County Administrator Implicates Himself and Commissioners in Misappropriation of Federal Funds

by P.D. Lesko

Long-time Detroit News crime reporter George Hunter picked up the Ann Arbor Independent’s reporting on the fraudulent grant application submitted to Washtenaw County by local non-profit Supreme Felons, Inc. for $1.2 million in federal American Rescue Plan (ARPA) funds. In a piece published on Jan. 27, 2023, The Detroit News quoted County Administrator Greg Dill confessing that he and all of the Washtenaw County Commissioners seated in July 2022 (pictured below) were aware that the Supreme Felons, Inc. grant application contained falsehoods, “stretches,” as Dill phrased it, concerning the scope of the work to be done with the funding.

Despite Dill and the County Commissioners knowing the non-profit’s grant application contained fabrications, Dill told The Detroit News, the County Commissioners decided to ignore the fabrications which had been flagged by County staff, and voted to give the non-profit $1.2 in federal funds.

Dill’s shocking confession to The Detroit News implicated himself, as well as Sue Shink (a current Michigan state senator), Jason Morgan (a current Michigan state representative), and seven sitting County Commissioners in a premeditated act which resulted in the misappropriation of $1.2 million in federal ARPA funds awarded to the County by the U.S. government.

Federal penalties for misappropriating federal funds could include the County’s debarment from receiving future federal funding, administrative recoveries of funds, civil law suits and criminal prosecution– or a combination of all or some of these remedies.

Dill gave no explanation why he and the County Commissioners ignored the fabrications flagged by county staff. In addition, in his comments to The Detroit News, Dill exhibited no cognizance that in misappropriating federal funds, he and the County Commissioners had invited scrutiny by federal law enforcement officials.

At the time the Ann Arbor Independent uncovered the fabrications in the Supreme Felons, Inc. grant proposal, Sue Shink, a lawyer, was the Chair of the County Commission.

She defended her vote at an Oct. 19, 2022 meeting of the county Board of Commissioners.

The Michigan Republican party attacked Shink over her vote. As a result, Shink came close to losing the race for the 14th District Michigan Senate seat to Republican Tim Golding. In the end, Shink captured 55.9 percent of the vote. In the August 2022 primary election, Shink had captured almost 70 percent of the vote.

The Ann Arbor Independent reached out to Sen. Shink to ask if she had, indeed, been aware that the Supreme Felons, Inc. grant application contained fabrications, as the County Administrator purported to The Detroit News. She has not yet responded.

Shink’s district includes a portion of Ann Arbor. Her run for the Michigan Senate was complicated by her vote to hand over $1.2 million in public money to a child rapist and a murderer on parole for their non-profit to “expand” their work in Ypsilanti Community Schools and the Washtenaw Intermediate School District.

The Detroit News, like the Ann Arbor Independent, contacted officials from both school districts in which the Supreme Felons, Inc. grant proposal (in another fabrication) stated members of the non-profit had “mentored” schools kids. District officials confirmed Supreme Felons, Inc. had never done any work with their students.

The Ann Arbor Independent identified at least seven instances of fabrication of fact in the non-profit’s grant proposal. The first and most obvious fabrication was the effort to scrub the involvement of sex offender Alan Fuqua. Days before the grant application was due, Fuqua was removed as the non-profit’s registered agent in documents filed with the State of Michigan.

Doug Winters is an Ypsilanti attorney who knew the young man whom Supreme Felons president Billy Cole murdered. Winters said, “On the one hand it’s a rather shocking admission that Greg Dill and the Board of Commissioners were aware that what was submitted was ‘a stretch.’ In my world, ‘a stretch’ is called a fabrication, or a lie. It makes me wonder what it would have taken to have the County disqualify a fraudulent grant application? I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, there is an evil cloud hanging over this whole thing.”

A contract signed on Jan. 9, 2023 between Washtenaw County and Supreme Felons, Inc. that was obtained using the Freedom of Information Act, revealed the County has handed over the $1.2 million to Supreme Felons, Inc. to “provide services to youth including mentoring.” The contract also includes funding for felons mentoring felons, a violation of the Michigan Dept. of Corrections standard terms of parole.

A former MDOC official pointed out that the dispersion of the federal money by County officials could be interpreted as the commission of a crime, the necessary precursor to an investigation by federal officials. “This looks so much like a RICO case.”

Monica Ross-Williams is a former Ypsilanti Twp. Trustee. In response to the misappropriation of the $1.2 million by Washtenaw County officials she said, “It’s absolutely an abomination that our County government has shown how corrupt and unethical they are. As a former elected official, I am heartbroken to find out that the County government did not do the first step of due diligence, which is an investigation. It doesn’t appear they ever planned on doing it. The Detroit News article quotes County Administrator Greg Dill as saying, ‘We were going to give it to them anyway.’ Do I have to worry about my life, because I have questioned the ethics of these County officials? It is obvious that our County Sheriff’s office can’t be trusted with the job of protecting its citizens, otherwise why would they give the job freely and happily to felons?”