Council votes not to pay city’s bills
Fouts calls it blackmail as officials say attorney invoice must be paid first
What is typically a routine matter became the latest political football Tuesday for the Warren City Council when officials voted unanimously to table approving payment of the city’s general fund bills until administration pays all invoices from Plunkett Cooney law firm, the council’s special legal counsel.
The City Council approved payment of Plunkett Cooney invoices totaling $83,288 at its Nov. 10 meeting.
“This council voted to pay Plunkett Cooney and the administration is refusing to cut the check,” said Council Secretary Mindy Moore.
She indicated at the end of Tuesday’s meeting that once Plunkett Cooney invoices are paid, she will call a special meeting of the City Council to approve payment of the bills that were tabled at last night’s meeting.
Vendors whose payment of invoices is on hold include: DTE Energy, AT&T, Blue Care Network, Delta Dental, U.S. Postal Service, Dearborn National Life Insurance, Huntington National Bank, and Apollo Fire Equipment. A total of 290 checks for the sum of $4.93 million were tabled.
“This could put city services at risk,” Mayor James Fouts said to The Macomb Daily Wednesday. “These bills are payments to various vendors for services that take care of the City of Warren on a daily basis. If city vendors don’t get paid, they will not perform vital services.”
Fouts has called the council’s hiring of Plunkett Cooney “illegal” and called its move to table paying general fund bills until the law firm’s invoices are paid “outrageous.” He said that the city’s budget is currently under litigation in Macomb County Circuit Court and until that case is settled, Plunkett Cooney will not be paid.
“The hiring of Plunkett
Cooney is in dispute and we are in Judge Richard Caretti’s court,” said Fouts. “They will be paid when we resolve the differences we have regarding the budget. The City Council is trying to blackmail the city.”
Building Director’s appointment questioned
Warren City Council Secretary Mindy Moore says James Cummins, who is listed on the City of Warren’s website as the Building Director, was never officially appointed to his position. Moore said a letter of appointment from Mayor James Fouts is dated Oct. 12, 2020, but that City Clerk Sonja Buffa never received the letter and that Cummins never came before Council for appointment.
“We do not have to approve his appointment, but it has to come before council so we have the chance to deny his appointment,” said Moore. “Procedure under the City Charter is the mayor has to notify the city clerk of the appointment within five days and then it goes to council. He was appointed in October and this is December and the procedure was not followed.”
Moore is asking for Cummins to be unappointed, and then reappointed following the procedure outlined in the City Charter.
Software upgrade request tabled
A request from the City of Warren Building Department for an upgrade to its BS&A software was tabled at Tuesday’s council meeting. The software is used by municipalities to process permits and track inspections, among other things. Center Line, Fraser, Roseville and St. Clair Shores are among the many cities nationwide that use the software.
Councilpersons Garry Watts and Jonathan Lafferty said they would like to explore other options and look at what other vendors have to offer before agreeing to upgrade the current system.
“This is not a modern system,” said Lafferty. “It is an old system built on dot net. We should not be investing more money in an old system like this. This would be a groundbreaking solution if it were 1995.”
Resident Bill Clift spoke about BS& A during audience participation and questioned why the resident portal in other communities makes so much more information accessible than does Warren’s portal.
Cummins says the building department can’t switch its software without all of the other departments in the city that use it switch.