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00SL2
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Flint loses appeal, owes $450,000 in dispute with former towing company
Posted by Marjory Raymer | The Flint Journal December 04, 2007 20:00PM
Categories: Flint
FLINT -- The final verdict is in and it's costly: The city must fork over an estimated $450,000 in a dispute with it's former towing company.
The Supreme Court on Thursday refused the city's request for another appeal
on the lawsuit filed by Complete Towing after Mayor Don Williamson canceled its contract in August 2004, shortly after he came into power.
The case is the first of several potentially costly lawsuits to be resolved. Several other cases, which the city lost in lower courts, remain in appeals -- including a $10.8 million judgment over sewer backups in 2000.
Williamson critics pointed to the lawsuits during the mayoral election to argue he is costing the city money -- despite his $1 a year salary.
"If he went to an anger management class, he could save the city millions of dollars," City Councilman Scott Kincaid said. "This is another lawsuit that was created by the mayor that is costing the taxpayers pretty close to a half-million dollars."
Williamson canceled the contract with Complete Towing just six weeks after the emergency financial manager left and restored the power of the mayor's office.
Williamson said he did what was in the best interest of taxpayers by canceling the contract. It allowed the city to open its own impound lot -- which he said has made the city millions of dollars.
"No matter what we do, we made (money)," Williamson said in response to losing the case. "We've resolved that and we will move on."
Still, the $450,000 is huge for the city. It's more than the total amount paid in 2006 in lawsuit settlements.
And, the city is self-insured and pays the full cost of settlements itself. The money typically comes out of a risk fund, not the city's general fund that pays for most city services.
The lawsuit itself is over storage fees because 286 cars were left until late November at Complete Towing, owned by Jim Patton, after Williamson canceled the contract in August.
A jury agreed in December 2005 that the city owed a $10 daily storage fee for each car, plus attorney fees and interest. The total verdict then was $406,103.
The city now must pay $453,549 because of additional interest incurred while the city appealed the earlier verdict.
"Mayor Williamson is fighting this personal battle with Jim Patton with taxpayer money," said Steven Spender, an attorney for Complete Towing. "That irritates me and that should irritate the taxpayers."
Spender said he does not know why Williamson has a "vendetta" against Patton. Patton declined comment.
Williamson describes it as a business decision and says the money the city earned by operating its own impound lot allowed it to reopen the City Jail and reduce crime this year.
The city impound lot has brought in more than $2.3 million in revenues as of October, Budget Director Michael A. Townsend said previously.
Complete Towing served as the city's towing company for 18 years.
Canceling the contract caused one of the first major rifts between Williamson and the former Council, which were a united force when Williamson was elected in 2003.
In the sewer lawsuits case, the $10.8 million judgment is now under appeal by the city in the state Court of Appeals. It could be several years before a decision is made, attorney Dean Yeotis said.
Source: http://blog.mlive.com/flintjournal/newsnow/2007/12/flint_loses_appeal_owes_450000.html
Date Accessed: December 4, 2007 |
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Tue Dec 04, 2007 10:06 pm |
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Deena
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My mom is one of those owed money in the sewer case. Williamson's handling of these people is inexcusable. They have gone to court, won judgements---every single one of them---and the Don continues to claim it is not the city's responsibility to pay. All he's done is play a stall game, planning to be out of office before it's time to pay the piper. I wish every one of YOU had sat in a courtroom and listened to the testimony. The city had no witnesses and no evidense. Their entire case was based upon the value of what the people lost. Many, many of the plaintiffs were senior citizens on fixed incomes, few had flood coverage that covered any of the damage, and their losses were in the thousands and tens of thousands. Keep in mind, the city was unable to defend against their legal responsibility.
Now, it's going to take years and more legal fees for the city to, once again, lose in the court of appeals. Many of these seniors will be long gone before their estates collect---as will Williamson. It's BS---and Williamson supporteres ought to be ashamed. |
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Wed Dec 05, 2007 1:28 am |
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Tegan
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| Maybe Williamson should pay these people back with his own money.... |
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Wed Dec 05, 2007 10:04 am |
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last time here
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while i agree the settlements to the plaintiffs in the sewer cases need
resolution, i know for a fact the deal with complete towing was a
situation which would have had to have been dealt with sooner or later.
the previous administrations and city council allowed bad deals to
continue solely because of past associations. williamson has had to
settle suits for several years because no others dealt with them.
he has consistantly done things, not necessarily to everyones liking
but certainly in the interest of fiscal responsibility.
i am sorry for your mother's situation.
i voted for the don because i knew there was a lot of bad deals that
eventually would come home to roost. he has taken on the challenge.
i am not ashamed of my mayor.  |
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Wed Dec 05, 2007 12:06 pm |
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Deena
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"Sooner or later" in the case of the sewer plaintiffs means millions of dollars in interest for the taxpayers---just as the taxpayers were stuff with 10's of thousands of dollars of interest paid to Complete. It may be fiscally responsible in your book---and I cannot speak to the Complete contract---but it is NOT fiscally responsible to drag out every lawsuit against the city to the point that it costs millions in interest. The sewer plaintiffs tried to settle YEARS ago---and for far less than they were awarded in court. This administration insulted them with the meagerness of his offer.
And I AM ashamed of this mayor. He has made Flint a laughingstock. |
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Wed Dec 05, 2007 12:20 pm |
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last time here
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| welllli understand your position madam. |
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Wed Dec 05, 2007 12:31 pm |
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Josh Freeman
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quote:
last time here schreef:
welllli understand your position madam.
I believe that the interest alone accumulates at nearly $2,000 per day.
That works out to about $14,000 per week.
For the month, nearly $60,000.00
That is about $180,000- for the quarter.
A whopping $720,000.00 per year.
In interest alone!
What services could have been rendered to the people of Flint with that kind of money? |
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Wed Dec 05, 2007 4:25 pm |
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bigmouthconservative
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quote:
Josh Freeman schreef:
quote:
last time here schreef:
welllli understand your position madam.
I believe that the interest alone accumulates at nearly $2,000 per day.
That works out to about $14,000 per week.
For the month, nearly $60,000.00
That is about $180,000- for the quarter.
A whopping $720,000.00 per year.
In interest alone!
What services could have been rendered to the people of Flint with that kind of money?
Josh we should talk about more waste. With the 72 inch main break in Davison Twp potentially leaking 20, 000 gallons a day for months, how much did we pay Detroit for that water spilling out onto the ground?
As a city employee I giggle about the amount of overtime the department in charge of these mains get. What the heck are they doing? Going to the bar? Sleeping? Playing cards? Obviously they are not taking care of what they need to. A FOIA request of the payroll records at the Flint water service center would reveal many employees make 6 figures annually with the overtime wages being paid out. My lord, hire more people with the money being used for OT and get the essential work that needs to be done! These are my union brothers and sisters but man is everyone blind to this? |
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Wed Dec 05, 2007 7:06 pm |
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last time here
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well dude. if you are an employee it is also YOUR RESPONSIBILITY
to let those in charge know exactly WHO is slacking our dollars away.
i often hear these charges, yet no one will commit to passing on
information. theres no way williamson is going to stand by and allow
employees to jack off time. if you know names and times why don't
you send an anonymous letter to the mayor. you do make flint money right??  is it not your responsibility to contribute to your employer?
as to this 72" main, everyone knows infrastructure must be maintained.
that takes money. if theres no money nothing gets repaired when it
should. flints been broke for damn near a decade. now, comes a mayor
who bucks the accepted system to bring back fiscal responsibility.
it took decades to get into this position and it's gonna take time to
get out plain and simple. yes, there are lawsuits that might have been
paid earlier but you must understand when williamson came into power,
everything was screwed!! how much can a man do??? this dude is taking
flak for several previous administrations (and i'm not just talking about
stanley). they all came to flint as mayor thinking it was no big deal
because we could always depend on the G.M. tax money and as it left
the area, nobody adjusted anything. why, because they weren't business
people. as a 4th. generation flintstone i am relieved we have a business-
person as mayor. is he perfect? are you? is he busting his ass to make
flint a better place? yup. are you? now go ahead and smoke me!!   |
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Wed Dec 05, 2007 7:49 pm |
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bigmouthconservative
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Does not matter. The mayor blows smoke and every employee knows it. He has brought back so many people after they were fired. People who have stolen stuff from buildings, people who have used drugs on the job, people who go home on thier shift and put in for a full day. It goes on and on. Shoot, there is an investigator who works for the city. He has busted many an employee doing stuff that they should'nt be. We all think it is a joke beacuse we ALL KNOW that if you are fired you will get your job back, time lost back, back pay, etc...
Sam Muma is also involved in this crap.
Sam's shady deals with the CON gets these fools back into the workforce and he does not give a rats a** about the ones who work hard and put an honests days work in. SHHEESH! Sam and his brother Les have a beautiful backhoe compliments of the Don. I want to see the naked pics that Sam has of the mayor!
Plus, you want me to rat? Heck no man, I get that gravy OT also. I am not giving it up. I will take mine like the rest of em'! OT RULES! Why do you think we are still picking up leaves in December! |
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Wed Dec 05, 2007 10:46 pm |
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last time here
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| o.k. |
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Wed Dec 05, 2007 10:53 pm |
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Dave Starr
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quote:
bigmouthconservative schreef:
Does not matter. The mayor blows smoke and every employee knows it. He has brought back so many people after they were fired. People who have stolen stuff from buildings, people who have used drugs on the job, people who go home on thier shift and put in for a full day. It goes on and on. Shoot, there is an investigator who works for the city. He has busted many an employee doing stuff that they should'nt be. We all think it is a joke beacuse we ALL KNOW that if you are fired you will get your job back, time lost back, back pay, etc...
Sam Muma is also involved in this crap.
Sam's shady deals with the CON gets these fools back into the workforce and he does not give a rats a** about the ones who work hard and put an honests days work in. SHHEESH! Sam and his brother Les have a beautiful backhoe compliments of the Don. I want to see the naked pics that Sam has of the mayor!
Plus, you want me to rat? Heck no man, I get that gravy OT also. I am not giving it up. I will take mine like the rest of em'! OT RULES! Why do you think we are still picking up leaves in December!
A lot of it is the nature of unions. I had the same experience at GM; union fighting for the drunks & slackers, ignoring legitimate issues the good workers had. |
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I used to care, but I take a pill for that now.
Pushing buttons sure can be fun.
When a lion wants to go somewhere, he doesn’t worry about how many hyenas are in the way.
Paddle faster, I hear banjos. |
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Thu Dec 06, 2007 8:51 am |
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