Report Links Detroit Mayor, Contracts

The AP reports:

Companies headed by a longtime friend of embattled Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick won millions of dollars in contracts while the friend secretly consulted with the mayor's chief of staff, a newspaper reported Sunday.

The Detroit Free Press said records and text messages it obtained indicated that Bobby Ferguson and companies he partnered with have collected at least $45 million in city contracts.

The text messages from 2002 and 2003 show that then-chief of staff Christine Beatty provided Ferguson with bid strategies and sensitive information on potential projects. The mayor was directly involved in at least one discussion about Ferguson's bid strategy, the Free Press reported.

Ferguson, the city and a lawyer for Beatty all denied wrongdoing in the handling of contracts.

A prosecutor has been investigating whether Kilpatrick and Beatty lied under oath about having an affair during a trial in a whistle-blower lawsuit.

Ferguson Enterprises Inc. companies generally have received good reviews for their work and have been among the lowest bidders on major city projects. But text messages from Beatty's city-issued pager show Ferguson directly and repeatedly communicated with her about pending bids, giving him access that may not have been available to others seeking city contracts, the newspaper said.