Christine MacDonald/ The Detroit News
Detroit — A fired director at the center of the latest City Hall corruption probe admits her staff used federal funds for the poor to buy $200,000 in office furniture — and makes no apologies for it.
“It is legal to purchase furniture. I fail to understand the hype about the furniture,” said Shenetta Coleman, who was removed last week from her $124,999 job as director of the city’s Department of Human Services.
Coleman spoke about the accusations for the first time Thursday, since she was fired and four staffers were suspended without pay and Mayor Dave Bing announced an internal and police probe. Even as she defended herself, new allegations about her office emerged.
Police are investigating the disappearance of two flat screen televisions and other electronic equipment that her department bought with federal funds.
Bing’s office also is concerned that Coleman’s brother was hired by an agency funded with grants through her department.
Coleman welcomed the investigation but said she’s not responsible for any misspending that is uncovered.
The furniture money came from a $1.1 million federally funded contract to Clark Associates, a nonprofit that acts as a fiduciary, to provide a food pantry and clothing boutique for low-income residents. Coleman said she didn’t know anything about missing televisions.
“Just because I am the director doesn’t make me responsible for everything in the department,” said Coleman, whose department provides anti-poverty programs, Head Start efforts and home weatherization services.
“I, Shenetta Lynn Coleman, do not order furniture. I do not order equipment. That was not my job. I have a staff person who was responsible for that.”
“If I don’t know about it, then there’s nothing I can do about it. I cannot be in 29,000 places at once.”
When asked if she was ultimately responsible as director, she said her job isn’t to “hold someone’s hand.”
Despite her protests, Coleman is responsible for her staff, countered Dan Lijana, a spokesman for Bing, who added ignorance is “no excuse for poor judgment.”
“All directors are charged with managing and held responsible for every aspect of their department including operations, personnel and performance,” Lijana said.
Bing fired Coleman as director of the department, but because she had been a manager prior to her appointment, civil service rules allowed her to return to that post. After that, Bing suspended her for 30 days without pay. Depending on the outcome of the investigation, she could retain that job, Lijana said. Coleman said she is recovering from surgery and hasn’t paid attention to media accounts of the controversy. But she said she’s shocked by the outcry over last year’s purchase of cherry wood desks, book shelves and conference table. She said her office needed an upgrade.
“My desk alone was being held up by a metal pipe,” Coleman said.
Coleman said the furniture was permitted under the grant and represented a small percentage of what she said was $18 million in federal funds that went to services for the poor in Detroit. She also indicated state officials signed off on the purchase.
Greg Murray, vice president of the union, Senior Accountants, Analysts and Appraisers, that represents about 20 department staffers, bristled when told that Coleman defended the furniture expense.
He said some of the replaced furniture was only 2 years old: “$200,000 for furniture in a city department that was reluctant to open a warming center is heartless.”
This winter, Coleman was at the center of a controversy because the city’s warming center didn’t open until the end of February. A longstanding policy mandated its operation, but Coleman said it couldn’t open because of budget constraints and called a center a “nice extra to have.” The city eventually released $150,000 in emergency federal funds to open the center two months into the season.
Bing’s office also is concerned that Coleman never disclosed that a contractor working for her department had hired her brother, Lijana said. It’s wasn’t clear late Thursday if city executives are required to make such disclosures. The brother, Hyshon Coleman, is still employed and was hired more than five years ago by the Detroit Urban League to do home weatherization work for the Human Services Department, his sister and city officials confirmed. His salary wasn’t available.
He was listed as a staffer on the internal department phone list and has a city phone number.
Shenetta Coleman said she was a deputy director at the time and had no involvement in the hire. But she did say a city employee under her — the weatherization director — brought him aboard.
cmacdonald@detnews.com
(313) 222-2396
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