Wayne County Executive schemed to cover up severance deals (Free Press) [View all]
Former Deputy Wayne County Executive Azzam Elder is accusing County Executive Robert Ficano and another top aide of concocting a scheme to cover up controversial severance agreements -- including one with Elder worth $300,000.
Elder's allegations come in a lawsuit filed Wednesday in Wayne County Circuit Court and obtained by the Free Press this morning. Elder was Ficano's highest ranking aide until he resigned last year after being suspended for his role in a $200,000 severance payment to former airport boss Turkia Mullin. Now he claims that he urged Ficano and assistant county executive Alan Helmkamp not to hide the severance agreements. Instead, he said they acted illegally, including failing to comply with Freedom of Information requests regarding the documents.
Elder said he refused to go along with them and urged Ficano to be transparent.
Instead, the lawsuit says, "Ficano told (Elder) that he could not afford to come clean because the timing was bad and it would hurt him politically."
http://www.freep.com/article/20120112/NEWS02/120112025/Azzam-Elder-Robert-Ficano-severance-agreements?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|FRONTPAGE
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