Flint mayor decisions costing city money

FLINT (WJRT) (WJRT) -- (07/17/06)--Some decisions made by Flint's mayor a couple of years ago are now costing the city.

Flint taxpayers just had to foot the bill for an order by Mayor Don Williamson two years ago to have a "Flint Journal" carrier arrested for delivering the paper at City Hall.

The carrier sued and the city just had to pay out $150,000. And now the city is facing another bill.

Around two years ago Williamson issued another executive order that said on-call police were no longer able to take their police cars home.

He's now paid for that decision. It was an order that back in 2004 caught many by surprise. Williamson decided any on-call sergeant could no longer take their police car home.

Instead, they would have to drive their personal car to the station to pick up their police car and then drive to the crime scene.

Sgt. Rick Hetherington says the union had no choice but to file a grievance against the city. And two years later, 42 sergeants are collectively holding in their hand a check for $135,000.

That money goes to the sergeants to cover the mileage and depreciation of their personal cars. The chief disagrees.

During their negotiations, Chief Gary Hagler says the union agreed to cut the number of sergeants who used to consistently drive their police car home in half.

"We took the money we saved and gave it back to them but now from here we have reduced the number of take-home vehicles by 14 and I think that's what the taxpayers were looking for," he said.

The captains and lieutenants settled this same issue about a year ago but for less money.

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