A law firm with strong ties to the deputy executive in Wayne County is under scrutiny for contracts awarded to the firm under CEO Warren Evans.
For more than 15 years, Richard Kaufman was a partner at the firm Zausmer, Kaufman August and Caldwell, a Farmington Hills-based business law firm.
In 2015, when he left to become Deputy County Executive, the firm dropped his name and Kaufman divested any ownership in the business.
This week, Evans announced that he has selected Zausmer, August and Caldwell for a $50,000 legal contract to review legal issues related to Rock Ventures proposal to build the county a new jail in exchange for the land where the unfinished jail currently sits.
The contract requires approval from the Wayne County Commission. But even before it made its way to them for a vote, the contract caught the eye of some county commissioners, as well as former county watchdogs.
“As an auditor, I never looked at anything as a coincidence,” said Brendan Dunleavy, a former auditor general for Wayne County. “It would definitely raise eyebrows.”
But county officials insist that Kaufman’s ties to his former firm played no role in the firm’s selection.
Evans’ spokesperson James Martinez points out that, even before Evans took office, his predecessor Robert Ficano had hired the firm to do county legal work.
In fact, they represented the county in a lawsuit over the jail, saying it “uniquely qualifies them to work with the County on this project (and) spares the increased expense of having to secure and educate a different firm.”
Martinez said Kaufman played no role in selecting his old firm to do county work.
Ethics watchdogs say that all may be true, but regardless of whether it is, the appearance of self-dealing is a concern county officials should take seriously.
“If you really want to drain the swamp, if you really want to clean up the cesspool that Wayne County has been,” Dunleavy said, “these appearances have to stop.”
Contact 7 Investigator Ross Jones at ross.jones@wxyz.com or at (248) 827-9466.
