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Mayor Mike Duggan (Photo: Michael Lucido)
Mayor Mike Duggan expressed relief Wednesday over a statement by federal authorities, who said Tuesday they do not anticipate charging more public officials in its ongoing investigation into Detroit's demolition program beyond the one ex-official, who pleaded guilty on Tuesday in federal court.
"I said from the beginning that if any public official commited a crime, they should be charged," Duggan said at a packed press conference on the 11th floor of city hall. "But in the three year investigation, I never saw any evidence that anybody running the Land Bank or the building authority had broken any laws."
"And for outstanding public servants like Dave Menardo and Karrie Lewand-Monroe and many others, I know it's a great relief to their family and friends to have this cloud removed from their lives."
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► Charlie LeDuff column: "Slime does not always equal crime."
Duggan's press conference came one day after a former city official, Aradondo Haskins, 48, and Anthony Daguanno, 62, an ex-executive at Adamo Group, a prominent Detroit demolition firm, pleaded guilty to collectively taking hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes and rigging bids in Detroit's ambitious demolition program.
After the guilty pleas in federal court, the U.S. Attorney issued a release about the pleas and noted:
Haskins and Daguanno are the first defendants to plead guilty in connection with the criminal investigation into the demolition program in the City of Detroit. The government, as of today’s date, does not anticipate charging any additional public officials.
Asked if former government officials might still be charged, Duggan said he's just going by what the statement says. The U.S. Attorney's did not immediately return calls for comment. Haskins hasn't worked for the city for about three years.
Cash for competitive edge
Haskins and Daguanno, according to court documents, pleaded guilty to taking bribes from "Contractor A." Haskins identified him in court Tuesday as Rich Berg of the Detroit firm Environmental Specialty Services. The company paid bribes to get a competitive edge over other bidders.
Daguanno and Haskins, both estimators for Adamo Group, were tasked with contacting various subcontractors to get bids for demolition work to be included in Adamo's submissions to the city for the demolition program, according to the court documents. Haskins eventually went to work for the City of Detroit Building Authority (DBA) as a "field operations manager" for the demoliton program, where he continued taking bribes from Environmental Speciality Services.
Asked what's will happen to "Contractor A," Duggan replied:
"You're going to have to ask (U.S. Attorney) Matthew Snyder about that, but I think you can expect that will be the next step" in the probe.
The demolition program continues, as does the Justice Department inquiry.
Stumbles acknowledged
"We're five years into the demolition program," Duggan said. "We've taken down more than 17,000 abandoned buildings. We're only halfway there. We've got another five years to go to remove every abandoned building from this city."
Duggan admits there were mistepps, including in 2016 when the federal government was improperly charged for expenses the city should have paid. It involved millions of dollars. Duggan on Wednesday called that "an embarassment."
Late last year, the city's Inspector General, cleared the city of wrongdoing. But it did note concern about the city's meeting with large contractors for the demolition program that excluded smaller ones:
Based on the OIG investigation, the large-unit contractor meeting did not violate any existing written DLBA, State or Federal Blight Elimination Program policies, or obligations to the City. However, the meeting lacked fairness, openness, and transparency because it excluded smaller contractors and by doing so, it portrayed the notion that select contractors were given preferential treatment.
On Wednesday, Duggan said "for the last three years under our much tightened procedures the $265 million in federal money has continued to flow uninterrupted."
The feds are still looking into the demolition program and recently issued subpoenas regarding suspicious demolition dirt used to fill the holes where dilapidated houses used to stand.
Duggan declined to comment on the specifics of the ongoing investigation.
