Is Bob Ficano Corrupt?

[jtf1972]

Now Wayne County is axing a bunch of contract workers due to contracts being cancelled. My mother has a job... for now, but says the office she works in is a ghost town today.

EDIT: She just got laid off too.

The crap at the top is affecting everybody, not just the people who put aside the public's money for their own use. Screw Ficano and all of the bastards around him who screwed all of us.

[Detwa]

What kinds of contracts are being cancelled related to the scandal? Is it the healthcare investigation?

[7miledog]

Now Wayne County is axing a bunch of contract workers due to contracts being cancelled. My mother has a job... for now, but says the office she works in is a ghost town today.

EDIT: She just got laid off too.

The crap at the top is affecting everybody, not just the people who put aside the public's money for their own use. Screw Ficano and all of the bastards around him who screwed all of us.

I'm very sorry to hear about your mother. I wish her well. The media should definitely pick up on this story. What contracts are being cancelled and why now? This is potentially a big story; I can feel it in my bones.

I haven't really chimed in on this before, but it is really getting to be just too much. Ficano, whom I was neither a supporter nor detractor of, has become a distraction and needs to go...Now. It's like the roaches scattering when you turn on the lights, every day there is just something else coming out.

[Richard]

I'm very sorry to hear about your mother. I wish her well. The media should definitely pick up on this story. What contracts are being cancelled and why now? This is potentially a big story; I can feel it in my bones.

I haven't really chimed in on this before, but it is really getting to be just too much. Ficano, whom I was neither a supporter nor detractor of, has become a distraction and needs to go...Now. It's like the roaches scattering when you turn on the lights, every day there is just something else coming out.

They have not even started on the Areo - Ficano - GE - and Snyder aspect yet.

[Zacha341]

Maybe these contractors are about to start 'talking' but does canceling them help? Yeah, after obliging his top foot soldiers to 'fall' on their swords is may be time for him to ultimately go...

I'm very sorry to hear about your mother. I wish her well. The media should definitely pick up on this story. What contracts are being cancelled and why now? This is potentially a big story; I can feel it in my bones.

I haven't really chimed in on this before, but it is really getting to be just too much. Ficano, whom I was neither a supporter nor detractor of, has become a distraction and needs to go...Now. It's like the roaches scattering when you turn on the lights, every day there is just something else coming out.

[Zacha341]

Yeah, ROTFL! He's already invoked the #007 SPECTER non-compliance-chair-falls-thru-the-floor punishment deal. His number two and three person etc. are out of these! Poof a puff of smoke!

[Zacha341]

ROTFL! Next he will say it's Bush's fault! No Granholm, no wait even better: Engler!!!!

LOL, no kidding.

I just love how at every press conference Ficano says, "I take full responsibility, that's why I'm firing someone else."

[7miledog]

Hopefully we won't have to wait too long to find out the answer to the OP's question...
http://www.detnews.com/article/20111115/METRO/111150370/1408/local

[corktownyuppie]

Hopefully we won't have to wait too long to find out the answer to the OP's question...
http://www.detnews.com/article/20111115/METRO/111150370/1408/local

If he's not corrupt, he's mastered the art of willful ignorance. Now I'm starting to get why there's so much deep-seeded anger in Metro Detroit. I've only been following local politics the last 5 years or so, and for the most part, the moment corruption sees the light of day McQuade [[US Attorney's office) and Arena [[FBI) have been working so fast it's unbelievable.

But if I had to put up with this nonsense for the last 20-30+ years, I'd just throw my hands up and move out of Michigan.

[Maple Leaf Rag]

Is Ficano corrupt?

In the words of the great Commander Bubbles, "Does the Tin Man have a sheet metal cock?"

[bopcity]

$50 Turkia jets outta here soon with her kids on a Lebanese passport wearing niqab and abaya.

Ha! After watching the clip below, no one's likely to take you up on that one.

>> In the subpoenas, 14 companies are specifically named. The subpoenas were served Oct. 19th at Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano’s office in the Guardian Building in downtown Detroit.

Local 4 legal expert David Griem says it's crystal clear the feds have an insider feeding them all the county's dirt.

Griem said the feds usual go fishing by sending out a wide net hoping to catch a smoking gun, but are instead asking for detailed and specific contracts.

Griem said this is a sign investigators already know how the deals went down.

In reading the subpoenas, Griem also said it is clear the feds have three people in their sights: Turkia Mullin, Azzam Elder and former IT director Tahir Kazm.

http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/D...z/-/index.html

[bopcity]

The rats are definitely scrambling from the ship...

"After examining the three subpoenas that I've seen, there is absolutely no question that there is a federal grand jury that is investigating this matter," said David Griem, a Detroit defense attorney and former federal prosecutor. “I think it's significant, because it means that it's gone up another level from an FBI investigation." ...

The subpoenas are the clearest sign yet that the controversial Wayne County Business Development Corporation, a nonprofit group funded by businesses and labor groups to promote economic activity, is key part of the investigation. Seven of the 14 companies named in the subpoenas contributed a total of $117,500 to the nonprofit in 2010, while three others were listed as providing in-kind contributions, according to tax filings the corporation released Tuesday. ...

In sweeping legal language, the subpoenas ask all business records involving the county and the 14 companies:

“Any and all records, including, but not limited to requests for proposals, requests for qualifications, proposals and/or bids received, contracts awarded by Wayne County and payments related to the following companies: The Boji Group; Piston Group; The Sterling Group; Metro Cars; Steward Investments, Inc.; Ghafari; Henry Ford Health Systems; Grand Sakwa Properties, Inc.; Walbridge Company; RCP Associates; Strategic Staffing Solutions; Delta Air; The Roxbury Group; and Clark Hill,” a law firm.

http://www.freep.com/article/20111116/NEWS02/111116033/Federal-grand-jury-probes-5-years-Wayne-County-dealings-subpoenas-show?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|FRONTPAGE

[bopcity]

But she has a good lawsuit -- one I think she can win. The county will have a tough time proving she was fired for cause by violating the terms of her contract, unless officials cough up some new information. If they have it, they owe it to everyone to lay it out. If not, we’re about to find out how tough Mullin really is.

What's the latest odds on Turkia Mullin getting that $750,000 for her termination at Metro?

[Gannon]

Did anyone else catch Charlie LeDuff's brilliant shenanigans last night on the television?! I swear he is either Groucho Marks reincarnate, or at least channeling that old comedian.

He skewered Ficano, and put him on a slow spin spit for roasting.


So if you smell burning pig this morning...


Cheers,
John

[Detwa]

I saw it. It's looking pretty bad for Ficano, although he is putting on his game face, after Charlie's revelations last night, Ficano has a LOT to worried about. What is this sending huge checks to post office boxes for apparently non-existent companies? Wonder who picks up those checks [[and cashes them). To make it worse, while he's throwing everybody to the wolves to save himself, these people he fired are probably all going to give up the evidence against him.

[Novine]

Charlie's looking in the right places but he overplayed it a bit. Plenty of businesses use post office boxes. The fact that a check went to a PO Box isn't proof that it's a non-existent business. Neither is it unusual for businesses to share office space. As for the cronyism and campaign contribution kickbacks, Charlie could do a segment every night of the week for the next 10 years on that activity at every level of government. Dig into the donations to the PACs of officeholders at the local, state and federal government and you'll see people making contributions who are beneficiaries of government contracts and laws that benefit their businesses. I'm not letting Ficano off the hook but anyone who thinks Ficano's doing anything different than is being done by politicians all over the state of Michigan is hopelessly naive.

[Gannon]

I would say 'overplayed' in an understatement, especially with his delivery...and those hilarious cuts with him popping up from every angle. I loved when he shot up from the bottom. That segment deserves some sort of award.

When I took Ed King's excellent "How to Start a Successful Small Business" Wayne State outreach course, he told us all to get a PO Box, just so those of us with a home office could insert 'driving to get mail' as a business expense deduction! Apparently the IRS doesn't allow deductions for the first commute to the office, but when you make it a trip to get the mail the mileage can be counted and costs used to lower your potential tax liability.


But I really don't believe that is the case here...I'll be surprised if anything comes up as legitimate.


Cheers!

[Detwa]

This is true. I have a PO box also but I don't like to get checks there, I like my checks in my hand or in my paypal account. Of course, my checks are small potatoes, but I still don't like them going to the PO box, I get them at home.

[Kevgoblue]

Looks like Turkia Mullin's parachute wasn't that bad at all. Now Azzam Elder says he was promised $300K, plus a $150K pension for life!
And he's claiming that Ficano set up similar payouts for 15 of his top aides!
http://www.detroitnews.com/article/2...xt|FRONTPAGE|p

Robert Ficano's friend and family plan is starting to make Kwame look like an amatuer.

[Buy American]

Looks like Turkia Mullin's parachute wasn't that bad at all. Now Azzam Elder says he was promised $300K, plus a $150K pension for life!
And he's claiming that Ficano set up similar payouts for 15 of his top aides!
http://www.detroitnews.com/article/2...xt|FRONTPAGE|p

Robert Ficano's friend and family plan is starting to make Kwame look like an amatuer.

There is not one legitimate politican in Detroit or Wayne County.

[Novine]

"Robert Ficano's friend and family plan is starting to make Kwame look like an amatuer."

The question is whether Elder's claims are legit or an attempt to distract from his own handiwork.

[Zacha341]

It could be both!

"Robert Ficano's friend and family plan is starting to make Kwame look like an amatuer."

The question is whether Elder's claims are legit or an attempt to distract from his own handiwork.