Comedy of errors?

The first act certainly had its Shakespearean overtones. The king, Lark, is deposed. A princeling drawn from the ranks — Dick Peffley — ascends to the throne, interim CEO. His first act? Kill the queen. He fires Lark´s second in command, chief administrative officer Sue Devon. The King´s council — BWL´s Board of Commissioners — is riven with intrigue and factions. The City Council feels slighted and is preparing for battle. This isn´t Shakespeare, it´s “Game of Thrones.”

In a perverse way, the spectacle is entertaining, and if the lights work and there´s water from the tap, none of it really affects BWL´s customers. At least not now.

But the city has got to do better, and how it resolves the BWL mess will show whether the political establishment can act in the interest of its people.

What Lansing expects from BWL is clearly laid out in its charter in the section dealing with governance and cooperation. It is clear that the utility and Board of Commissioners is accountable to the mayor and the Council. The charter states:

The Board of Water and Light, hereinafter known as the Board, shall have the full and exclusive management of the water, heat, steam and electric services and such additional utility services of the City of Lansing as may be agreed upon by the Board and City Council. The Board shall be responsible to the Mayor and the City Council for the provision of these services in a manner consistent with the best practices.(Section 5-201)

The intent is clear, but accountability is cloudy. The BWL board is in charge — but not really.

The charter also instructs BWL to act cooperatively with other departments. It states:

In the best interest of the City, the Board and other agencies of the City are encouraged to cooperate on projects deemed to be beneficial and to utilize each other´s (sic) services. (Section 5-203.7)

It is these issues of control and cooperation that Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero, who pushed hard to oust Lark, said were missing during Lark´s tenure. But both are significant political challenge and already fault lines and turf battles are emerging.

In a series of votes last week, two members of the City Council, President A´Lynne Boles and First Ward Councilwoman Jodi Washington proposed resolutions to strip the BWL board of its oversight, making its members “advisors” to the utility. This change in status would last for a year. They also want to place non-voting members from East Lansing, Delta Township and other outlying communities on the advisory board before the scheduled July 1 date.

These may or not be good ideas, but they already reflect political, perhaps personal, agendas.

Neither Boles nor Washington discussed their proposal with Bernero, or the city legal department that was asked to draft the resolution, or with David Price, chairman of the BWL Board of Commissioners.

In an interview on WLNS, Price said he was surprised by the resolution which he called premature. Clearly, Boles and Washington could have spoken with Price about their intentions before the meeting and their motions. But this isn´t how things are done in the city.

The Council was tone deaf enough to miss Bernero´s months-long campaign to rid BWL of Lark, and never got a heads-up about the coup from either the mayor or board. The motion by Boles and Washington plays out like pay back. But not according to Boles.

“This is not a gotcha moment. ... I´m not going to pull you into a meeting and play whack-a mole,” she said in an interview with WLNS. But Boles may have signaled the real intent of the resolutions in an interview with WILX after the Council session.

“This would send a very clear and concise message that you do have some accountability, and that accountability is certainly through the Lansing City Council,” she said. And it seems at odds with the rest of the interview where Boles said, “There were three things that we walked away with from our meetings in 2013 after we had the ice storm, and that was transparency, communication and accountability.”

These resolutions reflect the Council´s approach to transparency and communications. Attempts to reach Boles through her office for comment were unsuccessful.

The communication breakdown between the BWL board and the City Council is longstanding, said BWL First Ward Commissioner Dennis Louney. (Louney is rumored to be interested in running for Washington’s seat.)

“We have requested regular meetings with the Council. It wasn´t until after the crisis (the ice storm) that they showed an interest. We were lucky if more than two of the Council members showed up,” he said.

“The mayor called me up when he had questions. If they (the Council) have questions on something, give us a call,” Louney said.

You´d hope that resolving BWL issues like accountability, management competence and obscenely large severance payouts to CEO´s would encourage political factions to work together or at least talk with one another. It ought to happen.

The new structure favored by Bernero, with the BWL chief reporting to him, might help. But the political lines are pretty well set, which ensures lots of drama and plenty of comedy for the long-running show.