Wyandotte Official Was Not Authorized to Sign Agreement with the Feds Over Air Emissions

A city department head acknowledged Monday night that she did not have the legal authority to sign a that ended a federal lawsuit against the city for .

Melanie McCoy, general manager of , said she erred in signing the agreement on behalf of the city without first getting the approval of city officials.

McCoy said she was given the verbal approval during closed-door meetings with the City Council and the Wyandotte Municipal Service Commission, which oversees her operations.

However, neither public body voted during an open session to officially give her the approval, as required by law.

Public bodies can meet in closed session for a limited number of reasons, but are not permitted to take any action in closed session under the state’s Open Meetings Act.

City Attorney William Look said he later advised McCoy that she needed to bring the item back to council during an open session to get the needed approval, which she did Monday night.

However, it did not go as easily as she had hoped.

Councilman Daniel Galeski said he has “serious concerns” with the way it was handled, considering the lawsuit was “the United States v. the city of Wyandotte, not the municipal service.”

“Your signature is the only one on it,” he said to McCoy. “I find that troubling. … After it’s signed and entered, you want our blessing?”

McCoy said she did not feel she did anything wrong, but instead was trying to bring a positive conclusion to a longtime hazard at the city’s power plant. The federal government's lawsuit claimed the city's power plant emitted unlawful levels of nitrogen oxide, sulfur dioxide and carbon monoxide.

“It was negotiated with good faith between Wyandotte Municipal (Services) and the EPA,” McCoy said of the settlement agreement. “We have been negotiating for five years on this.”

In order to resolve the lawsuit, the city has agreed to invest between $8 million and $10 million to install a baghouse, which is a device that will remove particles from the gas before it leaves the boiler.

The city also has changed the way the coal is handled at the plant and took six gas vehicles out of commission and replaced them with natural gas vehicles. The city also was slapped with a $112,000 civil penalty.

Galeski asked McCoy where she plans to pull the money from.

“This would come out of our operation expenses,” she said. “It’s a bill that we would have to pay.”

“I would hope so,” he quickly quipped back.

McCoy said the changes made at the power plant have cut down pollution “immensely,” noting that air monitoring results are regularly forwarded to federal officials for oversight monitoring.

“We were bad,” McCoy said. “We were violating our permit limits. However, I am really proud of everybody over there right now.”

The U.S. Department of Justice is accepting public comment on the agreement it reached with the city. Comments will be accepted through June 30 and can be emailed to pubcomment-ees.enrd@usdoj.gov. The comments must make reference to United States v. City of Wyandotte, D.J. Ref. 90-5-2-1-09346.

To read the original lawsuit filed against the city, click here.

To read the proposed settlement agreement, click here.