Duggan addresses federal demolition probe
DETROIT (FOX 2) - Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan addressed the media Wednesday after two former contract firm employees pleaded guilty to fraud involving Detroit's demolition program.
"Yesterday's convictions were an extremely important message that bid-rigging is going to be dealt with strongly," he said.
Aradondo Haskins and Anthony Daguanno pleaded guilty Tuesday to accepting bribes to help rig demolition contracts that were part of the city of Detroit's $259 million demolition program. Haskins also testified that he took bribes while working for a city agency overseeing Detroit's demolition program.
Duggan says he was pleased with the announcement from the federal authorities that they do not anticipate charging any further public officials.
"I was pretty confident that was coming down was contract related, but it's a great relief to hear it officially," he said. "I'm glad the feds have made it clear that bid rigging is not going to be tolerated."
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Federal officials did not accuse Adamo demolition of wrongdoing. Duggan said by reading the indictment, it seems as if Adamo was a victim in the situation.
"As you read it, Adamo almost certainly lost bids because their subcontractor bid price was higher, which would've pushed their bid price higher," he said.
While Duggan wouldn't elaborate on the next step of the investigation, he told reporters he looked forward to people not worrying about the possibility of more charges.
"It's a great relief to the people of this community, who hopefully are no longer going to have to listen to any uninformed chatter that Detroit is about to experience more indictments of their public officials," he said.
Watch the press conference below: