As The News reports, the audit unlocked nearly $24 million in revenue sharing dollars from the state upon completion, but it also exposed a number of serious financial pitfalls the city faces.

The audit showed that the city does not refund those who overpay on property tax. A property owner must ask in order to get the surplus refunded, the report found. Additionally it’s been five years since the city turned over unclaimed monies and property to the state, as Michigan law mandates.

Some of the oversights are embarrassing: The audit found that the city has no record of all the bank accounts it has and it has not pursued collection of 2.2 million bad checks written to the city.

The problems revealed in this audit date back to when former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick was in office. A spokesperson for Mayor Dave Bing told The News that, “The city will utilize every tool available to get its fiscal house in order.”

With the sour results of the newly submitted 07/08 audit fresh off the press, the 08/09 annual financial report is due by the end of the month and could reveal even more discouraging news. Maybe there’s a reason the city has a tradition of filing audits late.

The Detroit News reports that the businessman-turned-mayor will join some the nation’s top business leaders including leaders of Michigan-based companies today at the White House Jobs Summit hosted by President Barack Obama.

The attending CEOs and economists are expected to make suggestions and brainstorm ways to lower unemployment rates across the nation.

Detroit has the highest unemployment rate in the nation, with the numbers reaching depression levels at 28 percent. That’s almost double the state’s unemployment rate of 15 percent and nearly triple the national average of 10 percent.

Photo courtesy of Greater Detroit Warriors on Wheels network

Veolia Transportation, which owns and operates Metro Lift, a paratransit service in Detroit, halted all service and filed a lawsuit against the city last month claiming the city broke the terms of their contract.

Because the issue is in litigation, Veolia spokeswoman Valerie Michael told Michigan Messenger she couldn’t talk details, but gave an overview of the situation. “I can tell you that we have filed a suit against the city,” she said.

According to Michael, the Detroit Department of Transportation has not paid Veolia for nearly a year and owes the company a total of $5.4 million. But that’s not the only issue. “The money is an important part. We virtually went all year without a payment,” she said. “But going forward if we can’t resolve the other issues we’re not getting anywhere, even with payment.”

The “other issues,” Michaels explained, involve specific terms of the contract agreement. One of the ways Michael said the city broke the contract is that it started hiring multiple outside contractors even though the contract with Veolia was exclusive. DDOT also subcontracted control of the Metro Lift call center, which according to Michael is also a breach of contract. She said the city contracted work to other companies before the Veolia halted services altogether in November.

Veolia filed the lawsuit after city officials refused to negotiate an agreement to keep the contract intact. “We haven’t been able to negotiate that with [DDOT]. We haven’t even had a discussion with them regarding payment,” Michael said. She said she did not know why the city opted to hire outside companies. “There are remedies within that contract if they are unhappy with the service. We’ve never received a complaint.”

Although Michael said the city has been difficult to work with, she’s hesitant to blame the leadership. “I think that it would be unfair to put this onto the mayor. I think there is a breakdown in the process itself,” she said.

Mayor Dave Bing‘s communications director, Dan Lijana, declined to comment on the issue because it is pending litigation.

The para-transit issue has caught the attention of multiple advocacy groups for the disabled, including The Rehabilitation Institute of Michigan, The ARC Detroit and members of the local Warriors on Wheels Network. Disabled riders and their advocates are concerned about the safety of Detroit riders under the new service providers.

While the issue is being resolved, 125 specialized paratransit workers who operated Metro Lift vehicles are on standby, waiting for the issue to be resolved. There is a chance Veolia could continue to provide paratransit services, but nothing is certain at this time. “The [125 Metro Lift employees] are still on payroll,” Michael said, noting that the company promised to keep a paycheck coming as long as possible while the issue is being resolved. “We’re waiting as long as we can.”

The nine-member commission was sworn in on Nov. 17 and held its first meeting on Monday. Commissioners are required to hold at least 90 meetings over the next three years and will be paid $50 per meeting.

One of the group’s major tasks will be revising significant portions of the charter in order to accommodate a charter amendment recently approved by voters that mandates city council members be elected by districts instead of at large beginning in 2013.

The group is holding its initial meetings at the Coleman Young Municipal Center downtown but after the new year begins, meetings will be held in neighborhoods throughout the city, according to The Michigan Citizen.

The next public meeting of the Charter Revision Commission is scheduled for Dec. 15.

Because this is Bing’s first meeting with state legislature, he told the Detroit Free Press that much of his time in Lansing will be spent introducing himself and building a positive relationship between the state capital and the state’s largest city.

Bing met with Republican and Democratic caucuses of the state Senate in the morning and had lunch with Gov. Jennifer Granholm before meeting with members of the state House in the afternoon.

FBI officials allege that Riddle negotiated and arranged bribes for convicted Detroit City councilwoman Monica Conyers and in a separate charge, arranged bribes between a jewelry store owner and convicted Southfield city councilman William Lattimore. Conyers and Lattimore pleaded guilty as well as two Synagro figures; consultant Rayford Jackson and former executive James Rosendall.

With two separate trials pending in federal court, Riddle shunned the advice that presiding U.S. District Judge Avern Cohn gave his lawyers to “keep his fingers off the keyboard and his mouth closed” with information about his trial, according to a report in the Detroit Free Press.

Instead, he updated his Twitter and Facebook page with rebellious posts, claiming that if a judge can stop him from using social networking sites then they can stop anyone. “I will Go Straight To Jail Before I Get Off This Keyboard – If They Stop Me from Tweeting Or FaceBooking You Are Next,” Riddle posted as his Facebook status Monday evening. He made his rounds on Twitter, too: “I will continue to speak out –Shut me Up and u are next- Judge made Fieger takes his ads off air,” he tweeted Tuesday morning, referring to prominent attorney Geoffrey Fieger who went through a highly publicized trial in 2008 before being acquitted.

An active social networker, Riddle updates his Facebook and Twitter pages frequently, especially with personal information and opinions about his indictments. Now that he has two upcoming trials, his active web updates may raise questions about the role of social networking sites and legal proceedings.

Riddle’s trial for the Synagro case begins on Jan. 4 with Judge Cohn presiding and his trial with the Southfield case will begin on Feb. 2, with U.S. District Judge Marianne Battani presiding.

U.S. District Judge Avern Cohn issued the sentence, which also includes 300 hours of community service and three years of supervised probation.

Rosendall pleaded guilty this year to approving bribes negotiated and delivered by a middleman, former Synagro consultant Rayford Jackson. Jackson, who refused to cooperate with the ongoing FBI investigation, got the maximum sentence of five years. Rosendall’s shorter sentence is a result of his cooperation with federal officials, according to Fox 2 News.

Conyers is set to face sentencing Jan. 15 and could get up to five years in prison.

Brenda Jones and Santeel Jenkins (Photos by Minehaha Forman/Michigan Messenger)

The new city council, with six men and three women, bucks that historical trend.

So what caused this shift? Local political observers disagree on whether gender was an issue for voters, but they have their theories.

Democratic political analyst Mark Grebner, who serves as an Ingham County commissioner, thinks the embarrassing antics of present council members did not help female candidates this election cycle.

“I think it was a plus to be male. That’s unusual,” Grebner told Michigan Messenger. Grebner said women have fared better in past Detroit elections possibly because more than half of those who turn out on voting day are women.

“The people who were on the council managed to give women a bad name,” Grebner said, referring to former Councilwoman Monica Conyers, Martha Reeves and Barbara-Rose Collins, who all made news with embarrassing antics, indulgent spending and in Conyers’ case, criminal activity.

Former Detroit City Councilwoman Monica Conyers

In June, Conyers was convicted in connection with a bribery scandal for receiving money in exchange for a favorable vote on a $1.2 billion waste disposal contract. Collins became known for wearing tiara and gown to city council meetings on her birthday, and sang the hymn “Onward Christian Soldiers” at a special city council meeting.

Grebner noted that while both male incumbents were elected easily, female incumbents polled poorly and of the two that were re-elected one barely made the council. “When you look at the top three candidates really in contention for council president — all men, right?” he asked.

“If you take say James Tate and Lisa Howze — maybe there’s a plus to being named James rather than Lisa,” Grebner said, referring to Councilman-elect James Tate, and businesswoman Lisa Howze, the first runner up for council.

“It’s hard to disagree with anybody that thinks [Monica Conyers] and Reeves and [U.S. Rep.] Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick and so forth aren’t exactly models to be emulated by anybody,” Grebner said. “It’s not really fair to blame all women for them but I think there’s something to that.”

While Grebner admits that his ideas about the reason for the gender shift are “back of the envelope scribbling,” other political voices in the city have a different outlook.

Mildred Madison, president of the Detroit League of Women Voters, said she believes voters picked candidates based on what they have to offer the city, not their gender.

“I think voters looked at the people. I really do. I don’t think they looked at it as a gender issue,” Madison told Michigan Messenger, adding that the League of Women Voters plans to monitor all candidates whether they’re male or female to make sure that they are doing a good job for the city. “This is how we will judge them,” she said.

Madison notes that having a council made up mostly of women for the past 20 years has done little to advance the cause of equality for women in Detroit.

“If you look at the city right now, the contracts and decisions they made did not favor women,” Madison pointed out. “They did not favor Detroit. The contracts that were given were given to suburbanites, they were given out of state and certainly they were not given to women.”

Madison said she’s happy with the leadership elected this year. In fact, she said she supported all candidates for city council. “All 18 were excellent. This is the best group we’ve ever had,” she said. “We’ll have to see how they perform.”

When asked whether having a majority of men on the council may change the leadership style for better or worse, Madison said gender is not a factor when it comes to good leadership. “We’ll look at it and see what they’re going to do. I’m not going to make a judgment on it,” she said.

The fact that all but one of the men elected to city council plan to carry guns, referring to a column by Rochelle Riley of the Detroit Free Press, isn’t something that the league has weighed yet. But Madison said that it’s not just men carrying concealed firearms in Detroit, where public safety is unstable.

“We have to look at pros and cons before we make any decisions and we haven’t done that yet,” Madison said about whether council members should carry guns. “Public safety is a big concern in the city and these elected officials have to travel citywide.”

Miriam Muley, president of the Greater Detroit branch of the National Association for Women Business Owners agrees with Madison. Muley thinks voters picked candidates they felt were capable of leading the city out of crisis and were not looking at gender at all. Before the primary, there was a nearly even number of men and women among the 167 candidates.

Muley thinks the women who didn’t fare well either lacked the experience or the right campaign strategy. “If you had a scenario with an equal or large number of women [candidates] that speaks to the credential, the capability, the marketing outreach of those candidates relative to their predecessors,” Muley told Michigan Messenger, “Maybe some of the talking points of their candidacy didn’t resonate with their audience relative to the men.”

Muley disagrees with Grebner’s idea that past female council members turned voters off to women politicians. “I would be hesitant to take the knee-jerk reaction to say it’s because of their predecessors,” Muley said, referring to the gender shift on council. She said this year voters were more concerned about the future of the city in tough economic times than any other issue. “It’s all about getting jobs, it’s all about resuscitating the economy,” she said.

When bribery charges against the company and elected officials came out this year, Synagro agreed to terminate a $1.2 billion contract with the city.

Now, just months after two major Michigan figures have been convicted, Synagro is eyeing Detroit again. This time they want to sign a multi-million dollar contract to haul the city’s solid waste.

As the Michigan Citizen reported this week, sludge disposal in the city has a history of being a dirty business in more than one way. In 1982 Charles Beckham, who currently serves as Mayor Dave Bing’s Chief of Staff, was convicted of accepting a bribe connected with a sludge deal and spent two years in prison for it.

In June, former City Councilwoman Monica Conyers was convicted on conspiracy charges in the Synagro sludge hauling scandal in which the convicted Synagro leaders offered her money in exchange for a favorable vote on the $1.2 billion waste disposal contract that was canceled this year. Conyers could get up to five years in prison at her sentencing scheduled for January 15.

Synagro may have slim chances at getting another deal with the city given that on a local level, at least, the company name is now tied to a major bribery scandal. But according to the Michigan Citizen report there’s nothing stopping the company from competing for the lowest bid according to Detroit Water and Sewage Department representatives.

The city council is ultimately in charge of making decisions on contracts.

For disabled Detroit residents who can't use public buses, para-transit services are often the only other transportation option. (Creative Commons photo by wyliepoon via Flickr)

DETROIT — Disabled residents who use public transit and their advocates are concerned that new para-transit services recently contracted by the city are not safe.

Last month, the Detroit Department of Transportation started using Checker Cab and Enjoi Transportation Solutions (ETS) to provide transportation for citizens whose disabilities prevent them from using public bus services. Before then, all para-transit services were provided by one company, Veolia Transportation, which offered a unified Metro Lift service specializing in the needs of disabled passengers.

An estimated 1,200 riders use para-transit services daily in Detroit.

After nine months of the city missing payments, Veolia canceled its services to the city. As the transportation service and the city work to resolve their payment dispute in court, DDOT hired new para-transit providers, according to Mayor Dave Bing’s spokesman, Dan Lijana.

While it is unclear whether the change in para-transit service providers will become permanent, many are concerned about the levels of safety and professionalism provided by the new contractors. Some disabled passengers have complained that the providers, particularly Checker Cab, do not have sufficient training to meet their unique needs.

Hank Johnson, who leads the advocacy program ARC Detroit for people with developmental disabilities, is not happy with the city’s switch in transit providers. “My concern is that we have competent safe transit for riders in need,” Johnson told Michigan Messenger in an interview. “Competent training is provided for safe drivers and a driving history, criminal background checks and a history of criminal record needs to be maintained on a regular basis,” he said.

Johnson said Thursday that DDOT has not responded to his group’s inquiries about para-transit training methods required for Checker Cab and ETS drivers.

Lijana said the city only hires drivers qualified under state and federal laws. “All workers are trained and certified by [the Federal Transit Administration] and [Michigan Department of Transportation] guidelines to provide para-transit services in the city of Detroit,” Lijana told Michigan Messenger.

Still, some passengers who use public transit regularly say they have experienced poor service from cab drivers that made them feel uneasy, or made them miss their destination altogether.

One rider, Anthony Carter, 41, said he relies on the specialized transit to get around the city because he is blind.

“I don’t feel so safe in these cabs,” Carter told Michigan Messenger. “I feel very uncomfortable.” Carter described a recent situation where one cab driver asked questions that made him nervous. “He asked me personal questions like, ‘How much can you see?’ and ‘You live by yourself?’” Carter said. “The way he sounded, it wasn’t no conversation, he was straight out asking me these questions.”

Carter added that cab drivers often forget that he is blind and fail to honk their car horns to alert him that his ride is ready.

“They know I’m not able to see, they can blow, get out of the cab and say their name … just don’t sit there!” he said, not hiding his frustration. “A lot of them are across the street, down the street. What do I do?” he asked.

Carter said that while some drivers are courteous and helpful, others make getting to the right place difficult or make him feel nervous by speeding. He said he wanted the drivers to follow a standard protocol when dealing with blind passengers because he’s gotten into the wrong cab before and ended up in the wrong destination because the drivers aren’t used to to dealing with disabled passengers. “I’ve got in four different cabs that wasn’t the right cab,” he said. “To me it’s like they just threw us out to the dogs.”

David Bullock, president of the Highland Park NAACP, is calling on Bing to resolve issues with Veolia Transportation so that passengers can return to their regular familiar Metro Lift service. “This is something Bing can resolve and bring resolution to,” Bullock told Michigan Messenger. “The mayor could put this to bed tomorrow, but he’d have to give Veolia some money,” Bullock said.

But for cash-strapped Detroit, that’s easier said than done. With the city facing a severe financial crisis, the mayor’s office said that it needs to be frugal with what it does have. Bullock suggested a partial payment for Veolia in the short term could get things back on track.

Until then, disabled public transit riders can file service complaints with DDOT if they have issues. But Carter said he’s filed complaints with no results. “You have to be in my shoes to really see what’s going on,” he said.