Newly elected County Commissioner Mark Brant says he is desirous to serve his constituents in Monroe County, Michigan — however first he has to serve time.
Brant is scheduled to report back to federal jail in Morgantown, West Virginia, on Friday, making this a Thanksgiving he’ll all the time bear in mind — even when he’d relatively overlook. Brant was sentenced to 18 months in Membership Fed, fined $500,000 and agreed to surrender the greater than 300 grand the feds present in his Monroe house after he pleaded responsible to what Uncle Sam calls “sustaining a drug-involved premises.”
Whereas which will sound just like the longtime Republican politician was working a crack home or opium den on the Michigan-Ohio border, it isn’t that dramatic. Brant copped to leasing land to some dudes who grew marijuana they offered in Ohio, in violation of federal regulation.
Brant, who was first elected to the Monroe County Fee in 2012, one way or the other stored secret that the feds had been after him for 4 years. Fellow commissioner Randy Richardville mentioned when Brant’s colleagues obtained a whiff he could be in bother, Brant assured them nothing was occurring.
“It seems one thing was occurring,” Richardville mentioned.
When Brant, who was serving as chairman of the fee, lastly got here clear in September that he was going through a possible jail sentence, Richardville mentioned: “We had been like WHAT!?!”
Brant resigned from the fee on Oct. 1. However, as a result of it was too late for Brant to take his title off the poll (even when he had needed to), and it was too late for different candidates to get their title on the poll, Brant was elected to a fourth time period on Nov. 5 with a staggering 90% of the vote.
Brant’s recognition contributed to his decisive victory, however he additionally benefited from working in a district that’s so overwhelmingly Republican that no Democrat dared problem him by making an attempt to get on the poll earlier than the submitting deadline in April. Add to that the truth that Brant had been elected 3 times earlier than and that the majority of us had no thought he was within the feds’ crosshairs, and it is rather a lot simpler to know Brant’s landslide comeback victory barely a month after stating in his resignation letter: “I do not need my private circumstance to intervene with the graceful operation of the county I so dearly love.”
However, as a substitute of resigning a second time, and regardless of his “private circumstance” interfering with the graceful operation of the county he loves, Brant hustled over to the county clerk’s workplace final week and took the oath of workplace to serve a recent four-year time period.
Even with break day for good conduct, Brant will spend the primary yr of that time period behind bars.
He says it is no massive deal.
“Whereas I am gone, my cellphone will likely be obtainable,” Brant mentioned final week. “I’ve any individual who will likely be taking my messages. And my fellow board members have all volunteered to deal with all of my constituents’ considerations that I will not have the ability to deal with.”
As for his wage of about $15,000 a yr, Brant mentioned he has no alternative.
“By regulation, I’ve to take the fee whereas I am in …” he mentioned, pausing to keep away from saying “jail,” then including: “whereas I am not right here.”
He mentioned he might attempt to donate it to charity.
It is unclear how Brant’s colleagues really feel about his assertion they’re prepared to select up his slack, particularly since they’ve their arms full dealing with conundrums attributable to his conviction. Among the many questions they’re wrestling with now are whether or not county officers who knew about Brant’s predicament ought to have knowledgeable the fee.
This grew to become a difficulty after commissioners discovered two prime county officers and the state senator who represents Monroe knew months earlier than they did that Brant was going through exhausting time.
That raises one other query: Ought to elected officers use their place — and even their authorities stationery — to hunt leniency for a good friend?
And there is the matter of whether or not an elected official can absolutely serve his neighbors whereas sitting in a cell greater than 300 miles from house.
Up in smoke
Brant describes himself in court docket paperwork as a “serial entrepreneur,” whose portfolio contains renting land to individuals rising soybeans, corn and different greens.
Sadly for Brant, a few of these greens included hippy lettuce.
This was not a shock to Brant. His lawyer wrote in a sentencing memorandum that Brant knowingly broke the regulation, “renting properties to people that might develop and in the end distribute marijuana, in violation of” federal regulation.
This wasn’t his first offense, both. Brant pleaded responsible in 1984 to supply of misbranded medication for promoting “over-the-counter slimming capsules.” He served two years probation.
Brant’s different enterprise ventures embrace business and residential actual property, promoting livestock, forex, agriculture, tech, classic automobiles, farm gear and working the Twin Lakes Llama Ranch. Brant’s LinkedIn web page boasts that he and his spouse as soon as had the most important herd of llamas “east of the Rockies.”
“He has been addicted,” his lawyer wrote, “to enterprise for almost six many years.”
In 1986, Brant added politics to his portfolio, successful election as supervisor of Raisinville Township. In 2002, he was appointed to the Monroe County Planning Fee. In 2012, he gained his first time period on the Monroe County Fee. In 2020, the board of commissioners elevated him to chairman, making him essentially the most highly effective elected official in Monroe County.
Brant’s lawyer, associates and buddies lauded him as a hardworking household man and chief dedicated to enhancing “the standard of life for residents of our County.”
A few of that reward is now inflicting heartburn for the individuals who provided it, in addition to Monroe County commissioners.
County Administrator Michael Bosanac and his deputy Aundrea Armstrong lavished reward on Brant in letters despatched to his lawyer on June 4. The lawyer then despatched these letters to the decide in Brant’s case as a part of his bid to keep away from jail time. Bosanac and Armstrong mentioned final week that they did not know what Brant had been charged with or that he had pleaded responsible when he requested them to jot down letters on his behalf in Could, although there had been indicators he could also be in bother with John Legislation.
“Again in 2020 when his enterprise and residential had been raided, a Board member knowledgeable me,” Armstrong wrote in response to an e mail. “Mr. Brant had said he was harmless and had performed nothing unsuitable.”
Bosanac mentioned he would have notified commissioners if Brant’s authorized issues had concerned county enterprise or his duties as an elected official. “I wouldn’t have a duty to tell others of Mr. Brant’s non-public issues, nor did I’ve any info to report,” Bosanac mentioned. “This duty is solely his.”
“On reflection, which is a very invaluable instrument,” Bosanac added, “I’ll have requested extra questions in regards to the character letter and used that info to find out if a unique strategy ought to have been taken.”
Armstrong agreed.
“Figuring out what I do know now,” she wrote, “I might have in all probability requested questions concerning what the letter was getting used for.”
Neither Bosanac or Armstrong responded when requested if Brant pressured them to jot down letters lauding him.
Now, commissioners are asking questions, too.
“Is there concern in regards to the letters being written? I might say ‘After all,’ ” Richardville mentioned. “There hasn’t been an in depth investigation of who knew what when.”
Richardville, a former state Senate Majority Chief, is serving on a brand new ethics committee tasked with recommending reforms to assist keep away from future scandals.
One official who wrote a letter searching for leniency for Brant is past the committee’s attain.
State Sen. Joe Bellino Jr., a Monroe Republican, wrote that Brant “has all the time possessed a excessive diploma of integrity and honesty in his private {and professional} interactions. I used to be stunned to listen to of the problems that Mark is going through and discover this to be very out of character.”
Not like Bosanac and Armstrong, Bellino wrote his letter on government-issued stationery, with The Nice Seal of the State of Michigan emblazoned on the prime of the letterhead.
Bellino mentioned he heard from a pair individuals who suppose it was unethical to make use of his Senate stationery.
“He was a good friend who was in bother,” Bellino mentioned, acknowledging, “I used my place to jot down a letter for somebody who admitted he is a felon to get a lighter sentence. … I attempt to assist individuals once I can as a result of individuals had been there for me once I obtained sober.”
Bellino, a recovering addict, mentioned he has written about 40 letters searching for leniency for addicts who get in bother with the regulation. He acknowledged that Brant isn’t an addict, and mentioned he normally doesn’t use his Senate letterhead. However he mentioned he was at his desk when he was requested to assist Brant and simply grabbed the stationery that was useful.
When requested whether or not he would use his Senate letterhead once more, he instructed me: “Now that it is drummed up 74 bee’s nests, I might in all probability use totally different stationery.”
Bellino mentioned he figured different individuals knew about Brant’s case when he wrote the letter, and that he is upset that his good friend had not revealed his predicament.
“Mark ought to have let individuals know,” he mentioned. “It will have made issues a little bit smoother proper now for him and the board.”
A fantastic mess
Brant’s lawyer argued that his consumer made a “grievous lapse in judgment” and that “a jail sentence would damage Mr. Brant’s group, youngsters and grandchildren greater than it could damage him.”
Not everybody in Monroe County agrees.
The Monroe Information and Toledo Blade quoted offended residents who lashed out at Brant, the board of commissioners and the officers who wrote letters on Brant’s behalf.
“It’s not in regards to the marijuana,” Katybeth Davis mentioned at a latest county fee assembly. “I hate liars. I hate being lied to. (Individuals suppose) once you get to be elected, it offers you the fitting or the facility to behave higher than anybody else. You guys are in control of the county. I consider that we deserve higher. I’d prefer to ask that if Mark Brant was to get elected, that these fellow county commissioners would encourage him to resign once more.”
Invoice LaVoy known as for the top of any county worker who did not alert the fee to Brant’s authorized issues.
LaVoy, a Democrat and former state consultant who ran unsuccessfully for the fee this yr, would not need Brant again on the county payroll in January. He wrote in an e mail: “How can somebody signify the individuals of Monroe County from a jail cell whereas not residing within the space you might be purported to signify?”
Richardville mentioned that whereas commissioners inspired Brant to resign after they discovered of his case, there’s not a lot they’ll do to take away him from workplace subsequent yr.
“There is not any attendance requirement, and there is no attendance punishment should you do not present up,” he mentioned. “It is a very unusual set of circumstances.”
The Michigan Structure is not a lot assist, both. It was amended within the wake of the Kwame Kilpatrick scandal to ban officers convicted of a felony from being elected to state workplace for 20 years, however provided that the crime was associated to their place. So, an elected official convicted of drunken driving may nonetheless serve, whereas an official who took a bribe couldn’t.
After I requested Brant whether or not he would have voted for a felon, he mentioned: “Properly, I voted for Trump.”
Then he mentioned he did not really feel his personal conviction was that massive a deal.
“There are many felonies that don’t take away your credibility,” he mentioned, “or your means to serve in an elected place.”
On the brilliant aspect, Brant ought to have loads of time to answer the considerations of his constituents — so long as they’re prepared to just accept a accumulate name.
M.L. Elrick is a Pulitzer Prize- and Emmy Award-winning investigative reporter and host of the ML’s Soul of Detroit podcast. Contact him at mlelrick@freepress.com or observe him on X at @elrick, Fb at ML Elrick and Instagram at ml_elrick.
( headline and story edited by our employees and is printed from a syndicated feed.)
