BWL Board Votes to Terminate General Manager's Employment

Image: J. Peter Lark faces the BWL Board of Commissioners today

There was only one item on the Agenda for the hastily convened Lansing Board of Water & Light Board (BWL) of Commissioners Special Board Meeting this afternoon. That was to "Review the Employment of the Lansing Board of Water & Light's General Manager," J. Peter Lark. Following a brief portion of public comments, the Board voted 5 to 3 to terminate Lark’s employment “for cause” and appoint an interim manager.

That the vote was specifically to terminate “for cause with failure to render and perform services according to his designated employment agreement” is significant because it means that Lark’s severance package is significantly limited. Rather than being entitled to a large lump sum equal to the salary he would have been paid if he finished out his 5-year contract (about $900,000), being fired “for cause” means he is entitled only to six months' salary, along with some benefits.

Although the meeting room at the BWL renovated REO Town Depot was packed, during the open Public Comments at the start of the meeting only three people stepped up to the podium to speak on the matter. Despite a large contingent of BWL employees and citizens present, not one person spoke in support of Lark.

Carol Wood, at-large Lansing City Councilmember, took to the public podium to chastise the BWL Commissioners for their lack of communication with the Lansing City Council. She commented that she had spoken to this Board many times, during the ice storm and after, and said “I must again tell you how disappointed I am with you as a Board.”

Wood stated that she had on many occasions requested and was assured that the Board would be more open and forthcoming in terms of talking to the Lansing City Council. Yet Wood indicated she only heard about this meeting by reading about it in the newspaper. She went on to say that the Lansing City Council was not given an update by the Board or any indication where they were going. Woods said she found it disconcerting that again there is this lack of communication with the governmental board (Lansing City Council) that appointed each of the BWL Commissioners.

Alice Dreger, an East Lansing resident (and publisher of ELi) who suffered through 9 days of power failure last year, spoke about many of the shortcomings in Lark's leadership serving as BWL General Manger. She spoke about the failure of Lark to hire enough crews to help restore the power; Lark's going to New York on vacation while customers had no heat and electricity; his administration's destruction of records which resulted in covering up errors; and public attacks on BWL customers who were critical of the BWL performance during the crisis.

Dreger mentioned the two commission reports that found over 100 problems under Lark’s leadership. She asked why he is allowed to continue his employment with so much failure of leadership.

A gentleman who declined to give his name when asked also shared his experience at the BWL forum last winter during the power outage. (At that meeting, the first 45 minutes were taken up with a radio host and BWL employees praising Peter Lark.) He commented, “What I witnessed was a choreographed effort on someone’s part to avoid the real issue.” This speaker said that he hoped the Board would “listen to the real issues” and take action.

Then, since no one else rose to address the Board, the public comment portion of the meeting was closed. The Chair of the BWL Board, David Price, then turned to Commissioner Dennis Louney to make his motion.

Louney put forth a resolution with three parts: (1) to approve the termination of Director and General Manager Peter Lark for cause with failure to render and perform services according to his designated employment agreement; (2) to arrange for an attorney to represent BWL in legal negotiations and arrangements under the termination clauses of Lark’s contract specifying that the attorney would represent the Board in determining legal arrangements under the supervision of this matter by the Board Chair and Chair of Human Resources Committee; and (3) to appoint Dick Peffley to serve as Interim General Manager until a permanent replacement is named.

After the motion was seconded, Commissioner Sandra Zerkle asked if the Board would give Lark the opportunity for the discussion of the motion in closed session. The Chair responded that we could do that, but asked Lark for his preference. Lark responded, “I absolutely prefer it to take place in open session.”

The Chair asked if there was any discussion of the motion before the Board, and other than the clarification that it was one motion with three parts rather than three separate motions, there was not a single comment by any Commissioner.

With no further discussion the Board proceeded to a roll call vote, with votes “yes” supporting of the motion to oust Lark and votes “no” to defeat the motion.

Margaret Bossenbery voted no; Dennis Louney voted yes; Anthony McCloud voted yes; Anthony Mullen voted yes; David Price voted yes. The vote was therefore at that point 4-1 in favor. One more “yes” vote would terminate Lark’s contract; but if all the rest of the votes went “no,” the motion would fail.

Tracy Thomas' name was called and there was a pause. For almost two minutes, Thomas dramatically pondered his vote in what became an eerily silent meeting room. Then Thomas leaned forward and cast his “no” vote. This brought the total so far to 4-2.

Then Cynthia Ward voted yes, and Sandra Zerkle voted no, making the final count 5-3 in favor, and so the motion passed.

After the vote, Lark was given the opportunity to address the Board and the public. He thanked BWL Commissioners, employees and customers for their “patience and support.” Lark stated that he was surprised and disappointed at the Board’s “sudden and unilateral decision” to end his employment. He said, “I had no formal indication from the Board for my dismissal, nor can I think of anything that would contribute to the Board’s actions today after all the progress made in last twelve months by this Company.”

Lark concluded his statement by saying, “with that said, while I am disappointed in the Board’s decision, I look forward to a full resolution of this matter as outlined in our contract.”

The Board then voted on a motion to postpone their Committee of the Whole and their Finance Committee meetings and quickly adjourned.

Although the Board Meeting resolved that J. Peter Lark is no longer General Manager of the Lansing Board of Water and Light, what his termination will cost is not yet known. The vote was to terminate “for cause,” but no exact “cause” was stated except “failure to render and perform services according to his designated employment agreement.”

At the conclusion of the meeting, many people in the audience and members of the press were asking what just happened here—why did the BWL Board, which voted 7-1 in July to extend Lark's contract for another year until June 2018, now vote without explanation to terminate the contract?

Stay tuned to Eli for further developments on this story.

Looking forward, East Lansing City Manager George Lahanas tells Eli that the East Lansing City Council will be appointing East Lansing's official representative to the BWL Board soon, but no date on this action is available.

UPDATE: January 14, 11:45 am: In the eighth paragraph, the phrase "Another gentleman" was changed to "A gentleman," because the previous wording implied that Alice Dreger is a gentleman. She is not.

UPDATE: January 13, 11:45 pm: In the description of Louney's motion, the following phrase was added to the second part of the motion to more accurately reflect the motion: "specifying that the attorney would represent the Board in determining legal arrangements under the supervision of this matter by the Board Chair and Chair of Human Resources Committee."

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