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Coverup of (more) MEDC fraud May 7, 2024
One of the saddest truths I have ever known is the persistent squandering of this beautiful state’s potential by its dysfunctional high risk, low reward government. Michigan’s degenerate gambler government remains utterly opaque and corrupt (In 2020, Michigan ranked 47th out of 50 for anti-corruption measures for public officials, according to the Coalition for Integrity (Lansing State Journal, 10/22/23)), no matter who is in office. In September 2023, the Michigan Board of Ethics found Michigan Arts and Culture Council (MACC) appointee, Deb Mikula, guilty of unlawful unethical conduct, in a rare hearing, based on my complaint. The Michigan Economic Development Corporation runs MACC. Our taxpayer dollars were used to unsuccessfully defend Mikula in that action. Mikula repeatedly used her state appointee position to unlawfully apply for and vote (never recused) for her organizations to receive state and federal arts funding over the last few years, including paying herself $27,000 directly. Mikula was not qualified to receive the funding and lied several times on each of her MACC grants applications. To make matters worse, Mikula works for the Michigan Library Association, which is NOT an arts organization by any stretch of the imagination.
Lansing, Ingham County, and federal authorities, including the Lansing Police and the County Prosecutor know about Mikula’s embezzlement. Some have dodged and delayed taking steps to hold Mikula accountable for the nearly half a million dollars she and her co-conspirator, Alison Watson, embezzled from taxpayers through fraud. Equally repulsively, Mikula is also Alison Watson’s former boss, while Watson is now head of the MACC. Watson also continues to take an $100,000+ annual salary funded with taxpayer money, despite authorities possessing evidence showing Watson complicit in Mikula’s crimes, as an unindicted co-conspirator.
In contrast to this case is one from last year, in Macomb County, authorities arrested and tried Monique Owens, who eventually avoided jail time when she agreed to repay the $10K in taxpayer money she received through a grant authorities discovered she did not qualify for. Owens and the countless Medicare, PPP loan, and other grant fraud perpetrators have been brought to justice for stealing a minuscule fraction of what Mikula stole. On December 7, 2023, I filed the criminal complaint with the Lansing Police, after the County Sheriff stated he did not have jurisdiction. Over the next months, the Lansing Police sent me to the FBI, the FBI suggested the state, the state sent me back to Lansing since the state had already unsuccessfully defended Mikula at the Board of Ethics hearing (on the taxpayers’ dime). Dear reader, each authority I spoke with acknowledged the quality of the evidence and the existence of the crimes. Now the case languishes on the county level. The Ingham County Prosecutor’s office has not responded to inquiries regarding the case.
Now, there is one silver lining: finally, years after I asked MACC to change unlawful, inequitable, and corrupt practices, and many months since I reported Mikula and Watson’s embezzlement, MACC is now planning to correct course- thanks in part to the National Endowment of the Arts (see page 4) investigating my complaint and in part to the Michigan Office of Continuous Improvement. After the BOE hearing loss in September 2023, MACC decided to comply with the law: "MACC policies and procedures are being updated to comply with the recommendations from the State Board of Ethics and all applicable state and federal laws." (source)
Last summer, as part of her failed defense, Deb Mikula, through her taxpayer funded attorney, stated that MACC would never change unlawful and inequitable policies. MACC’s unethical frauds did not choose to comply with rules of law or decency, they have been forced to: “Ms. Hughes is attempting to use the Ethics Act as a trojan horse on her futile crusade to have the MACC rewrite its policies and procedures governing its grant beneficiaries.” (from MIkula's response to ethics complaint, page 5) It took me years of time, hours of quite tedious research, and the filing of numerous reports and complaints to get MACC to even make plans to do what is lawful and right. MACC actively fought making changes for the better, while robbing taxpayers blind. MACC forced the most vulnerable taxpayers in Michigan to subsidize their own oppression.
As our family packs up to move from this state, it is mind-boggling that Michigan’s bureaucrats ignore corruption as a significant factor causing Michigan’s population freefall. From perpetual fruitless development cronyism to concealing dangerously poor water quality to denying urban Michiganders their right to farm, Michigan is always on the coverup. The US Department of Justice recently labelled Michigan the most corrupt state in the USA, while our leaders offer robust lip service to transparency. Despite my lack of gambling experience, I am grateful to know when to walk away…and when to run.
Send comments, questions, and tips to stevenrharry@gmail.com or call or text me at 517-730-2638. If you'd like to be notified by email when I post a new story, let me know.
A reminder that you can find detailed payroll reports for the City of Lansing, the Board of Water & Light and Capital Area Transportation Authority for several past years here.
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