Bflo Mayor's lie . . . & Detroit's $9 Mil. lie

[kernwatch]

Buffalo & Detroit are often compared as 'sister' rustbelt cities. Similar decline, similar poverty, similar rates of housing vacancy . . & similar political corruption.

Those of us watching Bflo City Hall were distressed last year to watch the dramatic cover-up of a new Mayor's son's late night crimes . . with distressing help from a new police commissioner. His Chief of Staff has been charges with improprieties as well

But Bflo is a forgiving place, & all was soon forgotten. How much the cover-up cost taxpayers has never been calculated.

Now Detroit is in the news for an even more dramatic cover-up originating in the Mayor's office, involving the Chief of Staff. But this cover-up will likely cost Detroit taxpayers $9 million.

Be glad you live in Bflo?

For more background see: Detroit Mayor's $9 million lie

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php...show_article=1

Here is an editorial from Detroit Free Press

http://m.freep.com/detail.jsp?key=196498&rc=op&full=1

EDITORIAL: Serve city, starting with truth
January 23, 2008 10:08 AM

Let's just call this what it is: A $9-million lie, with Detroit taxpayers picking up the bill.

The line may not be perfectly straight, but it can be drawn. The city shelled out $9 million so Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick could keep covering up his affair with Chief of Staff Christine Beatty and their plan to punish police officers who got too close to the relationship.

Text messages between the mayor and Beatty, disclosed today by the Free Press and freep.com, show that both lied under oath. A jury didn't believe them, but rather than appeal, the mayor recommended -- and the City Council approved -- a payout to the officers in hopes of making the whole thing just go away.


With the cover-up shredded, Kilpatrick now needs to do some serious thinking -- not about how he can explain this away, because he can't -- but about whether after doing this kind of damage to Detroit he can remain an effective leader of the city he professes to love so much.

Beyond the integrity and credibility issues, the mayor in the weeks to come also could face perjury and even obstruction of justice charges. As an attorney, he also will be subject to investigation by the court system and possible disbarment. These matters are going to shadow Kilpatrick at a time when the city is in critical need of the visionary and dynamic leadership that Kilpatrick had more and more in his second term become the man to deliver. The much put-upon and often ill-served taxpayers of Detroit deserve better than a $9-million bill to hide the secret romance of their leader and his top aide.


This is a simply breathtaking breach of faith between the mayor and the people who twice elected him.

At the very least, Kilpatrick immediately owes the city some public profession of the truth.

Certainly he will have defenders, loyalists and political dependents who will say this is just a messy personal issue involving consenting adults who are entitled to private lives. But the mayor and Beatty made it very public by acting in their official capacities to conceal their affair and by trying to fire the cops who learned of it. They dragged it into the public arena by communicating on city-owned BlackBerry devices, sharing hotel rooms while on city business, denying their relationship in a court of law, and then sticking it to city taxpayers in a final bold bid to hide the truth. In case the mayor has misplaced his law school books, the term for misconduct by a public official in office is malfeasance.


For her part, it's hard to see how Beatty now can conduct city business on the mayor's behalf, especially personnel matters and contract negotiations, which require a measure of trust.

Kwame Kilpatrick was just 31 when city voters chose him in 2001 over a field of older and much more experienced candidates to lead Detroit into the 21st Century. The Free Press endorsed him for the job, citing his energy and enormous potential.

Four years later, the Free Press declined to endorse Kilpatrick for a second term, saying that he had promised more than he delivered, "alienated most of the City Council, shown disrespect to the taxpayers by abusing his city credit card and petty cash fund, and imbued in his administration a sense of entitlement rather than service." A gifted politician, Kilpatrick stormed from behind to win re-election and in this second term did indeed seem more settled, responsible and focused.


On his watch, Detroit got a huge boost from throwing a successful Super Bowl and has enjoyed a downtown resurgence that promises to continue with several major projects coming to fruition during the next 12 months. All the missteps of his first term and the rumors about wild parties and women were fading.

But it was only last year that the mayor declined to settle the lawsuit filed by the officers he had tried to fire, insisting not only that the case go to trial but, with Beatty, taking the witness stand and under oath dismissing pointed questions about the affair, sexy text messages and the police case. The jury didn't buy it, taking just three hours to award the police millions of dollars in damages.


Still proclaiming his innocence, Kilpatrick said he was blown away by the verdict and suggested race may have been a factor with the mostly white jury. Then, in October, saying he had done some soul-searching and consulting with the community, including its ministers, the mayor announced that he wanted to settle, rather than appeal the case, so the city could move forward. With taxpayers also footing the bill for lawyers for the mayor and Beatty, the costs will go well beyond $9 million.

And for what? For covering up lies, it turns out.

Time for this mayor to start soul-searching anew.

[bigpoppapuff]

and one has "what" to do with the other??....other than you having a chance to slam brown,his son, & gipson.....


and i care what is happening in detroit because.........????

[HipKat]

Well, the Sports teams are similar, umm, errr, never mind.......

[300miles]

and one has "what" to do with the other??

What they have in common should be fairly obvious. Blatant disregard for the law by our politicians, and their abuse of power. Then having the arrogance to accuse the people that call them out on it.

and i care what is happening in detroit because.........????

Because we should learn from the mistakes of similar cities.

[HipKat]

Because we should learn from the mistakes of similar cities.

We can't even learn from our own mistakes.....

[300miles]

We can't even learn from our own mistakes.....

Very true, unfortunately...

[Linda_D]

and one has "what" to do with the other??....other than you having a chance to slam brown,his son, & gipson.....


and i care what is happening in detroit because.........????

I agree. What does what happens in Detroit (other than decisions made by car makers) have anything to do with Buffalo?

[kernwatch]

There is a distressing tolerance for corruption in Bflo.

Believing that a deeply distressed city urgently need "good governent", my efforts to expose public misconduct were repeatedly prosecuted on pewrjured charges as those I exposed faced no charges.

Currently there have been serious covered-up crimes in the Mayor's office, by the Mayor, his top aide & his communications director.

Troublingly, in the case of the Mayor's lying about his son's late night crimes in the stolen SUV, he had full support from the Police Commissioner. It is apparent that the Mayor's All-night-Cop sitting in front of the Mayor's house that night helped in the cover-up as well.

In contrast, Detroit cops blew the whistle on the Mayor & his top aide.

Does Bflo benefit from Cop-endorsed political corruption?

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php...show_article=1

Union Calls for Detroit Mayor to Resign

Jan 25 11:08 AM US/Eastern
By COREY WILLIAMS, Associated Press Writer

DETROIT (AP) - A union on Friday called for Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick to resign amid reports that he exchanged steamy text messages referring to sexual trysts between him and a top aide.
John Riehl, president of American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 207, said the union wants the mayor to step down right away. It has 900 members and represents workers in the city's water and public lighting departments.

"He's compromised the public trust," Riehl said. "Nobody can believe a single thing he says from now on."

The scandal also could result in perjury charges.

The county prosecutor scheduled a press conference Friday regarding Kilpatrick and his chief of staff, Christine Beatty.

Kilpatrick and Beatty testified last summer in a police whistle-blower lawsuit and denied any sexual or romantic ties in 2002 and 2003. But the Detroit Free Press examined about 14,000 text messages on Beatty's city-issued pager from those years that tell a different story. . . . .

[B-lo]

There is no connection. Just some nobody trying to create something that is not there.

[cookie]

For those of us that are a bit dense, could someone clarify the correlation here? Was Brown text messaging steamy stuff to the cop sitting outside his house? or his son? Or is the covering up for his son a reason to never believe him again? True, not good and a poor example to set, but isn't there bigger corruptions to worry about around here?
Gimme a clue!!

[CSense]

There have been many mayors that have been caught in scandals, why should this have any correlation to Buffalo? Could it be that both mayor's are black? Are you trying to suggest that Blacks are less able to run a government than a white person? Are you a racist?

[WNYresident]

and one has "what" to do with the other??....other than you having a chance to slam brown,his son, & gipson.....


and i care what is happening in detroit because.........????

Because you learn from other people's mistakes as you do from other people's success.

[Deerhunter]

what proof, or evidence for that matter, do you have that the Cop assisted in the Mayors cover up ? Tell us exactly what you know about it. I'll tell you, you don't know **** about what the Cop saw or didn't see that night. You want to throw allegations around, have some evidence to back them up.

[bigpoppapuff]

Because you learn from other people's mistakes as you do from other people's success.

no res...it's just our gadfly getting a shot in at brown and gipson....i'm shocked that he didn't figure out a way to work quintana into his tirade....


don't be a fool...you seem enamored by kern....there's a reason he got chased out of buffalo...

[Velvet Fog]

Because you learn from other people's mistakes as you do from other people's success.

Mistakes? In Kern's World everyone is wrong except him. Good intentions are a myth--something is either good or not. We could all learn from Kern's mistakes; which pretty much adds up to not behaving like a stalker while trying to prove your right about something..can't have it both ways!