Detroit mayor dragged into sludge probe

DETROIT, July 3 (UPI) -- An FBI investigation of Detroit's contracting practices may be moving closer to embattled Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, sources told the Detroit News.

His father, Bernard N. Kilpatrick, has ties to one Detroit area businessman who is already under federal indictment and two others who still are being investigated, the newspaper reported Thursday.

Included among the elder Kilpatrick's connections was Maynard Jackson, a former consultant and local partner to Synagro Technologies Inc. That Houston firm received a controversial $47 million annual city contract for waste removal that is the subject of a federal investigation targeting at least four City Council members and others in and around Detroit government.

It was also disclosed Wednesday that Synagro official James Rosendall donated $10,000 in 2005 to the mayor's political action committee. The report undermines Kwame Kilpatrick's efforts this week to distance himself from the FBI probe, the Detroit Free Press said.

James Parkman III, his attorney, said Kilpatrick is not worried.

"The mayor may know some of these people -- he knows a lot of people -- but he has not in any way, any form or fashion been involved in any illegality, any investigation, any FBI probe or any bribe whatsoever," Parkman said.