“… My focus during that period was on SMART and the transportation needs of the communities I represented in Oakland County,” Chambers wrote in an email to The News. “In November 2022 Oakland County voters approved a 10-year millage to expand SMART services throughout the county, and implementing that expansion was my sole focus in 2023.”

Macomb Deputy County Executive Rea declined to comment. A county government spokesman pointed out that Rea is on the DTC board because he is the current chairman of the SMART board.

“This is a statutory board seat granted to SMART and rotates amongst members of the SMART Board,” spokesman Tom Lehrer, who is also a deputy county executive, told The News in an email.

Since becoming mayor in January, Sheffield has been replaced on the transportation board by Detroit City Council President James Tate.

Tate was marked absent for the first three meetings this year, records show.

The Detroit Transportation Corp. duties are one of several automatic appointments for Detroit City Council presidents, Tate said. They also serve on the boards of the Detroit Zoo, the Riverfront Conservancy and SEMCOG, the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments.

Tate said he has attended three of the five monthly DTC board meetings since he became council president in January. He didn’t attend the first two monthly meetings because he said he was busy adjusting to the new council president role.

He arrived at the “tail end ” of the March meeting. The public record of that meeting shows Tate didn’t attend, which Tate didn’t contest during a Monday interview with The News.

“Technically, I’ve attended three,” he said.

Tate said he intends to be an active board member.

“I’ve read, reviewed every packet of information given to board members,” he said. “If I can’t attend, then I will have someone from my staff be there.”

Tate declined to discuss the charges against Anderson, but noted he had read in the 2025 financial audit that “every board member and employee that was asked cooperated” with the investigation. The board hasn’t formally discussed potential changes in policies or protocol due to the alleged scheme, he said.

Experts weigh in on stewardship expectations for board members

While board members are responsible for governance and priorities, administrators are responsible for implementing priorities, said Rogelio Landin, who has decades of experience as a board member for local and national groups. Landin, a longtime political activist, is currently president of the state chapter of the League of United Latin American Citizens, LULAC.

“But the bottom line: The board (members) are the stewards of funds. They are the last stop,” Landin said.

It is the board’s treasurer who plays the most crucial role in overseeing the finances of the organization, he said.

“It’s the responsibility of every board member to read, review and understand all the information that you are given and ultimately, you either have to approve or reject,” Landin said.

Many boards choose members based on their influential title, such as Detroit City Council president, Landin said. It’s common for many of those board members not to attend meetings, he said.

The status of their position can be beneficial by bringing credibility and accountability to the board and organization.

“It becomes a disservice,” Landin said, “if that board member is not engaged at all.”

Roots of People Mover case unclear

The bribery cases mark the latest federal crackdown on public corruption in Metro Detroit following a prolonged campaign that led to convictions and prison sentences for more than 130 public officials.

A broader FBI crackdown on corruption across Metro Detroit in recent years has led to convictions and prison sentences for more than 130 public officials across Metro Detroit. That includes a state senator, a House speaker, Detroit suburban politicians, cops and councilmen, township officials, two United Auto Workers union presidents and school leaders.

In the People Mover case, the alleged conspiracy involved Anderson and Parker defrauding the transit agency by creating and submitting invoices and receiving payment for information technology work for Parker’s company, Total Care Restoration (TCR), according to the FBI. But the work was never performed, according to prosecutors.

Parker deposited transportation corporation checks into his company’s bank account and frequently would withdraw some of the deposit in cash, the government alleged. Those withdrawals coincided with Anderson depositing cash into his own bank account.

Anderson and Parker were each charged with conspiracy and federal program theft/bribery. If convicted, they face up to 10 years on the bribery charge and five years for conspiracy.

The criminal case involved investigations by the FBI and Detroit Police Department that examined Anderson’s tenure working for the Detroit Transportation Corp. from March 2022 until he was fired in April 2025 for unrelated conduct. As director, Anderson reviewed proposals and helped choose the vendors to work for the corporation, which was created by the city to operate the People Mover.

The roots of the investigation were not immediately clear, and it was unknown how much the FBI believes Anderson received in bribes. But in one example, in the days after Parker withdrew $18,000 from a transportation corporation check in August 2024, Anderson deposited $6,350 cash into his account.

Public records obtained by The News, meanwhile, provide insight into Anderson’s financial situation preceding the time the FBI says he started pocketing bribes from Parker.

The automobile-finance firm Ally Financial Inc. won a $15,715 default judgment against Anderson in July 2018 and started seizing parts of his city of Detroit paycheck, court records show. And from 2007-12, he was accused of failing to pay more than $22,000 in taxes, mostly to the Internal Revenue Service.

rsnell@detroitnews.com

laguilar@detroitnews.com