BY JIM SCHAEFER AND JOHN WISELY
DETROIT FREE PRESS
We're blogging live from a basement meeting room at the Westin Hotel at Metro Airport, where the Wayne County Airport Authority is apparently discussing the continuing employment of controversial airport CEO Turkia Awada Mullin.
2:37 p.m.
We’ve just learned that Mullin is now represented by not just a lawyer but a public relations firm.
Michael Layne of Marx Layne Marketing & Public Relations of Farmington Hills is now handling media requests to speak with Mullin. We presume those requests will be considered later, since the aforementioned security guard is heading off reporters who try to approach Mullin at the head table.
Ray Sterling, her lawyer, said some sort of public comments will be made after today’s airport authority meeting.
Layne is also in the audience here today, which includes at least five video cameras, reporters from every news outlet in town, some members of the AFSCME union, airport police and assorted county employees and officials.
2:18 p.m.
As she awaits the return of the airport board members who are holding a secret meeting, Mullin has been chatting with former State Rep. Barbara Farrah, a Democrat from Southgate.
They talked for about 10 minutes. We can’t hear them because there’s a security guard blocking access to Mullin.
2.06 p.m.
Mullin and her lawyer have just reappeared in the board authority’s meeting room, and they say they were prevented from entering the closed meeting.
“Their attorney stood bodyguard there and said we are not invited,” said Ray Sterling, Mullin’s lawyer. “He told me to leave.”
Sterling told reporters in the meeting room the closed meeting is illegal under the state open meetings law. He said the airport authority did not state a specific reason for reconvening in secret, as he says they are required to do.
“She’s entitled to a public hearing,” Sterling said. “The public is entitled to a public hearing.”
With a scrum of reporters around her lawyer, Mullin sat quietly at the head table, denying one reporter’s request for comment with a simple smile, a nod and a “thank you.”
1:39 p.m.
Chairwoman Renee Axt has just called the meeting to order.
And immediately the meeting has gone into closed session, meaning the authority is now meeting behind closed doors. So we – and you – will not know what is going on until the authority reconvenes in public and, presumably, tells us.
Board member Bernard Parker moved to go into closed session. Mary Zuckerman seconded the motion.
Mullin came to the table with a private lawyer who asked the commission to state whether the issue of Mullin’s continued employment will be discussed, but the board’s attorney provided no specifics in his response.
Axt said the meeting would be private so that the board can hear the advice of its attorney, but she did not say on what matter.
In any event, it’s a good bet that Mullin’s future is the topic. She left through the same door as the authority members.
1:30 p.m.
Mullin is the only member of the authority seated at the head table. Other members have not taken their seats. Mullin is smiling and conferring in private with several different people at the front of the room.
1:25 p.m.
We’ve got just a few minutes before the planned meeting of the Wayne County Airport Authority, where the continued employment of controversial airport CEO Turkia Mullin will be discussed.
For the first time, it’s clear the issue will come up because it is listed as Item No. 3 on the official agenda.
However, No. 2 is “Closed Session,” which raises the possibility that board members will discuss her fate in private. An exception to Michigan’s open meetings law allows personnel issues to be aired behind closed doors.
The meeting room is starting to fill up. We will let you know what’s going on as soon as things get underway.
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