Robert Ficano
Update: Thursday, 1:10 p.m. -- The Members of the Wayne County Building Authority board voted unanimously Thursday to pull the plug on the yet-to-be completed construction of the new county jail, that had prohibitive cost overruns, the Detroit Free Press reported.
EARLIER TODAY
When we look back at the legacy of Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano, it's not going to be very pretty.
FBI investigations. Appointees convicted. Pensions run amok. And the big elephant, the new Wayne County Jail, which has been under construction and is not likely to ever be completed.
Marion Walker of the Detroit Free Press reports that the Wayne County Building Authority is expected today to consider firing the project managers for the jail after an audit found that he approved more than $42 million in major changes without the required written approval of the authority. The project managers are AECOM and Ghafari Associates.
That $42 million is part of an overall cost overrun for a jail that the new jail that the county appears to be bailing out on.
Ficano wants to sell the land and try to salvage the mess. The county is likely to end up using an existing state prison facility on Detroit's east side.
