Is this guy serious?



Vision, work ethic backed as business woes dog

'I want to be a solutions man'

BY NAOMI R. PATTON
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

On election night in November 2005, supporters and friends told then-Detroit City Council candidate Jai-Lee Dearing it was mathematically impossible for him to lose. At least two of the local TV stations called Dearing the winner for the ninth spot on City Council.

So Dearing left the victory party at his nightclub Bert's on Broadway to go to sleep. He woke the next morning, placing 10th with 87,299 votes, losing to Brenda Jones, who received 90,669 votes.


"I was just devastated," said Dearing, 37.


Four years later, Dearing is back.


The fourth-generation entrepreneur who operates Bert's Marketplace at Eastern Market with his father, Bert Dearing, finds himself a month away from another general election as a council candidate, who placed eighth in the August primary and continues polling among the top nine candidates.


But Jai-Lee Dearing's foibles as a businessman, including a litany of unpaid bills, various code violations for his business and business license issues, are dogging his campaign.


This wasn't so apparent earlier this month, when Dearing was in his element -- speaking to a group of seniors at Virginia Park Meadows.


Heads nodded as Dearing talked about bringing revenue to the city in the form of: beefing up the city's EMS services to compete with private medical transportation services; leasing city-owned land to private businesses, and getting the city into the utility business by building and operating a city-owned nuclear power plant.


"I want to be a solutions man," Dearing told them.


There were a lot of "hmmm-hmmms" when he talked about regionalizing transportation in the city, decrying the cuts to city bus service that would leave some of his Bert's Marketplace employees without transportation.


Beatrice Stephens, a Virginia Park resident, said she voted for Dearing in 2005 and 2009.


"It makes sense what he's talking about," she said.

http://www.freep.com/article/2009092...iness-woes-dog-