew rap impresario Russell Simmons for summits with Eminem. When the mayor became a larger-than-life national star, even inspiring the performance of Chris Rock in a movie about the first black president, the mayor and the city became inseparable.

But here's the problem: When the mayor was pop star Britney Spears, the world loved him, wanted to hang with him, wanted to party with him, laud him, close deals with him. Detroit looked good. But when the mayor becomes panty-less dope fiend Britney Spears, the world shuns him, doesn't invite him to the same parties, won't defend him in public, and treats him, as the City Council did last week, like Bobo the Clown. Detroit looks bad.

And this isn't the time for Detroit to look bad, not when it is struggling with a renaissance that will mean the difference between its becoming a strong urban center or a large suburb of Southfield. Detroit's population has dropped 40% in 40 years; its tax revenues don't match its needs; its residents, according to surveys and education statistics, still believe that factory jobs trump education. And residents decry the loss of 1,000 police officers and having to pay a fee for trash pickup.

Despite that, Kilpatrick has scored touchdowns, from hosting the 2006 Super Bowl to overseeing an amazing waterfront redevelopment. And his greatest success so far is still intact. On Wednesday, Quicken Loans Chairman Dan Gilbert said that the relocation of his company and 4,000 employees to downtown Detroit remains "on schedule."

The victories make the mayor think the kind of Teflon that protects some U.S. presidents applies to him. It does not.

Detroit doesn't do well paralyzed, unsure or catatonic. At the peak of Detroit's comeback, the mayor has put us on the tracks, and the train is coming. Those for him and against him are pushing each other into the center of the tracks. No one relents. The train bears down. No savior is coming.

Leave the mayor alone.

If he feels he can get away with perjury, obstructing justice and making a mockery of Motown, it is only because he knows he can count on Detroiters to let him.

Cut up his race card

Leave the mayor alone.

Don't forget that he's black. What's that? Race is not an excuse to err? I didn't think so, either. But this mayor uses the race card like American Express. I know what a race card looks like. I have one, and I do not waste it. It is for extreme cases of bigotry and hatred, not for when you've been caught with your pants down. When the mayor turned his State of the City address into a pep rally with paid applause and blamed a lynch-mob mentality for his troubles, he went too far.

I wondered where his race card was when he kicked to the curb all the black attorneys who worked so hard to protect him and now may be charged with crimes. They were good enough for a rumored cover-up but not good enough to work on the big case, saving him from prison. He saved that for a white attorney from Illinois. We're taking the mayor's race card. Right here. Right now. Pulling out the scissors and cutting it up.

Leave the mayor alone.

Two weeks ago, sources say, he met with Detroit Renaissance, the powerful business group whose members have helped rebuild Detroit. He went as a man defeated but declared that he wouldn't quit. It is easier for a sitting mayor than a shamed politician to raise legal defense funds. If Detroit's most powerful won't speak out -- yet -- and its children who have spoken out are ignored, then why blame the mayor?

Leave the mayor alone. He will lose his job -- eventually -- and take down others with him. What's left to decide is whether he will be removed or will resign -- and like former Washington Mayor Marion Barry, rise from his own ashes.

If Kilpatrick quits before his trial -- you won't believe this -- Detroit's charter allows him to run again. Next year. As a matter of fact, any convicted felon could be mayor of Detroit -- unless he or she is convicted while in office. So the mayor better act quickly. If he quits now, he can be back in his office before an interim mayor can even get settled.

Remember, Detroit, this is America. We are innocent until proven guilty -- even when crimes seem evident. If Detroit is paralyzed and can do no better than sit and watch this numbing tragedy, then sit there. Leave the mayor alone -- and to the courts where he will be punished by the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

All firearms investigations temporarily suspended
BY ERIC D. LAWRENCE and BEN SCHMITT
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS
April 26, 2008

The Wayne County Prosecutor's Office plans to review a year's worth of Detroit criminal cases involving firearms amid concerns raised about the accuracy of police ballistics testing.

The case that caused the review is the May 27 shooting deaths of two men sitting in a car on Detroit's east side.

The Detroit Police Department's crime lab tests showed 42 shell casings were fired by the same weapon, while two other tests showed that the casings came from at least two weapons, Chief Ella Bully-Cummings said at a Friday news conference.

Now, Detroit attorney Marvin Barnett, who first discovered the error, said thousands of appeals could be forthcoming in criminal cases.

"This is a very serious matter," Maria Miller, a spokeswoman for Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy, said Friday.  "That's why Prosecutor Worthy took immediate action."

A source told the Free Press Friday that federal authorities would be called in if any evidence of criminality is turned up.  At the moment, however, the problem appears to have resulted from sloppy work performed by a former employee, the source said.  

Miller said the results from the office's review will be made available to every defense attorney involved.

At the news conference, Bully-Cummings announced she was suspending all firearms testing through the department's crime lab pending an audit from the Michigan State Police.

While it has not been determined which agencies will handle firearms testing for Detroit police during the suspension, State Police and the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives will be assisting, said George Krappmann, a spokesman for the ATF.

Barnett said he initially asked Detroit police to retest the casings, and they refused. He then tested the equipment with his own investigator.  Barnett said he has found discrepancies in three other cases involving firearms and one drug case.

The State Police crime lab's findings confirmed Barnett's tests, Miller said.

"It's devastating, because if you have one bad lab, it just spoils the whole bunch," Barnett said.

Cough up missing document, judge orders Kilpatrick
BY JIM SCHAEFER and JOE SWICKARD
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS
April 26, 2008

E-mails released Friday in a Free Press lawsuit against the City of Detroit show that Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's city-paid attorney fretted about the release of a police whistle-blower settlement because of the "potential adverse impact" if the media got ahold of it.

Also Friday in Wayne County Circuit Court, a judge said he wanted Kilpatrick to personally produce a missing legal document that triggered the $8.4-million deal, which kept the mayor's salacious text messages secret.

In one e-mail sent last fall, Samuel McCargo, a private lawyer paid by the city to represent Kilpatrick in the police lawsuits, wrote that certain terms of the deal were supposed to have been included in a separate, confidential letter. But Mike Stefani, the lawyer for three cops who sued Kilpatrick, had included the terms in the settlement document itself.

"I will leave it to Val's judgment as to the potential adverse impact such language might have given the potential broad base of public and media disclosure this document is likely to receive," McCargo wrote in an apparent reference to city lawyer Valerie Colbert-Osamuede.

The Oct. 29 e-mail appeared to draw Colbert-Osamuede ever deeper into the secret deal to pay Stefani and his clients $8.4 million to hush up about the text messages.

In response to McCargo's e-mail concerns, Colbert-Osamuede wrote of the proposed language, "I need to quickly run this past John," apparently referring to her boss, city Corporation Counsel John Johnson Jr.
All the mayor's lawyers

Johnson, Colbert-Osamuede and McCargo are among a dozen or so lawyers with connections to the case under investigation by the Michigan Attorney Grievance Commission.

The Free Press exposed the cover-up in January with the publication of the messages and a subsequent court battle to unseal the secret settlement papers, which the mayor's legal team insisted did not exist.

Kilpatrick and his former top aide, Christine Beatty, are facing perjury and other felony charges after the Free Press revealed texts showing they lied at last year's whistle-blower trial about their sexual relationship and gave misleading testimony about the firing of one cop, Gary Brown.

Earlier this year, Colbert-Osamuede told Judge Robert Colombo Jr. she knew nothing of secret terms in the deal, before recently conceding that she was familiar with the deal.

The newspaper had asked Colombo to release her e-mails and those of other attorneys involved in the settlement negotiations. Colombo agreed they were public records.
Who has Stefani's motion?

The judge said Friday he also wants Kilpatrick to produce an elusive document from the whistle-blower trial that set off the scandal.

"So if anyone knows where it is, the right thing to do is to turn it over to me," Colombo said.

The last known sighting of the document, a legal motion penned by Stefani, was Oct. 19, when McCargo delivered it to Kilpatrick's home, the Manoogian Mansion, according to a letter McCargo gave the judge. Another copy was to have been placed in a safe-deposit box with the text messages.

The document is Stefani's motion for attorney's fees in the whistle-blower case. It contained excerpts of the explosive text messages. The mayor and his lawyers agreed to settle the police cases hours after learning, through the court motion, that Stefani had gotten his hands on the texts.

The judge said he wants the document or the mayor's explanation of what happened to it.

James Thomas, Kilpatrick's criminal lawyer, argued Friday the mayor should not have to respond because it may imperil his Fifth Amendment protections against self-incrimination in his criminal case.

Colombo set a May 8 hearing on the issue.

Larry Dubin, a law professor at the University of Detroit Mercy, said the Fifth Amendment generally deals with a defendant's statements rather than documents or other evidence.

"I just don't think the mayor could claim the right in connection with the motion itself," Dubin said.

The Detroit Free Press
April 26, 2008

No leftover slush from defense fund

With $700-an-hour lawyers and lengthy court proceedings ahead, it's doubtful Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick will have a surplus in the legal defense fund for which he is seeking donations. Just in case, though, state Senate Republicans are pushing a bill to require that any defense fund money left over from a court case be refunded or donated.

This is not an entirely partisan issue, however. The bill originated in the Democratic-controlled House before the Kilpatrick scandal erupted, and already has passed that chamber. It has actually been hanging around in concept for five years, according to sponsor Rep. Steve Bieda, D-Warren, although there seems to be new impetus to enact it ... for whatever reason.

The legislation also would require disclosure of all donors and spending from such funds and prohibit use of the legal defense money for anything but lawyers and court costs, barring such things as a public relations campaign for an embattled official. Supporters also want the bill to apply to existing funds, the intent being to make sure Kilpatrick doesn't misuse the money.

But can you hear it coming?

Consumer confidence will be the key to sales of Think City, a two-seater electric car from Norway that's supposed to go 110 miles and top out at 65 m.p.h. between charges. This sounds like one of those vehicles you want somebody else to buy first so you can see how reliable it is. The manufacturer, Think Global, expects to start selling the vehicles in late 2009 in southern California and hopes to have up to 50,000 on American roads in a few years.

Sounds like a good idea for neighborhood driving, but it might be nerve-racking to watch the odometer if you left it unplugged overnight and you're hitting mile 105 trying to get home. Can you tap the flashlight in the glove box for the juice to keep going?

Good jobs go up in smoke

You have to wonder what those 39 workers at the Whirlpool Corp. plant in Evansville, Ind., were thinking when they filled out company health insurance forms claiming to be nonsmokers and then lit up in the plant's designated smoking areas. All were suspended from their jobs pending disciplinary proceedings. A spokesman for the Benton Harbor based appliance company says the workers falsified company documents, which Whirlpool views as a serious matter, apparently to save the $500 extra charge per year on health insurance for smokers. They probably thought the company had more important things to do than check up on them, but then, they made it pretty easy. Health care costs being what they are these days, Whirlpool's payoff is likely to come from other unregistered smokers who now will feel more compelled to quit.

Water war worries surround Lakes

It's not just Michigan being paranoid about the Great Lakes. At a conference this week in Toronto, officials of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and its Canadian counterpart, Environment Canada, both said "water wars" could be coming as more people move to hotter, dryer parts of America and covet this region's relatively abundant H{-2}O. The EPA's Milton Clark said he has already heard some U.S. politicians suggesting the Great Lakes must be shared, and Environment Canada's Linda Mortsch said the effects of climate change will make those dry states even more desperate. The states and provinces of this region will have to draw a line in the sand ... or at least at the water's edge.

Why you do a run-through

An Ohio state legislator put a memory stick into a computer for a lecture to high school students on "how a bill becomes law" and up popped an image of a bare-breasted woman. The legislator, Democrat Matthew Barrett of Amherst, resigned this week, after acknowledging he had not been truthful when he initially said he had no idea how the photo, and another found on his laptop, got there. Later reports suggest he knew about the pictures and knew the women posing. Be interesting to know if the students ever learned how a bill becomes law.

Detroit's Scandal Is About More Than Sex

Detroit

They are calling it "PagerGate." It's a sex scandal involving Detroit's Democratic Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick. It broke in January and, as details dribble out, residents are falling into a depression as deep as the one afflicting their economy.

Although there is widespread disgust at Mr. Kilpatrick, there is also growing regret that the departure of this flamboyant, 37-year-old two-term mayor will end his nascent economic reforms. Actually, Motown isn't so lucky.

Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and his chief of staff Christine Beatty, May 2007.

The hard fact is that Mr. Kilpatrick was a false prophet under whom the city wasn't going to come back – and not just because of his vices, but his virtues as well.

Mr. Kilpatrick has been dogged by scandals ever since he sauntered into office – sporting a diamond earring and "mayor" embroidered on his French-cuffs – on January 2002. He habitually used city funds like his personal bank – running up $200,000 in spa treatments and champagne, for example, early in his term. The mayor reimbursed the city for about $9,000 after the scandal broke, claiming that the rest of the charges reflected legitimate city business. The city at the time was cutting police officers, and even auditors, to plug a $250 million budget deficit.

But the latest, most spectacular scandal had its genesis at a party that supposedly took place in the mayoral mansion to celebrate Mr. Kilpatrick's election, shortly after he took office. The allegation is that Mr. Kilpatrick's wife unexpectedly stopped by the party – and took a bat to a stripper whom she found consorting with him.

The state's Republican attorney general found no evidence that the party took place. The stripper is no longer available for questioning; a few months after the alleged party she was gunned down. But two Detroit police officers launched their own probe to investigate rumors of the party, as well as other complaints that the mayor's security staff was helping arrange extramarital liaisons, including one with his then chief of staff, Christine Beatty.

The mayor summarily fired the officers, who then filed a whistleblower lawsuit. Testifying under oath during trial, Mr. Kilpatrick and Ms. Beatty categorically denied having an affair, much less firing the police officers because of it. Nonetheless, the jury returned a $6.5 million verdict for the officers.

Outraged, Mr. Kilpatrick accused the predominantly white jury of racism, and vowed to appeal. But a month later, he abruptly settled for $2 million more than the jury award.

It now seems that the reason for the about-face was that the plaintiffs confronted him with text-messages that he and Ms. Beatty had exchanged on city-issued pagers. The messages discussed their sexual encounters and the firings. In exchange for the payment, the plaintiffs signed an agreement not to reveal the existence of the messages.

The City Council, oblivious to the backroom deal, rubber-stamped the settlement. But the Detroit Free Press, not wanting to let it go so easily, mounted its own investigation – and uncovered the incriminating messages.

Now Mr. Kilpatrick is being forced to defend himself against allegations that he first committed perjury to cover up the firings, and then tried to cover up the perjury by purchasing a secret deal through taxpayer funds.

The county prosecutor – an African-American woman – has filed eight criminal charges against the mayor, each of which carries a 15-year jail sentence. But Mr. Kilpatrick responded by declaring that he is on "assignment from God," and has hired a team of high-priced lawyers – paid for, in part, by the city – to defend him.

Although few believe that Mr. Kilpatrick can – or should – hang on until the end of his term next year, there is also much worry that, without him, his economic reforms will wither. That, actually, wouldn't be such a bad thing.

Mr. Kilpatrick's entire economic revival plan rests on attracting high-profile, flashy projects. True, he has been more successful than his predecessors because of his wily ability to cut deals and push them through a dysfunctional city bureaucracy. For instance, he managed to land the contract to host the 2006 Super Bowl and convince General Motors, Compuware and, more recently, Quicken Loans Inc. to relocate their offices downtown. He also succeeded in creating three casinos, and in convincing developers to restore old, historic hotels such as the Book-Cadillac to serve the casino patrons.

Mr. Kilpatrick lured each of these projects with targeted tax breaks and subsidies. Quicken alone received $200 million. But corporate giveaways are not the stuff of an economic revival. "If anything, they put small businesses, the true drivers of the economic engine, at a competitive disadvantage," observes David Littmann, senior economist at the Mackinac Public Policy Center. As a result, he says, "Many of them either shut down or just don't open."

Indeed, every indicator of economic and civic renewal has trended in the wrong direction since Mr. Kilpatrick became mayor. There is not a single year in which Detroit's unemployment rate – currently at about 15% -- has been lower than in 2001, the year before he took office. Income tax revenues last year were $27 million less than three years ago, a testimony to the city's contracting tax base. Meanwhile, high school graduation rates are an abysmal 25%, and homicide rates an astronomical 47 per 100,000, the highest among comparably sized cities.

The lack of jobs and city services is accelerating the exodus out of Detroit. A recent study by the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments estimated that, if current trends continue, the city's population will shrink to 770,000 in seven years, from about 900,000 when Mr. Kilpatrick became mayor.

Breaking the vicious cycle of shrinking population, declining revenues and worsening city services requires not a young prince selectively handing out privileges to a chosen few. It requires an overall climate fit for business. To do that, Detroit needs to simplify its Byzantine regulations (home-businesses such as day care centers or hair-braiding salons require 70 building or equipment permits to get started), slash taxes (Detroit is the fourth highest-taxed city for a family of four making $25,000), tackle crime, and improve public schools.

These are mundane, boring tasks to which a high-roller like Mr. Kilpatrick is singularly unsuited. His departure won't guarantee Detroit's economic revival. But, if he stays, Detroit will have no reason for hope, either.

Ms. Dalmia is a senior analyst at the Reason Foundation.

BY BILL MCGRAW
MOTOR CITY JOURNAL
April 15, 2008

After the latest episode of city government dysfunction -- the City Council's brush-off of Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and his new budget Monday -- it's tempting to conclude that the city of Detroit has fallen into an unprecedented crisis since Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy charged the mayor with eight felonies last month in the text message scandal.

But the crisis goes beyond the possibility of the mayor's going to prison.

It goes beyond Councilwoman Monica Conyers' calling council President Ken Cockrel Jr. "Shrek" during a tantrum Friday that quickly wound up on national TV.

It goes beyond Councilwoman Barbara-Rose Collins' celebrating her 69th birthday by wearing a silver tiara to the council meeting Monday.

Perhaps the most serious and long-lasting crisis is the city's operational crisis.  

The mayor and other officials recognize the problems that budget woes bring.

"At the end of the day, it's all about dollars and cents," Deputy Mayor Anthony Adams said Monday. "If you don't have the money, you can't provide the service."

Although it's difficult to quantify delivery of services across a 137-square-mile city, anecdotal evidence suggests the city is struggling more than ever before to do things that are most important to residents and businesses.

When Detroit stand-up performer Karen Addison warmed up the Fox Theatre crowd for the Damon Wayans' comedy show, she mostly refrained from doing predictable jokes about Kilpatrick.

Instead, Addison said she knew how Kilpatrick could revolutionize Detroit: "Pick up the bulk trash," she deadpanned.

The crowd laughed, having seen the piles of couches, tables, toilets, toys, carpeting and even broken-down boats.

Last month, a west-side resident couldn't get cops to show up after intruders had broken into his house until he phoned Councilwoman JoAnn Watson, who called the chief of police. Kilpatrick admits the city has a "manpower issue" in the Police Department and that its hiring of recruits is, in his word, "horrible."

Last month, when an off-duty cop suffered a heart attack while shoveling snow, it took EMS so long to arrive that the man's friends took him to the hospital, according to Free Press reporting partner WDIV-TV Local 4.

Each day, the Detroit Fire Department idles up to 10 working rigs because it doesn't have the staffing to keep them all running.

Streetlights? They remain a problem on many blocks. One small example: There were virtually no nights all winter when every light functioned properly near the corner of West Lafayette and Third. And downtown is supposed to be the part of the city that works.

Some of the current cutbacks resulted when the mayor started trimming jobs in 2005 as Detroit faced the possibility of a $300-million deficit.

When Kilpatrick took office in 2002, the Police Department had 4,200 members. Today it has 3,000.

Kilpatrick and his aides say the city is doing its best to enact smart government practices, such as employing more civilians in police desk jobs.

They say the bulk trash problem will lessen as residents learn more about new pickup days (reduced from 12 a year to four).

No matter what Kilpatrick's fate, the city's fate will be determined by how it does things like pick up bulk trash.

Said Adams: "No one says the city is where it needs to be."

Worthy to announce her decision at news conference

BY BEN SCHMITT • FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER • March 20, 2008

Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said today that she will hold a news conference at 11 a.m. Monday to reveal her decision about whether to charge Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick in the text message scandal.

Worthy's probe stems from a Free Press report in January that revealed that text messages between Kilpatrick and then-chief of staff Christine Beatty showed the pair lied at a police whistle-blower trial last summer when they testified they were not romantically involved. The trial, and subsequent settlement of two police lawsuits, cost taxpayers more than $9 million.

A Free Press report recently revealed that other text messages raised questions about whether a friend of Kilpatrick and Beatty received favoritism in the awarding of city contracts.