We’ve received a tremendous amount of feedback following a story our Chief Investigative Reporter Steve Wilson broke last night on Action News at 11 that raises questions about the relationship between Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and a powerful city contractor.

Steve uncovered a link between Mayor Kilpatrick’s lavish 2007 family vacation at the Ritz-Carlton Resort in Naples, Florida and Detroit businessman Tony Soave. It was his company, Soave Enterprises, whose name appeared at the top of the Mayor’s nearly $10,000 hotel bill.  Soave Enterprises does business throughout the country, including Naples, where it constructs and sells multimillion-dollar condominiums.  Since 2001, it sold two to former mayoral candidate Freman Hendrix.

Soave has done plenty of business with the city in the past, and admits he’d like to do more in the future. Sources tell Action News that Soave Enterprises is pursuing a towing contract with the city of Detroit. 

One of the uses of this blog is to share information we cannot fit in our original broadcasts.  Below is additional information regarding Soave and his company:

Soave has long been one of the Mayor’s biggest financial backers.  Citizens for Michigan, a political action committee (PAC) primarily financed by Soave, has donated $35,000 to “Kwame M. Kilpatrick For Mayor” since July 2003. In October 2007, Soave personally donated $3,400 to the mayor’s re-election campaign. Other Soave Enterprises employees have also been generous to the Mayor.  In 2005, at least four company vice-presidents each donated $3,400 to the Mayor’s 2005 re-election campaign.

Soave seldom makes public appearances or grants interviews, referring reporters to his spokesman, but he did speak to a reporter for “DBusiness,” a Detroit business magazine, for a March 2007 story that profiled his life and business empire.