This morning radio hosts Trucker Randy Bishop and Brian
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Trucker Randy Bishop & Brian Summerfield
Your Defending Fathers Radio Show |
Sommerfield on Your Defending Father's Radio on 94.5 fm in Petoskey Michigan stated that timing of the State Representative Cindy Gamrat and State Representative Todd Courser affair was to deflect and stop an investigation of the unnecessary purchase of the new Senate Building which was purchased 3 times over the market value. The building was assessed to be valued at $12 Million but yet the state is purchasing it for over $41 million.
The move, proposed last year by then Senate Majority Leader
Randy Richardville (R-Monroe), would move senators into renovated office space
while other state departments are being told to brace for cuts.
"You can question motives and you can question
everything," Richardville told Channel 7's Ross Jones in November,
"but this is a damn good business decision."
Richardville left the Michigan Senate at the end of last
year
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| Ron Boji |
due to term-limits, but not before choosing a proposal submitted by
Lansing developer Ron Boji as the senate's future home. The state has agreed to
purchase his building, called Capitol View, for $41 million and is seeking $70
million in state bonds to finance the deal, but now some accounts are saying the final cost to the taxpayers of Michigan could reach $140 million. According to the Lansing Assessor's Office the building is only worth $12 million and the Assessor's office has publically stated that the overpriced purchase will not inflate the property values in and around the area.
In order to pay for the new senate building it will need to be OKed and financed through bonds from the state through the Michigan Strategic Fund. Ron Boji was appointed by Snyder to be on that board. How is this not a conflict of interest?
What was the reason for the need to purchase the new building? "The main reason given for seeking the new digs,
according to testimony by Senate Secretary Carol Vivendi last year, is so every
senator’s office would enjoy a clear view of the state capitol."
A major campaign donor of the Republican Party stands
to profit handsomely from this move. Who is that donor? Ron Boji, a big donor to state Republican politicians who was also
appointed by Governor Snyder to serve on the Michigan Strategic Fund.
Over the past 7 years, Boji alone has contributed
almost $80,000 to the Republican state senate campaign committee, the Michigan
Republican Party, and the election efforts of Snyder as reported on the Frank Beckmann Show on WJR 760am in Detroit.
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Ron Boji far left, 8th Dist Congresman Mike Bishop (R)
12th Dist Congresswoman Debbie Dingell,
11th District Congrssman Dave Trott and State Representative Clint Kesto |
Funneling taxpayer dollars to a wealthy campaign contributor
is a classic example of corporate welfare and crony capitalism. This happens
all too often in Lansing. Our Senators are attempting to reward a campaign
contributor while bilking taxpayers out of $70 million in order to move to an
office building that is 50 yards closer to the Capitol Building.
In late June of this year, embattled State Representative Todd Courser drafted a letter asking Attorney General Bill Schuette to investigate the purchase of the new Ron Boji Senate Building. According to Randy Bishop and Brain Summerfield of your Defending Fathers Radio, Courser said the letter was never forwarded to Bill Schuette. Was this the reason why Courser and Gamrat's staff were fired? Why didn't they complete the letter but instead release the recording of Todd Courser admitting to a false flag e-mail to hide his affair with Gamrat instead?
According to information Randy Bishop and Brian Summerfield compiled, they surmised that most in Lansing, including State House Speaker Kevin Cotter, knew of the Courser Gamrat affair months prior to the the Detroit News story last week. Why then didn't this information come out sooner? Was it because Todd Courser and Cindy Gamrat were to release a letter to the Attorney General Bill Schuette this week asking him to open an investigation into the purchase of the new senate building?
It also appears that the questionable senate building deal in Lansing wasn't the first time Ron Boji's company made millions off the state with a real estate deal.
Ron Boji's brother Nader Kakhouri, who is under investigation with the Feds in his position with the former Wayne County Executive Bob Ficano, who is also under investigation.
Ron Boji and his family have been some of Robert Ficano's most reliable campaign contributors. Not long ago, Boji held a birthday party fundraiser for Ficano at his sprawling Orchard Lake home.
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Ron Boji (right) Bob Ficano (left)
Ribbon cutting ceremony for new government office in
Hamtramack that Boji's firm built. |
Boji's name surfaced in the widening Wayne County scandal back in October of 2011, when the FBI named his company, The Boji Group, in a federal subpoena. At issue: did his relationship with Ficano's office help land his company federal money for a big development in Wayne County? And did Fakhouri stand to benefit from the deal?
Boji used that federal money to build the Inkster Marketplace, a sprawling two-block, four-building development that couldn't have materialized had it not been for federal funds provided by Wayne County. It passed along government grants totaling almost $2 million that ultimately went to Boji's company. And the county official who handed over the money? Fmr. Economic Development Chief Turkia Mullin.
Ron
Boji’s company benefited from more than $1.5 million in federal funds to
develop the sprawling Inkster Marketplace along Michigan Avenue.
In a December letter, HUD officials asked the county to
return $850,000 in grant money because of Boji’s strong ties to then Assistant
County CEO
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| Nader Fakhouri With Bob Ficano |
Nader Fakhouri.
Fakhouri, who is Boji’s brother-in-law, received a 20% stake
in the building Boji was paid to construct. The Wayne County Commission, which
had to sign off on the project, didn’t know about Fakhouri’s stake in the
building either.
“We’ve never received any paperwork that shows Nader
Fakhouri had an interest in this,” Commissioner Kevin McNamara said.
“It would have raised a huge red flag.”
HUD issued their own red flag, deeming it a “conflict of
interest” and saying Fakhouri was “…in a position to potentially influence
funding…” that went to him and his family.
Because of these findings the people of the State Of Michigan deserve a full and fair investigation of where their
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| Todd Courser / Cindy Gamrat |
tax dollars are going. Are political cronies being paid back for their donations both in positions of appointed power and financial kickbacks? Although Courser's and Gamrat's behavior was unbecoming to say the least of a State Representative, it is important that the investigation request Course and Gamrat were preparing moves forward.
The letter Courser drafted needs to be signed by every state representative in Michigan and given to the Attorney General Bill Schuette this week. Will other conservative Representatives such as Lee Chatfield, Gary Glenn and Martin Howrylak take up the cause? What about your State Rep? If they refuse to request an investigation in the the Senate Building and the conflicts of interests, then they are also part of the problem.
