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Refund likely for county residents' soil erosion fees
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Wednesday, August 23, 2006 10:07 AM EDT
CORUNNA - Despite Drain Commissioner Gary Holzhausen's opposition, the Shiawassee County Board of Commissioners likely will approve a $25 refund to county residents who paid an unauthorized soil erosion waiver fee.
“It was an illegal charge to these people,” county Prosecutor Randy Colbry said.
Holzhausen maintained the waiver fees were authorized by the county because he says the waiver is a form of a permit.
“It's my office, and it's my responsibility to check those issues,” he told the board's Committee of the Whole Tuesday after it unanimously voted, without discussion, to consider the refunds at Thursday's regular meeting.
The refunds would be paid from the soil erosion funds. The duty was removed from the drain office after a recommendation by Colbry passed by the board earlier this year. Soil erosion inspections are now being handled by the environmental health division of the Health Department.
The board will vote on the refunds during its regular meeting at 4 p.m. Thursday in the Surbeck Building.
Colbry told the board Tuesday that the fees were never authorized by the county.
Holzhausen, though, cited a February 2002 resolution called the Sedimentation Control Act that allowed for waivers. He says the act did not allow or disallow a fee.
Colbry says the resolution “has nothing to do with charging for a waiver - nothing whatsoever,” and that no other resolutions permit a waiver fee.
“Mr. Holzhausen had no authority to charge this for a waiver,” Colbry said. “He arbitrarily set fees for what he could be reimbursed for.”
Holzhausen maintains that a waiver still requires an inspection and therefore deserves a fee.
“With each permit and waiver, there were many hours of work and a lot of personal responsibility involved,” he said.
Colbry says the drain office collected $8,575 in waiver fees in 2005 and that Holzhausen submitted two vouchers to the County Clerk's office for payment from the soil erosion fund for his inspections.
The first voucher was $2,250 in September 2005 - $15 for each soil erosion application, including waivers. The second was $3,744 in December 2005 - $18 per application, including waivers.
Holzhausen received $5,994 during his tenure for soil erosion fees. Just more than $1,000 of that was for soil erosion permits, and $4,969 of it was related to permit waivers.
“The vast majority of payments were for waivers,” Colbry said.
Waivers are issued to construction sites that are not in an environmentally critical area or are on a smaller scale.
Former Drain Commissioner Bernie Butcher is charged with embezzlement for his acceptance of more than $31,000 in fees for soil erosion inspections during his tenure in the office. Butcher never charged for waivers.
Colbry turned over the investigation of Holzhausen to the state attorney general's office, which has not yet made a decision about whether to bring charges against him.
“Mr. Holzhausen has time after time stated he was simply following the past practices of the drain office,” Colbry said. “That's not true. These fees were never charged before he took office.”