Morris Goodman, a Dearborn attorney, past president of the Dearborn Democratic Club, a longtime political activist and observer and regular reader of Deepsaidwhat.com has jumped into the severance payment scandal swirling around Turkia Awada Mullin, the former assistant Wayne County executive.

Bottom-line: Goodman says Wayne County Executive Bob Ficano should ask her to resign from her new job as CEO of the authority that oversees Metro Airport, a position in which she has zero experience. His column begins below:

Morris Goodman

In Alcoholics Anonymous there is the expression that an alcoholic only makes progress over his addiction when he becomes “sick and tired of being sick and tired.” Well, the citizens of Wayne County need to declare they are “sick and tired” of the continuing scandal over the insanity of the Turkia Awada Mullin severance payment scandal. It is simply insane for anyone in the Wayne County or Metro Airport hierarchy to believe that it was OK to pay Ms. Mullin $200,000 in a severance payment when she voluntarily left her position as the county’s development director to take a higher paying job at the airport. Even more insane is that a week later she received another $25,000 for accumulated sick and vacation days when she signed a document that the $200,000 is all she would get.

 It is simply incredible that when the story broke both Ms. Mullin and County Executive Bob Ficano initially defended the severance payment as well-earned and then within days both said that the $225,000 in severance and sick/ vacation days would be returned. The severance was either well earned or it was not. If it was not, then returning the money does not hide the irreversible stain of the certainly unconscionable, and arguably illegal, original payment.

 As I was driving to work on Monday October 24, I was listening to WJR’s Paul W. Smith interview one of the Free Press reporters involved in the Mullin severance investigation. A recording of what County Executive Bob Ficano said to Smith on his show on September 29 was played. Ficano said the contract with Mullin to pay her a severance was not uncommon. He also said that Mullin had done a great job for the county by bringing $5.5 billion dollars worth of new development to Wayne County. Who had given him this information?

 The Free Press reporter had written a story the previous day about how Mullin has overstated the amount of development she or her department aided by over $2 billion – a classic example of frowned upon “Resume’ inflation.” Smith commented that the continuing revelations about the questionable actions and retractions surrounding this story were tantamount to “blood in the water”. The sharks are circling. How much longer can this go on?

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