Detroit enacts ethics reforms following Free Press investigation
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
Detroit board members who set salaries for the mayor and other elected leaders are among many public officials who must now file new ethics disclosures in light of a Detroit Free Press investigation.
Each member of the Elected Officials Compensation Commission — along with mayoral appointees on boards that oversee police, the water department and other entities — will need to file new ethics disclosures early next year, said Anthony Zander, director of the Detroit Department of Civil Rights, Inclusion & Opportunity.
"After a review of all boards and their functions, (the five chosen are) the ones that we determined were appropriate to add an annual conflict of interest disclosure form, due to the nature of their work, which includes approving contracts, budgets or compensation," Zander said, in a statement provided by John Roach, a spokesman for Mayor Mike Duggan.
Roach confirmed the mayor agreed to expanding the disclosure requirements, but said Duggan had no additional comment.
City leaders acknowledged the need for action in April, when the Free Press showed most members of the Detroit Elected Officials Compensation Commission had potential conflicts that may create an appearance of impropriety.
The commission sets pay rates for the mayor, city council members and the city clerk.
Earlier this year, the commission approved raises for each elected position. By the time the final pay bumps take effect, the Detroit mayor’s salary will be $224,571, $65,000 more than the governor of Michigan, if the state post does not get any additional pay. Council members and City Clerk Janice Winfrey will make $106,232.
The Free Press found nearly all of the six members of the commission have personal or professional ties to the same leaders for whom they were recommending a pay raise.
That includes one member who works in a leadership position at a company that received a six-figure contract from the city after she joined the commission.
A separate member who leads the commission, a lawyer, continues to state on her professional website that she is "actively involved in representing Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan and numerous City of Detroit Councilpersons." Other commissioners previously worked for Duggan, had ties to organizations that worked with the city or serve on other public boards that might make them ineligible to serve on the compensation commission.
Although Duggan's administration defended the members of the commissioner earlier this year, Corporation Counsel Conrad Mallett agreed change were necessary.
“These are men and women of a high degree of integrity, they understand the nature of the public responsibility that they’re undertaking. But I do think that in this climate, in this environment, an annual disclosure process actually would be helpful, and I think make everybody — the public, most particularly — comfortable that … nothing untoward has occurred and not have been reported, either by decision or accident,” Mallett said during an April phone interview.
“I get it that the process could be improved, and we’re going to.”
The mayor and other high-ranking city officials already file annual conflict of interest disclosures, in accordance with a 2015 executive order from Duggan. Along with the compensation commission, members on four other boards must file disclosures.
That includes:
All five members of the Detroit Housing Commission, the entity that oversees affordable and low-income housing in the city;
All seven members of the Board of Water Commissioners, which oversees the city's water and sewage department;
Four of five members of the Detroit Land Bank Authority, the entity that sells many vacant or blighted properties in the city;
Four of the 11 members of the Board of Police Commissioners, the citizen-oversight entity for the Detroit Police Department.
Zander noted the administration can only mandate mayoral appointees file disclosures. Those members on the land bank authority and police commissioners not required to file disclosures are not appointed by the mayor.
The order requires applicable officials to provide details in seven areas:
Title and duties with the city
Sources of income
"Personal interest pending before city agencies, city council or any court"
Property ownership
Financial transactions involving family members and the city
Receipts of any gift worth $250 or more from any person or organization already working with or interested in doing business for the city
Officials must file their disclosure by March 15 with Zander's office, Roach said. Residents who want to see these forms will need to file a Freedom of Information Act with the office, Road said.
Information revealed on these forms won't necessarily prevent someone from serving on a board. But Mallett previously said if the administration learned someone lied on these forms, the administration would call for that person's resignation.
Anyone who does not file the form on time, without a reasonable excuse, "will be unappointed from his/her position with the city," according to the executive order.
Staff writer Dana Afana contributed to this report. Reach Dave Boucher at dboucher@freepress.com or on X, previously called Twitter, @Dave_Boucher1.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit enacts ethics reforms following Free Press investigation
