Dave Walters has served as the General Manager for the Grand Haven Board of Light and Power since 2015. Since taking the position, he led the decommissioning of the J.B. Sims Plant and modernization of electricity distribution and metering infrastructure. Maintaining transformers, transmission lines, substation transformers, distribution lines, and distribution transformers is a key component of providing reliable, sustainable, and affordable service to local residents.
In general, technical experts enjoy focusing on technical issues. They make logical decisions based on costs, market conditions, and technical factors that increase functionality and enhance services of products they provide. Dave Walters is a technical expert who has not been willing to compromise his integrity for political purposes. Throughout the past few years however, political agendas have created a toxic work environment for BLP management, and driven a wedge between the BLP and city leadership. After years of dealing with political issues, during the October 19, 2023 meeting of the Grand Haven Board of Light and Power, General Manager Dave Walters announced his plans to retire on January 18, 2024. He read the following statement and released a follow-up statement printed below.
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“As I discussed with the board chair and vice chair at our agenda planning meeting last week Thursday, I have decided to provide at this meeting, through this written statement, a 90-day notification of my retirement, to become effective January 18, 2024.
I know some in the public, or our employees within the board of light power organization, may question the timing of this announcement. To them and to the board, I want to be clear. I consider this action to be a constructive discharge, or a wrongful termination of my employment agreement, as I am left with no other alternative at this point given recent developments and actions for those that will no doubt continue to bring the politics of the campaign into this process. Its timing, I would like to note here, that I have made every effort to resolve my ongoing breach of employment contract claims appropriately, confidentially, and respectfully, with my employer, which you are; the five members of the board of Light and Power.
You all, and I, are the parties to this contract, and the city council has no standing. Accordingly, I will continue to work amicably with the board to reach a fair and equitable settlement to these issues. I appreciate the commitment of the board chair and the vice chair to do the same, even though I am quite sure some may wish to make them very public for their own political benefit.
To that end, we all know certain individuals now seeking elected offices, have stated one of their primary goals during this campaign has been to change the BLP's management leadership. Well with the toxic work environment that they have created for management at the BLP in this process, I can now say we share the same goal, and as such, retirement settlement at this time is the best means for us to achieve our shared objective.
Let us all move on and allow the other dedicated men and women of the Board of Light and Power to continue to provide reliable affordable and dependable service to the residents of Grand Haven and the surrounding area as they have for more than 60 years without stirring up more unnecessary public dissent. You all on the board now have an opportunity to embody our core values as an organization, and to keep the offensive politics and rhetoric out of our local utility management and governance to the extent possible on either extreme of the political spectrum as many are now agreeing is necessary.
The questions for the public to answer on their ballot in these regards then becomes quite simple. Who will be the leader of our community's electric utility going forward? Which governmental body is the best suited to make that decision and selection? And who will be elected to that body? I believe the answers to these questions should now more than ever, be rather apparent.”
As a follow-up to his public statement provided at the BLP meeting on Thursday October 19, 2023, Walters made an additional public statement which is included below.
“The Board of Light and Power convened into closed session on Thursday after my retirement announcement for the purpose of reviewing with the City Attorney a proposed separation agreement to facilitate the terms of that retirement. That proposed agreement was developed by the Board’s Chair, Vice-Chair, BLP Human Resources Manager, and I a week earlier, and was reviewed by the City Attorney before the Board held its closed session. Again, the announced purpose of the closed session was for the full Board to review and discuss with legal counsel that proposed separation agreement, with the anticipation that the Board would then schedule consideration and potential action on that agreement in open session at a later meeting. After the Board’s closed session and meeting adjourned on Thursday night, I was provided an e-mail invite for a meeting with the Board Chair and HR Manager on Friday.
At that meeting I was presented a revised separation agreement developed, debated, considered and approved by the Board, under the advice of the City Attorney, entirely in their closed session Thursday night, in apparent violation of Michigan’s Open Meetings Act. This revised separation agreement was presented to me as a “counteroffer” that had been approved by the Board in their closed session, again upon the advice of the City Attorney, after a “heated debate” from the Board’s minority, both of whom are candidates running for local office in the November election, one for Mayor and one to continue on the Board, also both advocates for the approval of the Charter Change to dissolve the Board and eliminate my current position in the electric utility’s management structure. It is no secret that both of these Board members have openly expressed their desires to replace management leadership since the day they were sworn into office on the Board, contrary to the actions of four members of the Board that voted to renew my employment contract for the period from July 1, 2022 to December 31, 2026, as a result of successfully achieving all of the Board established goals for management at that time.
Divisive, dysfunctional, and non-transparent Board actions of this nature, driven by two Board members who suggest they are advocates for “positive change” at the utility are the reason for our employee discontent with the direction of that change, and the reason for my desire to pursue early retirement before the conclusion of my contract.”
Walters has served the City of Grand Haven through his employment at the BLP for over eight years, and the customers of the BLP have greatly benefited from his expertise at providing cost-effective and reliable electricity.