Posted on 01/22/2005 3:52:36 PM PST by Dan from Michigan
Detroit officials confirm SUV was intended for mayor's family
1/22/2005, 4:34 p.m. ET
By SARAH KARUSH
The Associated Press
DETROIT (AP) — Police Chief Ella Bully-Cummings confirmed Saturday that a luxury SUV leased by the city was intended to be used by police officers driving the mayor's family.
WXYZ-TV in Detroit first reported on the SUV just over a week ago, saying it was for Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's wife, Carlita. The mayor's office and the police department repeatedly denied that it was for Mrs. Kilpatrick.
"We clearly screwed up on the communications," Kilpatrick said during a news conference that included frequent heated exchanges with reporters. "But I say that we did nothing out of the ordinary on the substantive side. There was nothing illegal done, nothing wrong done."
The 2005 Lincoln Navigator was never used to drive the mayor's family because Kilpatrick deemed it too expensive, Bully-Cummings said.
The city's $25,000 two-year lease of the Navigator drew attention after the mayor announced the city would have to cut more than 900 jobs and eliminate 24-hour bus service to stem a looming financial crisis.
The city previously leased a Navigator to drive the mayor's family at the rate of $14,100 per year. The new Navigator was leased for two years for $24,995; if it had been five dollars more, the contract would have required City Council approval.
Three Detroit-area dealerships said a monthly lease for a fully loaded Navigator would cost nearly $800. That would come to about $19,000 for two years.
Bully-Cummings said she believed the price the city paid was a fair one. She said she authorized the lease in November, before she knew the extent of the city's budget crisis.
"I'm not standing here saying that in retrospect it was the best decision," Bully-Cummings said.
Steve Wilson, a reporter for WXYZ, confronted Kilpatrick this week in Washington, where he was attending a meeting of the U.S. Conference of Mayors. Saying he would be willing to answer questions on live TV, Kilpatrick kept walking as a member of his security team shoved Wilson against a wall.
Kilpatrick said he didn't see the shove and had not reviewed the video tape. Bully-Cummings said the incident would be thoroughly investigated.
Kilpatrick also denied allegations of wild partying that resurfaced Friday in a report about Washington, D.C. police who had been assigned to guard the mayor during his trips to the capital. The report was based on a September affidavit by Washington, D.C. police Sgt. Tyrone Dodson that is part of a lawsuit by two Detroit officers. In it, Dodson described accompanying Kilpatrick to a night club during a trip to the capital in 2002. The mayor went in a rented limousine "with 10 or more people, mostly young women dressed in evening wear," he said.
Dodson said other Washington officers complained about Kilpatrick's "reported nonstop club hopping when he was in town." As a result, the department's executive protection unit decided not to provide protection to the mayor outside of official business so as to avoid "embarrassing publicity."
Kilpatrick said the incident described by Dodson never happened and that he does not frequent night clubs in Detroit or anywhere else.
During the news conference, Kilpatrick accused journalists of "aggressive, harassing, assaultive behavior." However, in an effort to improve communication, he pledged to hold weekly briefings beginning Monday.
You meant dumb-ocrat, didn't you. Another member of the do as I say and not as I do club! The IQ of those who elect these people to office must be on the negative side. It is quite amusing to read the story and see how well the dancing goes.
And so is his slimy mother....ask HLL!
You have got to be kidding. This story has got to be a joke or something. Detroit? Come on now.... /s
Seem to me that the gang bangers and thugs are running the city.... wow.
Hmmm---the mayor paid about $6000 more than the going rate. I wonder why. I'm sure there are no kickbacks involved. And I'm real sure that all the city construction and maintenance projects have also been carefully meted out.
This year no one noticed, his honor is the show!
The people mover is actually still around?!
Coleman Young got away with far worse. Not that he shouldn't have been thrown out too, but just to note that Detroiters relected Young for decades.
I'm wondering if there is a police dept jet story here too?
Coleman Young wrecked the city.
They just got it going all the way around the track again. It was broke when they blew up the Hudsons building, then again for a new station at the RenCen. With no Red Wings haven't been downtown to see it.
This truck story is a hoot, bringing up tales of a hooker who was at a mayor's party, and later found dead... it's the story anyway...
Kwame and Carolyn, upstanding representatives for The Peoples Republic of Michigan.
In my neck of the woods we call that a lie...
Kwame's dad worked for Ed McNamara(Boss Daley of Wayne County and Granholm's mentor)
Might as well learn from the best. Good ole Eddie "Airport" Mac.
Yea, they clearly did! LOL! Took them over a week to come up with a laughable story on this one! I particularly enjoyed viewing one of Kwame's thugs taking that WXYZ reporter to the Boards....ROFLMAO!
I don't care who the heck is in charge, Detroit is Detroit and always will be Detroit. A cesspool of political corruption, an equally corrupt and totally incompetent city council, an overpaid and unaccountable school system and city workers who are equally overpaid and do nothing at all.........
Build a giant wall around that pit and stop funding that hole with state dollars!!!!!!!!
Gives me an idea for a new tagline.
ROTF! Good one.
I heard a brief snippet on the radio yesterday about something that occured with Kwame the barbarian and his henchmen in D.C. during the inauguration. Something about the S.S. that was offering security cutting it off at midnight due to the late night shenanigans of the party animal and his gang. Have you heard anything like that?
Also like to point out that the records show that the license plate on the SUV is in Carlita's name.
WXYZ certainly missed that little morsel of news......
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