A citizen-led group in Grand Haven collected signatures to place a proposal on the November 2023 ballot that, if passed, will make the Board of Light and Power (BLP) an advisory to the Grand Haven City Council.
This announcement was made at the April 17, 2023 Grand Haven City Council meeting by Jacob Welch, a representative of the Board of Light and Power Charter Change Coalition. The BLPCCC, a citizen-led group not affiliated with the BLP, wants to create a new city department to oversee the BLP, controlled by a seven-member commission, whose members are appointed by the Grand Haven City Council. According to the BLPCCC, the director of the BLP department would be selected by the city manager along with the city council.
The BLPCCC was formerly known as the Grand Haven Energy Organization. It was this organization that led the effort in 2021 to cancel the construction of a peaking load generator on Harbor Island. Current BLP board member Andera Hendrick, who is also running to be mayor of Grand Haven, was a member of the Grand Haven Energy Organization.
The BLP was created as an independent organization, working in conjunction with the City of Grand Haven, to operate the JB Sims Power Plant. When JB Sims was decommissioned in February 2020, the BLP transitioned into an organization that purchases power from the energy grid to sell to customers, and manages the electric utility infrastructure.
The announcement from the BLPCCC greatly surprised BLP board chairman Mike Westbrook who happened to be present at the Grand Haven City Council meeting. Minutes after hearing this announcement, he gave public comment as a local resident.
“The purpose of the BLP is to grant voters direct control over their utility with accountability for ensuring highly reliable, sustainable, and affordable power. It’s an unusual step to take away the elected representation and even more unusual that this process was conducted with no transparency at all. The BLP was not notified of any desire to dissolve the elected board, in any recent public comments. The BLP’s recent customer satisfaction surveys are overwhelmingly positive. So, it’s difficult to understand the purpose of this grass roots initiative. Who or what organizations influenced the petition? Who is the attorney that was hired to draft the amendment? Who has hired and paid for their services? The BLP has earned consistently high ratings for reliability and customer service over the past several years. In fact, the BLP reliability ratings are among the highest of any municipal utility in the nation. BLP earned a Diamond Level Certification from the American Public Power Association. The results of the customer satisfaction survey and independent business readiness risk analysis are equally impressive. If this is the case, what is motivating the need for a charter amendment? Current board seats are six-year terms to allow for the development of expertise and stability for making decisions about very technical subject matter such as power purchasing, organized labor relations, capital planning and strategic initiatives. How can an appointed committee without accountability to the elected people of this community maintain continuity of expertise in these subjects and make informed, unbiased decisions? How is the city planning to maintain the financial reserves necessary for capital expenses, and pension planning for its utility? Most importantly, will the city have access to BLP funds to cover debt reliabilities for other city departments? I stand here tonight very proud of the BLP. They give excellent service to this community.”
In the wake of the decommission of the JB Sims Power Plant, the City of Grand Haven and the BLP are facing a major environmental clean-up effort. Coal combustion residuals (CCR), sometimes referred to as ash, is a known by-product of coal generating power plants. Anticipating that a clean-up effort would be necessary once JB Sims was decommissioned, the BLP set aside $16 million. While performing environmental testing to determine a plan for cleaning up Harbor Island, perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) was discovered in addition to CCR on Harbor Island.
Before the power plant was built, Harbor Island served as the city dump. PFAS was likely part of the trash dumped on Harbor Island. The unanticipated discovery of PFAS has complicated the environmental clean-up effort by blurring the lines of responsibility between the City of Grand Haven and the BLP. In addition, the presence of both PFAS and CCR will complicate, and likely increase the cost of the clean-up.
To complicate matters further, the BLP is quite financially stable while the City of Grand Haven is facing major debt. In addition to the $16 million the BLP set aside for environmental remediation, the BLP has a fully funded pension program whereas the city does not. Since the city was not anticipating an environmental clean-up effort, they have not set any money aside for remediation. The costs of environmental clean-up are currently unknown, but roughly estimated to be in the $40-$80 million range. In an effort to plan for increased clean-up costs, at the April 20, 2023 BLP board meeting, General Manager Dave Walters proposed charging customers an Environmental Remediation Surcharge which would be billed on a per kilowatt-hour basis. The surcharge would raise customer bills approximately $2/month and generate an additional $1 million over a one-year period that could be used to clean-up Harbor Island.
Understanding this background information is helpful in understanding the BLPCCC. A few days after the announcement to gather ballot proposal signatures was made at the Grand Haven City Council meeting, the BLP held their monthly board meeting. At the April 20, 2023 BLP board meeting, local resident Jenni Shepherd-Kelley spoke in opposition to the proposed ballot proposal.
“You guys provide my power. I have always been a happy customer. Every single time my power has gone out, it is always back on within minutes. [] I absolutely cannot understand how anyone could support this new initiative.”
She went on to describe how this ballot proposal would remove the power of the people to elect members of the BLP board, and transfer that power to the city council. She then noted the conflict of interest for BLP board member Andrea Hendrick who is running for mayor and was formerly associated with the group leading this effort. During the second opportunity for public comment, Ms. Shepherd-Kelley further spoke in opposition to the proposal.
“I would look into how many times city entities have taken over board run municipal power companies and what they end up doing with them. Because what they end up doing with them is selling them over time to massive billionaire companies.”
She then noted that the City of Grand Haven is approximately $68 million in debt and asked,
“Is this a giant money grab? Absolutely. Everybody can see that. Everybody knows that this is a giant money grab. They want your money.”
Relations between the City of Grand Haven and the BLP have been strained over the past few years. The city approved a plan to decommission the JB Sims plant, but later cancelled plans to construct a peaking load plant on the site after intense public pressure raised concerns of potential pollution. The relationship grew more strained as unanticipated environmental contamination was discovered on Harbor Island and the city realized they could be liable for a portion of the remediation. The city then began to take charge of the clean-up project by hiring a different company (HDR) to perform environmental testing. The city also refused the BLP the right to hire an independent attorney to represent their position. Now a group of citizens is leading an effort to transfer the control of the BLP to the city. At the same time, one member of the BLP has a significant conflict of interest. Who stands to gain the most if this proposal passes?
As a citizen, you should ask yourself what are the interests of each group, what outcomes are possible, and how each possible outcome affects you.