Kilpatrick pays off $8,978 in credit debt
City auditor says $50,000 in personal expenses were charged; mayor disputes that.
Mayor cuts a check
Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick on Tuesday wrote the city a personal check for $8,978 for items and services paid for with his city-issued credit card. Will restitution put an end to this scandal, or do you feel the mayor should be charged with misconduct in office?
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DETROIT -- Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick opened his re-election campaign Tuesday with an unusual gesture: He wrote the city a personal check for $8,978 in response to a growing controversy about his use of a city-issued credit card.
Kilpatrick stopped short of admitting that he billed the city for personal expenses. But longstanding questions about his spending on travel, meals and entertainment since he took office more than three years ago were fueled this week by the release of documents detailing his credit card expenses for the first time.
City Auditor General Joe Harris, who released the documents, estimated Kilpatrick should be paying as much as $50,000 that Harris believes were not legitimate city business expenses or could not be documented by the mayor.
In writing the check, Kilpatrick did not say precisely what it was meant to cover.
His staff said the mayor maintains he did nothing wrong.
"They're all for legitimate business and travel expenses," said communications director Ceeon Quiett. "Some of that was erroneously charged and because that process is taking a while, that's why he decided to write a check and not wait any longer."
Kilpatrick refused to answer any questions Tuesday.
An examination of the records of the mayor's credit card invoices and reimbursement documents revealed:
The city paid for more than $16,000 -- ranging from a $1,027 stay at the Capital Washington Hilton in 2003 to a $908 stay at the Detroit Marriott in April 2002 -- even though Kilpatrick could not provide receipts to outline the expense. The mayor is disputing some of those charges.
Thousands of dollars were spent paying for Kilpatrick's wife, children and baby sitter, as well as family members of other staffers, to join them on trips. According to unedited copies of receipts, Lou Beatty, the husband of chief of staff Christine Beatty and the mayor's wife, Carlita, visited the MGM Grand using the mayor's credit card account.
City workers and Kilpatrick were repeatedly reimbursed for using in-room hotel phones to make dozens of phone calls without itemizing whether they were business or personal. Kilpatrick would call Beatty late at night and on one occasion charged the city to call a ticket service for a Las Vegas casino.
During his $6,256 stay at the Luxor Las Vegas hotel, Kilpatrick made 13 long-distance calls from the suite, including a 20-minute call to another casino, Circus Circus.
Kilpatrick often decided to have the city pay for luxury items when cheaper options were available. At a Conference of Mayors meeting in Key West, Fla., he opted for a $375 one-bedroom suite instead of the $260 standard room offered to attendees.
From January 2002 to September 2004, the mayor's credit card was billed over $2,000 in late fees, which the city paid.
Harris, a City Council appointee who is nearing the end of a 10-year term, said he estimates the mayor should pay $50,000 for items he turned in without receipts, such as Super Bowl hotel rooms, limousine rides and other charges.
While Harris said the mayor shouldn't pay for those items that were used for legitimate business reasons, he was disturbed by "the flagrant acts of (the mayor) ignoring what's in the best interest of the city, of the citizens."
Failure to provide documentation for charges is a violation of city policy, which requires authorized credit card users to include purchase slips or receipts that include the date, cost of purchase and an explanation of official business.
"He has to be accountable. As long as citizens understand what's happening, that is the final analysis," Harris said.
On Tuesday, loyal supporters including Kilpatrick's father, Bernard, defended his son's actions.
About 600 people attended the re-election rally in a Detroit neighborhood. Kilpatrick did not address his credit card use directly, but he said that too little information has gotten out about the city's progress and that reports of his credit card use have been incomplete.
"We will not now or ever let crooks run the city," Kilpatrick said. "We're not stopping this progress because the news media remains fixated on Kwame Kilpatrick."
He refused to answer any questions as his security forces pushed him through a throng of reporters to his waiting Cadillac Escalade.
Political consultant Sam Riddle said Kilpatrick's actions have not yet scuttled his bid for re-election, but that the 34-year-old mayor must start taking the offensive on the miscues that have caused him criticism.
"He has reached his tipping point in Detroit where the public will believe the worst," Riddle said. "He has to stop playing the rope-a-dope, and get out a truth squad to answer the statements out against him."
A public official's personal use of a city-issued credit card can in some cases rise to a criminal offense, but there was no indication that Kilpatrick could face that kind of scrutiny.
It is unclear who would bring charges, although there are several state laws that would cover using public dollars.
Officials at the Michigan Attorney General's office said they don't plan to investigate at this time because they believe it to be a civil issue for the city to work out. The Wayne County Prosecutor's Office has not received any requests, according to spokeswoman Maria Miller.
But in failing to document his expenses, the mayor may be putting his bar license at jeopardy.
University of Detroit Mercy law professor Larry Dubin said the Michigan Attorney Grievance Commission could launch a probe into the conduct of Kilpatrick, who is a lawyer. The commission can investigate a lawyer's unethical conduct even if it doesn't involve representing a client.
Dubin, former chairman of the commission, said the body can launch a probe from a complaint or, as has often happened, after information about an attorney's conduct has been reported in the media.
Former President Bill Clinton, for example, lost his Arkansas law license for five years for lying under oath in the Paula Jones court case, even though he had never been charged criminally.
The credit card expenses are the latest in a growing string of revelations that paint Kilpatrick as a mayor who often puts his desire for a lavish lifestyle ahead of the needs of Detroit, which is facing a $300 million deficit and will be laying off hundreds, if not thousands, of city workers in two months.
He has weathered criticism for the high numbers of police officers who protect him and his family, for denying and then admitting there had been a plan to lease his wife a Lincoln Navigator at city expense and allegations of a wild, yet unproven, party at the mayor's mansion.
The city is also looking at having to settle several lawsuits filed by Detroit police officers claiming their careers were derailed after they looked into allegations of some of Kilpatrick's misdeeds.
Richard Robinson, director of Michigan Campaign Finance Network, says even if the mayor repays some of the credit card charges, there's a question as to why it took so long for him to reimburse the city. "What was it that made this hang until now?" Robinson said.
You can reach David Josar at (313) 222-2073 or djosar@detnews.com and Judy Lin at (313) 222-2072 or jlin@detnews.com.
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