MichiganRadio

Scandals Linger at Detroit City Council DETROIT, MI (Michigan Radio) - Detroit City Council members say they're trying to move on with city business, but can't quite escape the corruption scandals that surrounded the last Council.

They met this week while Detroit political consultant Sam Riddle was in Federal Court down the street. Prosecutors say Riddle teamed up with former City Councilwoman Monica Conyers to shake down potential city contractors.

City Council President Charles Pugh says despite many new faces on the current Council, he and his colleagues know they continue to face perception problems created by the old Council.

"We are all committed to high ethics, transparency, and to making sure that things like that do not happen with this current Council," Pugh says. "That's why we all ran."

Councilman Ken Cockrel Jr. confirmed Tuesday that he has been subpoenaed to testify at Riddle's trial.

Cockrel was President of the old City Council. He was also briefly the interim Mayor while Conyers was Council President, after former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick resigned in 2008.
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