By Elena Durnbaugh
Gongwer News Service
Attorney General Dana Nessel advocated for increased transparency around legislative earmarks during a press conference to discuss the charges brought against David Coker, a Clare County road commissioner and former legislative aide, who was awarded a $25 million no-bid grant for a health park.
The grant was to help build a health care campus in Clare, but there is no evidence Coker did anything to advance the project apart from spending a little more than $3 million to purchase property, Nessel said.
According to the complaint, which was read during Coker’s arraignment on Wednesday, he created a non-profit called Complete Health Park and a consulting firm called IW Consulting and used them to embezzle funds and misuse public dollars.
More than $9 million went to the non-profit from the state and immediately following the deposit, the state alleges, Coker deposited more than $800,000 to the consulting firm. Then, the allegations say, he deposited hundreds of thousands of dollars into his own personal bank account and used the funds to purchase cars, firearm accessories and more.
“It is our allegation that Coker constructed this arrangement from the very onset to be the financial agent of both entities and the representative of the grant recipient to the state agency,” Nessel said.
The grant making process was conducted backward in this scenario, Nessel said.
“The project was developed and set out in search of funding,” she said. “Ultimately, Coker’s funding solution was the creation of this legislative earmark into the state budget.”
Nessel said that this type of expenditure process used for this grant was common in every modern Michigan budget.
“Last term, requests for everything from new fire trucks to local infrastructure projects to grants for privately owned community resources or non-governmental organizations were, quote, in secrecy,” she said. “Now, just to be clear, the vast majority of projects that are funded through our state appropriations process support valuable, much needed programming in our communities.”
She praised the changes made last term to improve transparency in the earmark process by requiring every legislative grant request to have the name of the sponsor and to be made public in the first few months following the start of the fiscal year. Nessel also praised Speaker Matt Hall (R-Richland Township) for publishing earmark requests on a publicly available website during the budget process.
“I’m very encouraged by these actions to bring more sunshine into the appropriations process and support any further guardrails the Legislature sees fit to prevent fraudsters from stealing our hard-working tax dollars.”
The grant has been under investigation for years, first by the Department of Health and Human Services then by the Department of Attorney General.
Sen. Roger Hauck (R-Mount Pleasant) came to the Department of Health and Human Services with his concerns about the project, Nessel said, which then prompted her office to become involved.
Nessel said she was not prepared to discuss how the grant language got into the budget at the press conference on Thursday.
“Hopefully, that’ll be information that’s more fully disclosed during the course of preliminary exam or possibly a trial,” she said. “If there is some sort of good faith effort to provide the grant with the hope and the understanding and the expectation that the grant will be fulfilled and this health park will be completed, then it’s not a crime.”
Nessel said there is no evidence of criminal wrongdoing on behalf of former Speaker Jason Wentworth.
“We didn’t find any evidence of criminality,” Nessel said “We don’t have any evidence that Mr. Coker had the requisite qualification for a project of this type, and that under normal circumstances that you were bidding
out the project, and you had a number of different entities that were bidding on this, would it have gone to somebody like Mr. Coker? I doubt it.”
Nessel also said that there was no evidence that Rep. Tom Kunse (R-Clare), who owned the property which was purchased for the project prior to joining the Legislature, did anything criminal.
The state is still hopeful that some of the money can be recovered, Nessel said.
There are two other investigations into grants, Nessel said, one involving a grant to Global Link and the other an aerospace project.
In a statement on Thursday, Senate Appropriations Chair Sen. Sarah Anthony (D-Lansing) thanked Nessel’s office for looking into the matter and touted recent changes to the earmark process.
“Senate Democrats have done things differently since 2023. We built budgets to help working people and brought transparency to the process — including the way we fund community projects. Because of the changes we made, every legislative enhancement grant requires a legislative sponsor to take ownership of the project or program. State departments then must publish that information online, allowing residents to see how legislators are advocating for the use of their tax dollars,” she said. “I’m proud of the steps our caucus has taken to create a more ethical, responsible budget process. Our budgets invest directly in our communities, fix aging infrastructure, and ensure people have what they need to thrive. These transparency measures are crucial and effective, and this investigation serves as another important reminder of the need to shine more light into the halls of power.”
Gongwer News Service
Attorney General Dana Nessel advocated for increased transparency around legislative earmarks during a press conference to discuss the charges brought against David Coker, a Clare County road commissioner and former legislative aide, who was awarded a $25 million no-bid grant for a health park.
The grant was to help build a health care campus in Clare, but there is no evidence Coker did anything to advance the project apart from spending a little more than $3 million to purchase property, Nessel said.
According to the complaint, which was read during Coker’s arraignment on Wednesday, he created a non-profit called Complete Health Park and a consulting firm called IW Consulting and used them to embezzle funds and misuse public dollars.
More than $9 million went to the non-profit from the state and immediately following the deposit, the state alleges, Coker deposited more than $800,000 to the consulting firm. Then, the allegations say, he deposited hundreds of thousands of dollars into his own personal bank account and used the funds to purchase cars, firearm accessories and more.
“It is our allegation that Coker constructed this arrangement from the very onset to be the financial agent of both entities and the representative of the grant recipient to the state agency,” Nessel said.
The grant making process was conducted backward in this scenario, Nessel said.
“The project was developed and set out in search of funding,” she said. “Ultimately, Coker’s funding solution was the creation of this legislative earmark into the state budget.”
Nessel said that this type of expenditure process used for this grant was common in every modern Michigan budget.
“Last term, requests for everything from new fire trucks to local infrastructure projects to grants for privately owned community resources or non-governmental organizations were, quote, in secrecy,” she said. “Now, just to be clear, the vast majority of projects that are funded through our state appropriations process support valuable, much needed programming in our communities.”
She praised the changes made last term to improve transparency in the earmark process by requiring every legislative grant request to have the name of the sponsor and to be made public in the first few months following the start of the fiscal year. Nessel also praised Speaker Matt Hall (R-Richland Township) for publishing earmark requests on a publicly available website during the budget process.
“I’m very encouraged by these actions to bring more sunshine into the appropriations process and support any further guardrails the Legislature sees fit to prevent fraudsters from stealing our hard-working tax dollars.”
The grant has been under investigation for years, first by the Department of Health and Human Services then by the Department of Attorney General.
Sen. Roger Hauck (R-Mount Pleasant) came to the Department of Health and Human Services with his concerns about the project, Nessel said, which then prompted her office to become involved.
Nessel said she was not prepared to discuss how the grant language got into the budget at the press conference on Thursday.
“Hopefully, that’ll be information that’s more fully disclosed during the course of preliminary exam or possibly a trial,” she said. “If there is some sort of good faith effort to provide the grant with the hope and the understanding and the expectation that the grant will be fulfilled and this health park will be completed, then it’s not a crime.”
Nessel said there is no evidence of criminal wrongdoing on behalf of former Speaker Jason Wentworth.
“We didn’t find any evidence of criminality,” Nessel said “We don’t have any evidence that Mr. Coker had the requisite qualification for a project of this type, and that under normal circumstances that you were bidding
out the project, and you had a number of different entities that were bidding on this, would it have gone to somebody like Mr. Coker? I doubt it.”
Nessel also said that there was no evidence that Rep. Tom Kunse (R-Clare), who owned the property which was purchased for the project prior to joining the Legislature, did anything criminal.
The state is still hopeful that some of the money can be recovered, Nessel said.
There are two other investigations into grants, Nessel said, one involving a grant to Global Link and the other an aerospace project.
In a statement on Thursday, Senate Appropriations Chair Sen. Sarah Anthony (D-Lansing) thanked Nessel’s office for looking into the matter and touted recent changes to the earmark process.
“Senate Democrats have done things differently since 2023. We built budgets to help working people and brought transparency to the process — including the way we fund community projects. Because of the changes we made, every legislative enhancement grant requires a legislative sponsor to take ownership of the project or program. State departments then must publish that information online, allowing residents to see how legislators are advocating for the use of their tax dollars,” she said. “I’m proud of the steps our caucus has taken to create a more ethical, responsible budget process. Our budgets invest directly in our communities, fix aging infrastructure, and ensure people have what they need to thrive. These transparency measures are crucial and effective, and this investigation serves as another important reminder of the need to shine more light into the halls of power.”
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