Detroit property tax official’s side job in real estate causes stir

Detroit Free Press (MI)

April 17--A prominent Detroit property tax official moonlights as an executive for Home Team -- the fledgling Detroit real estate company that recently pitched a controversial plan to acquire thousands of foreclosed homes -- raising questions about a potential conflict of interest.

Willie Donwell is well-known around the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center as chairman of the Detroit Board of Review, a nine-member panel that hears and determines property tax appeals and other real estate matters. "The Godfather of property taxes" was how Councilman Scott Benson described Donwell at a City Council meeting last month.

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As the chairman, Donwell said he makes recommendations on property tax appeals to other board members. He also facilitates the review board meetings.

For Home Team, Donwell is director of lifestyle programs. His work has included presentations about the company's plan to acquire up to 4,000 foreclosed properties in Detroit, rehab them and sell them to residents through land contracts.

Donwell was at a recent Home Team pitch meeting to Councilman James Tate's office. Tate said he has a lot of respect for Donwell, but was caught by surprise by his affiliation with the company. Tate said Thursday he is opposed to the group's plan and is preparing requests to the city's law department and the Detroit Board of Ethics to determine if Donwell's participation in Home Team is a conflict of interest.

The city's ethics ordinance prohibits public servants such as Donwell from "engaging or accepting private employment or rendering services when such employment or service is in conflict or incompatible with the proper discharge of official duties."

Donwell said there is nothing improper about his role with the Home Team company. He said he disclosed his real estate interest with Home Team in a statement filed in August with the Detroit Board of Ethics.

"I try to be as aboveboard as possible with everything I do," Donwell said in a phone interview. "It is not unusual for members of the community to sit on boards or commissions or participate in practices involved in the city and still do their other business."

Home Team last month petitioned the city for the right to buy 2,000 to 4,000 foreclosed properties in northwest Detroit before they are put up for auction. The company, formed last year, wants to rehab the homes and sell them to residents through land contracts. The city's top lawyer, Melvin Butch Hollowell, has said the city does not support the proposal. Hollowell cited Home Team's unproven track record of pulling off a project of such magnitude.

The Detroit Board of Review rendered decisions related to about 9,700 properties last month during an annual assessment review, Donwell said. In addition to property tax appeals, the board decides on applications for property tax exemptions for those living in poverty.

Dale Thomson, a board member for the Grandmont Rosedale Development Corp., said he considers Donwell's dual roles a conflict of interest.

Donwell was among Home Team members who attended a GRDC board meeting in hopes of gaining the neighborhood's support for their plan. Thomson, who made it clear he was not speaking for the entire board, said Donwell did not disclose his ties to city government during the meeting. The GRDC, which represents a neighborhood within the area where Home Team wants to acquire property, strongly opposes the company's plan.

The tax-foreclosed properties Home Team is targeting "likely include a significant portion of people who were either denied the poverty exemption (by the Board of Review) or were unaware of their option to pursue it," Thomson wrote in an e-mail. "Home Team's proposal likely includes acquisition of properties that are owned by people who should have gotten the exemption. This is in addition to the fact that his board can deny requests for changes in assessments for those not in poverty. In doing so, the board can increase the potential that those homes would be foreclosed upon and become available for Home Team. This doesn't pass the smell test."

Donwell said he very rarely exercises his voting authority as chairman of the board, preferring to make recommendations to other board members.

"I never really voted. I handle recommendations and things like that. I typically just make suggestions to the board. I just chair the meeting," Donwell said.

As chairman and administrator for the board of review, Donwell's current one-year contract with the city pays him $45,720. Asked about his salary at Home Team, Donwell said: "That's a moving target. ... Right now, I don't receive one."

Donwell also is seeking guidance from the Detroit Board of Ethics on his work in the public and private sectors. He submitted a request to the board for an advisory opinion on March 29, days after Home Team began making headlines for its proposal. Home Team did not have business before the board of review this year because it doesn't yet own any Detroit properties, Donwell said.

Home Team was founded by David Prentice, who was, according to the Home Team website, a principal and cofounder of Park Street Group, a Bloomfield Hills real estate investment company.

Park Street appealed property values for three of its properties -- each assessed under $15,000 -- in 2016, board of review minutes show. The appeals were granted. Donwell was on the board of review at the time, and said he likely recommended approval of the appeals. However, during that time he was not working with Home Team.

Prentice downplayed Donwell's current role with the company. Donwell earned "a few grand here, a few grand there" when the company was getting off the ground but has since taken a step back. "We never actually hired him. He's not a payroll employee," Prentice said.

"Willie's a pretty upstanding dude. I work with the guy and he's a friend of mine," he said, adding Donwell was introduced to Home Team through another executive at the company. "I don't see him doing anything to hurt anybody to help me. That's just not what he does."

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