Pontiac, Mich. appoints United Water employee to public works directorship

Pontiac’s Emergency Manager Lou Schimmel has fired the city’s clerk and attorney and replaced the director of public works with an employee of United Water — the criminally-indicted French water company that has operated the city’s wastewater treatment system since June.

The Detroit Free Press reports that Pontiac’s newest Emergency Manager said that he wants to put together his own team to implement a financial plan that includes outsourcing services and increasing property taxes.

Under the plan, the clerk’s office is being merged with human resources. Vital records will be transferred to Oakland County and the Oakland County Clerk’s Office will provide technical assistance in election administration. The number of voting districts in Pontiac also will be reduced.

The law department in Pontiac, about 20 miles northwest of Detroit, is being outsourced to Troy-based Giarmarco, Mullins and Horton.

An employee with United Water, which is contracted to manage the city’s wastewater treatment facilities, will run the public works department. The employee will work at City Hall and efforts will be made to subcontract as many public works activities as possible, according to the plan.

In May, then-Emergency Manager Michael Stampfler privatized operation of the city’s wastewater treatment by signing a contract with United Water, a New Jersey-based subsidiary of the French company SUEZ ENVIRONNEMENT that has been indicted on felony charges related to its operation of the wastewater treatment facility in Gary, Ind.

According to a 26 count indictment announced by the U.S. Justice Dept. in Dec., two United Water employees manipulated daily wastewater sampling at the Gary plant by turning up disinfectant levels before measuring the levels of E. coli bacteria and other contaminants.