BWL employees continue to get paid to leave

October 21, 2020

Back in 2009, I wrote a story about how new Board of Water and Light general manager J. Peter Lark - on his first day on the job - fired three top administrators and replaced them with buddies from the state Public Service Commission. Other firings followed. Richard Daly, a Human Resources employee, left in November. Denice Mulder, Human Resources Director, left in December. Those two came to light in a 2/22/09 Lansing State Journal article on payouts to former employees. The article said that in the previous two years, the BWL spent $1.3 million on payouts to former employees. The amount in the following chart shows the part of that $1.3 million that consisted of direct payments; the rest was in the form of health benefits, etc. (click on name to see separation agreement):

Joseph Pandy Jr.	$730,000	General Manager; fired in 2002. The $730,000 was to settle a lawsuit that also cost BWL $223,000 for legal services.
Sanford Novick	$250,000	General Manager; left 8/25/06.
William Cook	$400,000	Senior vice president of operations; fired by Peter Lark on 7/16/07, his first day on the job. On 12/21/07, was reinstated at a salary of $153,303 and put on paid administrative leave until 3/2/09, when he would have the 25 years of service that qualified him for full pension benefits.
Robert Van Ells	$99,000	Manager of electric and steam production; fired by Peter Lark on 7/16/07, his first day on the job. On 8/27/07, Van Ells agreed to retire as of 7/20/07.
Amy Cavanaugh	$60,375	General Counsel; fired by Peter Lark on 7/16/07, his first day on the job. On 7/24/07, she agreed to "resign" as of 7/16/07.
Denise Mulder	$24,254	Human Resources Director; on 12/13/07, agreed to "resign" as of 12/5/07.
Richard Daly	$14,875	Human Resources employee; on 11/29/07, after threatening to sue BWL for wrongful discharge, agreed to "resign" effective 7/20/07.

Terminations with payoffs and "confidential" termination agreements continue to occur. Below are the ones we are aware of. There may be more. Click the name to see the agreement.

Name	Hire Date	Termination Date	Payoff Amount
Kimberly Ingram	02/13/2017	03/12/2018	$51,250
Patricia Aronin	'07/05/2011	06/01/2018	$15,000
Donna Smith	11/30/1989	01/04/2020	$42,000
Craig Smith	11/22/1988	01/31/2020	$41,000
Gregory DeMyers II	04/14/2008	02/01/2020	$55,000
Scott Garrett	01/07/2008	03/02/2020	$86,000

Scott Garrett's agreement includes a rather lengthy and specific non-disparagement clause:

I bet he has a story to tell.

The only other that has one is Aronin's, and it is much shorter:

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