Meet the New Boss, Same as the Old Boss…

January 30, 2008

The lyrics to “Won’t Get Fooled Again” by rock icons The Who have apparently fallen on deaf ears in the City of Detroit, where embattled Mayor Kwame Kilpatrickfooled them twice. As I wrote last week, Kilpatrick is under fire for allegations of infidelity with an aide and perjuring himself* in a whistleblower lawsuit which cost the bankrupt city at least $9M. I don’t care about his infidelity, but I care about what it cost the citizens.

I catalogue Kwame’s antics from time to time, and now it seems he’s done it again, promoting to Chief of Staff another highly questionable individual. Kandia Milton was formerly the Mayor’s Deputy Chief of Staff, and despite a generous salary (Milton’s compensation package easily puts him in the top quintile according to the Census Burea) paid for by the citizens of a cash-strapped city, has been in financial distress of late: defaulting on nearly $400K worth of obligations, declaring bankruptcy, losing houses at Sheriff’s sales, delinquent property taxes and so on.

“The personal financial situation of Mr. Milton will have no bearing on his ability to uphold his duties as Mayor Kilpatrick’s new chief of staff,” [Kilpatrick spokesman James] Canning said.

Milton was paid about $90,000 a year as council liaison and received a $600 transportation stipend each month. His new position pays up to $140,000 a year.

I beg to differ. Dude was making an awful lot of money to be broke. And that $600 stipend is enough for an awful lot of car.

I don’t know anything about the man. Maybe he can keep his lives separate. Maybe his personal financial problems will not affect his judgment. But sometimes, in order to avoid the appearance of impropriety, its necessary to extricate oneslef from the public eye. The fact of the matter is that Milton, by all appearances, is simply more likely than others to put himself in positions where he can be compromised.

People can and will do crazy things when they’re in financial distress. The article cites a litany of financial problems in addition to the ten dimes he owed the City in delinquent property taxes, which together contribute to an overarching pattern of poor judgement and irresponsibility, effectively compromising Milton’s ability to perform his civic duties by potentially creating massive conflicts of interest.

+++

* Last week’s “Detroit Mayor Guilty of Perjury” has been one of my most popular posts, unfortunately, it only attracted a single comment.


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1 Comment so far

  1. …no third solution » Blog Archive » Where Have I Been? March 10, 2008 2:47 pm

    […] Elected official + sex scandal sound familiar? Yeah, we have our own high-profile scandal in Detroit, where the Mayor’s combination of connivery and infidelity has cost the City taxpayers over $9M. […]

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