Callers at Detroit public comment allege shady tax-auction transfer, council office says staff are working with resident

A public-comment session of a Detroit City Council committee, held after the meeting lacked a quorum, featured a caller who alleged the city had misrepresented itself and improperly handled a tax-auction property transfer.

"This isn't the first time the city's been dishonest," the caller, identified in the record as Miss Warwick, said, and accused the city of pressuring residents and handling property at 498 Peterborough unfairly. According to Warwick, the lot had been in a neighbor's possession for more than a decade before being removed from a tax auction and transferred to Midtown Inc "for less than $3,000," then given to Peterborough Properties and later listed for about $150,000 and again near $750,000.

Warwick said she filed an Office of Inspector General (OIG) complaint and criticized the quality and delay of the OIG's review. "The OIG sat on it through two inspectors for about two and a half years," she said, and described the resulting report as inadequate.

Clerk staff responded during the meeting that "we are working with Cindy Dara on this issue," acknowledging the matter is under staff attention but providing no further details. The caller asked Councilmember Gabriela Santiago Romero for help by name during her remarks.

The allegations raised by the caller involve specific transactions and entities (Midtown Inc; Peterborough Properties) and were presented as claims rather than established facts. The committee did not take formal action during the session; the clerk closed public comment and recessed the meeting as the chair arrived.

The city has not provided a response in the transcript beyond the clerk's statement that staff are engaged with the resident. The claims about auction procedures, sale prices and OIG handling remain unresolved in the record and would require documentary or official-record confirmation to substantiate.