The city of Detroit fired its chief bus safety officer Wednesday after he blew the whistle on a top Department of Transportation official for allegedly showing up drunk at a transit center, berating employees, assaulting a security guard, and driving off in a city-issued car.
Mayor Mary Sheffield’s administration notified DDOT Chief Safety Officer Corey Holmes, who oversees safety for buses and their passengers, that he was terminated for “misrepresentation of authority” after conducting his own investigation into the erratic behavior of DDOT Chief of Staff Jennie Whitfield.
DDOT Executive Director Robert Cramer suspended Holmes on March 9, just six hours after Metro Times began asking questions about Whitfield.
The decision raised eyebrows because Whitfield was allowed to return to work and continue driving her city-issued car, despite allegations that she drove it while intoxicated. In the past, city employees accused of drunk driving were prohibited from using city vehicles pending an investigation.
After Metro Times exposed the unequal treatment, the city fired Whitfield on March 13.
Cramer has countered that he had every right to investigate safety concerns and was protected by a 2014 executive order issue that explicitly states that employees who make good-faith reports or assist in workplace violence investigations cannot be retaliated against.
The chain of events began shortly before midnight in late January, when security guards and other employees said Whitfield barged into the downtown transit center while appearing to be inebriated, harassed employees, poked a guard in the chest, and nearly fell from a balcony while chasing a pigeon around the building with a bottle of water.
When a security guard convinced Whitfield to leave, he urged her passenger, a former Detroit General Services Department employee, to drive Whitfield home “so she could get some rest,” according to witness statements. Instead, Whitfield drove the car away, insisting “she was ok to drive herself home,” the guard wrote in a complaint.
When Holmes heard about the incident on Feb. 25, he questioned the security guards and other employees who were present and then submitted those statements on March 2 to Cramer, who promoted Whitfield to chief of staff and was close to her, according to employees. In fact, at Sheffield’s election celebration at MGM Grand Detroit in November 2025, employees said Whitfield escorted Cramer around the room, introducing him to influential guests.
Sheffield’s administration declined to comment, citing potential litigation.
In January 2025, then-Mayor Mike Duggan tapped Cramer for the $225,000-a-year director job. At the time, he was general manager of the People Mover, where he was accused of replacing at least seven Black managers with white ones.
Cramer’s leadership team has come under fire before. Less than three weeks before Whitfield barged into the transit center, the Detroit Office of Inspector General slammed DDOT’s leadership for shielding employees who disrupted bus service by engaging in a “romantic interaction” and abandoning a running bus. The watchdog found supervisors imposed unusually lenient discipline and failed to properly investigate the misconduct despite the availability of surveillance video.
Holmes was an important part of the OIG investigation. He and other high-ranking officials “revealed that DDOT considers its written disciplinary policies to be suggestive rather than instructive,” despite a policy that “mandates certain discipline depending on the level of a given offense,” investigators wrote.
Holmes, who became DDOT’s chief safety officer in 2023, oversaw the agency’s safety management system and held multiple federal transit safety certifications. His job included investigating incidents, reviewing safety hazards, and ensuring the department complies with national transit safety standards.
His termination leaves DDOT with a less qualified chief safety officer.
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