Wayne County: Contracts often begin before commission approves them
The debate last month over whether Wayne County should spend $350,000 on a top criminal defense lawyer to help answer grand jury subpoenas lasted more than half an hour.
With TV cameras rolling, Deputy County Executive Alan Helmkamp parried questions from county commissioners, telling them that attorney Thomas Cranmer's firm, Miller Canfield, had even agreed to lower charges for work performed by junior lawyers. Commissioners ultimately voted to reject the deal.
The debate is an example of how contract decisions are suppose to work: with the executive branch proposing, and commissioners debating and then deciding before the work begins.
But in recent years, Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano's office frequently has put vendors to work on projects and only later taken the deals to county commissioners for approval. In some cases, the county has incurred millions of dollars in billings on a contract before the deal was put before commissioners for approval.
http://www.freep.com/article/20120102/NEWS02/201020349/Wayne-County-Contracts-often-begin-before-commission-approves-them?odyssey=tab%7Cmostpopular%7Ctext%7CFRONTPAGE
