DETROIT (Michigan News Source) – The Detroit City Council received a recent update on a city contractor highlighted as a champion of the diversity movement. Brian McKinney is accused of using contaminated dirt on blight projects the city hired his company to fix.
A 90-day suspension.
The city of Detroit’s Office of Inspector General issued 90-day suspensions of McKinney and his company Gayanga Co. from doing further work with the city. The Office of Inspector General will determine whether McKinney and Gayanga would be barred from taking on contracts with the city in the future. Gayanga has made millions in deals with the city of Detroit to remove blighted buildings.
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The city accuses McKinney and his construction company of using contaminated dirt from a Northland Mall redevelopment in Southfield to backfill residential properties in Detroit.
Upon inspection, the city of Detroit’s Office of Inspector General found that the dirt located at 33 of the 41 properties failed to meet the state’s residential standards.
Blight removal.
Crain’s Detroit Business reported that Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan credited McKinney for getting the city council to approve a $250 million bond where the money would be used to demolish blighted structures in the city. That bond money would be used by the city to pay McKinney and other companies to remove the blight.
In 2024, Crain’s recognized McKinney as one of Detroit’s “Notable Black Business Leaders.” It stated, “McKinney is the only minority on the board of the National Demolition Association, where he works to increase Black and brown college students’ access to college scholarships.”
In addition, an Oct. 29 Detroit Free Press article about the construction company highlighted the number of jobs it created for minorities in the city.
“No contractor in the demolition program has created more living wage jobs for Black and brown residents in the city of Detroit,” Gayanga spokesman Shaun Wilson told the Detroit Free Press. “Due to our close proximity to the community, the safety of residents is one of our core beliefs. We vehemently refute the complaint.”
“Community members first.”
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The Gayanga website states, “We are community members first — contractors second. Our team believes our built community should reflect our actual community. Why? Because they have witnessed or directly contributed to transformative infrastructure improvement. No matter the position, our hiring process is driven by the need to improve economic mobility and workforce diversity.”
The Detroit city council received the update on the case at its Oct. 28 meeting.
