The city of Detroit fired its chief bus safety officer Wednesday after he blew the whistle on a top Department of Transportation official for allegedly showing up drunk at a transit center, berating employees, assaulting a security guard, and driving off in a city-issued car.

Mayor Mary Sheffield’s administration notified DDOT Chief Safety Officer Corey Holmes, who oversees safety for buses and their passengers, that he was terminated for “misrepresentation of authority” after conducting his own investigation into the erratic behavior of DDOT Chief of Staff Jennie Whitfield.

DDOT Executive Director Robert Cramer suspended Holmes on March 9, just six hours after Metro Times began asking questions about Whitfield.

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The chain of events began shortly before midnight in late January, when security guards and other employees said Whitfield barged into the downtown transit center while appearing to be inebriated, harassed employees, poked a guard in the chest, and nearly fell from a balcony while chasing a pigeon around the building with a bottle of water.

When a security guard convinced Whitfield to leave, he urged her passenger, a former Detroit General Services Department employee, to drive Whitfield home “so she could get some rest,” according to witness statements. Instead, Whitfield drove the car away, insisting “she was ok to drive herself home,” the guard wrote in a complaint.

https://www.metrotimes.com/news/metro-detroit-news/detroit-whistleblower-fired-after-reporting-alleged-drunken-meltdown-by-top-ddot-official/