The September 18, 2023, meeting of the Grand Haven City Council again gave the public a clear glimpse into how three members of the council, with support of the city attorney, do not appear to be working in the best interest of the public. Two weeks prior, the council met in closed session following the regular meeting, where they agreed on a plan to address a Board of Light and Power (BLP) whistleblower complaint. During the September 18th meeting, three members of the council, with support of the city attorney, executed a completely different action with the Channel 8 News watching. Here is what happened:
In late August, Grand Haven City Attorney Ron Bultje received a phone call from an attorney representing an anonymous whistleblower employed by the Board of Light and Power (BLP). The whistleblower alleged that the BLP had acted inappropriately in responding to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, had deleted emails so as to not have to respond, and spread misinformation about the upcoming November 7, 2023, ballot regarding the proposed charter change amendment. The whistleblower’s attorney informed Bultje that documentation would be forthcoming.
On September 5, 2023, in a closed session following the regular council meeting, City Attorney Ron Bultje informed the council on the matter. During that meeting, the council agreed to wait to discuss how to address the matter until after Bultje had had the time to gather more information and discuss the matter with the Board of Light and Power. (1:05:25) On September 18, Mayor McNally explained the plan agreed upon by council in the closed session. “At the initial meeting we all had in our closed session, your advice at that point was, you were going to meet with the whistleblower’s attorney, sort out what there was, then go to the BLP and inform them of the allegations, and talk about what should be done. That was never done.” As Mayor McNally stated, the plan agreed upon by council members in closed session never happened.
It should be noted that in August 2022, the Grand Haven City Council stripped the BLP of obtaining independent legal representation, resulting as City Attorney Ron Bultje doubling as legal representation for the BLP.
Instead of the plan agreed upon by city council during the closed session, two members of the Grand Haven City Council, with support of City Attorney Ron Bultje, dealt with the complaint prior to bringing the matter to the BLP, in the very public format of a city council meeting. During the meeting, a resolution was passed to seek an independent investigation into the BLP whistleblower allegations. The council discussion on the matter during the September 18, 2023, meeting provides interesting insight. (40:35-1:30:50)
Normal Procedure for Complaints
(55:00) During the September 18th Grand Haven City Council Meeting, Council member Mike Fritz asked about normal procedures regarding these types of investigations. Attorney Bultje responded that it would not be normal to refer an investigation such as this to a prosecuting attorney or to the state attorney general right away. Normal procedure would be to do an internal investigation.
(1:13:00) Mayor McNally also commented on normal investigation procedures. (1:12:00) “These are serious allegations and they do need to be investigated no question. The question is at what level they should be investigated.” She then explained that if the allegations are found credible, there are a range of potential actions that could be taken by the BLP and/or the city including performance evaluations, employee discipline, and referral for criminal prosecution.
Mayor McNally also expressed concern over the way the matter was being handled. “We’re compressing the time frame on this in a way that isn’t a good idea. If you want to investigate something thoroughly, you give it to an investigator, and you let the investigator conduct it, and you don’t really comment publicly on what’s going on until you figure out whether you got anything, and how you think it should be handled.”
Bultje Assisted Cummins and Lowe in Executing an Alternative Plan
During the September 18, 2023 meeting, City Attorney Ron Bultje explained that meeting agenda packets are prepared and made available to the public a few days before meetings, and in this case, the agenda was due on Thursday September 14, 2023. (1:03:30) On Tuesday September 12, he was provided with over 200,000 emails of which “6,000 were especially pertinent”, and “there were two council members who said ‘we need to take action on this sooner, rather than later.’” He also stated, “with the knowledge that this was going to be placed on the agenda for tonight. I had that knowledge at some point on Tuesday afternoon. [] I also knew that your agenda goes out Thursday afternoon. Essentially, I had a day and a half.”
Bultje stated, “I was driven by events.”
McNally responded, “The events were, that two of the council members put it on the agenda; were in the process of putting it on the agenda for this meeting. Is that accurate?”
Bultje answered, “I knew that that was the plan; to put it on the agenda for this evening, and I knew the pack was going out on Thursday afternoon.” What’s more, Bultje even helped draft the resolution. (1:08:17) “I knew what the general structure of the allegations were. That is reflected in the resolution. I drafted this portion of the resolution.”
Cummins, Lowe and Bultje Execute the Plan (Thursday, September 14, 2023)
The new plan involved immediately placing the resolution on the agenda in order to announce the investigation to the public, which also effectively stripped the BLP of its authority to launch an independent investigation. Many events took place on Thursday September 14, 2023, which set the plan in motion.
First of all, Bultje met with the whistleblower and the whistleblower’s attorney. He explained setting up the meeting. (1:06:45) “I called the BLP whistleblower’s attorney and said I don’t have time to go through these emails before this is going to become public. [] I’m not going to go public without having an adequate review of the emails. I’m not going to do an inadequate review of the emails. I’m going to meet with you if you’re willing.” The 2.5-hour meeting ended around 12:00.
Both Council Member Cummins and Attorney Ron Bultje acknowledged that following the whistleblower meeting, they met virtually with along with Council Member Lowe to discuss the allegations and finalize the resolution for the agenda. Bultje attempted to show he was not an integral part of the plan. “Two council people may put something on an agenda. That’s not a city attorney role.” However, he neglected to mention that these two council members would not have been able to place the resolution on the agenda without his assistance in drafting the resolution and pushing forward with the accelerated timeline.
Council Member Cummins made an additional statement that showed Bultje played an integral part in their plan. (1:21:50) “Council Member Lowe and I worked closely with the city attorney throughout the week, and asked a lot of questions. We met with him virtually after his meeting with the whistleblower and the whistleblower's attorney. We asked him some questions to make sure that he felt that there was at least a credible complaint being made. Our city attorney gathered quite a bit of detail verbally from the whistleblower. As the city attorney indicated, wrote what he believes at least, were allegations should be looked into. The city attorney did provide this entire council with an update last Thursday. He indicated that he was comfortable with the way that this resolution was written.”
Attorney Bultje Recommends City Manager Ashley Latch Inform the BLP
Despite being the attorney representing the BLP, City Attorney Ron Bultje recommended City Manager Ashley Latch inform the BLP of the resolution. (1:08:30) “The BLP should not read this in the packet that was released late Thursday afternoon. My recommendation to her [City Manager Ashley Latch] was that she would be the better person to have a discussion with BLP officials, rather than me because of my desire to lower the temperature, and I didn’t think my discussion with BLP officials would lower the temperature.”
(1:20:15) Council Member Fritz was bothered by the events of the evening. “We all agreed we would let Ron do his job. We gave him specific orders on what to do. We all said yes to it, and then all of a sudden, things have changed. It really bothers me. [] It's not right.”
To me, as a member of the public, this entire matter appears to be political theater. The Board of Light and Power Charter Change Coalition (BLPCCC) is a special interest group working to strip the authority of the BLP and place it under the control of the city. Emails obtained via FOIA have shown that Council Members Lowe, Cummins, and McLaughlin, along with BLP Board Member Hendrick were involved in the BLPCCC. However, the public does not appear to be on board with the BLPCCC agenda. Now, rather than keeping serious allegations of misconduct confidential until an investigation determines their validity, the city council is announcing them to the public through a meeting resolution in what looks like an attempt to disparage the BLP. Again, Council Members Lowe, Cummins, and McLaughlin voted for this resolution, and prior public comment has established that current BLP Board Member Andrea Hendrick worked with the whistleblower and whistleblower’s attorney in bringing the complaint to City Attorney Bultje. Notably, Andrea Hendrick previously was involved in a different BLP investigation that uncovered social media posts and emails showing she was the one who was condescending, demanding, hostile, dismissive and discriminatory.
In a rather odd coincidence of events, all of this just happened to occur following a visit by Attorney General Dana Nessel to the City of Grand Haven in which she met with council members to discuss Harbor Island. With the BLPCCC controversy, these allegations seem to have come at the perfect time to sway public opinion just before an election.
A few closing data points. The attorney for the whistleblower just happens to be Sarah Howard. Sarah Howard is the attorney representing Addeline Hambley in her case against Ottawa County, and prior public comment also established that Howard is Andrea Hendrick’s attorney. What’s more, City Attorney Ron Bultje’s daughter, Crystal Bultje, is a partner with Sarah Howard at Pinsky Smith.
