Detroit's Monica Conyers Caught in Bribery Scandal

Monica Conyers would be just another obscure city council woman were it not the fact that she is the wife of John Conyers, the powerful Chairman of House Judiciary Committee. So the fact that Monica Conyers is linked to a bribery scandal is national news.

According to the Detroit Free Press:

"The pressure on Conyers mounted dramatically on Monday when Detroit businessman Rayford Jackson admitted he bribed a council member in 2007 to gain approval for a $1.2-billion waste disposal contract for Synagro Technologies. People familiar with the corruption inquiry previously told the Free Press that the council member described in the court documents is Monica Conyers."

Most observers are of the opinion that Monica Conyers is very likely headed for jail. Nevertheless, according to the Detroit News, Monica Conyers' legal problems are not likely to affect her husband John Conyers more than providing embarrassment. John Conyers represents a safe district for a long serving, African American House member. The fact that he is a powerful committee chairman is also a factor in his long term survival. Even another Democrat may find it difficult to retire John Conyers.

Detroit, as a has a number of aging, urban centers, has suffered from a variety of social ills, some having to do with economic decline, but much having to do with the corruption and incompetence of their political leaders. Detroit's former Mayor, Kwame Kilpatrick, was sent to jail almost a year ago for a parole violation.

The solution to the misgovernment of cities such as Detroit likely lays in the election of new, reformist politicians. The experience of New York City, itself riddled with crime and a number of social ills throughout the 1970s and 1980s, is a case in point. It took the election of Rudi Giuliani, who subsequently instituted a number of reforms to stop the decline of New York City into decay and anarchy.

On the other extreme, we see the example of a city nearby Detroit, Flint, Michigan, another community blighted by the decline in the auto industry and attended social ills of poverty, crime, drug abuse, economic decay, and government misrule. A solution recently proposed by the Obama administration has been to literally bulldoze blighted areas of Flint, returning them to a state of nature. It's a scheme, like many coming from the Obama administration, that has not been well thought through. The juxtaposition of wilderness to an urban landscape would result in unanticipated and likely unpleasant consequences.

Who would be Detroit's Giuliani? That is not only unknown, but it is unknown whether such a person even exists.

Source: Monica Conyers hasn't said she'll accept plea deal in bribery probe, Jim Schaeffer, Naomi R. Patton, Zachary Gorchow AND Ben Schmitt, Detroit Free Press, June 17th, 2009

Conyers unlikely to hurt husband's job, Deb Price, Detroit News, June 17th, 2009

Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick Sent to Jail, Mark R. Whittington, Associated Content, August 7th, 2008