Attorney opines on nepotism allegation

By Dan DuChene
Feb. 17, 2010    ·    4:05 a.m.

Newly appointed Ypsilanti Police Chief Amy Walker will likely continue in her position without worry from her personal life.

City Manager Ed Koryzno announced during Tuesday night's City Council meeting that the opinion from the city's labor attorney found no issue with Walker's alleged relationship with a YPD detective.

“I appreciate the support,” Walker said after the meeting.

During his report at the end of the meeting, Koryzno said the opinion is based on two separate findings. He said the attorney found the alleged relationship with Jill Kulhanek permissible because Kulhanek reports to superiors Walker directly oversees, creating a separation between the two. He also pointed out the relationship existed prior to Walker's appointment.

Koryzno said if the issue does create a cause of concern in the future, he would take appropriate action.

The issue was made public at a City Council meeting held earlier this month, when Mayor Pro Tem Trudy Swanson-Winston, D-Ward 1, brought up a letter of complaint from a city resident during council-proposed business. The letter, from Ypsilanti resident Megan Turf, was sent to every councilmember and alleged Walker's relationship with Kulhanek was a violation of city nepotism rules.

Interviewed after the matter became public, Turf said she would accept whatever opinion the attorney issued. Winston made a similar statement during Tuesday night's meeting.

Winston said she brought up the issue to ensure the city was seeking legal clarification of the complaint, and now Walker can “move on to more important matters.”

Though she said she would accept the attorney's opinion, Turf said her ideal resolution would have resulted in Kulhanek's name being added to the list of expected layoffs from the department.

Turf, an active city resident, said she knew of relationship while serving on the department's Volunteer Service Corps for three years. Turf said she was in the department often, as she was helping to compile reporting statistics and creating the city's crime map.

She said she ended her service with the corps in 2008, and confirmed she and Kulhanek had a discord at the time. Without going into detail about her dispute with Kulhanek, she said the circumstances with her discontinuing her work for the department had no influence on her complaint against Walker.

“It was a year and a half ago,” Turf said.

However, she said she did not agree with Walker's appointment. She said she would have favored bringing in a chief from an outside department. Even out of the two internal candidates the search eventually resulted in, Walker and Lieutenant Craig Annas, she said she favored Annas.

“I don't think she was the most qualified,” Turf said.

Turf said she had been bringing up her nepotism complaint with councilmembers and city staff since Walker's appointment. She said Mayor Paul Schreiber and other councilmembers repeatedly told her Koryzno would be able to handle the situation. After repeatedly hearing the same response, and never from Koryzno himself, Turf said she sent the letter to make her concerns more public.

“It was not my goal to embarrass or damage anyone's career,” Turf said. “I just wanted to tell the whole City Council.

“It's now public knowledge,” she said. “I did nothing to put her in the situation she's in now.”

In her letter to councilmembers, Turf said she had also filed a Freedom of Information Act with the city about an issue regarding Walker's selection. While she said the FOIA was unrelated to the nepotism complaint, she would not go into detail about what she was investigating.

Related article:
City investigating alleged nepotism with police chief