This article first appeared on Outlier Media and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
At a Nov. 13 public hearing of Detroit City Council’s planning committee, the mood in the chamber tilted toward optimism.
Speaker after speaker endorsed plans for a new WNBA headquarters and youth sports complex — backed by Detroit Pistons owner Tom Gores — urging approval of a nearly $40.7 million tax subsidy to clean up the former Uniroyal site on the Detroit River. The YMCA of Metropolitan Detroit, Henry Ford Health, Eastside Community Network, Detroit Riverfront Conservancy, and the Boys & Girls Clubs of Southeastern Michigan voiced support for the project.
A few did not.
“The Pistons are a rich organization,” said Carolyn Hughes. “I’m not sure this is an organization that needs me to abate its taxes. … Why are we offering this abatement? And what are we — specifically, Detroiters — receiving? What benefits are we receiving from this, other than having activity on the site?”
Notably absent from the hearing was current City Council President and Mayor-elect Mary Sheffield. The following week, she voted to redirect tax dollars for the project. Sheffield then missed the final session of the term, when her colleagues unanimously approved an additional $4.4 million-plus tax break for the development.
One detail that got little attention — if any — as the subsidies sailed through city hall is how the Pistons and Pistons-adjacent interests bankrolled Sheffield’s mayoral campaign.
According to county election records, Pistons vice chairman Arn Tellem and his family gave more than $43,000 in direct and indirect contributions to Sheffield’s mayoral campaign. That includes $16,600 from Tellem and his wife Nancy in direct contributions, plus another $10,000 donation to Detroit Next, a political action committee that backed Sheffield. Another $16,650 came from the Tellems’ son, Pistons personnel vice president Eric Tellem and his wife Emily. Arn Tellem did not respond to messages for comment.
Last month, Sheffield named Arn Tellem a co-chair of her transition team.
“The Pistons agreement was proposed by the current mayoral administration and approved unanimously by the entire city council,” Samantha Myers, spokesperson for Sheffield’s transition team, said by email. “As she has done throughout her career on Detroit City Council, the Mayor-elect supported this project based solely on its merits and its benefit to the community and constituents she serves.”
Sheffield’s campaign drew tens of thousands of dollars from developers, construction companies and building trade groups. She also received donations from high-profile NBA fans, including Earvin “Magic” Johnson’s wife Earleatha “Cookie” Johnson, actor Samuel L. Jackson and cultural critic Michael Eric Dyson.
Earlier this month, Sheffield married Rickey Jackson Jr. Jackson’s sister plays for the Los Angeles Sparks.
Days before Election Day, Sheffield faced criticism for having voted years earlier to approve millions of dollars in city contracts for a demolition firm whose owner she was dating at the time. Experts faulted Detroit’s oversight system for vague standards and a narrow interpretation by the city’s ethics board. As mayor-elect, Sheffield appointed an Ethics Compliance Committee as part of her transition team.
”There are currently no state laws that prevent Detroit’s mayor or other Michigan politicians from accepting campaign contributions from affiliated organizations or their leaders,” said Neil Thanedar, executive director of the Michigan Campaign Finance Network. ”Detroit residents can respond by filing a formal complaint with the Detroit Board of Ethics and advocating for statewide ethics reform.”
‘A true hood champion’
Sheffield, the granddaughter of storied labor leader Horace Sheffield Jr., has long cast herself as an advocate for grassroots causes. On the campaign trail, she leaned heavily on her progressive record.
“Mary Sheffield’s a true hood champion,” said Morningside resident and community activist Vaughn Arrington. “I think she would continue to focus very narrowly on communities that are not feeling Detroit’s growth.”
Sheffield’s record on Pistons-related developments reflects the balance she’s tried to strike throughout her time in public office: keeping powerful corporate interests close while preserving her reputation as a champion of the community.
In 2017, she voted to approve $34.5 million in public funding for the Pistons’ move to the city, despite public outcry. That same year, she sponsored the “jock tax,” which taxes NBA players and staff every day they work in the city.
Sheffield supported tax subsidies for the team’s Performance Center headquarters and later the $3 billion Future of Health development, in which the Pistons are a partner. The pair of projects — both located in the City Council district she represents — each required the developers to negotiate community benefits. The Future of Health benefits deal includes Section 8 housing vouchers, a $2 million donation to the city’s affordable housing fund, $1 million for a community land trust, and more.
Balancing act
The WNBA facility, by contrast, is not mandated to have a community benefits agreement. The ordinance applies to projects valued at $75 million or more that receive at least $1 million in tax abatements or city land. Developers plan to build the riverfront sports complex in two phases: a $50 million WNBA headquarters that would open in 2029 and a subsequent “youth development academy” that would be operated by an unnamed nonprofit with a yet-to-be-named price tag.
As a councilmember in 2021, Sheffield unsuccessfully pushed to lower the community benefits ordinance’s threshold to apply to projects valued as low as $50 million. During her campaign for mayor, she told Outlier Media she’s interested in reworking community benefits agreements to “expand home repair commitments.” And earlier this year, she and the council commissioned a study on the viability of a city “amusement tax.”
Sheffield, who did not make herself available for an interview for this story, is soliciting input for her incoming administration on her website and plans to survey residents in January.
“The mayor-elect has spent her entire career uplifting the voices and the needs of Detroiters,” Samantha Myers said. “She will bring that same focus to the mayor’s office and evaluate everything through that lens.”
Sheffield takes office Jan. 1.