UNION CITY, MI (WTVB) – Union City Village Manager and Police Chief Chris Mathis has responded to a statement adopted by the Coldwater Board of Public Utilities Board Tuesday which called accusations made by him and Hillsdale City Manager David Mackie against the utility, the Board, the Michigan South Central Power Agency and CBPU staff misleading.
Mathis said in a Facebook post that the last investigation conducted by the Lansing law firm of Fraser Trebilcock was not a complete one.
According to Mathis, the investigator was told to stay out of Coldwater’s affairs and that CBPU Director Jeff Budd even indicated that in the last open M.S.C.P.A. meeting.
The Agency Board of Directors voted 5-0 in December to end the probe by Fraser Trebilcock into a personnel issue involving MSCPA General Manager Paul Beckhusen but Mathis and Mackie have expressed dissatisfaction with the findings of the investigation.
Mathis went on to say “the investigator did not clear anybody and even directly said that to the board. It is disingenuous to claim otherwise. A written report on the investigation was never done. Nobody can tell me why that was the case and who made that decision.”
Mathis and Mackie have been very outspoken in how Beckhusen has conducted business and the purchase by the CBPU of the former Sauk Trail Trading Post building three years ago. Mathis said in his opinion, “it was a bad business practice to attempt to bully Union City residents to buy a $1.6 million building worth $660,000.
Mathis feels “supporting the very first complete and full investigation ever conducted in this situation by the Attorney Generals Office will be a great step to transparency and should help answer a lot of these questions.”
