You have to hand it to the Wayne County Airport Authority board of directors, you really do. Just when it seemed like now-former airport CEO Turkia Mullin was the least sympathetic non-Kilpatrick in metro Detroit, the Airport Authority turned her into a victim.
It’s hard, if not impossible, to defend Mullin’s $200,000 severance from Wayne County. Even Mullin probably understands, in private moments of honest reflection, why the ham-fisted response to that revelation made her an almost cartoon-like villain. The revelations of professional misconduct in her legal career didn’t help either.
But despite all odds, Mullin emerged from yesterday’s Airport Authority meeting looking better than the board that fired her.
A public body simply cannot meet behind closed doors under dubious pretense, then fire an employee for cause without citing the cause, and not look like the biggest bunch of schmucks on the planet.
After the meeting adjourned, Authority board members--desperate to avoid the media scrutiny that is part of the responsibility of open government--quickly fled the room with the speed and terror of infantrymen diving to avoid an incoming mortar.
Suzanne Hall, who authored the resolution that fired Mullin, muttered something about the Authority issuing a written statement to explain their decision as she retreated. That two paragraph statement explained nothing beyond the fact that Mullin was fired, and that airport CFO Tom Naughton would serve as interim CEO.
If her life depended upon it, I doubt Suzanne Hall could offer a cogent and specific justification for firing Mullin based on the contractual ethics clause.
When pressed by fellow board member Samuel Nouhan for an actual cause to fire Mullin, Hall’s non-response called to mind the maturity of a kindergartener who, when asked her age, holds up a hand and says “this many.” I wish I was exaggerating.
Nouhan: “In further clarification, could you identify for purposes of your proposed resolution, which aspect or particular component of 7Fi your resolution pertains to?”
Hall: “My resolution pertains to the entire section.”
Nouhan: “So you’re basing your resolution to discharge based on each and every element?”
Hall: “My resolution is based on that section, and that’s all I’m going to say.”
Little sisters in Beverly Clearly novels are less petulant.
The only board member who did attempt to explain the decision was County Commissioner Bernard Parker, and his explanations don’t add up to much.
Why did the board meet in closed session?
“Open Meetings Act, when you’re talking with you legal consul, you can have a closed session,” Parker explained incorrectly.
The Michigan Open Meetings Act is very specific about this: “A public body may meet in a closed session only for the following purposes:…(e) To consult with its attorney regarding trial or settlement strategy in connection with specific pending litigation, but only if an open meeting would have a detrimental financial effect on the litigating or settlement position of the public body.”
So what was the “specific pending litigation” that justified yesterday’s closed session?
Do tell, Commissioner Parker: “I’m not aware of that. You’d have to ask the attorney.”
There are really only two plausible explanations for Parker’s answer. Either there wasn’t “specific pending litigation” discussed in the closed session, or he slept through it. Personally, I’m comfortable believing either answer.
Ok, but procedural scuffles aside, why did he vote to dismiss Mullin?
“The thing that weighed on me was her ability to continue to run the airport,” Parker said.
Wait, wasn’t she fired because of some unexplained ethics lapse? And isn’t there a legal difference between firing Mullin because you have cause to believe she’s a crook and firing Mullin because she’s become a political liability?
Ultimately, that’s the $700,000 question to be answered by an arbitrator.
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