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Emails obtained by the Northeast Ohio Media Group this week show that tensions mounted earlier this year between Cleveland Public Power Commissioner Ivan Henderson and the city's new Public Utilities Director Paul Bender.

(PD file photo)

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A series of emails between Cleveland Public Power Commissioner Ivan Henderson and the city's new Public Utilities Director Paul Bender illuminates an acrimonious relationship between the utilities administrators, offers a glimpse into dysfunction within CPP – and even suggests the city-owned utility is in such financial trouble, it could run a deficit this year.

Henderson had submitted the emails along with a complaint to the city’s Equal Employment Opportunity Office, accusing Bender of “harassment, ridiculing and name-calling.” The one-sentence complaint, dated April 25 – less than two months after Bender was sworn in as the utilities chief – states only that the harassment "must end."

But the emails, themselves, obtained this week by Cleveland.com through a records request, demonstrate mounting tension between the men, as Bender criticizes Henderson's leadership style, challenges his priorities and accuses him of having a generally lackadaisical attitude and poor grasp on the problems facing CPP. (Read the emails and the city's ruling on the matter in the document reader below.)



Henderson has been the top administrator at CPP since 2006. The utility does not generate its own power, but rather enters into purchase agreements and distributes electricity to its customers.

Mayor Frank Jackson hired Bender in March after he spent more than a year as the city's consultant, overseeing sweeping improvements to a Water Department plagued by billing problems, staffing inefficiencies and complaints of poor customer service. In January, the mayor announced that under Bender's tutelage, the department's turnaround was so successful that it has yielded $14 million a year in new revenue and could grant a five-year reprieve from rate increases.

Jackson offered Bender a job, managing the entire Public Utilities Department, which includes CPP and the Water Pollution Control division.

In an April interview, Bender said he decided to stay in Cleveland because work remained to be done, and he wanted to see it through. But he declined to specify where dysfunction persisted and said he was still getting a handle on CPP’s operations and energy portfolio.

Meanwhile, he and Henderson sparred in email.

In one exchange from early April, Bender tells Henderson he must spend three hours each night after work that week meeting with him to discuss a variety of issues, including a plan to address streetlight outages and making investments to attract new customers. When Henderson responds that he is busy during those hours, Bender commands him to change plans.

“Cancel your other commitments,” Bender writes. “Or explain to me how they take priority over my issues (which should be your primary business focus.)… I have been here almost two months now – I have mostly the same questions as when I arrived. I cannot continue without understanding these issues – immediately.”

Henderson, in his email response, accuses Bender of singling him out and forcing him to work long hours. And he writes that any discussion with Bender becomes “more confrontational than constructive and nothing is accomplished.”

Bender responds that the mayor and Chief Operating Officer Darnell Brown ask him weekly about the status of the outstanding issues, which are “becoming emergencies.”

“You are operating on a different agenda and pace than I am,” Bender writes. “I am not going to slow down for you. If you can’t keep up, we will move forward with conclusions without your input.”

In subsequent emails, Bender expresses uneasiness over CPP's fiscal solvency and questions Henderson's "overly complex" calculations.

“I am increasingly concerned over CPP’s financial performance for 2013 – the information I have reviewed … makes me wonder if CPP will run a deficit for 2013. We must answer this concern immediately.”

When Henderson states that the explanation of the calculation is “proprietary” and should not be discussed, Bender responds: “I still have no idea what you are talking about.” And he demands that Henderson produce the requested information.

On April 10, when CPP’s superintendent of purchase power sends Bender a customary update of recent purchase power agreements, Bender threatens that “someone will be terminated” if anyone at CPP enters into an agreement without his prior approval.

About a week later, Bender tells Henderson that “your stuff is piling up and you are not involved.”

He lists an LED program, streetlight outage response, transmission upgrades and marketing to residents among issues that had gone unaddressed.

“These are all things I’m going to need a detailed understanding of before they can move,” Bender writes. “So you need to know them better than me. Right now, your staff and Finance are doing all the work – briefing me on half-baked processes, generally. It’s getting to a critical stage.”

Henderson writes back, defending his involvement and asserting that he provided input and direction on all of the listed items.

But Bender responds: “LED analysis was non-sensical – just numbers that made no sense. Was that your analysis? Your involvement?”

In the coming days, as Bender seeks to nail down a cost analysis of installing LED streetlights, he lashes out at Henderson and his staff, who seem to be having trouble producing the information Bender seeks.

“The information requested is simple to obtain – if we’re having this much problem, it must be we don’t know what we’re doing,” Bender writes. “If you can’t do this today, give me a good reason why – ‘I need more time’ is not a good reason.”

When the analysis comes in, he lays into the team for incorrect calculations, and inventing future rate increases “out of thin air.”

The final prickly email in the collection is dated April 23 and deals with Henderson's hope of building what he refers to as the Energy Service Innovation Center, which he says would provide a hub for streetlight services. Henderson explained in an earlier email that the city's real estate division erroneously categorized the future construction site as city land bank property. Now CPP has to re-bid the project, Henderson writes.

Bender tells Henderson to stop the project completely.

“We have too many things going on to take on more right now – and these ‘stealth’ projects just keep coming out of the woodwork,” Bender writes. “How many more?”

When Henderson prods further and complains that Bender has never made time to meet on the subject, Bender calls the request “childish” and tells Henderson that he is available to meet on any issue he deems critical – the service center, not among them.

He tells Henderson to refocus on “more important projects of higher priority.”

Shortly after the flurry of contentious emails, an engineering consultant from the firm GDS Associates Inc., appeared before City Council’s Public Utilities Committee and presented on CPP’s financial viability.

The consultant said the utility seemingly operates under no guiding strategy in its investments and power purchases — often making opportunistic decisions based on the current market view alone — and projected that under many of its long-term contracts, CPP will pay more than market rate for energy for the next decade.

He advised the city to develop a strong plan to maintain a competitive edge with the Cleveland Electric Illuminating Co. and consider scaling back its goal to generate 25 percent of CPP’s power with advanced or renewable technologies by 2025 because many of those are cost-prohibitive.

The committee then passed legislation to give the administration permission to spend $300,000 on another consultant to help CPP make those decisions.

Around that same time, in a letter dated May 7, the city’s Equal Employment Opportunity Office issued a response to Henderson’s harassment complaint, stating that a "determination has been made that the situation involving you and Paul Bender does not rise to the level of harassment as defined in the city’s Policies and Procedures Manual.”

The letter goes on to suggest Henderson consider filing a charge of unlawful discrimination with the Ohio Civil Rights Commission or the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, if he wishes to pursue the matter.

Maureen Harper, communications director for the city, said that Brown, who oversees Public Utilities, spoke to both men about “finding better ways to communicate with each other.”

Bender did not return an email for comment this week.

Henderson said in an interview Thursday that Bender's treatment of him has only worsened since he filed his complaint. He said Bender acts more like a consultant, unconcerned with forging strong relationships with his subordinates, than a director, who should use diplomacy and tact and sometimes yield to the expertise of his commissioners.

He said he has not yet decided whether to file a further complaint.

"I've worked for four directors," Henderson said. "And I've never seen someone operate like he does. He's moody, retaliatory and rude. Those emails are just the tip of the iceberg."