The vice president of the Detroit Police Officers Association, implicated in an ongoing FBI investigation into shady pension dealings and lawyered up by his union, suddenly retired recently in the middle of his term and during high stakes contract negotiations and the union’s executive board responded by voting to give him a fully loaded 2010 Jeep Grand Cherokee as a parting gift worth approximately $50,000.
His fellow police officers were surprised to find out that Paul Stewart wasn’t the first departing union official allowed to keep his sweet union ride. Apparently that’s been the common practice for at least the past eight years. And many of Stewart’s brothers in blue didn’t even know their union was providing luxury company cars for top union brass until now. A previous TV news investigation also found Stewart and DPOA president Marty Bandemere spend most of their union workdays in Sinbad’s, a popular riverfront watering hole, while the taxpayers of the destitute city cough up $50,000 a piece for their base salaries with the union contributing the balance of their six figure incomes.
Stewart’s colleagues were reluctant to complain about him on camera but John Bennett, an outspoken cop campaigning to replace Stewart, wasn’t. “Most people who retire get a ring. I think giving him a fifty thousand dollar vehicle is a little bit extreme,” said Bennett. “If we’re going to call out the city for waste and abuse, we certainly have to call out our own leadership.”
