Barrow demands Beckham resignation

In a press release on Tuesday, Detroit mayoral candidate Tom Barrow called on Mayor Dave Bing’s chief aide Charles Beckham to resign. His statement comes a day after activist Agnes Hitchcock asked Attorney General Mike Cox to remove Beckham from his position because it is against state law for someone convicted of fraud to hold his position. Barrow piggybacked on Hitchcock’s complaint:

“Mayor Bing’s vetting process is seriously flawed,” said Barrow. “If media reports are true, this mayor has either knowingly violated MCL 750.118 with the appointment of Beckham as his chief administrative officer or he is dangerously naïve and has ignored the advice of his silk stocking firm of lawyers on his vetting transition team.”

“If Bing does not ask for the resignation,” said Barrow, “then I encourage Michigan Attorney General Michael Cox to immediately rule on the applicability of MCL 750.118 to Mr. Beckham and clear this very serious allegation which has caused yet another cloud to hang over the City of Detroit.”

“If the allegations are true, Bing himself needs to personally reimburse the city for the $69,000 Beckham has been paid illegally by the City since May and Beckham himself reimburse the millions he has been paid over the last eight years during the Kilpatrick years till now,” added Barrow.

“This mayor acts sanctimonious telling Detroit how honest he is when all the time he knew or should have known that the law was being blatantly violated with this inappropriate hiring,” Barrow told the gathering.

But Mr. Barrow might want to consider whether his own glass house is strong enough to withstand the throwing of such stones. Barrow himself was convicted in 1994 of tax fraud and sentenced to nearly two years in prison, fined $11,000 and required to repay more than $80,000 to the IRS. In late September, a federal judge refused to overturn that conviction.