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Tony Saunders (MSU photo)
It seems being the Wayne County chief financial officer in these cash-strapped times would keep a person pretty busy.
But WXYZ's Ross Jones reports that the county's CFO, up until recently, Tony Saunders, 31, was earning $158,000 a year while operating a private turnaround firm, Dent Advisors, to help struggling local governments around the country.
"How can he do a full day’s work for Wayne County and a full day’s work for other places at the same time?" asks Wayne County Commissioner Ray Basham.
In April, Saunders announced that he'd step down as the county’s chief financial officer to launch that turnaround firm. Interestingly, WXYZ discovered that Saunders actually launched the firm back in November 2015 and has been working with clients from as far away as Tennessee.
Saunders continued earning his full-time salary until June. A week after Jones started asking questions about his outside compensation, the county made Saunders an hourly employee earning $133 an hour.
He still works at the county and has yet another new job.
To boot, there's another potential conflict: Saunders is now in business with county contractor Christos Moisides, an executive for a local real-estate company that owns and manages county properties like the Guardian Building and sheriff’s headquarters.
A spokesman for Wayne County Executive Warren Evans says Saunders’ moonlighting was approved in February 2016. Saunders began operating the company in 2015.
Brendan Dunleavy, a former auditor general for Wayne County, tells the station that Saunders’ latest business venture with a vendor is a clear conflict.
“You could almost say different dog, same fleas,” Dunleavy says. “It’s the same type of business where county employees start chumming up or going into business with county vendors. And it’s never turned out well.”
