On the heels of Attorney General Mike Cox’s controversial awarding of foreclosure settlement money to two Grand Rapids-area park improvement projects, Michigan Democratic Party Chairman Mark Brewer announced today that he wants to find out how Cox has awarded other settlement funds in the past.

Brewer made the announcement this morning that he would use the Freedom of Information Act to investigate Cox’s dolling of settlement funds since 2003, when he became attorney general, according to The Grand Rapids Press.

 

The Brewer announcement re-ignites the controversy over how the settlements were initially intended to be distributed, which caused a row with local officials who said the money should have been used to help people facing foreclosure instead of on parks improvements, especially one being championed by a top Kent County Republican donor. Cox later stated that he would donate the $250,000 he originally set aside for city-owned Crescent Park and Kent County’s Millennium Park to the West Michigan United Way.

The parks money had been planned in addition to $250,000 Cox set aside for Grand Rapids officials to dole out for local foreclosure relief, including money for the Grand Rapids Urban League and Inner City Christian Federation, among other organizations. In all, 3,700 state residents who were foreclosed upon by Countrywide will get $1,800 each, according to the settlement, which totaled $9.9 million. Last month Cox announced that the United Way in Detroit would receive $1.2 million, while the city of Detroit and the Focus: HOPE social service organization would receive $250,000 each.

Cox, widely expected to make a bid for the GOP nomination for governor, said he will make an official announcement sometime this summer.