Detroit's City Council needs someone else in its No. 2 leadership spot, Michigan Chronicle senior editor Bankole Thompson writes in a call to action.
If "the ethically challenged and scandal-ridden" George Cushingberry doesn't step aside as president pro tem, Thompson says in a column, "it is only prudent that we demand that the council strip Cushingberry of his leadership title."
A man who purports to represent the city cannot be so entangled in that many emerging legal challenges questioning his ethics as a lawyer as well as his integrity and behavior as a public servant. . . .
The councilman appears to have a lot of personal issues that are now being directly linked to his profile as a member of the council. . . .
When you look at his trajectory of troubles it is almost as if something is waiting to explode.
Thomposon cites Cushingberry's traffic ticket after being stopped with a rum bottle and marijuana aroma in his car, as well as complaints from legal clients that led the State Attorney Discipline Board in one case to suspend his law license for 45 days and agree to a $500 restitution payment.
He needs to resign from the council leadership now and take care of his issues that are becoming a painful distraction for the council as well as a haunting image of the past council.
Thompson frames the situation in context of a higher-profile elected official -- the Oakland County Executive -- making news lately:
Let’s be clear. Cushingberry’s behavior and the fact that he has been running away from the cameras, refusing to answer any of the damaging allegations, matters more to the well-being of Detroit than a neighbor like [L. Brooks] Patterson spitting on Detroit.
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