“It is a wicked thing to be neutral between right and wrong.”
Theodore Roosevelt
INCOMPATIBLE PUBLIC OFFICES: Cheating, Disloyalty, Unfaithfulness
- The Betrayal of the Lease:
The preceding posts have shown how Bill Lewis, as Village President, breached his fiduciary duty to the residents and taxpayers of the Village of Climax. Bill Lewis did so in concert with Trustee Denise Pyle when they orchestrated the Council’s passage of a lease of Village real property to Bill Lewis’s employer, the Lawrence Memorial District Library Board. A lease which called for half the monthly rent it costs to rent a 10’ x 12’ storage unit. Bill Lewis abstained from voting against this lease which betrayed the trust of the people he was sworn to serve. He could have stopped it by simply voting “no”.
Incompatible public offices, prohibited under Michigan statutes 15.181(b)(iii), are ones in which performing the duties of one office results in a breach of duty of another office. To remedy this, the law prohibits a person from simultaneously serving as an officer of one public entity that has entered into a contract or is negotiating a contract with another pubic entity of which the person is an officer. Macomb County Prosecuting Attorney v. Murphy, 464 Mich 149, 157 (2001); Wayne Co Prosecutor v. Kinney, 184 Mich App 681, 684-685 (1990); Contesti v. Attorney General, 164 Mich App2721. 281 (1987); McPhail v. Attorney General of the State of Michigan, No. 248126 unpublished opinion of Wayne County Circuit Court (2004).
Bill Lewis’s refusal to resign as Village President or as the Lawrence Memorial Library Director violates the Michigan law of Incompatible Public Offices.
- Subordination of One Public Office to Another:
The Lawrence Memorial District Library Board employs Bill Lewis as Library Director. He owes a duty of loyalty to that Board. See, NLRB v. Electrical Workers, 346 U.S. 464 (1953). He owes a similar duty to the Village residents and taxpayers. No man can serve two masters. Bill Lewis prioritized his duty of loyalty to his employer, the Library Board, and breached his fiduciary duty and duty of loyalty to the Village when he orchestrated the passage of the lease between the two entities and abstained from voting while he served as President of the Village.
NO ETHICS – NO PROBLEM: Until You Get Caught
- Michigan State Ethics Act:
Because there’s always people who can’t be trusted to do the right thing, the State Of Michigan adopted the Michigan State Ethics Act for public officers and employees. That Act, MCL 15.341 through 15.348, set out seven standards of conduct for public officers and employees. These are “shall not” standards, or “don’t be a weasel” rules for local government officials.
One of those, MCL 15.342(6) says local public officials and public employees :
“ … , shall not engage in or accept employment or render services for a private or public interest when that employment or service is incompatible or in conflict with the discharge of the officer or employee’s official duties or when that employment may tend to impair his or her independence of judgment or action in the performance of official duties.
- Now What:
This series has explained how Bill Lewis is violating Michigan law by holding incompatible offices prohibited by MCL 15.181 through 15.184. By illegally occupying incompatible public offices Bill Lewis has also violated the Michigan State Ethics Act, MCL 15.342(6). Such ethical violations are handled by the State Ethics Board which can conduct investigations, hold hearings, and impose penalties. The solution is for him to resign one office immediately or face requests for action by Michigan authorities.
Fortunately, these are personal transgressions by Bill Lewis outside the course and scope of his elected office as President of the Village and outside his employment by the Library Board. The residents and taxpayers of the Village would not be on the hook for the cost of an attorney to represent Bill Lewis in these types of actions.
This situation is an embarrassment for the Village and its residents. It is also costly as we have seen our building at 107 N. Main leased out to the Lawrence Memorial Library Board for $75 a month – an amount that is a fraction of the real costs of the building to the Village.
WHAT YOU DON’T KNOW WILL HURT YOU: And Your Community
- The Library Board:
As President of the Village Bill Lewis has control over 3 of the seven members of the Library Board. The Village Council appoints and supervises the performance of these three and decides whether to appoint or re-appoint them as the Council wishes. And because the Library Board rubberstamps Bill Lewis’s actions as Library Director, he has de facto control over the entire 7-member board. That same board fixes the compensation of Bill Lewis. Nothing like having supervisory authority over your boss.
- “Save Our Library”:
In 2022, the campaign to pass an ad valorem tax on our homes and businesses used “Save Our Library” as a theme. It pushed the idea that our little local library would disappear without this tax. This was the same tax that was defeated 20 years earlier. In that time the library survived in the location that we have known it and it wasn’t going away. Now, it might.
The people that promoted this tax, including Bill Lewis who was one of the movers behind the tax, were able to get it passed this time by the number of fingers on one hand. Had those people been honest and told the public that our little library wasn’t going anywhere if the tax failed, the tax would not in all likelihood have been passed. If they’d told the public that the tax would allow them to accumulate a huge sum of cash (over $225,000) and they would move the library to a new location, the tax would almost certainly have been defeated.
Despite the reports in the local paper that the Library Board has painted the walls and put in new carpet which sounds like the library will stay put, that same board has already sought space to move the library. The Village Council has not raised an eyebrow at the massive amount of money that the tax has garnered for the library. Money that will be used to move our library rather than save it. Much of that money coming from the pockets of Village residents and property owners. On the contrary, the Village Council has expressed no interest in seeking a reduction of that tax and has subsidized the Library Board’s accumulation of our money by renting our building to the Library Board for $75 a month.
This is what cheating, disloyalty, and unfaithfulness gets us. This is what the laws are designed to prevent. Does anyone care? It’s your money!
