Furniture Sofa

The $200,000 administrators of Detroit’s Human Services Department allegedly used to purchase new furniture for their offices (the money was earmarked for food and clothing assistance to the department’s clients) is a drop in the bucket in the context of the $155-million budgetary deficit Mayor Dave Bing is trying to close.

But the city’s latest scandal is a windfall for Republican state legislators looking to slam the door on any request for assistance to Detroit.

Free Press staff writer Steve Neavling reported Thursday that the department issued a no-bid, $1.2-million contract last year to Clark Associates. The firm was hired to assist with the city’s food and clothing assistance programs.

But records obtained by the Free Press show the nonprofit spent $210,344 of the contract on furniture that is now at the department’s office at 5031 Grandy. Cherry wood desks, chairs and tables replaced older furniture throughout the building.

Detroit Councilwoman Brenda Jones told Neavling the department hasn’t responded to the council’s request for details of the furniture purchase. The Free Press’ own inquiries were similarly unavailing.

But you don’t need a forensic audit to know that something’s hinky when administrators award a no-bid contract for services and then divert some of the money allocated to redecorate their own offices. And it won’t help Bing secure Lansing’s cooperation in eliminating Detroit’s structural budget deficit.

Bing’s increasingly desperate budget-balancing strategy hinges in large part on the Legislature’s willingness to renew and expand Detroit’s taxing authority. (The 2010 Census count revealed that the city no longer meets the 750,000 population threshold on which its current taxing powers depend.)

Two bills pending in the Legislature would allow Detroit to keep its 2.5% personal income tax and its 5% tax on phone, electric and gas bills — as long as the city contains at least 500,000 people. State law prohibits smaller cities from taxing income or utilities above 2%.

The Snyder administration has signaled support. But suburban and outstate lawmakers are perpetually skeptical of arrangements that might be portrayed as acquiescence to sloppy financial management — and outrages like the furniture scandal feed their worst fears about how Detroit handles public funds.

The best way to ameliorate the damage is for the Bing administration and Detroit City Council members to find those responsible and make an example of them — ideally before Detroit’s detractors in Lansing do.

Smoke rolled through Salt Lake City’s Old Greektown on Saturday morning as an abandoned and mostly empty furniture building burned.

No injuries were reported and the fire’s cause is unknown. By 9:30 a.m., the smoke was subsiding and only a couple fire trucks remained at the scene dousing the charred remains with water near 600 West between 200 and 300 South across from the Utah Transit Authority’s Intermodal Hub.

People at the transit hub reported the fire about 5:30 a.m. About 90 minutes later, firefighters evacuated about 30 tenants at the ArtSpace gallery and an apartment building east of the blaze.

Marin Christensen, who lives in an end unit next to the abandoned building, was one of the tenants evacuated. Around 6 a.m. she woke to the smell of smoke and a surprise out her back door.

“We looked out our back porch and saw [the smoke]. It was insane,” she said. “Smoke covered the whole sky. It was billowing.”

Early Saturday, at least four ladder trucks were spraying water into the building. Water streamed from the old furniture company’s front door and black smoke was visible for miles.

The charred building, now featuring a collapsed roof, still has the signage of Intermountain Furniture MFG. Co., though Salt Lake City Fire Department spokesman Scott Freitag said the building is owned by the city and was, at least officially, unoccupied.

“We don’t know how it started,” Freitag said. “We do believe there are people that squat in the building.”

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The blaze may have started in the basement, Freitag said. Investigators are trying to find witnesses.

Christensen hoped the city would have acted earlier to renovate the building.

“I thought it was an awesome building. It would have been dumb to tear it down, but it is too late now.”

ncarlisle@sltrib.com

Twitter: @natecarlisle

cimaron@sltrib.com

Twitter:@CimCity

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MADISON — A Stevens Point man who scammed Sony Corp. out of $73,000 avoided prison Thursday, with a federal judge deciding against separating him from his ailing wife and sentencing him to three years of probation and six months of home detention.

During his 14-year career at Furniture ApplianceMart, Daniel H. Weiler, 43, rose from an entry-level job to store manager. However, he was terminated in June 2007, he believed as a result of asking for medical leave to care for his ailing daughter, according to Weiler’s court-appointed attorney, Kelly Welsh.

After a month, Weiler found a new job that paid about half of the $100,000 he previously made. However, his new health insurance policy didn’t cover his daughter’s pre-existing medical condition, nor the ailment his wife developed before the new policy took effect.

As his family’s medical expenses mounted, Weiler began mailing the first of 600 fraudulent invoices to a subsidiary of Sony Corp. to receive money from a sales incentive program Sony operated. Between August 2007 and March 30, 2008, the subsidiary sent Weiler credits on a debit card account totaling more than $73,000 on nonexistent sales of $2.475 million, according to court documents.

After an investigation by postal authorities, Weiler was charged with mail fraud. He pleaded guilty to the offense in February.

At Weiler’s sentencing Thursday, Welsh sought probation and home detention for her client, arguing he was the breadwinner for his four daughters and the primary caretaker when his wife’s illness debilitated her.

U.S. Attorney John Vaudreuil sought prison time for Weiler, noting that while his medical expenses increased, so did his adjusted gross income, topping $95,000 in 2006, $119,000 in 2007, and $171,000 in 2008 while he was selling advertising for a central Wisconsin publisher.

“There needs to be equal justice; otherwise, only the guys with no job, no family and no support go to prison,” he said.

U.S. District Judge William Conley said he was considering imposing some prison time before he took a 10-minute recess and returned to say he wasn’t going to incarcerate Weiler because of his lack of prior convictions and the “collateral damage” it would do to his four daughters and wife, who counted on him as breadwinner.

Weiler cashed in a retirement account and paid $13,400 Thursday toward his restitution. Conley ordered him to pay another $5,000 within 30 days and the balance of the $73,516 originally owed with the three years on probation.