Cities won’t face bill for ‘bad debt’ incurred from 2021’s excessive flooding trash

GROSSE POINTE FARMS — Severe flooding and basement backups from a record-breaking rainstorm in June 2021 resulted in billing confusion for the Grosse Pointes-Clinton Refuse Disposal Authority, which serves the five Grosse Pointes and Harper Woods.

During a March 14 GPCRDA Board meeting in Grosse Pointe Farms, CPA Lynn Gromaski, who handles the financial records for the GPCRDA, explained that the GPCRDA ended up with nearly $22,000 in billings for trash disposal that couldn’t be attributed to a particular community or communities. Although the cost was written off as a bad debt expense at the end of the last fiscal year June 30, Gromaski wanted to know if the GPCRDA Board wanted to divide the cost among the six cities, rather than let the Authority absorb the loss.

“It was written off (last year),” Gromaski said. “It was just (classified as) an expense.”

Residents in the most greatly impacted cities, such as Grosse Pointe Park, Grosse Pointe City and Grosse Pointe Farms, ended up with staggering amounts of trash as people removed most, if not all, of the items in their basements and put the soiled items at the curb.

“(An) unprecedented storm resulted in chaos,” GPCRDA Board Chair Terry Brennan said. “It was really a mess.”

Brennan said this necessitated the cities calling in independent contractors to aid in trash removal.

“Some contractors worked in different communities,” Brennan said.

By the time contractors got to a transfer station or landfill with the waste, they weren’t always able to accurately identify which city it had come from.

In addition, as GPCRDA Board member Mike Way — the Grosse Pointe Shores representative — noted, communities that experienced less impact from the storm, like the Shores, helped their neighbors with trash removal, sending their own trucks and personnel.

The GPCRDA Board considered dividing the expense among the member communities based on their 10-year historical tonnage record.

“This is the same formula we’ve used to settle other outstanding debts over the decades, and it appears to be the most equitable,” GPCRDA Attorney John Gillooly said.

However, as GPCRDA Board member Jim Kowalski — who represents Grosse Pointe Woods — pointed out, his city would be facing 23% of the total — or nearly $6,000 — even though the Woods didn’t have nearly as much trash as smaller but harder-hit communities like the Park and City.

“No action is needed,” Gillooly told the board. “Nothing has to be done. It’s completely up to this board.”

The board voted unanimously to accept this debt as written off, at least at this time.

Gromaski said the GPCRDA was able to cover the bad debt expense from its reserves. In the future, they could bring up this bad debt expense if they ran into financial challenges, she said.

For now, as GPCRDA Board member Donald Parthum Jr. noted, the GPCRDA “is under budget anyways.”

“We are square, accounting-wise,” Brennan said.