FOIA Friday: Moroun property records released after council vote

New particulars of town’s wide-ranging blight settlement with the Moroun household in December arrived in our inbox this week — however not earlier than the Morouns finalized a key land swap with the Metropolis Council.

Why it issues: Obtained via a Freedom of Data Act (FOIA) request, the data open a window into the Morouns’ in depth property holdings and reveal the scope of the $50,000 blight settlement.

• It happy blight tickets, the overall of which was by no means calculated, and set a property upkeep schedule for about 1,000 properties everywhere in the metropolis owned by about 20 corporations related to the Moroun household.
• The household has confronted criticism prior to now for property neglect, and the settlement is related to different native property homeowners with piles of blight tickets.

Flashback: Once we first reported on the settlement on Dec. 15, town would offer solely a portion of the written settlement. Attachments itemizing the properties concerned have been withheld pending a FOIA request.

• Town acquired our request on Dec. 22, and a response was due Jan. 19.
• On Feb. 14, town’s legislation division advised us the request was “nonetheless being processed.”

Sure, however: We acquired the doc Tuesday, only a few hours after Metropolis Council authorised the controversial land swap cope with the Moroun household’s Detroit Worldwide Bridge Co.

The intrigue: On the similar time our request was pending, Metropolis Council was beneath strain to finish the switch of three.8 acres of parkland close to the Ambassador Bridge to the Bridge Co.

• The Moroun household’s native enterprise practices have been a part of the council’s land swap discussions.

• Residents in opposition mentioned they’re apprehensive in regards to the Morouns taking on their southwest neighborhood. Nevertheless, town’s prime lawyer, Conrad Mallett, warned the council that the Bridge Co. may sue for breach of contract if the land swap — half of a bigger deal courting again to 2015 — was rejected.

What they’re saying: “The timing might have been odd. The FOIA group may be very diligent. We’re not making an attempt to do something that may have a political dimension,” Mallett tells Axios.

• “We do not know something about this,” a Bridge Co. spokesperson tells us.

Between the strains: Public launch of the property listing in mid-January, when a response to our FOIA was due, may have invited extra neighborhood scrutiny of the blight settlement earlier than the land swap vote.