BLP Terminates General Manager Employment Contract
Terms of Separation to be Negotiated
After passing a resolution to indemnify board member Andrea Hendrick during the January 25, 2024 meeting of the Grand Haven Board of Light and Power (BLP), the board passed a second resolution to terminate the employment contract of General Manager Dave Walters without cause. Although the resolution terminated the employment contract, the terms of separation still need to be agreed upon. The resolution refers to the outcomes of two future events which are likely to influence negotiations.
The whistleblower complaint against the BLP being investigated by the Grand Haven City Council has not been closed.
The emails from board member Andrea Hendrick requested via FOIA have not been released.
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. Dave Walters is a technical expert who has not been willing to compromise his integrity for political purposes.
The board thanked Walters for his service. Board Chair Mike Westbrook said, “I want to thank you for nine years of service at the Board of Light and Power. It’s been a pleasure working with you, through good times and bad. We have had long meetings over tough issues, and I’ve appreciated your insight in those meetings, and your leadership in those difficult situations. I appreciate that you shuttered a coal plant without laying off a single person. That’s to be commended. I think you set the BLP up to be a financially sound good place to work and I thank you for that.”
At an earlier meeting on October 19, 2023, Walters had announced his plans to retire on January 18, 2024. Walters along with the board chair, vice chair, and human resource manager had worked out a proposed separation agreement to facilitate the terms of his retirement. However, after meeting in closed session with the full board and attorney, an agreement was not reached. Two months later during the December 21, 2023, meeting, Walters provided an update explaining that an agreement still had not been reached.
Walters was not aware of the board’s planned action to terminate his employment contract at the January 25 meeting, but thanked the board for taking action. (1:38:10) “I actually appreciate the board taking action. This is exactly what I was asking for. There are three ways to terminate my contract. The board elected this one.”
Walters had previously claimed that two individual BLP board members and three members of the Grand Haven City Council had taken actions which were not in the best interests of the constituents they represent or the employees and organizations they oversee. The resolution emphasized that Walters did make claims of harassment and retaliation, but then stated they were investigated and found unsubstantiated. This is interesting because the resolution also referred to board member Andrea Hendrick’s emails requested by Walters via FOIA, stating that if the emails do validate his claims of harassment and retaliation, the terms of separation will be renegotiated.
Furthermore, in the resolution to indemnify Hendrick, it said, “the General Manager has stated that the purpose of his FOIA request for these records of Director Hendrick pertain to her position on the BLP Board, because the General Manager believes these records of Director Hendrick will show that he has been constructively discharged by the BLP Board.” In a written response to that resolution Walters said he never communicated his purpose for requesting the FOIA and that it was “not his responsibility, obligation, or desire to investigate.” That is the board’s responsibility.
The resolution terminating Walter’s contract stated, “Whereas, the BLP has done an internal investigation of the General Manager’s claims and has not found any basis for them.” As a member of the public, my question is, if Hendrick’s emails have not been released, how was the board able to complete an investigation?
It seems there are several inconsistent and inaccurate statements within these two resolutions. The resolution also referred to, “the city’s investigation into the whistleblower accusations against the General Manager.” Walters pointed out, “the whistleblower investigation wasn’t against me, by the way. If anything, that particular provision of this resolution is incorrect.”
During the public comment portion of the meeting Walters provided additional remarks. (1:46:15)
“I will be making several comments publicly on the last several actions that you have taken. The first one is that I want my comments presented to you before the meeting, that raise concerns about the resolution [to indemnify Hendrick] looked at. They should have been looked at before the discussion occurred, but they weren’t, so that will be one of my complaints.
The second complaint is, quite frankly, you took me entirely off guard by this action [contract termination] tonight; my staff, and the board. It’s very specific, if you read section 8.1.H. Anytime the board is considering the dismissal, suspension, or action against an employee, that must be done in open meetings at my prerogative. It’s apparent that this discussion was made amongst my staff, and amongst the board, outside of the public comment, and I was not given an opportunity to either decide, or not decide if I wanted to participate in that process, and whether it could be held in closed session or not.
Having the attorney draft up some document to consider, to avoid a very specific section of the Open Meetings Act, is a clear violation of the Open Meetings Act. That will be one of the items that I raise concerns with, with the board in these so-called negotiations that are to occur. We already know some of these things, so I guess we will be entering these negotiations.
I don’t have any intentions of using the FOIA request as an investigation. The board is saying that it investigated my claims? And it appropriately determined the results of that to be nothing. I don’t agree with that decision, and we can either discuss it internally as the Open Meetings Act requires, or we can do it in court I guess, but the requirement is by the Open Meetings Act it be done in public with my presence. Regardless, thank you. I appreciate you taking action, and now we can talk about it accordingly.”
Walters has intelligence, integrity, and the increasingly rare ability to think independently. He has served as a buffer for the Board of Light and Power to protect the entity from corruption and executing actions that are not favorable to ratepayers. The ratepayers of Grand Haven have received significant benefits from his efforts.
Moving forward, Rob Shelley, BLP Manager of Distribution and Engineering, who has worked for the BLP for over 8 years will serve as the interim General Manager. The board plans to send out requests for proposals to five different executive search services, and select a firm to assist with the search by the end of February. The job is expected to be posted by the end of April and the position is expected to be filled by July 31.
(1:31:50)