Monica Conyers Resigns After Accepting Bribes

From the “Keep On Keeping The Bad Bad Leadership Forever And Ever And A Day And Then Some With Sugar On Top Extra Onions and Anchovies” department, Detroit Councilwoman Monica Conyers, wife of Representative John Conyers, will resign July 6th after accepting cash to vote in favor of a Houston, Texas company getting a lucrative sludge treatment contract:

Detroit (WWJ) — Effective July 6, Monica Conyers will resign her seat on the Detroit City Council. The 44-year-old Conyers, the wife of Democratic congressman John Conyers, admitted Friday in federal court to taking cash from a Houston company in exchange for her vote on a $47 million sludge treatment contract.

Conyers’ letter of resignation was received Monday by Detroit City Clerk Janice Winfrey. Conyers says in the one-paragraph memo her staff “will be available until December 31, 2009 to assist in the offices of my colleagues.”

“I am glad she did the right thing and resign from the Detroit City Council,” said Council President Cockrel. Now we as a council and a city, can move on and forward in focusing on the vital issues our city faces — and we will,” Cockrel said.

Cockrel Monday morning had renewed his call for Conyers to resign, but added he was prepared to begin forfeiture hearings. Cockrel said after Conyers’ plea to bribery charges, she should no longer be drawing a city paycheck.

“Regardless of what various legal opinions may say, it is my opinion that in pleading guilty to a federal crime Ms. Conyers has essentially forfeited her seat,” Cockrel said at a news conference. He added council would continue to work as if Conyers’ seat was vacant.

For those of us who grew up and/or live in or around Detroit, Michigan, this isn’t shocking news. A Detroit elected official doing shady things in office? That seems to be the rule not the exception. And ol’ Monica even went as far as to stop a white Teamsters official from saying the President Obama’s name in a council meeting earlier this year (courtesy of Detroit News columnist Nolan Finley):

Nowhere is Michigan’s brain drain on greater display than in the Detroit City Council chambers.

My hopes for Detroit’s future faded as I watched the tape of last Tuesday’s council meeting, the one that considered the Cobo Center expansion deal.

It was a tragic circus, a festival of ignorance that confirmed the No. 1 obstacle to Detroit’s progress is the bargain basement leaders that city voters elect. The black nationalism that is now the dominant ideology of the council was on proud display, both at the table and in the audience.

Speakers advocating for the deal were taunted by the crowd and cut short by Council President Monica Conyers, who presided over the hearing like an angry bulldog; whites were advised by the citizens to, “Go home.”

Opponents were allowed to rant and ramble on uninterrupted about “those people” who want to steal Detroit’s assets and profit from the city’s labors.

A pitiful Teamster official who practically crawled to the table on his knees expressing profuse respect for this disrespectful body was battered by both the crowd and the council.

When he dared suggest that an improved Cobo Center would create more good-paying jobs for union workers, Conyers reminded him, “Those workers look like you; they don’t look like me.”

Desperate, he invoked President Barack Obama’s message of unity and was angrily warned, “Don’t you say his name here.”

Actually that’s pretty tame for a Detroit Councilperson but sickening all the same (I’ve heard worse). Monica Conyers resignation is only refreshing in that it didn’t take long. That’s the only good thing about this situation. But the corruption is so deep that it’s accepted and practiced liberally. Detroit governmental leadership rules with an iron fist and doesn’t give a damn about the damage they do. But the Detroit citizens keep electing these the crazy council-folk. The late, great comedian George Carlin said that the reason government officials were so bad is because “the public sucks”. And he is right. The Detroit public sucks. You do not keep electing vampires to elected office. Yet political cycle after political cycle, the crazies get the votes and plop their well-fed and pompous rear-ends into Council seats for another round of “We’re Going Nowhere Fast And We Like It Thank You Very Much”.

How can you improve anything, when you keep self-sabotaging yourselves Detroit?