Steve Neavling
Detroit’s paratransit services contract expired after the city council rejected its renewal in November 2022.
An ethics complaint alleges a top transportation official in Detroit violated the city’s charter by hiring an under-qualified candidate to manage paratransit services without going through the proper channels.
Detroit resident Gregory Lynn, who also applied for the position of executive manager of paratransit services, raised several issues in a complaint to the City of Detroit Ethics Board this week.
Lynn alleges Detroit Department of Transportation Executive Transit Director Mikel Oglesby violated the city’s charter by appointing George Michael Staley to the position.
Under the charter, Lynn argues, department directors only have the authority to appoint a deputy. All other employees must go through human resources to get hired.
“Oglesby ‘appointed’ Mr. Staley to the position as a way to illegally circumvent the human resource hiring process,” Lynn says in the complaint.
“Oglesby abused his authority,” Lynn adds.
The city disagrees.
“The claim that Mr. Oglesby did not have the authority to appoint Mr. Staley is simply ridiculous,” Human Resources Director Denise Starr told Metro Times in a written statement. “All department directors in city government, including Mr. Oglesby, have full authority to hire their own management staff.”
Public records also raise questions about the timing of Staley’s appointment. The job posting closed on May 31, and Staley didn’t apply until June 22 — five days after Oglesby appointed him, the records show.
Staley, who is paid $123,750 a year and was working in Romeoville, Ill. at the time he was hired, was also woefully unqualified, Lynn argues.
The job posting stated that the qualifications include a bachelor’s degree in safety, transportation business administration, or a related field of study, with a master’s degree preferred. Staley’s highest level of education is high school.
But Starr points out that the job posting also makes an exception by stating that the “equivalent combinations of education and experience may be substituted to meet the education and experience requirements of this position.”
According to Staley’s resume, he worked in paratransit for 29 years.
“The Department of Human Resources used its discretion and authority and determined that Mr. Staley, with his 29 years of experience in the field of paratransit — much of it at the executive level — was more than qualified for this position,” Starr said.
In the complaint, Lynn says Staley “has a checkered past” because he was the area vice president of Veolia Transportation Services, now known as Transdev, when the company sued the city for breach of contract in 2009. Staley provided deposition witness testimony in favor of Veolia.
The cash-strapped city settled the case and paid out $5.5 million to Veolia.
If the city went through the proper channels to hire Staley, Lynn says officials would have caught that Staley was an integral part of that lawsuit.
Starr countered that the city thoroughly vetted Staley before hiring him.
“Because of the importance and sensitivity of this position, the decision was made to have it filled through the rigors of a full HR posting, screening, interview and hiring process and all standard hiring protocols were followed,” Starr said.
Starr added that the complaint is meritless and was filed by “a disgruntled unsuccessful candidate.”
Transdev, a French company, managed the city’s paratransit services until late last year, when the rejected the company’s contract. Paratransit riders had complained that Transdev provided subpar services and hired drivers accused of sexual misconduct. The U.S. Dept. of Justice is investigating the city for civil rights violations.
In December, Mayor Mike Duggan used his emergency powers to continue providing paratransit services without Transdev.
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