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Ex-Dearborn Building Inspector Gets 45 Days in Jail

A former supervisor in the Dearborn Building and Safety Department, who in April pleaded guilty to two counts of fraud and resigned from his city job, has been sentenced to 45 days in jail, two years of probation and $1,400 in court costs and fines.

Andrew Pizzino

Andrew Pizzino, as the Dearborn Times Herald points out, is the highest-ranking city employee yet to face jail time for “on-the-job corruption.” You can read the entire Times Herald article by clicking HERE.

Robert Deberardino, another former department supervisor, who is charged with aiding and abetting Pizzino, has yet to be sentenced. The Times Herald reports that attorneys for Deberardino are “appealing a district court decision that denied a motion to have the city’s legal department removed from the prosecution on technical grounds that city attorneys can’t prosecute fellow city employees.”

As for Pizzino, Chief Judge Mark Somers of the 19th District Court levied the maximum permitted on the penalties, except for the jail time, which could have been extended to 90 days.

Prior to his sentencing by Somers, the Times Herald reports that Pizzino apologized for his actions. Pizzino told the court he could have avoided this matter had he gone before the city’s Board of Ethics board before going through with the purchases.

“I have gone to the Ethics Board several times (on property purchases) in the past,” Pizzino is quoted in the Times Herald. “I think this time I just got lazy.”

Judge Somers apparently was skeptical of Pizzino’s remorse.

“What about the victims?” Somers is quoted in the Times Herald. “The clear intent of this scheme was to profit financially by way of fraud.”

Somers rightly pointed out to Pizzino in court that his actions were a serious violation of public trust and that his actions will raise a skeptical eye with any contractor or homeowner who deals with city building authorities in Dearborn.

As far as restitution goes, that is still unresolved and Somers is expected to hold a hearing to determine a figure when Pizzino concludes his jail sentence. Pizzino’s charges stem from two Dearborn houses he purchased under fraudulent circumstances and resold for a combined profit of $156,000, the Times Herald reports.

Times Herald writer J. Patrick Pepper rightly asks in his article “how or why city building inspectors passed inspections on the properties when Pizzino put them on the market when there were such readily apparent problems.”

This entry was posted on Friday, June 4th, 2010 at 7:15 am and is filed under Around Town, City Hall. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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  • Jay

    The city of Dearborn is corrupt to the core. I bought a house last year in Dearborn, very very clean. The inspector’s estimate to bring it up to code was $1000 according to the violation he listed.

    I fixed everything they asked for. Now they are asking for more. The house has a finished basement with a kitchen and a bathroom. They are asking me to rip it all out. I asked them before I bought the house if I have to do that, and they said absolutely not. They were very reassuring.

    I own 4 houses in Dearborn, and I live in Dearborn. I constantly see the snitch inspector in my backyard with a tape measure checking if there are any grass leaves are above 6 inches long. He enters my backyard without permission. I’ve fought with the bastard countless times and I became a regular stop for him. He makes me cut down decorative bushes and remove decorative statues (elves) because he thinks they are “ugly” or look like “weed”.

    I am moving out at the end of this year. This place has become a dump due to the corrupt officials. My future property investments will be in a different city. Good riddance!

  • NObama & NOreilly

    Hopefully his pension is pulled from him as part of the restitution

  • Donna Hay

    Jay, you must have ticked off someone. I don’t understand how this city operates at all. I just feel that they make it up as they go.

  • vincent

    Andy has always been a crook, along with his buddies (Norwood and Cascardo), however they dropped information on Andy and they got away with their problems once they also got caught. Very anxious to see if Judge Somers will handle the restitution situation fairly, but if he is his usual self, he will do enough to just look good in front of the voters, because he is spineless too.

  • Dearborn Watcher

    Jay, Field Inspectors cannot enter any private property without permission. If this inspector is indeed doing this, you need to report it. As to removing items he considers “ugly” unless it constitutes a violation of the nuisance ordinances, which are the only ordinances they are empowered to enforce. If this is in fact going on you need to report this to his supervisor as harassment. If you don’t think going to the supervisor will accomplish anything, contact the mayor’s office.

  • SMartinez

    any word on building department’s Rob Kramer?

  • Wanting Better for Dearborn

    Thank you Judge Somers. I appreciate a man in this City who is not afraid to do his job. I wish you had given him the full jail time though. Pizzino deserved it. Now, when will Norwood pay for his crimes on our City?

    NObama & NOreilly is right! Here is a chance for the City to save money and deny him a pension. Does the Big O have the guts? It would send a strong message to all the other crooks at City Hall who have their hands in the cookie jar!

  • kathi

    Give the guy a breqak, because he bit the bullet for Dave Norwood, and John Cascardo. This dept. has sucked for a long-time, don’t act as though its something new.

  • David

    Jay you have it so right, however, we will see if Andy has to pay for any restitution, because everybody is aware he made a ton off of his shady deals.

  • tdogg

    Jay, call Nick Sirosky at the City. He will help you out.

  • Al

    Jay, please be adamant about reporting your problems. It’s people like you that need to step up to help get rid of these corrupt officials!

  • http://deepsaidwhat George

    Kathi, you want the city to give Pizzino a break because he took the bullet for
    Norwood and Cascardo? Were their names on the purchase agreements or the inspection reports regarding the properties that Pizzino plead guilty on for fraud? If they are guilty of any corrupt acts where are the charges? The fact that you are coming to Pizzino’s aid in this matter leads me to believe that you may be the “Kathi” that Andy used to date. Are you the same “Kathi” who worked at the Civic Center for years and was charged with a felony for embezzling thousands of dollars from the Community Performing Arts Center?
    Are you the same “Kathi” who sold illegal cable black boxes all over town? If you are than your claims that the building department has sucked for years is quite an observation from a person with your sorted past.

  • LifelongDbnRes

    I know this isn’t the right place for this, but does anybody know the story on the tornado sirens? I was up last night and the only way I knew about the Tornado Warning was because it ran across the tv because the rain was so loud and my a/c was on. Methinks the siren should be loud enough to be heard over rain and air conditioning considering when we have bad storms resulting in tornados, people usually have on their a/c due to the humidity and heat and there is generally hard rain. How do we go about getting that fixed??

  • http://deepsaidwhat George

    Andy’s behavior is inexcusable. Now his family will also suffer for his mistakes if they haven’t already suffered enough because of his domestic abuse history. What goes around comes around, Mr. Pizzino….that’s the magic of karma.

  • http://deepsaidwhat nicki

    I hope the questions that Mr. Pepper raised in his article in the Dearborn Times Herald are answered, and perhaps he will do a follow-up article. Many other city inspectors have bought properties in Dearborn. Did they all go to the ethics board. Has anyone looked into that? I bet if someone looks deep enough they will find that other employees may have done the same. Also, the Press and Guide mentions Ms. Boseman’s charges in their article on Andy, but Pizzino was not implicated in her case at all. Let’s not try to muddy the waters.

  • nicknackpattywack

    Lifelong, i know what you mean, I opened the door last night to listen, and the new siren system sounded like it was coming from 40 miles away! I liked the old ones better, they went WOWOWOWOOOOOOWOWOWOOOOOOOOO very loud, why on earth did the city have to go and replace them? this is so stupid!

  • Marge

    This corruption in the city is all new to me and very disturbing. Mr. Pezzino and any other city employee found guilty of corruption should lose all benefits provided him by the city, including his pension as suggested by Nobama Noreilly.
    If all these allegations of corruption hold truth, we can answer many of the questions posed about the lack of businesses in West Dearborn. Corruption eats away at any business transactions and the residents are the last to be informed – therefore, left holding the bag (their worthless real estate). City Hall needs to get his under control immediately. Time to clean house and fumagate!

  • Marge

    SMartinez,
    What are you asking (implying) about Rob Kramer? Had shady dealings with him?

  • FedUpNow

    Marge- I agree with you that its time to fumigate and clean house,and the Dearborn Mack Daddy should be the first to go. Once the FBI raided his city hall,he tried to spin it like he called them in. The Mack Daddy is a career politician and just look at Washington DC to see how they think government should operate,all bribes and payoffs and threats and back room deals. We need a Mayor to come in here and clean it out from the top down and start this city over.
    Seems like whenever i read the news paper articles or watch the council meetings on tv,it just seems like the Mayor is way in over his head along with some of his department heads.
    I recently heard that due to the Mayors new management team down at DPW, a hostile work environment has been created,sounds pretty serious. I don’t ever remember reading or hearing so many bad situations like this when Mayor Guido and all of his people were in charge.

  • Loved Dearborn

    45 days?! So glad my tax dollars are being spent elsewhere!

  • kay

    Saturday was the Ford Home Historic District Edison Street Sale. Keep in mind, this is the Mayor’s own neighborhood….as we were painfully reminded as he did his annual stroll through the sale. Gads!! But the really funny part of the day was when, while the streets were clogged with cars and shoppers, here come two HUGE trucks with long beds of nothing other than oversized trash cans and recycling bins. It was the funniest thing I have seen in a long time. And the crowd went wild with laughter, many of the senior shoppers had intersting comments about the lack of brains running the show at City Hall. That was quite comforting, as sometimes I feel that I am quite the cynic these days and hope that as I mature, I will be less so. I will never forget the laughter and the applause as they made their way through the crowd. By the way, they returned later, at about 6 pm, to deliver the new additions to our tiny little lots. We found out that 4 kids or 1 adult fits comfortably inside each container.

  • kay

    Every single corrupt politician or city employee that anyone knows about should be exposed. No exceptions. This goes for this administration, the last administration, and so on. I am sick to death of the old mantra “this goes on all the time”. What does that mean? That people turn away and don’t care? Expose them all. If you work for the city (the taxpayers), you owe it to the city ( the taxpayers) to come forward with what you know. I am no lawyer but I believe there is a whistle blower law that will protect you. And if anyone at the city does not like it, throw them out too. Enough is enough.

  • http://deepsaidwhat food4thought

    FedUpNow, I believe that Mayor O’Reilly inherited a lot of the internal problems from Mayor Guido’s administration, so you could perhaps be mistaken.

  • Dearborn Watcher

    Kay: Yes there is a whistle blower law to protect you, but that doesn’t pay the bills, feed the family, etc while you fight for your rights after you have been fired for telling what you know. There are many employees that know things and are not able to come forward just for that reason.

  • dozer

    Re: Kay,

    Indeed that crew that distributed the shiny new garbage cans wasn’t wasting any time…they must be paid by the container or something.

    Has anyone else noted that these monsters are not allowed to be placed in the street? So we have to do our best to balance them on the uneven lawns at curbside hmmm?

    Now THAT will be interesting when we get 10″ of snow…especially if you are an 80 year-old widow with three weeks of garbage barely filling one plastic kitchen trash bag…

    This would be an interesting new thread Said.

    dozer

  • kay

    Food4thought: What is this ‘inherited’ mantra with people? Guess what? Mayor O’Reilly was the Council President in the previous administration. How long has he been Mayor? How long will we be talking ‘inherited’? First nationally, now locally. Take responsiblity or do not take the office. That’s it. Let’s work on using ‘the buck stops here’ instead of the excuse that something was ‘inherited’. Fix it and stop complaining. If these issues were ‘inherited’ he would be paying a tax on them.
    Dozer: We are having discussions about where we are going to keep these monsters so we can move them in the snow. They are WAY too big. I can see them sitting on the side of many people’s houses. And we are only in our 50′s!! Oh my gosh, it just keeps coming.

  • Whatis happeningto mycity?

    It seems beyond ridiculous that all the jail time Mr. Pizzino received is 45 days. This is nothing more than a slap on the wrist. And why were some of the charges dropped, when there was obvious guilt? Mr. Pizzino threatened “fix things” so that our home would not pass inspection when our house was for sale. At least now that he is behind bars and no longer employed by the city, he can’t do anything to harm us. Unless, of course, he still has corrupt friends working for the city…

  • John Higgins

    Kay,

    Let’s all make a promise to watch out for our neighbors who might have a problem with these new, huge trash containers, and lend a hand when needed. As someone points out, some people only have a little trash each week. Maybe they can put their small bag in a neighbor’s container, especially when the snow is deep.

    There are wheels on those containers, but it will be a challenge for some to move them properly. Whether elderly or just too small to wrangle the darn things, let us each keep an eye out for our neighbors.

  • Donna Hay

    They were even delivering the ‘carts’ on Sunday. Dozer – if we get 10″ of snow I’ll just put my trash out in black plastic bags and I think a lot of people will be doing the same thing.

  • ConcernedTaxPayer

    Food4thought: I assure you that many of the problems that the tax payers and employee’s are experiencing did not go on during the Guido admin. Many of the problems are not due to the economy right now,they are due to the new Mayor placing incompetent people in very important positions.
    Most of the people the new Mayor appointed or promoted do not live in Dearborn. I prefer for my leaders and decision makers to have some type of stake in the good decisions and bad decisions they make,i think a majority of residents feel the same.
    I am not surprised at all that the Mayor or his few supporters would try to pawn off any blame or any problems on to the previous admin,sound familiar anyone?
    After talking to a neighbor of mine i heard that the new DPW supervision wants to contract out the grass cutting at all of the baseball diamonds parks in our city,seems to be another sign of poor management and leadership.
    I walk around the tracks a lot at a few of the parks and i do not want to see some “low bid” fly by night outfit in our parks or city buildings cutting the grass. Did anyone get a good look at the contractors that are passing out the massive garbage cans?
    I trust that our city employee’s have all been checked out and are good people without a checkered past,im sure there isn’t much awareness about who these contractors employee. I don’t know about anyone else but i do not want them in our parks where our kids play,i prefer to have our employee’s cutting our parks.
    I am going to call tomorrow and ask why they would even think about doing this!

  • Jamie

    This all comes down to the big boy not being able to watch over what his departments are doing. He should go back to doing McDonaldss commercials, at least he knew something about them, as he ate enough of them, he surely doesn’t know how to run a city e.g . promoting someone who was incompetent in running a city office (building dept.).

  • Johnny Cakes

    Concerned taxpayer, are you really just a concerned city employee whose job is on the chopping block? Because that’s the only way I can imagine someone would be fearmongering about subcontractors in the parks “where our kids play.” Oooooo, better watch out for those scary pederast subcontractors, as we know most of them are.

    And as a matter of fact I did see the people that were dropping off the carts. They were mostly minority. Is that the point you’re getting at?

    As for the “poor management” comment: how is it that paring a bloated public payroll in favor of a more efficient, less costly subcontract arrangement poor management? It seems that, like everywhere else, public or private, the city is streamlining costs and seeking for greater efficiencies. I know it sucks if you’re Bob the city building inspector, or Greg the city grasscutter, but if you’re really a taxpayer isn’t that good management?

  • Johnny Cakes

    *Searching for, not “seeking for.”

  • http://deepsaidwhat food4thought

    There has been a history of poor management in this city, that is for sure. From what I heard, however, was that Andy Pizzino was one of the few if not the only inspector who knew what they were talking about when he handled technical ssues in the building department. It’s a shame that according to the article in the Dearborn Times Herald that he “got lazy” regarding the fraudulent issues surrounding the last homes he purchased.

  • vincent

    If you check back a little further you will see some additional shady dealings that Pizzino was involved in, however they would also involve Norwood and Cascardo, even though the Big Boy (O’Reilly tried to cover up for his boys). Check further you won’t be surprised, you will be shocked.

  • Loved Dearborn

    I always found it quite peculiar that while I was helping “little old ladies” pass their city “inspections” (including getting their concrete leveled or driveways repaved) so they could sell their house and move closer to their offspring in their last years, that I was walking up crumbling steps on the West end of that city hall to get that “C of O”.

    I called that Building and Safety Department out on numerous occasions. One resulted in an employee being moved to another department. Another resulted in all realtor propoganda and advertising being removed from behind their front counter.

    I’m not they type to gossip or anything but I truly had a respect for Dearborn at one point. Why, I don’t know.

  • http://deepsaidwhat food4thought

    Vincent, why don’t you just come out and say what you know instead of asking who? to check further? If you know information you should contact the appropriate authorities or just blog exactly what you know instead of playing games by name-dropping and calling people crooks and claiming you know about shady deals involving Pizzino, Norwood and Cascardo, without providing any credible information to support your “shocking” allegations.

  • ali

    Food for thought, you must be a neophyte. Everyone knows what Vincent is talking about, and you do too as it is common knowledge, however you want him to name names, why don’t you ask Big Jack for the story, I’m sure he can take a few minutes from doing McDonald’s burger commercials for you, because he sure doesn’t spend anytime running our City.

  • Marge

    Vincent, food for thought and Ali,
    all of you should be more clear. I’m left in the dark completely! Most of us have jobs and families and don’t know all the dirt on the city workers, much less even who these people are.
    One thing we do though, is pay our taxes, which pays their wages, so how about giving the whole story here. If there is corruption, put it on the table – let people know – we should all be on the watch but most of us are just busy with life and don’t deal with the city on a daily basis.
    If you’re inside people – blow the whistle & blow blow it loudly. Dbn is a beautiful city and we don’t deserve crooks ruining it!!

  • http://annmarble@yahoo.com Superchick

    With then “now-closed Building and Safety Department” how will the city run ?

  • http://deepsaidwhat food4thought

    Marge, you must be a fellow neophyte like me! You see Vincent and Ali not “everyone” knows about the corrupt and ‘shocking’ information you inferred in your previous comments. I agree with Marge, put it on the table!!
    I too have a busy life and do not know what you within your political and business circles allege to know.

  • Michael D. Albano

    If I understand correctly, building and safety still exists, but the code and field inspectors instead now work for Residential and Commerical/DPW Services.

  • http://deepsaidwhat food4thought

    Marge, did you notice when we asked Ali and Vincent to come forward with more detailed information that they have yet to comment?

  • Marge

    Food4thought,
    I did notice and it only moves me to believe that all their comments are pure speculation. Not a good thing to put these things out there if you can’t back them or are not certain that they are true. Detailed info could help people move forward and make changes but gossip is pure destruction!