THE VILLAGE DODGES A BULLET
Praise The Lord!
Sometimes things just work out for the best. Call it what you will – luck, fortune, chance. It was definitely a blessing.
Bill Lewis’ effort to reduce or eliminate the debt owed by his friend and supporter Anthony Bates suffered another setback on January 6, 2025. Denise Pyle was absent from the Village Council meeting. Lewis said that she was ill.
With Denise Pyle absent Lewis lacked a majority to push his plan through. He knew that the three fair and trustworthy Council members, Nick Ludwig, Janet Sutherland, and Joline Chaney, would not go along. The Village attorney was on the agenda to opine to the Council but with Pyle absent Lewis waived him off so that the attorney was not in attendance.
No one has forgotten the last time that Lewis tried to eliminate or reduce the Bates debt. At a Council meeting last September Denise Pyle attempted to push through a motion to reduce it to around $2,000 claiming that that was the amount the Village was out in attorney’s fees. The former Village attorneys reported that Bates had already paid $2,275 to the Village. The next thing we might hear from Lewis is that Bates doesn’t owe anything or worse, the Village owes money to Bates.
But at that September meeting Pyle was interrupted and Lewis backed off. He decided to take the negotiations of the three code enforcement debts out of public view by assigning their negotiations to the Village attorney. Lewis must think he’s clever and the Village residents are stupid. Neither is true. He’s not and they’re not.
The Bates debt consists of contempt fines imposed by an 8th District Court Judge in Kalamazoo. It is the result of Bates’ failure or refusal to obey the Court’s orders to obtain permits and inspections on Bates’ rental property at 110 S. Main St. Bates was ordered to pay $25 a day until he complied. That debt was more than $10,000 in the Fall of 2024 as reported by the Village attorney at that time and it was apparently still accumulating.
Lewis has asserted control over the debt. He claims that it is owed to the Village. But the Court ordered the contempt fines as an administrative action to obtain compliance with its orders. The Court did not award the fines to the Village. If the debt is owed to the County of Kalamazoo Lewis loses control of it. Bates would then have to answer to the Court as to when he complied with the Court’s orders, if he has. The amount of the debt would then be calculated based upon the date of his compliance, if any, and Bates would have to pay the money to the County. Lewis has hidden from the public whether Bates complied with the Court’s orders and the date of any compliance. So, the debt cannot be determined in total. Pretty shady!
This brings up accountability. Village office holders in Michigan can be removed before the end of their terms. One way is through the Governor. The Governor can remove a village office holder for a number of reasons including willful misconduct, neglect of duty, and disloyalty. MCL Sec. 168.383. Another way is through recall. The Michigan Legislature has given citizens the ability to recall local village officials. MCL Sec. 168.960. This allows voters to correct a mistake and set it right without suffering a bad elected office holder for a full term.
Accountability for attorneys representing local governments is different. If they lose sight of whose interest they represent and begin promoting the personal interests of one or more elected members of the governing body to the detriment of the government entity, the consequences can be severe. Attorneys are held accountable by the state’s ethics committee and they can be held accountable for damages by a court of competent jurisdiction.
This Village has not had, at least in recent memory, a majority on the Council so lacking in qualifications and trustworthiness as we have now. They are anything but transparent. They have hidden their dealings. They orchestrated renting our library building to Lewis’ employer for $75 a month. Lewis has continued to occupy the position of Library Director and Village President in violation of Michigan law. They have burdened the taxpayers with two bureaucracies that are totally unnecessary under the law and placed Lewis’ allies and wife on them. They have burdened every property owner with the cost of cutting down trees in the rights-of-way of a few property owners who didn’t want to pay to cut down their own trees. They have wasted over $30,000 in attorney’s fees in 2025 – partly as a CYA strategy and partly because they are unskilled, inexperienced, and lack common sense.
We have the means to fix this. Lewis can be recalled or we can ask the governor to remove him. We also have the opportunity to rid ourselves of Trustees Carolyn Kelly and Ben Moore when their seats come up for election in November 2026. Neither of them is fit for representative office. And instead of making the same kind of mistake again, we must elect people who are honest, open, and normal.
Finally, a word to those who didn’t like the Village enforcing its Code of Ordinances or were denied a favor to which they thought themselves entitled. Did you really want a Village that looks run-down and decaying? That’s what you got. Did you want us betrayed by the rental of our library building for $75 a month instead of fair market value? That’s what you got. Did you want unnecessary new bureaucracies created to direct the growth and development in our community when our community is already built out and you have to “kiss the ring” of a committee if you want a zoning variance? That’s what you got. Did you want a Council majority of such quality that many of us wouldn’t trust them to pick up our mail? That’s what you got. And while you made such a big deal out of the Village spending a few thousand dollars a year on actual code enforcement did you want a Council that spent over $30,000 on attorney’s fees in 2025 for which you got no actual code enforcement? And, did you want a Village President that does not have the ability to carry out the duties of the office without paying an attorney $300 an hour to tell him which way is up? That’s what you got.
Some wonder why people are so put off when asked to seek elected office and refuse to serve. It’s discouraging for people of integrity. Good people can’t stand it when they have to serve and watch bad people bamboozle the public. This Village desperately needs a Council that does not make back-room deals, that does not withhold information from the public, that has a firm attachment to reason, that spends tax money responsibly, and whose behavior does not cause people to roll their eyes and throw up their hands in disgust.
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