Feds Probe Waste Deal

A federal investigation into a waste treatment contract approved by the Detroit City Council late last year focuses on four council members as well as staffers, city employees, and people outside city governments, according to the Detroit Free Press, which broke the story of the probe last week.

Last November the council approved by a vote of 5 to 4 a controversial contract that would give Houston-based Synagro Technologies Inc. $47 million a year to process some of Detroit’s sewage waste into fertilizer and incinerate the rest. As part of the deal, the city’s aging incinerators were replaced. Union workers and environmentalists both opposed the deal.

The probe has been going on for months and includes video and audio surveillance evidence of bribe taking — including possible evidence of council president pro tempore Monica Conyers taking money from a top executive of the company that won the contract, the Detroit News reported. A long-time top aide to council President Ken Cockrel Jr. resigned last week after a video surfaced showing him taking a $4,000 from a Synagro executive.

Cockrel has since met with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and has said he was told he is not a target in the probe. Conyers has been absent since June 28, saying she is recovering from minor surgery.

The FBI reportedly has caught a top Synagro executive, James Rosendall, giving payments to various city employees in connection with the contract. Rosendall is cooperating with the FBI.

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