Why did they betray the public trust,destroy their lives and cost many people their livelihoods?
They were some of the smartest people if you were shopping for public service candidates with knowledge and understanding of the nexus between government and the people.
They seemed to master the political craft that there are rules to every game, and if you abide by the rules, there should be no problem. During every mayoral campaign I covered they insisted they were always running an honest and transparent government that put probity and accountability at the center of its mission to the people.
They spoke with passion, dangling their strong neighborhood roots as an example of their love for the city. Dismissing any suspicion about their activities, even when it was obvious some of the things that happened then were plain wrong was a constant feature in their political playbook. But as it has been throughout history, the masses always maintain a redemptive spirit for those who violate the public trust. That is at the core of our humanity that those who make mistakes in office can always change when given the opportunity to revamp their approach to public service.
Because of that, they counted on that redemptive card to always bail them out when flagrant mistakes were made leaving many of us, whether we were covering them or not, wondering if anybody in that administration was really thinking. But as the old adage reminds us, every time we are dealing with politicians who rule with hubris that “power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
That political dictum will not go away and will always sum up the totality of the story of the once powerful Kwame Kilpatrick administration, now being federally dissected before our eyes for allegedly betraying the public trust.
The lesson here is that power, when abused, can have serious, even devastating consequences on the lives of those who are not only perpetuating the abuse but everyone associated with them, wrongly or righteously. The domino effect is drawing attention whether warranted or unwarranted on a number of people who would prefer these days to go bed at night peacefully without having to rethink their secret dealings with the once seemingly unstoppable Kilpatrick administration. It is a story unfolding every day as the political grapevine continues to feed the frenzy regarding who next will take the fall for the sins of the past. It is almost like a game of chess and everyone crossing their fingers guessing the next word that may be looked up in the dictionary that would point to their past and hoping the Feds are not informed what they did.
But these individuals were given the tremendous opportunity for public service. They wielded power and influence to make change in how city government operates and improve the lives of hard-pressed taxpayers.
When Kilpatrick first ran for office against former City Council president Gil Hill who was viewed as a defender of the old guard, his campaign was received as a breath of fresh air. A young promising Black lawmaker from Lansing with immeasurable potential for political largesse who would make a difference in people’s lives was hard to oppose.
It was difficult to believe he would make a blunder because of his deep political background, the son of a congresswoman and his father the former chief of staff to Ed McNamara, the godfather of Democratic politics in Wayne County. That kind of background, we were led to believe, was solid enough to insulate him from any trouble.
Apparently it was not.
WHAT HAPPENED with Kilpatrick and his team?
The opportunity that was given to them does not happen often. A team of young people in their late twenties and early thirties governing the 11th largest city in the nation was truly a dream story.
The Kilpatrick era ushered in somewhat of a Joshua generation at city hall with throngs of young people commissioned to serve the public.
Unfortunately for those young people, they would later discover that their bosses in the driver’s seat saw themselves as too powerful and beyond accountability, and decided they could turn the wheels of the vehicle to the wrong side of the road on the highway of progress.
Evidently they were intoxicated with power and could not handle the excesses of it. The signal was clear when Kilpatrick’s former chief of staff and lover Christine Beatty insulted a police officer for pulling her over in traffic by telling him, “Do you know who the f… I am?”
There was no known reprimand for that kind of behavior coming from someone who was designated a public servant. As a matter of fact, the administration always defended members of its team when they did wrong.
Unlike some political administrations that are careful about their actions and image, and would retire anyone who was seen more as a liability than an asset, there was no real purging of the Kilpatrick administration. The mayor always bragged about having the best team which raised serious questions about introspection and how they were managing the affairs of the city.
The same team that came on board during his first term pretty much remained to the end of the collapse of the administration.
They convinced themselves that they were the team if residents wanted Detroit to be a 21st century model city.
WHAT WE WERE not told at press conferences is what is now coming to light. Shady dealings and the alleged shakedowns in exchange for lucrative contracts eliminated some honest businessmen and women struggling to survive in the city because they would not grease any palms.
Their public definition of power that worked well for them on the campaign trail, netting thousands of votes and hefty campaign donations, was different from their inside definition of power that oiled the wheels of the seven- year oligarchy at the Coleman A. Young Municipal Building.
The two-faced reign of the Kilpatrick empire in Detroit is no different from what has taken place in other cities like Hartford, Connecticut, where the current mayor, Eddie Perez, is stepping down after being convicted on corruption charges. But what is difficult to understand in this instance of destructive power at play is that Detroit is in a unique position, often branded as a city that has many impediments to growth.
SINCE THAT description is tied to the history of the racial, economic and political evolution of this city, it places upon any administration the sacred responsibility of not only proving the skeptics wrong, but also doing everything it can to advance the city.
That means running an administration that is devoid of any scandal that could potentially end the mandate from voters for that administration.
Looking at how the Kilpatrick house of cards is falling apart it’s hard to imagine if any of them in the former administration read books on political power and what amounts to public malfeasance.
Aside from Kilpatrick, what kind of political exposure did his team members have before they were entrusted with some of the most influential positions in city government?
Since most of those positions were not
elected posts, preventing the public/voters from asking tough questions about their skills and intentions, the appointees likely did not understand what it means to be in the seat of power and how to handle it.
Was this a deliberate snub of the public faith placed in them, or where they simply caught up by the demands of political expediency?
Or could it be that they were joyriding in a vehicle fueled by their inflated egos, instead of making life better for the 70-year-old senior citizen imprisoned in her own home because her neighborhood has been decimated, making it a crime hub?
Granted, powerful Black elected officials are often subjected to more scrutiny than their White counterparts. And Black officials who do wrong have always used that line as a scapegoat to avoid punishment — that they are the victims of a deep racial conspiracy. We agree that the justice system has not always played fair in issues of Black and Brown.
KILPATRICK and some of his supporters see themselves in that light. They believe what his New York spokesperson said about his prosecution — that it is a replay of apartheid in South Africa. No matter how desecrating that description can be to the legacy of Nelson Mandela, Oliver Tambo and other giants of the movement against apartheid, there are still some who believe that Kilpatrick and his team are being lynched for helping Black people.
Others have made the unconvincing argument that the punishment faced by his administration was an assault on Black power. They claim that former mayor Coleman Young faced similar persecution. But Kilpatrick is not Mayor Young. Young was a Black leader who took over Detroit less than six years after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Despite his flaws, he fought to tear down the walls of racism that were institutionalized in city government. One of which was to vigorously and fully integrate the police and fire departments.
It is important to note that Mayor Young came out of a generation of civil rights leaders and activists who experienced the trauma of Jim Crow and dedicated their political lives to ending the stench of racism that was blatant in the ’50s,’60s and ’70s. And in using the office of mayor to leverage and confront inequality, that was a signature of Detroit at the time, Young personified that struggle. In fact, Kilpatrick is a beneficiary of the positive changes made possible by the battle that Young and others waged.
As a member of the Joshua generation, Kilpatrick was historically and morally obligated to use the power of the mayor’s office to take care of the city and its people, just as he vowed when he took the oath of office. There isn’t much to define Kilpatrick as the personification of Black power understood in the context of the Young era.
As someone who covered his administration, I see him as a Black elected official who was smart, charismatic, persuasive and talked about his love for the city. He used his upbringing in the Shrine of the Black Madonna as an example of his life mission to fight for Black interests. Yet when the Association of African American Contractors during his first term needed him at a conference, he placed his trip to Dubai with a group of Arab-American businesses ahead of them. I remember how enraged those Black businessmen and women were that the mayor would put their issue on the back burner.
Lest we forget, despite the overwhelming support of City Council, his administration dismissed “African Town,” a proposed cultural and business district by calling it unconstitutional without consulting a constitutional expert. And when Robert Sedler, a respected White constitutional scholar, declared “African Town” was legal, the Kilpatrick administration did little to move the project forward.
As the Kilpatrick administration began to crumble, it was powerful White businessmen who came to his rescue with thousands of dollars. The exchange of dollars between Kilpatrick and the businessmen marked the insatiable political intercouse between wealth worshipping members of the economic class and the politically governing class in Detroit.
So to use Kilpatrick as a metaphor for Black leadership being destroyed in a highly publicized fraud and corruption probe where Blacks are the majority victims is a hard sell.
We never explored what Kilpatrick did for those powerful White men in exchange for the thousands of dollars he and his family received.
To his credit, Kilpatrick did work for neighborhood development and other projects. He was a skillful negotiator and knew how to represent Detroit well.
If Detroit needed an advocate they found it in him, despite the fact that some of the things he did were contrary to what an advocate would be expected to do.
Some believe that he would have been the best person to make the case for support of the auto industry in Washington during the bailout debate.
His former top deputy, Kandia Milton, and his brother, Dedan, are being sentenced this week for their role in a bribery scandal they admitted to involving sale of city property. His close confidante, Derrick Miller, has been reported to have allegedly misused millions in Homeland Security funding for Detroit
The Milton brothers will now face the consequence of blatant power abuse. These individuals share a similar political background with Kilpatrick with the Shrine of the Black Madonna, serving as the bedrock of values during their formative years.
That institution espouses Black political participation, the values of honesty and integrity.
MAYBE ONE day we will know the true story from the players in the Kilpatrick administration about what really happened.
The 19 counts of federal indictment for fraud and tax evasion against Kilpatrick does not dismiss his right to a fair trial and that he is innocent until proven guilty as dictated by the rule of law.
Yet power, according to former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, is the great aphrodisiac. And those who are drunk with power exerting it unjustly and dishonestly will find themselves accounting for it someday.
Last week on “The Craig Fahle Show” on WDET-101.9FM, a caller defending Kilpatrick tried to explain his theory of what is taking place, and even had the audacity to link the federal probe of the Kilpatrick administration to President Barack Obama.
Not only was I taken aback, I was shocked that someone would dare to invoke President Obama’s name in this political scandal unraveling in Detroit.
When I tried to question the subterfuge, the caller reminded me that he had a political science degree and knew what he was talking about. He obviously forgot that what is happening right now in the city is political science in action. It would make a great project for students of political science and anyone who is interested in a career in politics and what political power means.
I recalled seven years ago at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History when the former mayor asked, “Can I get a good word from a brother?” to which I replied, “Give me something good to write about.”
Watch senior editor Bankole Thompson’s weekly show, “Center Stage,” on WADL TV 38, Saturdays at 1 p.m. This Saturday, July 3 will feature a discussion with Andrea Adams, Ebere Azuma and Austin Black, three young innovative leaders giving Detroit a new face. Jonathan Kinloch, Renette Jackson and Vince Keenan will form the political strategy team to discuss and analyze the upcoming district races in Detroit. E-mail bthompson@michronicle.com