GRAND RAPIDS, MI – A former Grand Rapids department head was under investigation for accusations of bullying and creating a hostile work environment when he resigned this spring, according to documents obtained by MLive/The Grand Rapids Press through the Freedom of Information Act.

Mike Lunn, the former head of Grand Rapids’ Environmental Services Department, turned in his resignation on March 27, 2019 after being placed on administrative leave in February.

The city placed Lunn on leave based on complaints from “several employees” who alleged he "repeatedly engaged in bullying, harassing, intimidating, demeaning, threatening behaviors and has created a hostile work environment,” according to the investigation summary memo.

MLive requested a copy of the investigation file after city officials refused to explain why Lunn was under investigation, saying only that it was a “personnel matter.”

Lunn did not respond to several requests for comment on this story.

As utilities director, Lunn oversaw the wastewater treatment plant, stormwater management and the city’s energy, lighting and communications infrastructure. Expenditures for the combined operations totaled $109.6 million – about a sixth of the city’s 2019 budget, which ended June 30.

Lunn earned $129,171 a year and had 11 employees who reported directly to him, according to the city.

Documents from the investigatory file were heavily redacted before being released under the Freedom of Information Act. But they showed that in addition to the complaints of alleged bullying and harassment, the city’s labor relations manager, Ken Deering, was also looking into the Grand Rapids biodigester, a multimillion-dollar project Lunn spearheaded and oversaw. The project has been plagued by cost overruns and delays.

The investigation was closed without any disciplinary recommendation as a result of Lunn’s resignation, and the city cut him a $96,566.81 check as severance pay. Lunn remained on the city payroll through June 14 because he had a stock of unused vacation and personal leave days.

The 2019 action placing Lunn on administrative leave was the second time Lunn had been under internal investigation, according to his personnel file.

In 2017, Grand Rapids Diversity and Inclusion Manager Patti Caudill investigated Lunn on allegations he was harassing and discriminating against an employee in the stormwater maintenance division.

“No employee should be subjected to such a toxic environment,” Caudill wrote following her investigation.

City officials stripped Lunn’s supervisory role over the division as a result of the 2017 investigation, but he was never disciplined, according to the documents.

The 2017 Diversity and Inclusion investigation cleared Lunn of any policy violation because there was not “sufficient evidence” that the targeted sewer maintenance employee suffered alleged harassment and hostility on the basis of his race, religion, age, disability or other protected class status.

“Regardless of the above determination, the environment in the division must be addressed and corrected,” Caudill wrote.

It’s not clear what steps Caudill recommended for Lunn, as they were fully redacted. Lunn’s personnel file gives no indication of poor performance and contains no complaints or disciplinary actions.

Following the conclusion of the investigation in August 2017, Lunn’s boss, managing director of public services Tom Almonte, moved the sewer maintenance division from Lunn’s Environmental Services Department to the Water Department.

Deering wrote the move was “due in part” to the findings of the investigation.

The 2019 investigation file contained more than 150 pages of documents and communications from complainants to support their allegations.

The documents show Lunn had a contentious relationship with Water Department officials who had taken over sewer maintenance operations after it was removed from his supervision.

The emails provided to Deering show that throughout 2018 Lunn repeatedly criticized the productivity of the sewer maintenance division he no longer supervised and accused them of overspending.

Almonte brought in an administrative services employee in fall 2018 to review the sewer maintenance process.

Among other things, the employee found Environmental Services Department leadership made “false assumptions” about the expected productivity levels of the division and that Lunn was setting the team’s service levels higher than the budget afforded.

“The nature of emails from Environmental Services Department to Water seem accusatory and curt - causing additional friction between the units,” the employee wrote.

Deering also interviewed Lunn and Almonte during the investigation. The six pages of interview notes with Lunn, as well as three more pages with Almonte, were redacted in full to “remove material that is deliberative, opinion, recommendation, or analysis,” according to city attorneys.

“The ability of city employees to freely work through a complex case in writing as well as provide written opinions and analysis during the course of investigation clearly outweighs the public’s interest to see the information,” Assistant City Attorney Kristen Rewa wrote of her decision to redact the information.

Almonte, when asked about Lunn’s resignation, repeatedly called it part of Lunn’s original plan to “quickly” move to “the next phase.” He declined to call it a career move.

“I know that the demand on Mike nationwide is significant, so I was not surprised that through this process it was initially agreed that he wanted to transition into that next phase,” Almonte said. “There was an investigation, like I mentioned, along the way of that it was mutually agreed. He said, ‘I want to transition to my next phase.’”

Almonte called it an honor to work with Lunn, saying the former utilities director brought professional expertise and value to the city and placed it “on the map” nationwide through his work.

In the investigation file, Deering was compiling extensive documentation on contamination and flooding at the city’s biodigester project site, as well as expenditures and delays on that project and the city’s failure to obtain proper permitting for it.

Lunn had spearheaded the project, pitching it in early 2017 as a $30 million solution to handle a growing amount of concentrated waste from businesses like Founders Brewing Co.

MLive reported in July on cost overruns at the city’s biodigester project, as well as the city’s failure to obtain a permit for construction from state regulators.

The total project bill has now reached $76.2 million.

The city in early August received a permit to install the biodigester from state regulators. That issuance came after three state violations for failing to obtain an air pollution permit that was needed before construction began in spring 2018.

“This project was begun without receiving the permits we would require from anyone building in the City of Grand Rapids,” one of the complainants wrote to Deering.

It’s not clear from the unredacted portions of the investigatory file what Deering was looking into with regard to the biodigester.

The three-page memo Deering sent to City Manager Mark Washington on the investigation’s conclusion does not mention anything beyond allegations of bullying and hostile work environment; but nearly all of Deering’s preliminary findings and conclusions in the memo were redacted by city attorneys.

Only three sentences of findings in the investigation summary are unredacted enough to be coherent:

· "Emailing critical remarks on (redacted) performance.

· "Email remarks on accusations of (redacted) advocating to get control of Sewer Maintenance.

· “Mike has sent (redacted) emails on April 1, 2018 Easter morning.”

Because Lunn resigned before the investigation concluded, Deering never reached a recommendation on any discipline for Lunn.

“Effective March 27, 2019 this complaint is being administratively closed due to the resignation of Mr. Lunn,” the memo states in conclusion.

Less than a week after tendering his resignation, Lunn was hired April 1 as chief innovation officer at Primodal, Inc., according to his LinkedIn page. Primodal is an environmental technology firm that the Environmental Services Department under Lunn had previously contracted with.

Evangelina Belia, president of Primodal’s U.S. division, called Lunn an “outstanding hire” for the company.

She said she didn't know any details about the city's investigation and could only speak to his performance as an employee of hers.

“(I) heard he was planning to retire and offered him a job,” Belia said. “He’s a visionary. He’s extremely intelligent. Hard working. Very principled. That’s how I would characterize him.”

Assistant Environmental Services Manager Chuck Schroeder was named acting utilities director after Lunn resigned.