Detroit — A cloud of carcinogens hangs over Mike Duggan’s Detroit, and people are starting to notice the haze, even up in Escanaba.
A prominent contractor with close ties to Hizzoner has been suspended from city work after an investigation that alleges the contractor used contaminated dirt diverted from the old Northland Mall to fill demolition holes in Detroit’s neighborhoods.
Random testing of 41 sites revealed that 33 (more than 80%) were filled with poisoned dirt.
The city’s Office of Inspector General opened the case on June 5, the day after Michigan Enjoyer published our own investigation.
The contractor, Brian McKinney, and his company Gayanga have been suspended for 90 days pending a final report, which could result in McKinney’s permanent ban from city work.
McKinney is no stranger to controversy in Duggan’s scandal-plagued demolition program. In 2018, McKinney leveled an entire apartment block without removing the asbestos—the equivalent of three football fields. According to a video that McKinney posted himself, a cloud of carcinogen blanketed the neighborhood.
The city had to pay nearly $500,000 in penalties and fines to the state and federal governments.
And McKinney continued to get more contracts, about $64 million in total. In fact, McKinney was invited to Duggan’s state of the city speech in 2020 and presented by Duggan as a model of demolition awesomeness.
McKinney did not return phone calls requesting comment.
Duggan, a lifelong Democrat, abandoned the party earlier this year and launched an independent bid for governor.
The OIG was created in 2012 in the wake of the Kwame Kilpatrick bribery and kickback scandal involving city contractors.
Ironically, Duggan—a long-time Wayne County machine boss—was a mentor to Kilpatrick during the hip hop mayor’s political rise. Kilpatrick, in turn, was a guest at Duggan’s 2021 wedding to Dr. Sonia Hassan. Duggan and his staff were cleared of criminal charges earlier that year by Michigan AG Dana Nessel after it was alleged that Duggan steered public money to Hassan’s nonprofit and that his staff was instructed to delete evidence showing so.
Both Hassan and McKinney (previously convicted of felony gun and drug charges) serve on the board of the Detroit Institute of Arts, according to the museum’s website.
That’s just how it works down here, Escanaba.
Charlie LeDuff is a reporter educated in public schools. Follow him on X @Charlieleduff.
