MAYOR YOUNG LOOKS TO STEER $1M NO-BID CONTRACT TO CAMPAIGN SUPPORTER; COMPANY APPEARS TO BE RUNNING SHAM OPERATION

EMBATTLED MAYOR CLINTON I. YOUNG

 

 

DWIGHT MCLEOD OF CAPSTONE STRATEGIES

On Tuesday, February 08, 2011 the City Council of the City of Mount Vernon held their bi-weekly work session which is usually held the day before their bi-weekly City Council meeting.  The meeting started with the City Council going into executive session to discuss personnel issues with the fire department.  The fire department was given 8 minutes to make their presentation.  After about 5 minutes or so, Mount Vernon Exposed™® was let back into the City Council committee room. 

The City Council members accompanied by Corporation Counsel Loretta Hottinger and her sidekick Joana Aggrey went into their work session.  Each one of them reviewed information from a packet that was in front of them.  Mount Vernon Exposed™® was not provided with a packet at the time of the meeting.  The City Council spoke in codes that were virtually impossible to decipher unless you were looking at the packet that they were looking at.  

However one item of discussion stood out in particular.  There was a request for a company to enter into a contact with the City of Mount Vernon for $325K.  When this item was discussed,  City Council members were baffled of the complexity and by the amount of the proposed contract.  By listening to the Council members speak; it appeared that this contract was for well over $1.2M.  The company, Capstone Strategies, led by Dwight McLeod is a personal friend of Mayor Clinton Young.  

Dwight McLeod was an active campaigner for Mayor Young and was initially promised the job of Management Services Commissioner, a job now held by Mayor Young’s sister Mary Young.  According to sources familiar with the employment arrangement, Mayor Young told Mr. McLeod not to take the job because he wasn’t able to make any money by working for the City of Mount Vernon.  Mayor Young allegedly told Mr. McLeod that he would steer lucrative city contracts to his buddy Dwight in exchange for kickbacks.  Mr. Young held up his end of the bargain. 

In addition to trying to get his greedy little paws on city contracts, Dwight McLeod was allegedly practicing real estate without a license.  McLeod contacted several real estate brokers and told them that he was representing Mayor Young and that Mayor Young wanted a bank in the Third Street corridor preferably a Wachovia Bank, the bank that Mayor Young banks with.  McLeod was not successful in his real estate ventures. 

Dwight McLeod already received a city contract to provide cars to be shared between the government and City of Mount Vernon residents.  Mayor Young knowing that he will be defeated in September in his bid for re-election is trying to loot the City and hook up his friends before he leaves office.  When will the pillaging stop?   Only time will tell.  

The City Council now armed with this information can stop the pillaging of the coffers before the pillaging begins.  The City Council must investigate and thoroughly vet all companies looking to do business with the City of Mount Vernon.  Mount Vernon Exposed™® decided to launch an investigation into Capstone Strategies. 

         Here are our findings:

• ·                Capstone Strategy does have a company website located at http://capstonestrategygroup.com/index.html.  The website is mediocre and doesn’t really explain what a client will be getting for their money.
• ·               When you hit the “about us” tab there is a photo displayed with about 100 people that gives the impression that Mr. McLeod is running a major Fortune 500 operation, but that is not the case.  Those person displayed in the pictures do not appear to work at Capstone Strategies. It appears that Mr. McLeod is running this company from his residence.  
• ·             There is a phone number listed on the site for Capstone Strategy.  (914) 667 -4659 when dialed rings and the voice on the answering machine in Dwight McLeod.  The City Council and taxpayers should be weary that a company looking to do this amount of business in the City of Mount Vernon doesn’t even have an address listed that business is conducted out of.