By ZEINAB NAJM
Sunday Times Newspapers
TAYLOR — Taylor Community Development Manager Jeff Baum is currently suspended with pay from his position with the city Oct. 6, his attorney Mike Rataj confirmed.
Baum received a letter from the mayor’s office, and not from the city’s human resources department. Rataj said that is not protocol.
“We don’t know the nature of the allegations,” Rataj said. “The union his handling the matter and we will let the process play out.”
Currently, Baum is facing charges for conspiracy to commit bribery in an alleged scheme spanning from 2015 to 2019 with Mayor Rick Sollas and businessman Shady Awad.
Taylor Communications & Marketing Director Karl Ziomek said the personal mater is in the process of being investigated and is being handled through human resources.
He added that the action was not instigated by the mayor and the mayor was “kept in the loop” but really had nothing to do with it.
“To protect the integrity of the process, and the employees involved, we do not comment on internal matters such as these,” he said in a statement. “The current issues being investigated have nothing to do with the ongoing federal probe.”
According to U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan indictment, Sollars helped Awad’s real estate development company, Realty Transition LLC, obtain scores of tax-foreclosed properties owned by the city.
In return, Awad lavished Sollars with thousands of dollars in cash and over $30,000 in renovations to Sollars’ home, over $11,000 in renovations to Sollars’ lake house in Cement City, and over $12,000 in new household appliances.
The indictment also alleges that Baum received bribes from Awad and another developer, in exchange for Baum’s help in obtaining tax-foreclosed properties from Taylor.
The 18-count wire fraud indictment against Sollars and Baum alleges that Sollars’ campaign fund defrauded donors in three ways. It is alleged that Sollars would write a check to a vendor from his campaign account for event catering, which the business person would refund in cash, with no catering provided.
Secondly, it is alleged that campaign donors would be directed by Sollars and Baum to write checks to businesses for events that did not occur, and the money would be provided in cash and scratch-off lottery tickets by the business owner.
The third allegation is that Sollars and Baum accepted thousands in cash contributions to Sollars’ campaign, which he did not deposit, and instead kept the cash to use for personnel expenses.
Federal court appearances for Sollars and Baum are scheduled for January.
(Zeinab Najm can be reached at [email protected].)