Blog posts by category: City officials
Category: City officials
Posted by Joel Kurth (The Detroit News) on Fri, Nov 20, 2009 at 12:00 PMVictor Mercado tells new bosses he's glad they're not the Detroit council
Is Victor Mercado a Phil Collins fan? Because, like the '80s schmaltz-rock king, Mercado has said "Hello, I Must Be Going!" yet again to the D.
The City Hall Insider's big brother, Political Insider, reported Oct. 15 that Mercado was back in town working for the alphabet-soup firm of PCI LLC. If so, he barely stayed long enough to enjoy the city's high-quality H2O because this week he took a job as the chief of the Bexar Metropolitan Water District that serves San Antonio, according to the Express-News.
He met the board Wednesday, shook hands and told them that he's oh so happy not to be working for the Detroit City Council anymore.
Mercado, who caught flack for raising rates and being too chummy with Kwame Kilpatrick, succceds Gil Olivares, who was fired for his own sex scandal. According to the Express-News, Olivares was handed his walking papers after he was indicted by a grand jury on claims of wiretapping employees' phones and giving $20,000 to a female employee he fired after hooking up with.
Mercado's job pays $190,000 in San Antonio, $60,000 less than he made in Detroit until leaving in 2008. That's still more than this other guy who appreciates "high-quality H2O."
Category: City officials
Posted by Mike Wilkinson (The Detroit News) on Wed, Oct 28, 2009 at 2:08 PMWhen the 'mayor' gets no respect
When they're making hay of Detroit in Toledo, what's the world come to?
Ohio voters will decide next week whether to allow casino gambling and both sides have spent millions of dollars trying to convince folks that they're right.
But one side is using casino proponent and Quicken Loans top dog Dan Gilbert's ties to former Mayor Dennis Archer to sway voters. And of course the negative "cache" attached to the title of "Detroit mayor."
Archer is an adviser to Gilbert who will have the opportunity to invest in the casinos should the ballot measure pass.
In an ad in heavy rotation in Toledo, a voice talks about money going to casino interests outside Ohio, including to "political insiders like the mayor of Detroit."
Huh? Dave Bing? Well, no. As the voicevover says "mayor of Detroit," a picture is shown of Archer and the words "ex-Detroit Mayor" appear on the screen. Oh, that's clearer.
Perhaps it's not shocking they didn't say "former Michigan Supreme Court justice."
Category: City officials
Posted by David Josar (The Detroit News) on Thu, Aug 13, 2009 at 2:28 PMDetroit police brass collecting county pensions
Who ever said public service doesn't pay?
Police Chief Warren Evans and two of his appointees, assistant chief Lawrence B. Meyer and second deputy chief John Roach, both of whom worked for Evans in the county sheriff's department, all receive pensions from stints in Wayne County.
Evans, 60, who is paid $156,000 a year, also receives a $72,811 annual pension from Wayne County.
Meyer, 58, makes somewhere between $95,200 to $142,800 as assistant chief. That's according to the city's pay scale. The City Hall Insider pressed for specifics, but Roach didn't respond. Meyer also gets an annual county pension of $109,441.
Roach, 43, who makes $90,800 from the city, also gets a county pension of $63,877. Roach retired from the county in March 2009.
Category: City officials
Posted by Christine MacDonald (The Detroit News) on Wed, Oct 29, 2008 at 1:29 PMMcPhail accuses Cockrel of Palin-like tactics
The war of words between mayoral candidate Sharon McPhail and Councilwoman Sheila Cockrel continues to escalate on paper around an ethics complaint filed by McPhail in September with the city's Board of Ethics.
McPhail alleges that Cockrel - fueled by a personal vendetta -- orchestrated an effort to overturn a pension board vote that allowed McPhail to boost her pension.
In McPhail's latest 80-page filing she compares Cockrel's "misuse of office" to Alaska's Gov. Sarah Palin, whom a panel recently found abused her power as governor by trying to have her former brother-in-law fired as a state trooper.
And McPhail submitted an affidavit of a former Cockrel aide, Kitty Whitfield, who said Cockrel often made nasty comments about McPhail, including calling her "that b---h."
Whitfield also said in the affidavit that Cockrel "flew into tirades" on a daily basis in relation to McPhail's positions on council and, during her six months on staff, Cockrel voted against every resolution or initiative led by McPhail. Whitfield also said she was fired by Cockrel for offering birthday cake to McPhail's staff.
Cockrel refutes the claims, saying Whitfield is a disgruntled former employee who was hired in the Detroit Workforce Development Department at the "behest of Ms. McPhail." McPhail denies any part in hiring Whitfield, saying she only directed policy while overseeing the department as former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's general counsel and not the department's administration or hiring.
The Board of Ethics is awaiting an opinion from the law department before acting on the complaint.
Category: City officials
Posted by David Josar (The Detroit News) on Thu, Oct 2, 2008 at 4:09 PMPolice chief owed taxes on handyman's special
On Wednesday, new Police Chief James R. Barren owed roughly $230 in back taxes, interest and penalties on a rental property he and his wife own in the 17000 block of Ferguson.
The run-down rental, with a chow-mix dog chained in the driveway, was littered in trash and empty 5-gallon paint cans. The Barrens bought the property for $250 from the city in 1988.
Barren's spokesman, James Tate, said the chief paid the taxes after being contacted by the City Hall Insider. Tate explained the chief has spent thousands of dollars repairing the rental. A previous tenant had caused damage.
"Lots of people choose to leave this city, the chief chose to invest here," Tate said.
By the end of the day Thursday, the taxes, from 2006, had been brought up to date.
