If your cable is out and you’re dying for glamour shots of Kay Everett, the City Councilwoman has got something just for you. Just name the date. Any date. Everett has published a flashy new calendar, “Hats on me in 2003,” featuring a picture of her for every month of the year, sporting her infamous hats and various outfits and poses. Everett refuses to answer questions about the calendar. Is she embarrassed about the hint of cleavage in the cover shot? We assume that if she had printed and paid for the publicity stunt properly (i.e.: using her campaign money), she’d tell us so.
According to sources who begged to remain anonymous, Everett indeed used city money and personnel to create the calendar before mailing it to business people along with invitations to her annual, $200-per-plate fundraiser at the Detroit Athletic Club. As usual, city officials got tight-lipped about the whole affair as soon as the calendars surfaced among the hands of the snickering. The city’s Department of Communications and Creative Services, which designed the calendar, deferred questions about the calendar to mayoral spokesman Jamaine Dickens. Dickens wasn’t available for comment. Though several council members and their staff guffawed, many themselves use the CCS “print shop” to make bookmarks, one-page calendars and the like. Councilwoman Sharon McPhail says she uses the shop to print flyers for her various projects and campaigns. Though the CCS is the city’s PR department, it’s not uncommon for its publications to sport the smiling mug of your local baby kisser. And it’s not like City Council members don’t have the cash. This year, each of them received $586,000 for staff and office expenses; Council President Maryann Mahaffey received $754,000. In addition, the council budgets $4 million a year for administrative costs. So why are the politicians dipping into the $2.3 million budget of the CCS?
Everett wouldn’t answer our call. Maybe she’ll answer yours. You can contact Detroit’s very own calendar girl — we particularly like the shot of her in a full-length fur coat — at 313-224-1198.
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