Detroit’s Emergency Financial Manager’s Employment Contract May Be Invalid If Andy Dillon Was Drunk When He Signed It

Steve Neavling at the Motor City Muckraker reported yesterday that Michigan Treasurer and former Speaker of the Michigan House, Andy Dillon had checked into a treatment center on the outskirts of the Detroit suburbs to seek treatment for his problem with alcohol that was beginning to not only endanger his life but affect his job performance.

Dillon who was appointed by GOP Governor Rick Snyder to head the Michigan Department of Treasury in 2011, has been sleeping in hotel rooms and on sofas at the homes of his friends since his divorce last year.

Although the abuse Dillon does to his liver may have been a surprise to the self-absorbed political types in Lansing, anyone familiar with the politics of Metro-Detroit especially in Wayne County has been acutely aware of Dillon’s reputation of trying to impress shot girls and waitresses with his drinking prowess by slamming shots of Grey Goose at Sandy’s on the Beach and at Cinco De Mayo’s in his old Michigan House district of Redford Township for years.

Dillon’s problem with alcohol and the discovery of Detroit Emergency Financial Manager Kevyn Orr’s unpaid taxes after being hired shows a pattern of sloppiness and an inattention to details by Governor Rick Snyder’s office.

Unlike Orr’s tax issue, which was cleared up within days after Chad Livengood at the Detroit News approached a visibly embarrassed Rick Snyder and Orr back in March, Dillon’s substance abuse problem is not something that can be cured with a week of lectures or counseling at a Brighton hospital or a two week visit to the Betty Ford Clinic.  Rumor has it, that this is was not his first visit to a rehab clinic and there is a very strong possibility it won’t be his last.   Dillon’s issues don’t just affect him and his family or friends, with the GOP dominated Michigan Legislature increasing the power of his office with the newly enacted Emergency Financial Manager laws, his actions while sober or intoxicated affect millions of people.

If it can be proven that Dillon was intoxicated at the time he signed any agreements or contracts on behalf of the state with any individuals or entities, a serious argument could be made that those contracts are not only voidable but even possibly void because he was not mentally competent to sign and understand what he was signing.