While I suspect there’s still more to come out, it would appear as though the trip to China that Ypsilanti’s Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, Police Chief and Economic Development Director are currently on, may not have been paid for by the Wayne State University Chinese Student and Scholar Association (CSSA), as we had been told, but by the Chinese government. Whether or not this constitutes a violation of City statute remains to be seen, but, given how this all went down, it certainly doesn’t look good for any of the parties involved.

Here, based largely on social medias posts, what I picked up during the last City Council meeting, and reporting by Tom Perkins for the Detroit Metro Times, is my understanding of how we got to where we are today, and the situation as it currently stands.

1. At some point this past fall, Troy-based, Chinese-American developer Amy Xue Foster, after making a formal bid to purchase Ypsilanti’s 38-acre Water Street property, offered to take a local delegation to China, ostensibly to discuss Chinese architecture, help sell the idea of an Ypsilanti development to Chinese investors, and meet the other members of the Xue Foster’s team that would be working to help bring her 1,600 unit “International Village” concept to reality. This offer, according to a May 24 email by City Attorney John Barr, as reported by the Detroit Metro Times, would have been both unethical and illegal under city statue. “Members of city council have traveled overseas in the past, but only at their own cost,” Barr’s email said. “If a city employee or mayor or council member wanted to go to China, it would be OK if they paid for it themselves, but if the developer paid, it would be unethical and illegal under the city code.” Council Member Dan Vogt, according to the Metro Times, then wrote in response, “I agree it would not be ethical if they or someone on their behalf paid. I also am not clear why it would be useful.”

2. Fortunately for the developer, and the four individuals who would be taking the trip to China, though, an alternate source of funding emerged. On September 11, Ypsilanti Economic Development Director Beth Ernat sent an email to members of City Council, alerting them to the fact that the Wayne State University Chinese Student and Scholar Association (CSSA) had come forward with the funds necessary to send the entire Ypsilanti delegation to China. This, as you might imagine, raised some questions, as it didn’t seem to make much sense that a student group would have that kind of money, or, for that matter, an interest in a Ypsilanti real estate, but the trip was booked. And, now, as I’m writing this, Mayor Amanda Edmonds, Mayor Pro Tem Nicole Brown, Police Chief Tony DeGiusti, and Economic Development Director Beth Ernat are in Beijing. [They left on September 21, and are scheduled to return October 2.]

3. Today, the Metro Times published a story in which a representative of the the Wayne State University Chinese Student and Scholar Association, through a WSU press officer, confirmed that the money used to fund the trip wasn’t theirs, but had been given to them by a representative of Amy Xue Foster’s International Village, LLC. This, if true, would indicate, of course, that the developer, perhaps with the knowledge of Ypsilanti officials, deliberately misled the public in order to circumvent the ethics rules noted above… As it turns out, though, things may not be that cut and dry. According to Ypsilanti City Council Member Pete Murdock, the money given to the Wayne State student group by representatives of International Village, LLC, may not have been the development group’s money after all, but money secured from the Chinese government through the Chinese consulate in Chicago. And, if that’s the case, I’m not certain what the legal implications might be. If I had to guess, I’d say that a trip like this, if funded by a foreign government, wouldn’t look as bad as a trip funded by the developer, who, in this case, would have a great deal to gain from wining and dining those members of City Council who would later be voting to sell the property and sign-off on the development plans, but I’m no lawyer. Either way, though, I think we’d probably all agree that it doesn’t look good.

All I can say is that, I hope, for the sake of my friends in Ypsi city government, that they were unaware of how all of this came to pass, and really believed that their tickets for China, accommodations, food and drink, etc, had been purchased by the Wayne State student group, as they told us at that late-night City Council meeting just before they left for Beijing. If not, I’m afraid this might not just kill the International Village development, but severely damage the City’s credibility with its citizens, and possibly even cut short a few careers.

Regardless of who knew, and when they knew it, can we all agree that this doesn’t look good for the developer, who clearly made the decision to deceive the public about the source of the funds, instead of just coming forward and saying that they had been secured from the Chinese consulate?

OK, so let’s assume that members of our City Council didn’t know that this Chinese student group was just being used as a front organization to pass funds though to the City in hopes of skirting ethics laws. I mean, I suppose it’s possible that they suspected something wasn’t right, and just chose to ignore the warning signs, as they didn’t want to offend the developer, and possibly jeopardize the project, but I can’t believe that they would have gone on the trip if they’d known for certain, especially considering that the Metro Times was already asking questions about the source of the funds before the plane even took off for China. So, assuming that they didn’t know, is it likely that anyone on City Council would now agree to move forward with this project, knowing that they’d been purposefully misled? As I said a few weeks ago, when we first discussed the possibility that we could have been lied to about the source of these funds, I’m thinking that “(this should) be enough to kill the deal outright.” I mean, I can’t imagine anyone on Council could cast their vote for the project after this, right?

OK, so that’s where we are as of right now… According to Tom Perkins, he’s reached out to the developer, and our city leaders currently in China, but none of them have yet come forward with comments. Let’s hope that, when they do, this doesn’t get even worse.

Here, for those of you who might still want more, is the Facebook post just shared by Pete Murdock.

And, here is a clip from the Metro Times about how they tracked down the finances of the Wayne State student group.

…That prompted a Sept. 18 email from Metro Times to WSU press officer Matt Lockwood. It inquired about the CSSA’s status and how it receives funds. Lockwood says that the CSSA is a university-sanctioned group, and it has two bank accounts, both of which are and have been nearly empty for several years. During a Sept. 20 phone call, David Strauss, WSU’s dean of students, confirmed that the CSSA had no money in its accounts. “We checked both accounts for this organization. They do not have the funds that they would have to have to pay for this kind of travel. Historically… there wasn’t a big deposit, or withdrawal, either,” he told Metro Times. Strauss adds that student groups aren’t required to keep all funds in university accounts, and the university doesn’t closely monitor groups’ financial activities… Metro Times then asked Lockwood to connect us with the student group because there is no contact information for it on WSU’s website or elsewhere. He wrote in a Sept. 22 email to Metro Times that a representative of the CSSA explained to him that the CSSA “was approached by International Village, LLC to help with a cultural exchange.” “The student group agreed to purchase airline tickets for the trip with money from the company, and assist in providing some volunteers to help with the cultural exchange because the group’s goal is to teach people about Chinese culture,” Lockwood wrote in the email. “He said at the time they were approached that they were not aware of the [International Village] project in Ypsilanti.”…

And, if you still want more, you can check out my post from last week, where I laid out my major concerns about the International Village development.