HILLSDALE, MI (WTVB) – The City of Hillsdale and the Village of Union City will be requesting Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel investigate what they feel were violations of the competitive bidding requirements by the Coldwater Board of Public Utilities and former Director Paul Beckhusen who is now the General Manager of the Michigan South Central Power Agency.
The controversy surrounding Beckhusen goes back almost three years ago when the Coldwater B.P.U. bought the former Sauk Trail Trading Post building on Division Street for $168,000 with the original intent of putting in office space for the Agency and the Coldwater B.P.U.’s technology center.
Union City Village Manager Chris Mathis and Hillsdale City Manager David Mackie have raised strong concerns about the cost of the building and the lack of transparency but they have been in the minority on numerous 3-2 votes when matters concerning Beckhusen came up before the board.
Hillsdale Mayor Adam Stockford said in his letter to Nessel that when the agency relocated its office to Coldwater, the handling of the bidding process to find a suitable contractor for the building renovations caught the attention of some agency board members.
An investigation by the Lansing law firm of Fraser Trebilcock found no conclusive evidence of wrongdoing by Beckhusen. Mathis and Mackie were not satisfied and voted against a motion last January that the investigation findings did not support the allegations made against Beckhusen.
Stockford says newly received documents following a Freedom of Information Act request appears to suggest highly unethical and possibly illegal activities in the bidding process that were not reviewed in the Fraser Trebilcock investigation. According to Stockford, that includes the improper disqualification of the low bid contractor, expenditure of over $1.5 million in public funds and the hiring of Beckhusen’s wife by the contractor.
Stockford’s letter goes onto the say, “trust in government institutions is at a low point. We do not take this action lightly and a good relationship with our friends and neighbors in Coldwater is not something we would offend without great remorse.”
Stockford’s letter will be presented to the Hillsdale City Council on Monday night. Mathis says they will examine similar action at the next Union City village board meeting.
