The Charles Pugh Controversy

Every morning I tune into Inside Detroit to get my daily dose of what's going on in and around the city of Detroit. It's informative, oftentimes entertaining, and surely full of controversy. As the city of Detroit is in the last days of it's most recent general election for the offices of mayor, city council, and the city charter commission, the fire is definitely getting hot! Most recently one of the leading city council candidates, Charles Pugh has been outted as one of the thousands of Detroit's irresponsible homeowners facing foreclosure. The controversy is whether this personal travesty should or will effect his lead position in the race.

I'm on the nay side of that coin. This is not just because I'm a supporter of Mr. Pugh, but more so because I don't believe the way in which a person handles their personal finances is necessarily indicative of how they will handle financial responsibilities pertaining to their job. It's hard for me to believe that those who have allowed this recently released story to retrack their support of Mr. Pugh REALLY believe that everyone who works in a financial area, whether it be public or private, are handling their work financial responsibilities the same as their personal financial responsibilities. That is absolutely absurd!

It's unfortunate how people take advantage of these kinds of stories to cast judgement on others. I was in awe of the judgemental comments that I heard from people on the radio. The gist of their comments went along the lines of:

1) Since he's running for public office, his personal finances are the business of the people and the people have a right to judge how he will handle the city's financial concerns.

2) If Mr. Pugh receives late notices, threats of eviction, that is indicative of his lack of integrity and responsibility.

Give me a break people! Whether or not Charles Pugh pays his mortgage of any other bills in a timely manner has nothing to do with how effective he will be as a council member. Now, if he was delinquent in city taxes (income or property) that would be a different matter entirely because that has a direct impact on this city.

It is beyond me why people are acting like facing foreclosure is the end of the world. First and foremost, anyone can face this situation AND some even place themselves in that situation as a strategic move against the mortgage company. Why are people acting like they don't know this! I know people personally who have let their homes fall into foreclosure so they could purchase more affordable homes OR so they could force the mortgage company's hand into modifying their loans.

This is not rocket science. Some candidate who is NOT a frontrunner for the #1 or #2 position on city council put that story out there to try to bring Charles Pugh down. I guess we'll see on November 3rd if it worked.

Stay tuned!

Til Later...Author L.A. Jefferson