Highland Park officials dismiss talk of dissolving city

Highland Park officials dismissed talk of dissolving their city to make way for the new Great Lakes Water Authority.

"That's ludicrous," Mayor DeAndre Windom said Saturday. "People have been talking about that for years."

News of the prospect of folding the city into Detroit and spreading its debt over a broader population base was first reported in the Detroit News on Friday, though Gov. Rick Snyder seemed to distance himself from the idea later.

"I don't put a lot of stock into it," said Highland Park City Council President Christopher Woodard. "The trial balloon that was thrown up was just that."

Windom declined to comment on the talks surrounding the creation of the Great Lakes Water Authority, citing a gag order from U.S. District Judge Sean Cox, who is helping mediate an agreement.

Woodard noted that Highland Park continues to litigate a judgment last year ordering them to pay $20 million to the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department for unpaid bills. The city didn't even bill residents for water and sewer services for months at a time in recent years.

Highland Park has been finanically struggling for years. Once a thriving city, its population has shrunk to 10,441 people, about 51% of whom live below the poverty level, according to Census Bureau estimates.

The Great Lakes Water Authority was incorporated late last year, but the articles of incorporation included a 200- day deadline for suburban communities to sign a lease with Detroit for the plants, pipes, pumps and other assets of the system.

If the lease isn't signed by June 14, then the authority is supposed to dissolve.

Suburban leaders have been worried about the prospect of the new authority being saddled with unpaid water bills from Highland Park, Detroit and other places.

"People in Macomb County are sick and tired of paying for everyone else's bad behavior," Macomb County Executive Mark Hackel said Saturday. "The ratepayers are going to get stuck or statewide taxpayers are going to get stuck with this bill."

Hackel said he is furious that the details of the lease have been negotiated in private under the gag order. He said the deal places little emphasis on making the regional water system more efficient.

"It's all about Detroit's bankruptcy," Hackel said. "This is the key element to the bankruptcy or the whole house of cards comes tumbling down. This wasn't mediated, it was dictated."

Contact John Wisely: 313-222-6825 or jwisely@freepress.com.