Abayomi Azikiwe, editor of the Pan-African News Wire, with City workers and retirees outside bankruptcy court in downtown Detroit. The demonstration was held September 19, 2013., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.
October 15, 2013 at 5:10 pm
Detroit CFO resigns after racial comments; search for replacement begins
Christine Ferretti
The Detroit News
Detroit— Detroit’s suspended chief financial officer has resigned from the city following an investigation into claims he made racially insensitive comments.
In a statement released Tuesday, Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr said it’s clear “new leadership is needed” as he announced he accepted the resignation of Jim Bonsall following a Tuesday afternoon meeting.
“Jim has decided it is best for the city and himself that he resign his post effective immediately; I have accepted his resignation,” Orr said.
“Jim has made great improvements in how the city handles his cash and finance operations in the short time he has been here, but it is clear that new leadership is needed to continue to move the City of Detroit forward. I thank Jim for putting the needs of the City and its residents first, and for his dedicated service.”
The CFO previously issued a public apology and had been on a paid leave since Thursday after the city’s Human Resources Department launched an investigation into the remarks Bonsall made during a recent meeting about the city’s Angels’ Night. Orr says the resignation marks the close of the investigation.
Earlier Tuesday, Detroit’s Chief Operating Officer Gary Brown told the City Council he had been stepping in for Bonsall until the situation was resolved. Orr’s office said it will now conduct a search to replace Bonsall, who was hired by the city in July.
Brown, who was present at the meeting when Bonsall made the comments, could not be immediately reached Tuesday afternoon.
Councilwoman JoAnn Watson expressed frustration at Tuesday’s meeting that Bonsall did not attend, as she’d requested.
“I don’t understand why there’s an investigation. There were witnesses in the room, including you,” she told Brown.
The probe into Bonsall’s comments was conducted after city Treasurer Cheryl Johnson sent a letter to Mayor Dave Bing and other officials complaining that Bonsall’s behavior “has created a hostile work environment.”
Johnson declined to comment Tuesday on Bonsall’s resignation.
Johnson, who is black and was recently demoted from the city’s finance director to treasurer, alleges Bonsall, who is white, made racially charged remarks while Johnson was informing him about how city appointees traditionally patrol neighborhoods during the three-day Angels’ Night. Bonsall asked if he could ride with a Detroit police officer, and Johnson said he could ride with a family member or a friend, according to the letter.
“Jim stated that he wouldn’t subject his family to that and then said ‘can I shoot someone in a hoodie?’” the letter said.
The comment references the slaying of 17-year-old Florida teen Trayvon Martin, who was wearing a hoodie during a scuffle that ended with the unarmed teen being shot in the chest by a community watch volunteer, George Zimmerman. In July, Zimmerman was acquitted in the death, sparking demonstrations in Detroit and across the country.
“I felt these comments, in addition to others made by Jim Bonsall, were extremely offensive hostile and abusive,” the letter said.
In the Oct. 8 letter, Johnson also claims she was demoted for disclosing Bonsall’s “ethnic harassment.”
The resignation comes after activists and clergy gathered Monday near City Hall and demanded Bonsall’s immediate firing.
The Rev. Charles Williams II, who organized Monday’s protest, said Bonsall wasn’t committed to being a public servant in Detroit.
“We want people who actually want to serve people,” he said. “I’m glad that the voice of the people was heard loud enough to make sure that this doesn’t become pervasive throughout the city of Detroit’s executive administration.”
Sara Wurfel, a spokesman for Gov. Rick Snyder, said the comment, if true, is “inappropriate and incredibly disturbing.”
Wurfel added Snyder is “committed to changing the culture in government in Michigan and Detroit.”
“We need to be focused on providing better service to our customers as we reinvent our state and its largest city,” she said. “That includes treating everyone with the respect they deserve.”
cferretti@detroitnews.com
(313) 222-2069
From The Detroit News: http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20131015/METRO06/310150083#ixzz2hqUfSs6l
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