To outsiders, Grand Haven is a beautiful beach town, a hidden gem, a destination for summer tourists. The town has a proud history of logging and entrepreneurship, and is well known for its annual Coast Guard Festival. Despite the idyllic facade, something appears to be going on behind the scenes in Grand Haven.
In the national context, Washington DC has gained itself the reputation as ‘the swamp’. Comprised of politicians, lobbyists, bureaucrats, government contractors and big donors, DC is the richest and most powerful place on the planet. Under the guise of public service, these players are immersed in a culture of cronyism and influence peddling. Back-room deals abound and non-profit organizations and attorneys specialize in hiding where the money flows. These entities fight amongst each other to influence legislation that favors an inside group of stakeholders, milking taxpayers and future generations for as much as they can get. Just as a fish rots from the head, this “business model” that ensures riches and influence for the well-connected has been emulated by state-level government swamps and now can be found at the county and municipal levels.
The November 2023 election ballot in Grand Haven saw races for mayor, school bonds, and a proposal to change the city charter to place the electrical utility, known as the Board of Light and Power (BLP), under the control of the city council. In the weeks running up to the election, some of the activities taking place out of the public’s eye began to be revealed.
Emails revealed that three members of city council and at least one BLP board member were aware and perhaps involved in creating the plan to place the BLP under the direction of the city. Council member Kevin McLaughlin sent the email below to Council members Karen Lowe and Ryan Cummins, as well as BLP board member Andrea Hendrick.
In addition to serving on the BLP, Andrea Hendrick was an unsuccessful candidate in the Grand Haven mayoral race. During the campaign, it was revealed that Hendrick’s entire career has focused on the marijuana and mushroom industries. Her company, I Site Consulting Group, helps cannabis businesses find locations to open dispensaries and navigate the permitting process at the local level, and her other company, Queen Leaf LLC, was given pre-qualification approval to open a marijuana Provisioning Center in the City of Grand Haven. Her business partner, Landon Bartley, is an expert in marijuana and energy issues, and gave public comment at Grand Haven meetings, but did not disclose his connection to Hendrick.
During the time when the City of Grand Haven was considering legalizing recreational marijuana, the city council was also crafting local policies and procedures regarding permitting. At the February 7, 2022, meeting, council members Cummins, Lowe, and McLaughlin worked together to move a scheduled marijuana legal briefing to a closed session. On June 6, 2022, Council member Mike Fritz accused McLaughlin of selling his vote. McLaughlin had accepted a $500 campaign donation from a local marijuana businessman. At the same meeting, another tense discussion revealed city attorney Ron Bultje, attorney Tom Forshee, and city manager Pat McGinnis had been involved in changing one word in a marijuana ordinance that resulted in a medicinal marijuana permit holder receiving priority to open a coveted recreational marijuana facility. Following this ordinance change, the property where the facility was slated to be built sold for $900,000. The property had sold only three years earlier for only $285,000.
Ron Bultje is the attorney for the City of Grand Haven. He is also the attorney for the BLP. According to the charter, city council must approve the BLP’s attorney. Until March 2022, city council had approved a separate attorney for the BLP. This changed at the same time recreational marijuana legalization was being considered, and plans were being made for dealing with the cleanup responsibilities on Harbor Island.
To complicate matters, Attorney Ron Bultje also represents several municipalities who are customers of the BLP through their franchise agreements. These include Spring Lake Township, Robinson Township, the Village of Spring Lake, and until recently, Grand Haven Charter Township. The City of Ferrysburg is the only BLP municipal customer not represented by Bultje. This is significant because the agreement approved by Attorney Bultje for the city to reimburse the BLP $1,000,000 for snowmelt expenses involved passing a portion of the cost onto BLP customers through an operating expense, despite these customers gaining no benefit of the snowmelt system. The City of Ferrysburg raised a formal written objection to this charge which has not yet been resolved.
In August 2023, the BLP received a FOIA request for emails sent by board member Andrea Hendrick. The request involved emails related to the BLP which Hendrick had sent/received on her personal email account. An initial batch of approximately 200 emails was released to the FOIA requester, but the other emails were held by Hendrick’s personal attorney Sarah Howard and city attorney Ron Bultje until the BLP agreed to pay Hendrick’s related attorney fees. The BLP now considers this matter resolved and during the June 20, 2024 board meeting (39:00), disclosed this issue resulted in a total cost of $29,076.
If the name of Hendrick’s personal attorney sounds familiar, that is because Sarah Howard also represented Adeline Hambley in her case against the Ottawa County Board of Commissioners and Rev. Jared Cramer in his case against Ottawa County. She represents Ottawa County Commissioner Christian Kleinjans in his complaint against MSU Extension. Additionally, Howard is Karen Lowe’s personal attorney, and represented an anonymous whistleblower for the BLP who brought a complaint to Grand Haven City Council. During the same meeting when the BLP reported the cost of the FOIA request for Hendrick’s emails, they reported a direct cost of $41,126 to the BLP related to the anonymous whistleblower claim.
In January 2024, the BLP board terminated the employment contract of General Manager Dave Walters without cause. Walters had made whistleblower complaints about the actions of the three Grand Haven City Council members and two BLP board members who appeared to be working against the BLP together behind the scenes. Due to these events, in April 2024, Walters filed a complaint against the BLP board claiming that his termination was a retaliatory action and that his professional reputation had been damaged.
Once Grand Haven residents gain a better understanding of what is happening behind the scenes, if they find officials abusing our government institutions for personal gain, they will likely tell them to go “pound sand.” Our small-town version of a political swamp needs to be drained.