A supervisor and a driver who treated a city bus like a no-tell motel.
An apparently inebriated transportation executive who ended a Friday night by freaking out at a transit center where she hassled security guards and attempted to assault — wait for it — a pigeon.
A top People Mover official who allegedly took bribes from a contractor hired on a no-bid IT contract, even though his business had no “experience with, or knowledge of, information technology.”
At a time when Detroit Mayor Mary Sheffield’s first budget added $28.9 million to the Department of Transportation’s budget, and listed “accountability of leadership, oversight, and outreach to all” among her priorities, it seems the city’s transportation department needs to inspire watchdogs, not fire them.
Nevertheless, DDOT, as the transportation department with a $238 million budget is known, fired a top watchdog and failed to follow its own rules when investigating and disciplining employees who wasted city resources and created “a risk of disrepute to the city.”
The video of DDOT’s wobbly chief of staff stumbling around the downtown Rosa Parks Transit Center around 11:30 p.m. on Jan. 23 isn’t available. But I’ve watched video of a bus driver and a supervisor smooching, grinding and minding everything but their business while the bus was parked when it should have been transporting passengers throughout the city.
You can see them, too, in the video Free Press photographer Robin Chan created for freep.com.
As for the alleged fraud and bribery scheme at the People Mover, it may be awhile before we know the outcome because the feds just filed charges in U.S. District Court.
Sadly, the fight against public corruption in Detroit is a lot like the People Mover — it just keeps going ’round and ’round.
Questions about the city’s commitment to high ethical standards ranges from whether the mayor herself, while serving as the city council president, violated city rules by requesting free concert tickets from a local business and dating a contractor while voting for some of his city deals, to DDOT, where top officials seemed to be in no hurry to investigate one of their high-ranking colleagues and ignored their own guidelines in giving a slap on the wrist to misbehaving employees who may have had friends in high places at the bus service.
While the city’s Inspector General waits for transportation officials to address that latter matter, a whistleblower lawsuit DDOT’s former chief safety officer Corie Holmes filed against the city after he was fired may serve as a pry bar to pull back the lid on the agency’s inner workings.
Expect the city to portray Holmes as an overzealous man on a mission that might not be as righteous as he would have us believe. But until his case is resolved, I’m worried would-be whistleblowers across the city are wondering whether the city will heed watchdogs — or put them to sleep.
At your swervice
Few would call Senior Transportation Service Inspector Andre Reece and bus driver Dayna Ruff model employees. But there’s room for debate over whether they achieved point five of DDOT’s eight “goals” and “strategic priorities.”
A review of their interactions on May 6, May 20, July 7 and July 16 of 2025 arguably demonstrates a commitment to “foster a workplace environment that promotes teamwork and collaboration.”
On the other hand, they clearly failed points two and six — “deliver predictable, reliable, and customer-focused transit service every day to maintain and increase ridership” and “ensure efficient and effective delivery of transit service” — when Ruff pulled her bus off the street on multiple occasions to fool around with Reece, grab a smoke, and disappear for 20 minutes or so to grab lunch at a nearby McDonald’s.
A typical encounter — caught on many of the dozen or so cameras mounted on city buses — occurred on May 6, 2025, when Reece can be seen rubbing Ruff’s behind and telling her: “Why are you tryin’ to squeeze tight? Just let it go.”
Ruff replies: “That’s ass, that’s all me.”
Reece rejoins: “I bet I can make it jiggle.”
Holmes’ safety department faulted Reece and Ruff for “a willful dereliction of duty” and “a misuse of authority for personal gratification.”
“These behaviors are not isolated incidents but rather a demonstrated pattern of conduct that compromises DDOT’s ability to ensure efficient and effective delivery of transit service and remain committed to responsible stewardship of Detroit’s public resources,” it decreed.
The safety department also recommended that Reece and Ruff receive a 30-day suspension and termination.
Detroit’s Office of Inspector General, one of the city’s independent watchdog agencies, reported learning about Reece and Ruff’s encounters from an anonymous email sent to “multiple City of Detroit agencies and officials.” The Inspector General investigated and agreed that Reece and Ruff should have been suspended and dismissed.
And that wasn’t all.
The Inspector General faulted DDOT Superintendent Howard Bragg III for failing to investigate the reports of wrongdoing and, after taking action, only giving Reece and Ruff a five-day suspension that the Inspector General said was “lenient discipline that was inconsistent with the … offense level.”
The Inspector General also accused DDOT Assistant Director Andre Mallett of abusing his authority by not reevaluating the lenient discipline and “by not disciplining Superintendent Bragg for failing to conduct a proper investigation.”
In letters responding to the Inspector General, Bragg and Mallett defended their actions. Bragg wrote that if DDOT abided by the Inspector General’s wishes and imposed harsher discipline on Reece and Ruff “it would constitute double jeopardy and violate procedural fairness.”
The Inspector General has been waiting for months to learn whether Bragg or Mallett would be disciplined.
I got the answer Thursday, June 18.
“The reason that the discipline could not be changed for the two DDOT employees caught engaging in inappropriate behavior is that the decision was already handed down and if DDOT would have changed its own action, it surely would have been reversed in arbitration,” Detroit Corporation Counsel Conrad Mallett said in a statement. Mallett is not related to Andre Mallett.
Referring to Mallett and Bragg, the city’s top lawyer continued: “As for the supervisors, while the discipline was less than what HR recommended, under the policy supervisors did have some discretion and the discipline they did authorize was still within the range they had authority to approve. Since then, the policy has been changed so that any time proposed discipline varies from HR recommendations, it must first be reviewed by the DDOT Director.”
Although he didn’t make out with a colleague on a bus, fail to investigate a tip, or impose lenient discipline, the DDOT employee who paid the highest price for Reece and Ruff’s misconduct was Holmes, the chief safety officer.
Undercover boss?
Holmes claims that Mallett and DDOT Executive Director Robert Cramer “began to disparage and harass” him in January, after the Inspector General’s report on Reece and Ruff were released to the public. The report noted that Holmes cooperated with the Inspector General’s investigation.
Tensions mounted in February when Cramer suspended Homes for allegedly falsifying documents after giving a subordinate a higher pay increase than what DDOT brass had approved.
Holmes claims in his whistleblower lawsuit that he knew he was toast after he started hearing about an incident at the downtown Rosa Parks Transit Center involving then-DDOT Chief of Staff Jennie Whitfield.
According to Holmes’ report to Cramer, Whitfield showed up at the bus station around 11:50 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 23. He said Whitfield began harassing security guards, poking one in the chest and insulting another. Witnesses said she seemed intoxicated, “attempted to remove a bird from inside the transit center by throwing a bottle at it” and “nearly fell over the second-floor railing.”
Whitfield allegedly told one witness she was putting on an act as part of an undercover test of whether DDOT employees would follow procedures. When she finally left, another witness reported: “An assistant was waiting for her outside in a city vehicle. It was my understanding she had just came from a bar, she was obviously intoxicated. You could smell the alcohol on her breath, and her behavior was not professional. She was very disrespectful and rude.”
Holmes claims that shortly after DDOT staff began contacting him about the incident, Cramer told him to stop investigating. Holmes says the executive director said he would “take it from here.”
A couple weeks later, Holmes says he was suspended again for “misrepresentation of authority.”
A week later, he says he was told to turn in all his city equipment.
A month later, on April 6, he sued the city, alleging that he had been retaliated against for trying to do his job.
DDOT eventually fired Whitfield.
The name says it all
This next yarn has nothing to do with buses, or Holmes, or managers failing to take allegations of wrongdoing seriously.
What it does have in common with the other matters is that it occurred under Cramer’s watch.
And while the alleged bad guy was fired, city officials won’t say why, and the feds say it had nothing to do with the criminal conduct they believe they uncovered.
But before I get too far ahead of myself, let me tell you what’s been bothering me since May 28, when the feds charged former Detroit Transportation Corporation (DTC) procurement director Michael Anderson and Terrence Parker of Total Care Restoration with public corruption:
First, why didn’t anyone catch that the DTC awarded Total Care Restoration a no-bid contract to do information technology work for the People Mover?
Second, why didn’t anyone catch that Total Care Restoration never signed a contract with the government agency?
Third, why didn’t anyone catch that some of the work Total Care Restoration claimed it did for the People Mover was actually performed by other contractors who also billed the People Mover for the same work?
Fourth, why didn’t anyone catch that while other contractors sent invoices to Anderson via email, there were no emails from Total Care Restoration to Anderson with invoices?
Fifth — and this is a doozy — why didn’t anyone catch that Total Care Restoration repairs homes damaged by fire, flood or storms and, according to the FBI, “there is no indication that either Parker or anyone else with TCR has experience with, or knowledge of, information technology?”
The company’s name alone seems like a pretty good clue that these aren’t the tech geeks the People Mover was looking for.
The FBI says Anderson and Parker conspired to create invoices and accept payment for “work not performed” amounting to more than $300,000 between February 2023 and March 2025.
The feds say Anderson may have even used his work account to create and submit some invoices for Total Care Restoration.
“There is probable cause to believe that there are no emails submitting TCR’s invoices because Anderson himself created the invoices,” an FBI agent alleged in the document charging Anderson and Parker with conspiracy to commit fraud or bribery.
If you’re wondering whether fraud or bribery was involved, the answer appears to be both, because Uncle Sam says after Parker deposited city checks into his account, he would withdraw cash. And in what may turn out to be the most amazing and unfortunate coincidence ever — if charges are dropped or Anderson is found not guilty — Anderson deposited cash into his bank on the same day as, or within a week of, Parker’s withdrawals.
Neither Anderson nor Parker returned messages I left on the phone numbers listed for them in court records. Anderson’s attorney, Stacey Studnicki, declined comment. So did Parker’s attorney, Larry Polk.
Bus-ted
It would be a stretch to expect Cramer to know what every employee in his massive agency is doing at all times.
But it seems fair to wonder why it took so long to address the Reece and Ruff and Whitfield situations, and why Bragg and Andre Mallett won’t be disciplined for failing to make sure the people and property paid for with our tax dollars aren’t leaving Detroiters at the side of the road while they canoodle in a DDOT coach.
Cramer did not return messages I left for him Wednesday, June 17.
City officials seem satisfied these matters are closed, but Holmes does not seem like the type to go quietly.
As someone who knows a thing or two about whistleblower cases, I’m curious to see whether Holmes’ lawsuit will provide a peek into how seriously one of the city’s largest and most important agencies takes the mayor’s stated commitment to “accountability of leadership, oversight, and outreach to all.”
In the meantime, here’s a word to the wise if you spy a bus or DDOT supervisor’s SUV parked by the side of the road: If the chassis is rockin’, don’t go knockin’!
M.L. Elrick is a Pulitzer Prize- and Emmy Award-winning investigative reporter, director of student investigative reporting program Eye On Michigan, and host of the ML’s Soul of Detroit podcast. Contact him at mlelrick@freepress.com or follow him on X at @elrick, Facebook at ML Elrick and Instagram at ml_elrick
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit bus officials get a break while agency’s watchdog gets the axe
Reporting by M.L. Elrick, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By M.L. Elrick, Detroit Free Press | USA TODAY Network
