Dear Residents of the Alpena Community:

The City’s Mayor recently sent an open letter to the community that characterized the most recent
failure of the two sides to reach a mutually acceptable resolution to this years-long dispute. The Mayor’s
letter avoids crucial facts and glosses over the details of these negotiation sessions and the Township’s
effort to resolve this longstanding dispute. The Township and the City have worked on the formation of
the water and sewer authority as a result of the City suing the Township in 2014. At that time, the City
had walked away from negotiations with the Township. The City similarly walked away from an agreed-
upon resolution in 2017 to settle on fair and reasonable water and sewer rates for the community,
causing costly and lengthy appeals. The Township has not walked away from the table; instead, the City
provided notice that it was unwilling to work through a move to either form an authority or settle on fair
and reasonable water and sewer rates for the community.

The Mayor’s open letter failed to disclose that, in this third attempt to negotiate a way forward, the City
demanded that it have a “forever” contract to provide administrative services at a cost that was more
than double what the joint-consultant hired by the City and Township would support. Let me restate
this: the City’s proposed costs were more than double what the expert advised was appropriate. The
City was nevertheless adamant that the costs were necessary to support a full-time engineering
department in addition to various salaries of the City’s administrative staff. A “forever” contract—a
contract with no end, no need for renewal, and no basis for competitively evaluating the value of the
services provided and the associated costs—would have eliminated the ability to monitor and control
costs for both City and Township residents. The Township was unwilling to agree to such a practice that
would also violate Michigan law by imposing unreasonable and unsupported water and sewer rates
across both City and Township ratepayers. It is the City—not the Township—that made this “forever”
arrangement a non-negotiable item. The Township did provide a lawful and workable written proposal
that would afford the City to have the contract the Mayor seeks related to administrative staffing and
support, but that was also refused.

Prior to the breakdown in the position, the Township requested that if a sewer and water authority
agreement could not be reached, the parties explore negotiating water and sewer rates with the City.
The Circuit Court provided the parties time to do this. The City, however, responded that it had no
interest in rate discussions with the Township, instead indicating that the parties would need to pursue
a decision from the Court, which will cost the community thousands in legal fees and expert consulting
fees.

The Mayor’s open letter also mentions overdue bills for water and sewer provisions to the Township.
The Mayor’s letter fails to disclose that the “overdue” bills are the very basis of the dispute between the
two parties to the lawsuit, in which the Township has challenged the rates imposed by the City as
unreasonable and illegal. The City would impose an additional cost of over 20 million dollars onto
4385 US 23 North, Alpena, MI 49707 ~ (989) 356-0297 ~ www.alpenatownship.com
Township residents, and those calculations do not include the additional millions it will cost the
Township’s residents over the next several decades.

I was elected as Supervisor to fight for the Township residents in finding a reasonable resolution—not to
have Township ratepayers pay exorbitantly high rates to pay for the City’s decades-long underfunded
system. The Mayor’s letter fails to recognize that the City hiked the rates charged to the Township by
61% in 2014. That is remarkable because a rate study commissioned by the City showed rates charged to
City residents were far too low (almost half in some scenarios) to support the longevity of the
community’s water and wastewater system. The City’s unreasonable 61% hike in rates was due to it
refusing to consider or implement the reasonable rates indicated in their rate study and further declined
to reach a reasonable resolution during prior negotiation discussions. In my opinion, the community
water and sewer infrastructure needs direction from an independent Board that would have been
established through the authority, and to remove politicians from the equation in order to provide
affordable rates for the residents of Alpena.

The Alpena Community should know that the negotiations that would have led to the creation of a
water and sewer authority were nearly complete, including the essential terms regarding rates that
would be charged to City and Township residents, along with a preliminary rate study. The Township has
done nothing but negotiate in good faith since the beginning of this dispute, and it stands ready to
continue good faith negotiations for the benefit of the community. The Township is obligated to protect
its citizens and cannot accept the burden of covering the City’s general fund deficiencies and the lack of
long-range planning in the City’s water and sewer system fees, whether it be through a sewer and water
authority that includes an unreasonable “forever” contract with no accountability, or continuing the
present relationship with unreasonable fees and rates that would violate Michigan law.

4385 US 23 North, Alpena, MI 49707 ~ (989) 356-0297 ~ www.alpenatownship.com