EXCLUSIVE REPORT: Deputy Mayor warned over Bridge Co.-friendly contracts

DETROIT — Detroit City Council has reined in Deputy Mayor Anthony
Adams for allegedly signing “very serious contractual documents” with the Ambassador Bridge Company without City Council’s advance knowledge or approval.

TodaysTrucking.com has learned that Detroit City Council has issued an adopted resolution, under the 1997 Detroit City Charter, that warns Adams he will be terminated as deputy mayor if contracts that “bind (the city) to long term contractual obligations” continue to be signed without council’s consent.

In the document, obtained by TodaysTrucking.com, Adams is accused to have approved, “without legal authority,” two deals with the company that owns and operates the Ambassador Bridge.

The dockland deal, signed last year, transfers ownership of the existing port property from Detroit Marine Terminals to the Detroit/Wayne County Port Authority, which in turn, entered into an operating agreement with the Ambassador Port Corp. The agreement reopens a 34-acre dock for ocean vessels and allows the company to operate the dock for as long as 90 years. The company would also collect all revenue from the dock and pay 2.5 percent of that amount to the authority.

The dockland deal, which gives the Ambassador Bridge control
of the Detroit port, is one city agreement to come under scrutiny

The contract also reportedly allows the bridge company “to run other transportation projects that the port authority may build.” Possibly, that could include exclusive operating rights for a new bridge linking Detroit and Windsor, Ont. if it’s built at the dock site.

The second issue is a deal in principal, which involves a $30 million offer by Ambassador owner and Detroit billionaire Matty Moroun to take over the lease of the U.S. side of the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel starting in 2020.

However, after a backlash by the tunnel officials on both sides of the border, Canadian politicians, and even some of his own councilors, Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick backtracked and temporarily shelved the plan, the Windsor Star reported last December.

In each instance, “the public policy objectives reflected … were seriously
flawed and potentially highly detrimental to the City’s interest,” stated the resolution, “and whereas the deputy mayor lacks the authority to act in an official capacity unless, consistent with the City Charter, the mayor is absent from the City or temporarily incapacitated, as there is no record of either occurrence in the City Clerk’s office.

“The deputy mayor is put on notice that he is not to sign contracts purporting to bind the City of Detroit and that prior to the negotiations of any contracts at which he is present … unless authorized by the applicable provisions of the Detroit City Charter,” the statement continued.

One source described the City’s move to put Adams on notice as “bold” — adding that it shows that there are those on Council not willing to let pass what are arguably “one-sided” concessions to private interests.