- Michigan’s economic development agency is sharpening self-policing requirements for its leadership board
- Avoiding all forms of self-dealing, including the appearance of it, is now required of members
- Failure to update conflicts could now result in member dismissal from Michigan Economic Development Corp.
After years of controversy and criminal charges, the board that oversees billions of dollars of corporate incentives in Michigan has toughened rules on “self dealing” and conflicts of interest.
The executive committee of the Michigan Economic Development Corp. this month made disclosure rules mandatory, following years of recommendations that members follow a code of ethics.
Among other things, the new policy requires members to immediately disclose conflicts or face removal.
“This is long overdue,” state Sen. Thomas Albert, R-Lowell, told Bridge Michigan. “A small step toward improvement simply is not enough to fix an agency that is clearly broken.”
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The move comes after Bridge Michigan found the committee overseeing the agency that has doled out more than $1 billion in corporate incentives under Gov. Gretchen Whitmer didn’t always follow its own rules for disclosing self-interests.
In 2022, for instance, just four of 18 board members followed conflict-of-interest policy as the MEDC administered a now-controversial $20 million legislative grant to then-board member Fay Beydoun, a donor to Whitmer.
Beydoun — who didn’t submit conflict-of-interest documentation from 2019 to 2022 — was charged with 16 felonies alleging she used a grant to create a global business accelerator to buy herself luxury items like Tunisian rugs.
While announcing charges, Nessel argued that Beydoun had a “clear conflict of interest” because she was making decisions about the MEDC at the same time she was seeking a grant from it.
The MEDC’s CEO, Quentin Messer, has been named a potential investigation target by the attorney general’s office, officials have said.
New policy expectations clarify that violations involve actual, potential or even simply the appearance of a conflict.
As before, the policy says, members must show a “commitment to the highest standards of integrity.”
Among other things, any changes in self-interest during the year must be disclosed to the board secretary and members must immediately report their or fellow members’ violations of the policy.
The revised approach “will ensure that expectations are clear and that transparency is upheld across the organization,” Christin Armstrong, MEDC senior vice president, told the board before it unanimously approved the rules on July 14 alongside 10 additional policy updates.
The MEDC declined to provide additional detail to Bridge. Beyond the Beydoun investigation, the agency has faced recent criticism over its spending and effectiveness in increasing Michigan jobs.
Some Republicans have called for elimination of the MEDC, including Albert.
“The MEDC is beyond repair and should be dismantled,” he told Bridge.
In this year’s race to succeed Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Republican hopefuls Perry Johnson and John James and Chris Swanson all pledge to reform the agency, while Democratic frontrunner Jocelyn Benson is calling for more transparency.
Until conflict of interest was elevated as a policy, committee members had been expected to sign an annual form and submit it to the MEDC in January. Overall compliance through 2025 was about 70%.
Over the years, members repeatedly did not submit the form, or submitted it late. When he was on the board, for instance, former Flint Mayor Sheldon Neeley missed filing it outright for three years, and turned it in late for three years.
As compliance improved in 2023 and beyond, late responses still were tallied; they include five tardy filings in 2026.
Messer had pointed to the statements when asked by reporters in summer 2025 about accountability among board members after the Beydoun grant controversy resulted in the attorney general’s office investigation and a raid of the MEDC offices.
“What individual members of the MEDC executive committee do in their individual capacities, we have no jurisdiction,” Messer said. “But every year, voluntarily, the MEDC executive committee signs conflicts of interest statements.
“That’s been standard practice.”
According to the MEDC, the last update to conflict-of-interest requirements took place in 2015.
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