Detroit Officials Give Jobs to Relatives — and the City Says That's OK.
In Detroit, where former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick gave friends and family cushy city jobs while laying off city workers, there are no rules prohibiting Councilman Coleman Young Jr. from hiring his mother as chief of staff, Clerk Janice Winfrey from hiring her daughter and later one of her sons, and Councilwoman Angela Whitfield-Calloway from hiring her daughter as communications manager.
"Without an open and competitive process of filling positions within the elected officials' offices, the public is likely to be more skeptical about any attempt to serve the public interest — rather than a private, financial interest — in the hiring of family members," said John Pelissero, senior scholar in government at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University.
John Pelissero, senior scholar, government ethics, quoted by Detroit Free Press.