Pension Bribery Scandal Leads to More Indictments in Detroit, Including Funds’ Former General Counsel May 2013 The longtime general counsel and a former trustee of Detroit's pension funds are the latest two city officials to be indicted in a bribery and kickback conspiracy that has been under investigation for several years and cost the pension funds $84 million in losses. Ronald Zajac, who served as General Counsel of Detroit's General Retirement System and Police and Fire Retirement System for more than 30 years, allegedly forced people seeking business with the pension funds to spend thousands of dollars on entertainment and other gifts for certain pension trustees involved in the scheme. Zajac also allegedly organized “birthday parties” for certain pension trustees, at which people with pension fund business would give cash gifts to the trustees. In return for directing cash, lavish vacations and other items of value to the pension trustees involved in the bribery and kickback conspiracy, the trustees voted to raise Zajac's salary by a substantial amount.
How did Detroit fall into the abyss? FILE: July 27, 2011 A section of vacant stores in Detroit.AP The bankruptcy filing for Detroit marks a final step in the chrome-plated city’s decades-long decline – which started with the country’s overall manufacturing slowdown and continued with the departure of U.S. automakers and residents, leaving behind a sprawling city trying to survive on dwindling coffers. Detroit was in the 1950s a worldwide hub of auto manufacturing, making it the fourth-largest U.S. city with one of the country’s highest per-capita incomes. However, the so-called Motor City’s decline started soon after with residents -- following their counterparts in other U.S. cities – starting to move to the suburbs and take with them businesses, jobs and tax dollars. Historians argue the deadly 1967 riot in Detroit, one of the many so-called “race riots” across the country in the 1960s, accelerated the trend. Orr, appointed in March by Gov. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Amid Scandal and a Potential Break with the EAA, DPS has a Lesson to Learn | Green And Write - Education Policy Research Insights By Kacy Martin More Mess in DPS: Principal Kickbacks The federal government uncovered an alleged $1 million kickback scheme that involved 12 Detroit Public School (DPS) principals, a district administrator, and a vendor on Tuesday. For the past 13 years, businessman Norman Shy has reportedly been paying bribes to principals and skimming money off the top of exchanges involving school supplies. Shy apparently made a habit of submitting falsified invoices and delivering only a portion of what was ordered while keeping the remaining revenue for himself and the co-conspiring principals. Photo courtesy of Wikipedia Commons This is bad timing for scandal of this magnitude as DPS’s future is already in flux. Learning from the Mistakes of the EAA Sarah Reckhow, professor of political science at Michigan State University, wrote an op-ed last week that outlined the lessons that can be learned from Detroit’s failed experiment with alternate governance structures and political arrangements.
Detroit Decline Causes Include Auto Industry Collapse, Segregation And Politics -- Blue-collar workers poured into the cavernous auto plants of Detroit for generations, confident that a sturdy back and strong work ethic would bring them a house, a car and economic security. It was a place where the American dream came true. It came true in cities across the industrial heartland, from Chicago's meatpacking plants to the fire-belching steel mills of Cleveland and Pittsburgh. The good times would not last forever. The "Arsenal of Democracy" that supplied the Allied victory of World War II and evolved into the "Motor City" fell into a six-decade downward spiral of job losses, shrinking population and a plummeting tax base. "Detroit is an extreme case of problems that have afflicted every major old industrial city in the U.S.," said Thomas Sugrue, author of "The Origins of the Urban Crisis: Race and Inequality in Postwar Detroit" and a history professor at the University of Pennsylvania. All of the nation's industrial cities fell, but only Detroit hit bottom.
Detroit Race Riot (1967) The Intersection of 12th Street and Clairmount, Saturday, July 23, 1967 Image Courtesy of the Detroit Free Press Image Ownership: Public Domain The Detroit Race Riot in Detroit, Michigan in the summer of 1967 was one of the most violent urban revolts in the 20th century. It came as an immediate response to police brutality but underlying conditions including segregated housing and schools and rising black unemployment helped drive the anger of the rioters. On Sunday evening, July 23, the Detroit Police Vice Squad officers raided an after hours “blind pig,” an unlicensed bar on the corner of 12th Street and Clairmount Avenue in the center of the city’s oldest and poorest black neighborhood. At 5:20 a.m. additional police officers were sent to 12th Street to stop the growing violence. Around 1:00 p.m. police officers began to report injuries from stones, bottles, and other objects that were thrown at them. At 2:00 a.m. Sources:Allen D.
Detroit: The New Motor City Detroit, Motown, the Motor City. Michigan and Detroit in particular became the center of the auto industry at the beginning of the twentieth century due to a number of factors. Steel, the Great Lakes shipping industries, and a large and growing workforce all contributed. The Big 3 auto makers, General Motors, Ford and Chrysler were all formed and headquartered in Detroit by 1924. The first sign of any trouble came in 1956, when the Big 3 saw a minor slump in their sales, and the doubling of import sales. During the civil rights movement, the blue collar assembly line economy and inner city social problems proved to be a dangerous mixture. Buyers now wanted smaller more efficient cars, and the Japanese had the best. Detroit was dispirited and its economy was faltering. Detroit's communities sensing the impending danger of all of this scrambled for an answer, a scapegoat. General Motors and the factories located just northwest of Detroit were the most tragic example of this. Toyota Prius
Detroit Mayor Runs on Hip Hop A Politician Who Runs on Hip-Hop Detroit mayor's use of rap lures young voters and suggests the music has electoral juice. By Geoff Boucher, Times Staff Writer DETROIT — Amid thundering rap music and the cheers of 8,000 young fans, the handsome star moved to center stage and, the way hip-hop heroes usually do, called out the name of that night's arena crowd. "What's up, Detroit? The man at the microphone, though, was no rapper. Rap music is already one of the most potent forces in American youth culture, and its imprint has changed the rhythms in film, advertising, fashion and television. At the arena appearance last month, for an event billed as a "hip-hop summit," the towering Kilpatrick hailed the local energy of rap, youth and inner-city political activism, and said it could be a model for urban hubs across the nation. Still, campaigning and leading are different tasks. There are skeptics.
Report: 75% Of Detroit Schools Don’t Provide Adequate Education DETROIT (WWJ) – An annual ranking released Wednesday shows that only one-quarter of the schools in Detroit are providing an adequate education for its students. Excellent Schools Detroit — a coalition of leaders in many different areas, ranging from education, philanthropic and community groups — releases a yearly scorecard to help parents make sense of the city’s school system and find the best fit for their child. The organization’s scorecard on Detroit schools for 2013 found that — of the 204 schools graded — 51 earned “C+” or higher. Dan Varner, chief executive officer of Excellent Schools Detroit, said the scorecard helps parents draw the line between good schools they would recommend (C+ and higher) and those that are not good enough. “Detroit’s been waiting for this moment to fully understand how our schools rank, not just against each other, but in measuring up to established excellence standards,” Varner said in a statement.
Kwame Kilpatrick facts, information, pictures Former mayor Kwame Kilpatrick was the youngest mayor to lead the city of Detroit, Michigan, and the city's first mayor to resign the office after being charged with a felony. What began as an administration full of promise for both Kilpatrick and the beleaguered city in 2002 ended in scandal, ignominy, and near financial disaster after several years of rumors and reports that tied the mayor to everything from lying under oath to the murder of an exotic dancer. Raised in a Politically Active Family Kwame Malik Kilpatrick was born in Detroit and raised on the city's west side. Kilpatrick attended the arts-focused magnet school Lewis Cass Technical High School. After teaching at Rickards High School in Tallahassee, Florida, Kilpatrick accepted a teaching position at Marcus Garvey Academy and returned to Detroit. Elected to State House of Representatives Congresswoman Kilpatrick decided to make her transition from state representative to U.S. representative in 1995. At a Glance … Sources Online