BWL control, and questions

Bernero´s inspector general proposal a ´midway measure´

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Mayor Virg Bernero’s struggle with governing the Lansing Board of Water & Light is on slow motion repeat — a "Groundhog Day" measured in years, rather than hours.

In July 2006, the BWL was on the hunt for a new general manager (eventually resulting in the choice of Bernero’s candidate, J. Peter Lark). First-term Mayor Virg Bernero had clear ideas about whom that new leader should report to: him, according to an op-ed piece by then BWL Commissioner Joseph Graves Jr. in the Lansing State Journal. He alleged the independence of the board was “under assault” by Bernero.

“The mayor has further pledged that a new general manager will be appointed who will answer to him,” Graves wrote.

Fast forward to 2015. Before his State of the City address, Bernero was ginning up the media with indications he was planning to try to get rid of the independent board and make the general manager a direct report to him. That move was widely questioned locally, and the American Public Power Association, a trade group of municipal owned utilities, said doing so would run counter to how most large municipal utilities were governed.

So when Bernero took the stage at Lansing Community College on Thursday night, he surprised viewers by announcing what he later characterized as a “midway measure.” Rather than eliminate the board, and bring direct control over the utility into his office, he proposed creating a position that would be a cabinet-level official reporting to him. The position: inspector general.

The inspector general, who would report directly to the mayor, would have broad oversight powers to monitor BWL operations and best practices. Such a move would allow him to be able to readily assure the public that everything was operating appropriately at the BWL, Bernero said.

Ursula Schyver, vice president of education and customer programs with the American Public Power Association, said she is unaware of any public utility that has developed such a model before.

The proposal is being eyed warily by some locally.

Take Nancy Wonch, a former BWL commissioner appointed by former Mayor David Hollister: “When the mayor talked about an inspector general, I think a reasonable inference could be drawn that he intends that this person answer directly to the mayor and educate and support the mayor relative to the BWL,” she wrote in an email.

Referring to the panel Bernero set up to look at BWL’s 2013 ice storm performance, she added: “My understanding of what the review team recommended was someone who would educate and support the Board of Commissioners in following best practices” “I don’t think those two ideas are consistent.” While the mayor has backed off eliminating an independent Board of Commissioners, he did not completely dismiss that option either when he noted in an interview with City Pulse publisher Berl Schwartz that the inspector general proposal was a halfway measure between keeping the governance as it is and gutting it completely.

Wonch says she believes the inspector general proposal may, in fact, be a takeover of the BWL from a different direction.

“Might as well skip the inspector general and have the [General Manager] report directly to the mayor,” she wrote.

With this kind of history — Bernero’s influence over the board in hiring J. Peter Lark, and his subsequent role in firing Lark as prime examples — it leaves many questioning Bernero’s motives.

“The mayor keeps saying the BWL is broken,” said Ron Byrnes, business manager for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. which represents many BWL workers. “We’re in the dark as to what is broken. We have not heard any specifics.”

For the union, the inspector general position is not necessarily the answer to that accountability. They want to know what authority the position would have — for instance, they ask, would this person be able to overrule the actions of the general manager? That’s unclear.

Retired Gen. Michael McDaniel, who chaired the community review team, said the only major recommendation the BWL hasn’t adopted is to create a position designed to review operations and programming and report to the board on recommendations for changes to bring the operations into line with best practices. It’s a job that sounds much like an inspector general, except reporting to the commissioners, not the mayor.

That recommendation, he said, was because the review team “did not have a sense we had a complete picture” because certain documents — such as emails — were missing and not provided. Combine that, he said, with the “siloing” — where those working in water, worked on water; those in electricity, worked on electricity; and those in steam, worked in steam, and never the twain would meet — he felt such a position would help the volunteer board “know what they don’t know.”

Further clouding this issue is a proposal from the mayor to amend the City Charter to make the BWL attorney report directly to the city attorney. The city attorney is an appointee of the mayor who also represents the City Council. Under Bernero’s proposal, the BWL would receive all its legal opinions from a person answering directly to the city attorney — a person under the direct control and influence of the mayor.

Wonch said that’s a recipe for a conflict of interest for the attorney.

“Mingling the interests of the city with the responsibility of BWL would impact the way the BWL lawyer represents the BWL,” she said. “Requiring the BWL lawyer to report to the mayor or the city attorney does just that.”

Wonch, who is also an attorney, provided this example.

“For instance, say the City says, ´We want to raise rates and also the payment to the City to fund something that benefits only the City, like a shortfall in the budget.´ Assume that the BWL really needs and is actually required to invest any money from a rate increase in BWL infrastructure to serve its customers — all of them,” she posited. “Whose side is the lawyer going to take? I think the BWL needs a lawyer that represents the BWL. She can be a special assistant city attorney but there needs to be clarification that the BWL is the client. That way the advice that the attorney gives is not tainted by the interests of the City.”

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