Firing Turkia Mullin Could Prove Costly for Wayne County

BLOOMFIELD HILLS, Mich. (WJBK) - "I don't know too much about Turkia Mullin, but it's my opinion that I don't see where she has earned the money that they're trying to give her," a woman told FOX 2.

However, if you ask attorney Raymond Sterling, the public has got Turkia Mullin all wrong.

"She brought in millions, if not billions, of dollars into the county while she was the economic development director," he said.

Now, the woman who some say created jobs is without a job. The airport authority fired Mullin Monday afternoon claiming she violated the ethics clause of her contract. Of course, her attorney takes issue with that.

"There was absolutely no cause, no facts to support anything. They can say what they want and read from a contract. Now, they're going to have to support it," Sterling said.

If the board can't prove they're right, Sterling said the county could be forced to pay.

"The board members said we're opening ourselves up to millions of dollars of damage claims here and we don't even have any facts to support our position to let her go for cause," Sterling explained.

Mullin is asking for a few key things. The first thing on the list is her old job with the airport.

"Why don't they wake up and recognize they made a tragic mistake here and hold out an olive branch and let's bring her back. That's maybe what would make this whole thing go away," Sterling said.

Insiders say while that could happen, it most likely won't, so now comes the money.

"She's entitled under her contract that they offered her and she accepted, a binding offer and acceptance contract 101, is for three years of guaranteed pay," Sterling explained.

Right now, Mullin is walking away with nothing, but if a judge says the county did her wrong, that controversial $200,000 severance will look like chump change.

The next step is arbitration, and it could take months before there's a judgement.