Many nigger City Council candidates have blemished records
July 22, 2009
Quote:
Detroit -- Nineteen candidates running for the Detroit City Council
owe a combined $2.4 million in unpaid income and property taxes, nearly one in seven has filed for bankruptcy and 12 have lost homes to the bank, according to court, tax and property records.
The names on the Aug. 4 primary ballot also will include three felons, including one who served 81 months in a federal prison for racketeering related to prostitution and another convicted of second-degree murder.
Personal issues
Some miscues have to do with personal behavior.
Walter James Hart Jr., who ran for a council seat in 2005 and now has a nonprofit business training service dogs, spends his time on the campaign trail talking about redemption, something he says he knows about first-hand.
Hart served 81 months in federal prison in the 1990s after being convicted of transporting a 16-year-old girl to Washington, D.C., to "train her" to be a better prostitute. According to the girl's testimony, whenever she gave Hart the money she earned, "I had to bow down to him, kiss his feet, call him 'oh messiah,' tell him, 'I love you oh daddy.'"
He later pleaded guilty to federal racketeering charges for being part of a Detroit-area group that found young women in strip clubs and
forcing them into prostitution.
More recently, in 2006, Hart was found guilty in Oakland County court of a felony charge of failure to pay roughly $130,000 in child support. He remains on probation.
I aint deeid nuffin: "I believe in giving people a second chance," Hart said. "My campaign is about reform. That's what Detroit needs."
Another candidate, Robert L. Webster, the owner of Buffalo Soldier Transport, owes $53,860 in federal taxes, has lost two homes to foreclosure, owes the city $280 for a blight court violation and in April filed for bankruptcy, according to federal and state records. Webster blamed his woes on poor office management and the sluggish economy. "I've had my accountant take care of it, and I'm trying to get caught up," he said.
Then there is Hilanius Phillips, a now-retired longtime city planner, who has a $127,576 federal tax lien and owes $3,126.75 in city and county taxes. Phillips said he was hit with a debilitating medical condition around 2000 that strained his finances and forced him to tap his IRA to help cover nursing care costs.
"I am working to pay everything back," he said, adding that he is refinancing his home to pay off the debts.
Councilwoman Martha Reeves' struggle to get current on her state and federal income taxes has been common knowledge for years. Her liens currently total $209,966. Councilman Kwame Kenyatta walked away from his Rosedale Park home earlier this year after his mortgage payment was set to accelerate to an unaffordable level. And Councilwoman JoAnn Watson recently entered into a property tax repayment plan after it was disclosed recently that her house was unexplainably reassessed at an artificially low level several years ago. All are seeking to return to the council.
Council members earn $81,312 and get free use of a city car.
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