District 5 residents face an unenviable choice: Elect Detroit Police Commissioner Willie Burton, 46, best known for his antics as a member of that board, or Indian Village resident and Chrysler retiree Renata Miller, 57, whose record we’ll politely describe as “troubled.”
Sprawling District 5 spans Detroit’s east and west sides, a span of neighborhoods like Indian Village, Boston Edison, Dexter-Linwood and Pingree Park, half of downtown and parts of Midtown. The seat has been held since 2014 by Mary Sheffield, now the frontrunner in this year’s mayoral race.
In the District 5 August primary, the Free Press Editorial Board endorsed Esther Haugabook, an expert in real estate and housing policy who has worked for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Michigan State Housing Development Authority. Her work experience and professional demeanor would’ve served District 5 well.
But Haugabook, a political newcomer, finished 194 votes behind Burton, and did not advance.
Of the two remaining candidates, we believe WILLIE BURTON is better qualified for a seat on the Detroit City Council.
‘Speaking out for my constituents’
As a member of Detroit’s police civilian oversight board, Burton has been a rabble-rouser, regularly clashing with the board’s chair and other members, culminating in a 2019 arrest during a board meeting. Burton was placed in handcuffs and led out of the room, but ultimately was not charged. During the pandemic, when the board routinely met via Zoom, his disruptive interjections led the board’s former chairman to mute Burton’s microphone, on multiple occasions.
But an assessment of Burton’s disruptive behavior must be tempered by the causes he’s championed. At the time of that 2019 meeting, Burton had been working to expose the Detroit Police Department’s use of facial recognition technology. He had been a staunch advocate for policy controls around the use of the unreliable technology, which has a high rate of misidentifying Black and brown faces ― and the board, at Burton’s urging, subsequently worked with the Detroit Justice Center, the ACLU and the Wayne State University School of Law to develop and adopt policies around facial recognition, and DPD changed its operating procedure.
His instincts are often sound, even when his approach leaves something to be desired.
In an endorsement interview this month, Burton, who has become less volatile in recent years, offered a look back at his arrest:
“So at the time, the department was using facial recognition, and they didn’t have a policy. The Board of Police Commission is supposed to be the watchdog, and we didn’t even know that the department was using it, nor did members of the community. You know, I’m elected. I’m speaking out for my constituents,” he said. Burton said he had been recognized to speak by the commission’s chair. “And I just said, ‘What happens when facial recognition misidentifies a person of color that does not have the resources for the legal defense?’ and at that moment, Chairwoman Carter said, ‘You’re out of line, you’re out of order.’ So, that was it.”
But the arrest and subsequent coverage focused attention on his behavior, not on the work he hoped to achieve.
Burton said his time on the commission has taught him the value of working collaboratively.
“You know, number one, you definitely have to work as a team. Number two, you’ve definitely got to listen to your constituents and listen to their concerns, because every day, your district has many concerns, and they’re going to bring their concerns to you in person, or they going to send you emails or letters, and they want you to address those concerns that they may have,” Burton said.
“So it’s really, you know, listening to your constituents, serving the people, working together as a team, as one body, and know where your votes are coming from.”
Burton believes the city must hire social workers to help staff DPD, meeting the needs of folks whose problems don’t have a law enforcement solution. He believes dollars from the police department’s budget could fund those hires, or by paring the subsidy benefits the city offers to big developers.
He’s had his own set of legal struggles: On Feb. 10, 2016, a Wayne County Circuit Court judge issued an ex parte personal protection order to a woman who said Burton had shown up at her workplace and home uninvited. The woman asked to terminate the order on April 25, 2016, records show, telling the court that she felt Burton was no longer a threat. The judge granted the request. In 2019, a court ordered his eviction from Lafayette Towers for nonpayment of rent.
If elected to council, Burton must continue to exercise the discipline he’s exhibited in recent years, focusing on solving problems, not creating them.
Miller’s record
The top vote-getter in the August primary, Miller has been endorsed by Detroit City Councilmembers Mary Waters and Scott Benson, AFSCME Michigan Council 25, UAW Region 1 and 1A, The Original Eastside Slate, The Black Slate, the Michigan Regional Carpenters & Millwrights and LiUNA Laborers Local Union 1191. At the last campaign finance filing deadline, Miller had raised $13,660, compared to Burton’s $3,475.
Yet Miller’s record is dotted with mishaps, any one of which could, perhaps, be explained. People struggle. Feelings change. Emotions run high. Financial or legal troubles aren’t inherently disqualifying for public office, but taken in total, there’s a pattern of erratic behavior:
● A 2001 bankruptcy filing.
● Multiple lawsuits, filed against Miller between 2002 and 2008 by landlords in Southfield and Bloomfield Hills from whom she rented apartments.
● In 2003, Miller was convicted in a jury trial on a misdemeanor count of domestic violence against a married man with whom she was having an affair, according to Oakland County Court records, and whom she believed was cheating on her with a third woman.
Miller told the Free Press Editorial Board in an endorsement interview last week that “there really was no hearing or court case, they just said ‘anger management’ and that was it,” but court records show a preliminary hearing was held on Sept. 18, 2003, and a jury trial on June 10 the following year.
The man testified at the prelim that Miller took a tire iron to the other woman’s vehicle. In last week’s interview, Miller said that after a four-year period of no contact, she and the man began speaking again and, eventually, dating. “We’ve been married for 15 years,” she said in the interview, adding, “I don’t think he’ll ever cheat again!”
During this week’s interview, Miller called the episode “humiliating,” saying that she regrets the pain it caused her parents and children: “It hurts. It hurts them. So it hurts me because it’s hurting them.”
● Through 2015, Miller made dozens of homophobic Facebook posts, still public on her page, in which she repeatedly identified LGBTQ+ identity as evidence of the devil’s hand at work, and celebrated conversion therapy, writing “Satan can not have our people.” In the interview, Miller said that after 18 years of living in diverse Indian Village, she no longer holds that position.
“I have one good friend, she’s like one of my best friends, and I’m at their house and I see how much they love each other,” Miller said. “That’s their choice. I mean, who am I to pass judgment?”
● After her 2008 purchase via land contract of a home in Detroit’s Indian Village neighborhood, records show repeated tax delinquencies, followed by a 2022 bank foreclosure; Miller said she asked a court to halt the foreclosure, and county records now indicate that she co-owns the home through an LLC with another woman.
● Also of concern is Miller’s leadership, ouster and reinstatement to the board of the Historic Indian Village Association. Miller and other members of the board were removed and censured at an association meeting this summer, amid allegations that Miller had pursued a vindictive lawsuit against a neighborhood resident. A court reinstated the ousted members, ruling on the procedural legitimacy of the meeting, not the neighborhood infighting. The lawsuit against the resident was dismissed. Miller blames the episode on gentrification and racism.
Financial or legal troubles aren’t inherently disqualifying for public office, but it’s hard to get past the sheer volume in Miller’s record.
Burton is a better fit for Detroit City Council.
This story was updated to include information about a personal protection order issued against Burton in 2016, and to correct a date.
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Here’s the Free Press endorsement for Detroit City Council’s District 5 seat | Opinion
Reporting by Detroit Free Press Editorial Board / Detroit Free Press
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