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Grosse Pointe Yacht Club Water Bills Under Review
Grosse Pointe Shores officials have been working with Grosse Pointe Yacht Club officials to review water bills dating back a decade for possible overcharges.
Grosse Pointe Shores council met Tuesday for a normal council meeting. During the public comment portion of the meeting, the topic of Grosse Pointe Yacht Club questioning their water billing surface and erupted into a shouting match.
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The public comment portion of Grosse Pointe Shores' council meeting erupted into a loud shouting match Tuesday related to the Grosse Pointe Yacht Club questioning the city about significant overcharging for water usage.
Although Shores employees and council members had been briefed and were made aware of the issue, the topic had not been openly discussed until Tuesday. It came up during the Shores election forum last week, but no official information had surfaced until the meeting.
Shores resident John Booth questioned an auditor about the process Tuesday, and then shifted his focus to the water billing with the Yacht Club—a topic initially sluffed off by officials as not appropriate for discussion.
After repeated attempts to continue questioning it, Booth was ushered away from the podium by Mayor James Cooper who repeatedly banged his gavel and told Booth to stop interrupting. He eventually told Booth he had used his three minutes and asked him to sit down.
Two more residents got up and asked about the details. One wanted to know the amount allegedly overcharged. Another wanted to know the timeframe for the alleged overcharging.
Eventually, following repeated requests from residents and upheaval from those in attendance of the meeting, some information was released.
City Manager Brian Vick said Shores employees are helping Grosse Pointe Yacht Club officials review water bills that span about a decade. When pressed for a timeframe, Vick said he was hesitant to try to recall off the top of his head but eventually said roughly dating back to 2001.
Vick also said the bills in question are from before he was hired on with the municipality.
In response to questions from resident Jim Jacobs, Shores attorney Mark McInerny said the city and the yacht club have reached a standstill agreement regarding any litigation.
After residents began pressing to know how long officials had been aware of the issue, McInerny said the standstill agreement had been reached about one year ago. He could not recall the exact date but said it had been about that long.
Officials declined to say the amount in question.
At one point, Vick said the only value he was comfortable releasing to the public was that the amount in question is less than half of what was originally in question.
Officials told residents they did not believe the situation would escalate into a lawsuit. McInerny said the legal time limits to file a lawsuit for much of the billing in question had already expired.
If the yacht club felt it had enough to sue, Vick said, they likely would have already.
Tom Trainor, the general manager of the Grosse Pointe Yacht Club, said he was not aware of what transpired at Tuesday's meeting.
"We really are not in a position to make any comment about that right now," Trainor said.
Vick described the situation with the yacht club as being no different than when any resident calls to inquire about a bill. Employees review the bill and if a resident notices what they consider to be an out of ordinary bill, the city will then investigate. Vick repeatedly explained it would not be appropriate to discuss the specifics of the yacht club's questions without their permission as their bills would be their business, which would not be handled any differently if it were an individual resident.
Patch Associate Regional Editor John Hetzler also contributed to this story.
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Robert Lee
8:02 am on Friday, October 21, 2011
This sordid episode proves the lack of transparency of the Cooper administration. The significant over charging of the yacht club has been known for several years. I heard from a GPYC member the amount may be as high as a million bucks. It's shocking the Shores swept this under the rug with a standstill agreement. By whose authority was this signed? The city is a public entity. Once aware of potential liability, it should have been placed on the city's books, not hidden. Was our city auditor was even made aware of the problem?
Why the secrecy? With the Shores under fiscal watch by the State of Michigan for years of deficit spending under the Cooper administration, and witha negative general fund balance about that time, do you really think the Shores wanted the state of Michigan to know they had another million bucks of debt on the books? Was it that Mayor Cooper and his GPYC friends did not want an issue of this magnitude to come to light during the recall election? You be the judge.
When taxpayers are left holding the bag for mismanagement at city hall, it's outrageous for the Cooper administration to try to stifle public discussion. If the million dollar figure is accurate, that's nearly $1000 a home!
While Nixon had his Watergate, now Mayor Cooper has his "Water Billgate." An administration that conceals potential litigation or liability of this magnitude from the taxpayers is not transparent. Will voters get all the facts before going to the polls? Let's see!
Harry Kurtz
10:48 pm on Friday, October 21, 2011
Contrary to the comments of Robert Lee, no member or candidate currently on our City Council has even so much as suggested there is any basis for referencing an unknown liability related to water bills on our books. This includes two candidates, Ted Kedzierski and Dan Schulte, currently being championed by Dr. Lee. Why doesn't Dr. Lee get whatever information he seems to think is being withheld, directly from his two political allies, Mr. Kedzierski and Mr. Schulte?
It's because there is no relevant information in this matter for Kedzierski and Schulte to provide. There is no smoking gun, just as our City Manager, City Attorney and outside Auditor recently explained, in great detail, at the council meeting Tuesday night. Much to Dr. Lee's apparent consternation, the books of GP Shores are in order. In fact, we finished the year with a surplus. The City is not on the verge of bankruptcy, receivership or any one of the other sky is falling scenarios that certain contrarians have been touting since initiating their failed recall attempt two years ago.
If there was anything substantive to reveal on this subject, doesn't it seem logical to assume that candidates Kedzierski and Schulte would have been screaming to the high heavens by now? Apparently, they were both fully briefed as council members on the matter by our City Manager. Mr. Kedzierski happens to be a member of the Yacht Club, while Mayor Cooper is not. What "friends" at the GP Yacht Club is Dr. Lee talking about?
Robert Lee
8:17 am on Sunday, October 23, 2011
Instead of inflammatory rhetoric, Shores taxpayers would just like the answer to the following simple questions:
1) When did the city become aware of the fact they were overbilling the GPYC by hundreds of thousand of dollars for their water?
2) How did this happen?
3) Why was the problem not corrected for so long?
4) Who signed the "standstill agreement" that kept this issue under wraps?
5) When was the whole council given full disclosure as the problem and its magnitude?
6) At what city council meeting was a vote taken to endorse the course of action with the standstill agreement?
7) If no vote was taken, then who authorized that the standstill agreement be signed on the Shores behalf?
8) Exactly how much was the GPYC overbilled?
9) What is the taxpayer's liability going to be?
If the city is not forthcoming with these answers ASAP, then hopefully a newspaper with a good investigative reporter will delve in to the facts behind the Water Billgate saga.
Robert Lee
7:20 am on Monday, October 24, 2011
Watch the telling video posted from the last Shores council meeting & see how the Cooper administration wants to keep the facts behind this saga under wraps till after the upcoming election. Mr. Jim Jacobs is a highly respected Grosse Pointe Shores Attorney. He asks a simple question: When was the standstill agreement with the GPYC that kept the overbilling issue under wraps signed? Remember the Cooper administration had to know more questions would be forthcoming at the council meeting once the problem came up at the GPLWV Forum. Shouldn't Vick, Cooper & the city lawyer had the facts at their fingertips?
Watch Mr. Vick try and evade the question. Cooper doesn't do any better, so his trusty attorney Mr. McInerney steps forth. Note he never says the council ever voted on this course of action & he is never specific about what they were "informed" about.
All Mr. Jacobs wants to know is the timing of the "standstill" agreement with the timing the recall election. Nobody gives Jim a straight answer. When he presses the issue, watch Mayor Cooper start shaking his hands in anger. He does not want the question answered!
This whole chain of events again shows the clear lack of transparency of the Cooper administration. Cooper again uses taxpayer's dollars and the city attorney to keep information that Shores citizens should rightly have under wraps. In fact, I'd call this type of activity clear obstructionism. Shores voters, please view this video before you go to the polls!
Harry Kurtz
11:53 pm on Wednesday, October 26, 2011
For further insight on this non issue, refer to the "telling" link @
http://grossepointetoday.com/News/Cities/The%20Shores#comment-254