(WXYZ) — He’s a controversial lawyer who’s in charge of a dark money fund that’s playing a major role in Warren politics. The 7 Investigators were the first to show you that his hiring by the city of Warren last year may have broken the law.
Now a federal arbitrator has ruled that the city improperly hired him and ordered the lawyer to be removed.
That lawyer is Cecil St. Pierre and the arbitrator called his hiring a “sham” that smacked of “political favoritism.” He’s now been ordered to vacate his job, and the assistant city attorney who was originally in line for the promotion but was passed over for St. Pierre is getting that job.
Cecil St. Pierre is no stranger to legal controversy, or to political drama in Warren, and he’s never liked our cameras.
Today, the 7 Investigators caught St. Pierre leaving Warren’s law department, possibly for the last time as an assistant city attorney thanks to a federal arbitration decision.
“The arbitrator has ordered that Mr. St. Pierre be removed from his position and banned from performing legal work as described in the union contract,” said Warren City Council attorney Jeffrey Schroder during the Wednesday evening council meeting.
Last year, Warren Mayor Jim Fouts denied being involved with the hiring of St. Pierre as an assistant City Attorney for $105,000/year, even though St. Pierre’s political nonprofit fund had just given thousands of dollars to a term limits ballot effort that would have benefited Fouts.
“If you give $10,000 on a Friday and you get hired on a Monday, and then in that same week on the Thursday, the six-month probation that's required for a new hire is waived-- it looks like corruption,” said City Council President Patrick Green in 2022 after St. Pierre was hired.
The arbitrator on Wednesday said in his “Decision and Award” that St. Pierre’s placement on a revised civil service list was a “sham” and “made a mockery” of the merit-based system for city promotions. The arbitrator said the city hired St. Pierre over a female assistant city attorney who had more experience and ordered her to be given the promotion immediately with back pay through June 7, 2022.
“Shame, shame on all those people in city hall that were a part of this. It cost the taxpayers a lot of money,” said Warren City Council member Gary Watts.
This isn’t the only trouble St. Pierre is facing right now. A complaint has been filed with the Attorney Grievance Commission alleging St. Pierre is using his dark money nonprofit to attack members of the city council who have been at odds with Mayor Fouts, even while St. Pierre was supposed to represent the council as an assistant city attorney.
“We are his clients and he acted totally in a manner that is not appropriate for an attorney,” said Warren City Council Secretary Mindy Moore.
Warren City Attorney Ethan Vinson hired St. Pierre. He released this statement to us:
This arbitrator has exceeded his authority by intervening in the hiring of attorneys within my office which is under my sole authority. We will abide by the decision to upgrade the status of the attorney in question, but will not allow an outside arbitrator to decide who works in this office. As an attorney with more than 40 years' experience in municipal and labor law I have never seen such an inappropriate decision. I share the outrage expressed by the UAW bargaining unit in support of their member whose job the arbitrator tried to improperly terminate. A member of my staff whose status was not even an issue under his purview. When I hire people within this office I do so with the sole purpose to put in place those who can best serve the residents. I did so in this case and will always do so as long as I hold the position as Warren City Attorney.
Because the arbitration decision is binding, 7 Investigators asked if Mr. St. Pierre is still on the job.
This is the response we received from Vinson:
We are digesting the impact of the arbitrator's award. We intend to honor the decision for the grievant. Since Mr. St. Pierre is a civil servant and union bargaining member, I recognize that his employment status is a mandatory subject of collective bargaining, and will adhere to the appropriate procedures while we explore our options.
Chief Assistant City Attorney Mary Michaels also issued this statement:
Simply stated, this arbitrator trampled on the rights of a UAW member in good standing. Our bargaining unit stands in unity with all members, and we will not tolerate an outsider depriving one of our members of his employment rights. We recognize and appreciate that one member was made whole, yet are amazed the arbitrator did not stop there. Instead, he used his platform to meddle in an internal personnel decision, and actually extinguished the employment of another Union member. We will not allow an outside arbitrator to unilaterally terminate employment rights of a vested Union member. We take the overreach quite seriously, and will take every measure necessary to right this wrong.
Meanwhile, some members of the city council are calling on St. Pierre to pay the taxpayers back for the last year that he was working in a position that the arbitration ruling said was improper.
We have contacted Cecil St. Pierre for comment, but so far we have not heard back from him.
If you have a story for Heather, please email her at hcatallo@wxyz.com.