SOUTHWEST DETROIT WINS COURT VICTORIES AGAINST POLLUTER

Systematic Recycling site at 9125 W. Jefferson

Husband of Michigan Citizen publisher advocated for Systematic Recycling, according to former state rep

By Diane Bukowski

DETROIT – Carlyle/Synagro may have been chased from within Detroit’s borders, at least for the time being, but the dog left its wagging tail behind.

The company had ties to Systematic Recycling, LLC, located at 9125 W. Jefferson, across from Detroit’s Wastewater Treatment Plant. Systematic has been operating since 2006 despite complaints from neighbors of “unbearable odors” and at least three fires a year from large piles of compost.

Sam Riddle and Theresa Landrum at Call em Out Dinner in Feb. 2010, holding copy of The Michigan Citizen

“The stench is horrendous,” said community member Theresa Landrum, who has taken part in years of protests to shut the company down. “It smells like something decaying, it takes your breath away. Even if you shut your windows, it still gets into your house. Children on the playground at Delray Neighborhood House are even affected.”

The Detroit City Council approved a two-year “community host agreement” with Systematic in 2007 despite widespread community opposition. Heavy pressure from former Synagro executive James Rosendall and former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick’s administration was instrumental, according to reports in the Detroit News and Detroit Free Press at the time.

The reports said former Kilpatrick aides Kandia Milton and Michael Tardif, among others, pressed hard for the vote, and for state legislation that would allow Systematic to handle larger amounts of compost.

Tardif, who was a Michigan Democratic Party superdelegate to the national convention in 2008, wed Catherine Kelly, publisher of the Michigan Citizen newspaper, on Aug. 6 of this year, according to marriage registry records.

Despite such heavyweight opposition, southwest Detroiters celebrated a recent court victory against the Systematic.

“On Friday, November 19, 2010, Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Kathleen MacDonald ruled in our favor, denying Systematic Recycling . . . a temporary restraining order to prevent the city from issuing tickets for violations,” said a release from Greening Detroit.com.

Homes just blocks from Systematic Recycling site

“Earlier this year, the City of Detroit revoked the zoning grant for Systematic Recycling due to a number of illegal practices that created a nuisance that threaten our community and our health, including the excessively large piles and unbearable odors that violate state law.”

Systematic’s lawsuit has been ongoing in both state and federal courts since April, 2009. The company contended that it was operating on land that was zoned for such usage, was in an already heavily industrialized and polluted area, had not been cited by the City of Detroit, and was being unfairly targeted for reasons including its woman-owned status.

Cindy Rhodes-Victor, attorney for Systematic’s owner Renee Michaels, did not respond to a call for comment on Judge MacDonald’s ruling.

In federal court, U.S. District Judge David Lawson earlier denied Systematic’s motion for an injunction to prevent the city from shutting it down at the end of its two-year host agreement. Lawson said Systematic had other options, including a city appeals process.

Systematic Recycling mounds of compost produce noxious odors, vermin according to MDEQ

Lawson noted in his ruling, “Within the period from December 2006 through November 2008, Systematic Recycling received several citations and warnings from the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality  . . . . and Wayne County Department of Environment. . . . for violations of the rule against emission of odors beyond the facility’s property line, accumulating an excessive amount of yard clippings . . . . and fires that occurred from heat generated by compost piles maintained in violation of the Wayne County solid waste ordinances. The MDEQ sent Michaels a warning letter on October 7, 2008 citing problems including improper storage of yard clippings in excess of allowable limits, ponding water, pests between waste piles, and fires requiring Detroit Fire Department responses.”

Lawson added, “In January of 2009, evidence came to light that Systematic Recycling might have secured its Host Community Agreement with the city by means of a bribe carried out by James R. Rosendall, an owner of the company that leased to Systematic its land in southwest Detroit.”

Former Synagro exec James Rosendall, now serving federal time

Alliance Rental and Leasing owns the land on which Systematic is located. According to state records, Rosendall heads Alliance. He is now incarcerated after admitting to bribing city officials to obtain both a $47 million city sewage disposal contract for Synagro, and the two-year “Community Host Agreement” for Systematic. Synagro and the city mutually agreed to rescind that contract after his plea, but Systematic stayed.

In a detailed plea agreement last year, Rosendall agreed to cooperate with federal investigators by naming names in exchange for a lighter sentence. He is serving a sentence of 11 months in the federal prison at Elkton, Ohio, with a release date of May 13, 2011, according to federal records. Wayne County land records show that the U.S. Department of Justice has a lien on the Systematic site.

Landrum said Michaels told residents at a community meeting that she intended to sell Systematic to Synagro after the two year host agreement was up. The land Synagro wanted for its sludge disposal facility, at 7915 W. Jefferson (formerly the proposed site for the Minergy incinerator), is adjacent to Rosendall’s land.

“Rosendall did all the talking at the meeting,” Landrum said. “She [Michaels] just sat there quietly. I’ll never forget that. Why would you open up to operate for two years and then just up and sell the company?”

Former Council member, then vice-president, Monica Conyers reversed her votes on both Synagro and Systematic, allowing the agreements with the companies to pass

Landrum said busloads of southwest community members attended City Council meetings to stop Systematic before the Council vote of 5-4 in May of 2007, months before the Council’s identical vote approving the Synagro contract in November of that year. Systematic had already begun operations in 2006 without the agreement.

“Systematic should have been shut down years ago,” Landrum said. “Citizens had to fight for themselves from the grassroots level. We had called the city to complain when the site went up. Systematic was originally supposed to operate on only five acres, but ended up operating in a much larger area. People testified about the stench and poor maintenance and the effects on the children of our community.”

She commended former State Rep. Steve Tobocman and his successor State Rep. Rashida Tlaib for joining the community in those protests.

Former State Rep. Steve Tobocman

Tobocman told the Detroit News in 2008, “I knew Rosendall was involved in Synagro, but when he showed up for this [Systematic] … that was strange.” He also identified Tardif and Milton as advocates for Systematic.  Milton is now serving time in federal prison for taking bribes to sell the city’s only summer youth camp to a Greek church in Brighton, Michigan.

The article, “Mayoral aides pressed Detroit compost deal,” was written by News reporters David Josar and Christine McDonald, and published July 31, 2008.  According to the article, Tobocman said that Tardif “tried to persuade him to alter legislation that would restrict the amount of compost Systematic could process.”

Delray Neighborhood House and playground, blocks from Systematic

Tobocman told the News that Tardif argued with him as Milton stood by during the Mackinac Public Policy Conference in May, 2007.

“He just kept yelling that I didn’t care about jobs,” Tobocman said. The News said the facility was expected to provide only three to five jobs and bring in $20,000 a year to the city.

According to the News, Tardif worked directly for Kilpatrick through 2004, and then on his campaign staff from 2005-07, during which Kilpatrick paid him $138,500. It is unclear what work he is doing now.

State records show that Tardif founded the Detroit Compost Company, LLC in April, 2007, and the Aggregate Solutions Group, LLC in April, 2006. They are currently listed as “active but not in good standing,” and located at 547 E. Jefferson in Detroit.

Attorney James P. Allen, Sr. of Allen Brothers, PLLC Photo from Allen Brothers website

A request was made a week ago to Tardif’s attorney James Allen, Sr. and to Catherine Kelly and Michigan Citizen editor Teresa Kelly regarding whether these companies were related to Systematic Recycling or Synagro. It has not been answered to date.

Allen responded to an earlier request for information, directed only to the Kellys, regarding Tardif’s role in the Synagro scandal by threatening to sue this reporter over an article that had not even been published in the Voice of Detroit.

“Like the lies you have uttered against my client and as you are about to find out, talk can be anything but cheap,” Allen said in a letter dated Nov. 12. “My client is not going to stand idly by and allow you to defame him with impunity. He is a private citizen, not a public official, and your lies are entitled to no form of protection. You continue to propagate them and you will find out exactly how costly the words you type and speak can be.” (See VOD opinions page for copy of the letter and editor’s response.)

There are no records of any lawsuit brought against the Detroit News or the Detroit Free Press by Tardif or his attorney over numerous stories in which they cited Tardif’s alleged role in the Synagro scandal.  The stories said that Tardif, who is white, “cooperated” with federal officials in the Synagro investigation.

Three of the stories appear at  http://detnews.com/article/20090127/METRO01/901270371/City-Hall-corruption-probe-s-key-figures; http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080704/NEWS01/807040381&template=fullarticle; and http://www.freep.com/article/20090127/NEWS01/301270003/Kilpatricks-Conyers-among-8-named-in-FBI-bribery-probe

Carlyle Group spoof

The Michigan Citizen earlier published numerous stories, most by this reporter, on Synagro and its parent company, the Carlyle Group, in which both former presidents George Bush, along with many other former government officials across the world, are involved.

The stories said that Synagro/Carlyle deliberately targeted Black administrations in cities like Detroit and Philadelphia through bribery entrapment schemes. They stressed that Rosendall, who is white, had received a lighter sentence than Black individuals caught up in the schemes, including Synagro consultant Rayford Jackson, who is currently serving five years in prison, and former City Council President Monica Conyers and her former aide Sam Riddle, who were sentenced to 37 months.

They also stressed that Synagro and Carlyle themselves had never been charged, despite evidence that high-level executives knew about the entrapment schemes.

Meanwhile, Carlyle/Synagro’s tail continues to wag at the Systematic site, along with costly lawsuits, which are pending further action in the courts.

GreeningDetroit.com is asking the southwest community to continue making complaints against Systematic to the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality at  (313) 456-4700 between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. and (800) 292-4706 after 5 p.m. Such complaints may be instrumental in a final closure of the site.