Tag: AG Bill Shuette

What do Mitt and Bob have in common?

Detroit - Mitt's presidential ambitions may meet their Waterloo in the Big Mitten and if they do, Mitt might have Bob to thank.

That's because Romney and Bob Ficano, the Wayne County executive who is caught in the crosshairs of an FBI corruption probe, have a certain friend in common -- John Rakolta. Rakolta is a prominent Detroit developer whose  company, Walbridge, won a $300 million contract last summer to build the new Wayne County jail.

In turns out Rakolta is Romney's co-national finance chairman.

The Rakolta connection couldn't come at a worse time for Romney, whose commanding lead in his boyhood state of Michigan has shriveled to a statistical tie with Rick Santorum.

The feds are investigating a pattern of pay-to-play in the jail deal and have subpoenaed the county's records in connection with Walbridge. As it happens, Rakolta has been a contributor to the Democrat Ficano, a member of Ficano's finance host committee, and a $25,000 contributor to a non-profit business group know as Edge Opportunities that paid Turkia Mullin to lobby the county development czar.

Rest here

The first casualty of Wayne County's severance scandal was already off the payroll when Executive Robert Ficano "terminated" him, documents obtained by the Detroit News show.

Ficano announced on Oct. 14 that he was firing former personnel director Tim Taylor for his role in a $200,000 severance to Turkia Mullin, the county's ex-economic development director.

But Taylor's employment agreement as a consultant making $56.28 an hour expired the day before, according to his personnel file that The Detroit News obtained through the Freedom of Information Act.

That makes Ficano's claims of punishing those responsible "disingenuous," said Commissioner Laura Cox, R-Livonia.

"That's baloney. It's ridiculous to terminate somebody whose contract had expired," Cox said. "It's misleading taxpayers to say he is taking action, when he is taking no action."

Members of a Wayne County economic development nonprofit that gave Turkia Mullin a $75,000 bonus last year voted this week to ban similar payouts.

The board members of Edge Opportunities, also known as the Wayne County Business Development Corp., met on Monday and made the move, according to a press release from its new chairman, Jeffrey Collins, the incoming deputy county executive.

Collins was elected the new chairman Monday and Ray Byers, the incoming county economic development chief, was elected the new executive director. County Executive Robert Ficano brought the two on staff two weeks ago after announcing the departure of Deputy County Executive Azzam Elder.

Too late Wayne County, the cat's already out of the bag.

Could the questions that now surround the Wayne County Business Development Corporation be a factor?  Who really knows for sure where this whole mess will lead.