Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick has never been in the hot water he is now. So far he has managed to sweep everything under the carpet, or get it dismissed on a technicality. That doesn't appear to be the case this time. Considering the proposed penalty, you could say it's to the boiling point. He seems to have had a charmed life up until this point. He comes from a politically connected family, with established roots in the Detroit community. That paved the way for him to be where he is right now. After six years of serving as a State Representative and ranking as the minority leader of the house in Michigan. He was elected as a representative after his mother vacated that seat to run for congress. He is 38 years old on his second term as Mayor of one of the largest cities in America. He has been in office or around politics practically all of his life. This man was two if not one generation away from a political dynasty.This is a lifetime of work gone down the drain. This guy is willing to plea bargain all his past accomplishments away, to keep from going to jail. In light of the way things have been going for him lately. I cam''t say that I blame him. He could end up at county in general population. Not only fighting for his survival, but his manhood as well. If this were fantasy and not true to life. He could turn this into a street credit bonanza.
Since he is supposedly the first Hip-Hop Mayor in America. He shouldn't mind doing a little time incarcerated to build his rep with the homies. Be like those clowns T.I. and Michael Vick doing time for something stupid, when they could be out making millions. Call me a stickler, but I've always had a problem with a Mayor having an earring in his ear. He's claiming thug life until he has to really walk the walk. Then he comes back to the middle real quick. As you can see he has even hired a white attorney. For the sake of his wife and children. I hope this man is left with something for them. Not enough to make them think they were cheated, but enough to let them know what might have been. I listened to his father, and I see where he got his mentality from. Somehow I don't think he rebuked his son, as he should have. Instead of calling his son's behavior reprehensable. He blamed his outing on Nazi tactics. It's time for this way of thinking come to a halt. In light of everything that's happened. I wonder who is crying now?
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Preferential hiring of friends and family
ReplyDeleteIt was revealed that at any given time there are about 100 appointees of Kilpatrick employed with the city. The Detroit Free Press examined city records and found that 29 of Kilpatrick's closest friends and family were appointed to positions within the various city departments. This hiring practice came to be known as 'the friends and family plan'. Some appointees had little to no experience, while others, among them Kilpatrick's uncle Ray Cheeks and cousin Nneka Cheeks, falsified their résumés. Kilpatrick's cousin, Patricia Peoples, was appointed to the deputy director of human resources, giving her the ability to hire more of Kilpatrick's friends and family without it being viewed as a mayoral appointment. Though political appointments are not illegal, the sheer volume of Kilpatrick's appointments compared to all the appointments made by Detroit mayors since 1970, along with Kilpatrick's cutting of thousands of city jobs, make his appointments controversial.[75]
The jobs held by friends and family range from secretarial positions to department heads. The appointees had an average salary increase of 36% compared with a 2% raise in 2003 and 2% raise in 2004 for fellow city workers. Some of the biggest salary increases were for April Edgar, half-sister of Christine Beatty, whose pay increase was 86% over 5 years. One of Kilpatrick's cousins, Ajene Evans, had a 77% increase in his salary same period. The biggest salary increase among the 29 appointees was that of LaTonya Wallace-Hardiman who went from $32,500 staff secretary, to an executive assistant making $85,501—163% in five years.[75]
The city has laid off more than 4,000 city workers and more than 1,000 police officers since Kilpatrick's first term. None of Kilpatrick's friends or family have been laid off.
Sounds a little like Herenton although Herneton is not quite as bad.
ReplyDeleteMy co-worker went to Detroit over Labor Day. She said Kwame is trying to hold out until November 1 so he can still get his pension -- something he couldn't get if he resigned right now. Some of her relatives are die-hard Kwame supporters; all she could do was shake her head.
ReplyDeleteGovernor's hearing to remove Detroit mayor begins
ReplyDeleteBy Ed White and Corey Williams
The Associated Press
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
DETROIT -- Gov. Jennifer Granholm opened an extraordinary hearing Wednesday to determine whether Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick committed misconduct and should be removed from office in a scandal over steamy text messages and a multimillion-dollar legal settlement.
Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick sits in Wayne County Circuit Judge David Groner's courtroom during a hearing on the mayor's bond in Detroit, Tuesday, Sept. 2, 2008.
Granholm gave brief opening remarks after Kilpatrick's lawyers failed the day before to persuade courts to stop the hearing, which drew members of the public as early as sunrise to a state office building.
Granholm will hear evidence over allegations by the Detroit City Council that Kilpatrick mislead it when it approved an $8.4 million settlement with fired police officers. Council members say they didn't know the deal also covered up steamy text messages between Kilpatrick and his top aide, Christine Beatty, on city-issued pagers.
Michigan governors have a constitutional authority to remove elected officials for misconduct, but the target never has been the leader of the state's largest city.
"The burden of proof is sufficient evidence satisfactory to the governor," Granholm said in her remarks. "This is not a criminal trial. This is not a civil trial."
Kilpatrick skipped the hearing.
Besides the removal hearing, Kilpatrick faces 10 felonies in two criminal cases.
Granholm, a fellow Democrat, has pared the case to two issues: Did Kilpatrick settle the lawsuits for personal gain because he feared release of the text messages and did he conceal information from the City Council.
Kilpatrick's legal team has criticized Granholm, claiming her opinion on the mayor's future is clouded by her role in trying to broker a settlement in his criminal case in May. Resignation apparently was on the table.
"I listed the positions of the parties on a blackboard and suggested a path that was a compromise," Granholm said in an affidavit. "I made it clear that this suggestion was intended solely as a device to begin their discussion."
The Michigan Court of Appeals found nothing sinister Tuesday.
The removal hearing is just one of three legal minefields for Kilpatrick. He also faces 10 felonies in two criminal cases in Wayne County Circuit Court.
After the Detroit Free Press published the text messages earlier this year, Kilpatrick and Beatty were charged with perjury, conspiracy, misconduct and obstruction of justice.
They are accused of lying during the 2007 whistle-blowers' trial about having an extramarital affair and their roles in the firing of a deputy police chief.
Two assault charges against the mayor stem from a confrontation in July. A sheriff's detective says Kilpatrick shoved him into another investigator as they were attempting to serve a subpoena to the mayor's friend in the perjury case.
Despite his courtroom losses Tuesday, the mayor did get a small victory: A judge said he could stop wearing an electronic tether that keeps track of his whereabouts. Travel restrictions that keep Kilpatrick in the metro Detroit area won't change.
Detroit Mayor Kilpatrick pleads guilty, resigns
ReplyDeleteDetroit Mayor Kilpatrick pleads guilty, resigns
Published: 9/4/08, 2:25 PM EDT
By COREY WILLIAMS and ED WHITE
DETROIT (AP) - Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick pleaded guilty to felony charges Thursday in a sex scandal, forcing him out of office after months of defiantly holding onto his job leading the nation's 11th-largest city. He was ordered jailed for four months and fined $1 million.
"I lied under oath," Kilpatrick said in court.
The plea deal brings to an end a seven-months-long ordeal that has been a distraction for one of the nation's most troubled cities, which suffers from some of the highest home foreclosure and unemployment rates in the country, and has struggled for decades against population loss, high crime and racial tension.
The Detroit city charter automatically expels any mayor guilty of a felony.
A one-sentence letter signed by Kilpatrick and filed with the court states his resignation will take effect Sept. 18.
City Council President Ken Cockrel Jr. will succeed Kilpatrick as mayor until a special election is held.
As part of Thursday's deal, the 38-year-old Democrat is to serve four months in jail and five years of probation. He also would pay the $1 million in restitution over the five-year probationary period, cannot run for any elected office for five years and loses his law license.
During a separate hearing moments after Wayne County Circuit Court Judge David Groner accepted the mayor's plea, Kilpatrick offered a no contest plea in an assault case.
The judge also accepted that plea, which called for Kilpatrick to serve a four-month jail sentence that would run at the same time.
Kilpatrick had faced 10 felony counts in the two separate criminal cases.
Groner asked Kilpatrick if he understood he was giving up the right to be innocent until proven guilty.
"I gave that up a long time ago," Kilpatrick replied.
Kilpatrick also read a statement in court and admitted his guilt, saying "I lied under oath ... I did so with an intent to mislead the court and jury and to impede and obstruct the fair administration of justice."
The married mayor and former top aide Christine Beatty were charged in March with perjury, misconduct and obstruction of justice. They're accused of lying under oath about an affair and their roles in the firing of a deputy police chief.
Beatty did not plead guilty and next will appear in court on Sept. 11. Groner said a plea deal in Beatty's case appeared likely.
The mayor will be sentenced on Oct. 28. He will report to jail that day, said Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy.
"We did not give an inch and these conditions were basically to a letter of what we wanted all along," she said.
Worthy said she was glad that Kilpatrick resigned but that was never a "bargaining chip" for her. She said paying restitution and serving time in jail were far more important.
"You don't just lose your job and walk away," she said.
Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm described the events of the day as "a sad but historic story" that's coming to an end.
"A public office is entrusted to the person who holds that office but belongs to the people who are served by that office," she said.
She also suspended a hearing that she had started Wednesday to determine whether he should be removed from office for misconduct. The proceedings were rendered moot.
Until now, Kilpatrick had refused to resign even as the calls for him to step down grew louder and the controversy overshadowed all else at City Hall, tarnishing the national image of the much-maligned city even more.
Detroit Police Chief Ella Bully-Cummings, who was appointed by Kilpatrick, announced her retirement Thursday, effective immediately.
Kilpatrick leaves a mixed legacy. He persuaded big business to invest in a city staggering from the auto industry's woes and a decades-long exodus of people, but he failed to live up to a promising political future due to repeated scandal.
The son of a Detroit congresswoman, Kilpatrick was just 31 when he was elected in 2001, becoming the youngest mayor in city history.
His pro-Detroit rhetoric and diamond stud earring endeared Kilpatrick to many blacks, especially young voters who embraced the "Hip-Hop Mayor."
But Kilpatrick's first term was marked by political immaturity and fiscal irresponsibility. He racked up thousands of dollars in travel on his city-issued credit card and the city's lease of a luxury Lincoln Navigator for his wife, Carlita.
Less than a year into the first term, rumors surfaced of a wild party involving strippers and members of Kilpatrick's security team at the mayor's mansion.
Former Deputy Police Chief Gary Brown filed a lawsuit in 2003, claiming he was fired for looking into the alleged party and investigating the actions of the mayor's bodyguards.
During the 2007 trial, Kilpatrick and Beatty sat in the witness chair and denied having a romantic relationship in 2002 and 2003.
But a bombshell rocked Detroit in January: The Detroit Free Press published sexually explicit text messages recovered from Beatty's city-issued pager that contradicted their courtroom denials.
He and Beatty were charged with perjury and other felonies.
More text messages released in April revealed the evolution of flirty and sexually explicit exchanges to professions of love and promises of marriage.
In May, the City Council asked Granholm to remove Kilpatrick from office, saying it was misled into approving a $8.4 million settlement with Brown and two other officers. Council members said they didn't know about provisions to keep the text messages under wraps.
In July, a sheriff's detective trying to serve a subpoena on a Kilpatrick friend said he was shoved by the mayor. Assault charges followed.
The next month, a judge ordered the mayor to jail for violating the terms of his bond by traveling to Canada. He was released the next day, but the incident prompted some politicians and community leaders who had remained silent on the scandal to call for his resignation.
Deadline for disgraced mayor to leave mansion
ReplyDeletePublished: 9/8/08, 11:05 AM EDT
By ED WHITE and COREY WILLIAMS
DETROIT (AP) - Detroit's mayor has a deadline for moving out of the city's official mayoral residence now that he has pleaded guilty and is resigning.
Officials say Kwame Kilpatrick and his wife and three sons are expected to be out of the city's Manoogian Mansion by midnight on Sept. 18.
A spokesman for incoming Detroit Mayor Ken Cockrel Jr. said Monday that if Kilpatrick has a problem with that date he should discuss it with Cockrel.
Kilpatrick also has until Sept. 18 to vacate his offices at City Hall. Cockrel takes over as mayor on Sept. 19.
Kilpatrick resigned last week and pleaded guilty to two counts of obstruction of justice. He also pleaded no contest to one count of assault. He will serve four months in jail and five years probation after an Oct. 28 sentencing.
A thug in a suit.
ReplyDelete