UNION CITY, MI (WTVB) – With the Michigan South Central Power Agency Board scheduled to meet Monday morning to examine General Manager Paul Beckhusen’s contract, Board Member and Union City Village Manager Chris Mathis has issued a statement saying he has “grave concerns over the issues before us and what could have a direct effect to our electric utility, despite our strong objections.”
Mathis says Beckhusen’s contract ends on June 30, 2020. Under terms of the contract, the board has to let Beckhusen know by July 1, 2019 if it is not being renewed.
Mathis adds the contract allows for a 14-month severance. He fears the board will not renew his contract and in turn still pay him the severance which Mathis claims will result in a $500,000 payment for a position that he feels the agency no longer needs.
Mathis and Hillsdale City Manager David Mackie have been sharp critics of Beckhusen’s practices in the past. Mackie said in a letter to the board that paying an employee a half million dollars for one year of service “is the very reason people mistrust government”. Both have voted to fire Beckhusen and not give him any pay raises in the past but they have been in the minority each time.
A divided board voted 3-2 last January to keep Beckhusen as GM following a performance evaluation. Voting in favor of keeping Beckhusen were Jeff Budd of Coldwater, Tom Tarkiewicz of Marshall and Kevin Cornish of Clinton.
The board also voted 3-2 at that time to give Beckhusen a raise and pay his $17,000 attorney fees following a probe by the Lansing law firm of Fraser Trebilcock into a personnel issue involving Beckhusen. Mathis and Mackie also voted against a motion in January that the investigation findings did not support the allegations made against Beckhusen.
Meanwhile, Mathis says all five MSCPA communities have been accepted into the Michigan Public Power Agency as associate members. The MPPA currently has 22 full members.
The bitter feelings that have developed between MSCPA members over the last year has left the 40-year-old agency’s future up in the air.
The agency was scheduled to have its annual meeting July 10 in Jonesville, but Mathis says the hard feelings brewing between the communities and the lack of RSVPs led to it being cancelled.
(Reporting by Jim Measel)
