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Here's an example of why secrecy in government is bad.
An investigative report that Troy's elected officials kept under wraps for nearly two years — then voted 4-3 to release this month — has brought to light questionable behavior not only by Troy's recently fired city manager but also the mayor and a city councilman, writes Bill Laitner of the Detroit Free Press.
The 48-page report was compiled by a lawyer who’d been the city labor attorney from 1984 until he resigned the day after the City Council voted in 2016 not to release the report.
Troy City Hall (Municipal photo)
The Freep reports that some of the findings show:
That former City Manager Brian Kischnick, after causing a traffic accident in Clawson, requested that the city cover the $1,560 cost of repairs to the other driver's damaged car at a collision shop owned by a council member. It also shows that, to comply with a city rule to obtain three estimates for work more than $1,000, Kischnick asked the collision-shop owner to supply the two competing quotes. The lawyer who compiled the report wrote in his conclusion that the city could’ve saved the money simply by requiring the owner of the other car to seek coverage from his own auto insurance.
Kischnick, after hearing from another member of the council, ordered subordinates to cancel the city’s natural-gas contract with its longtime supplier, a company authorized by the State of Michigan’s MiDeal Cooperative Purchasing Program, which has been used since 1984 to get the best deals for Michigan's cities, townships and villages. Kischnick, however, told subordinates that he’d received the name of a new supplier from one of Mayor Dane Slater's friends and so he was instructing them to switch the contract immediately.
The contract, which, depending on the city’s gas usage, was expected to cost well more than $100,000 for the year, was made without the approval of the City Council, in violation of the city charter, with Kischnick claiming he had the power to do so because it was "an emergency," the report said.
