Regional water authority CEO resigns amid investigation of widespread flooding

The head of the Great Lakes Water Authority, Sue McCormick, resigned Tuesday in the aftermath of the June storm that spurred widespread flooding and lingering questions over the authority's response to the massive rainfall.

"For the past year and a half or so, I have been contemplating my retirement. However when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, I postponed making this decision because of the challenges placed in front of this organization," McCormick wrote in a letter to authority employees obtained by the Free Press on Tuesday night.

"Now as we approach our reconstitution and return to the office environment this fall by those who have been working flexible work arrangements and given all we have accomplished in the first five years of this organization, I believe the time is right."

"Therefore, today I tendered my resignation."

In a separate resignation letter to the board, McCormick revealed that the board discussion of her yearly contract renewal had been delayed. She also wrote that she had been planning to "pursue other options" for some time and intended to leave her post.

McCormick has led GLWA since 2015 and prior to that started at DWSD in 2011. She said she will work with the board to finalize a departure date.

Macomb County Public Works Commissioner Candice Miller said in a statement Wednesday that McCormick "did the right thing in resigning" and predicted more GLWA failures connected to the recent flooding will be discovered.

"The GLWA has an opportunity now to do a nationwide search for an operational expert who can get the most out of existing infrastructure assets and advocate for the investment needed to position our region properly for the future," Miller said in a statement. "The independent investigation will most likely show other management failures, which will need to be addressed going forward."

GLWA Board member Gary Brown said in a statement that he hopes for a new "seasoned professional to bring new energy and innovative solutions."

"Sue's resignation today creates an opportunity to focus on improvements in the regional system to address climate resiliency," Brown said. "Detroit residents and businesses and GLWA's regional customers must have the confidence that when it rains, the regional system is fully functioning."

In her resignation letter, McCormick referenced the June storm as an "unprecedented rain event that defied predictions" while offering her support for the pending investigations.

There is a board meeting scheduled for 2 p.m. Wednesday, when members were expected to evaluate McCormick's performance in closed session as well as select an engineering firm to launch an independent investigation of the June 26 storm that left thousands of homes in metro Detroit flooded, some with up to 8 feet of water.

GLWA is facing multiple lawsuits in the wake of the the flooding that primarily hit Detroit, the Grosse Pointes and Dearborn the hardest and resulted in a federal disaster declaration by President Joe Biden.

Authority staffers remained largely mum about the details surrounding the expected change in leadership.

"We cannot offer any additional information until after GLWA's Board of Directors meeting at 2 p.m. on Wednesday, July 28, 2021. A press release will be issued during the meeting," Michelle Zdrodowski wrote.

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More: Electrical, power supply problems plagued two pumping stations during metro Detroit deluge

McCormick appeared earlier Tuesday before an angry Detroit City Council, whose members complained they can't explain repeated flooding to constituents.

They grilled McCormick about a DTE statement first reported this week by The Detroit News that GLWA knew of the power problems at the Freud Pump Station days before the storm.

GLWA was aware on June 22 that "a third-party contractor dug into a line that serves the GLWA site from the Ludden substation which resulted in significant damage to cable and conduit" according to a statement from DTE spokesperson Jill Wilmot.

"DTE was initially told the dig-in incident took place on June 23, and we've now been able to verify that the incident occurred on June 22. We were told that GLWA knew contemporaneously with the incident," Wilmot said Monday. McCormick has said she didn't know about the outage until the morning of June 25.

Ludden services the Freud pumping station and is a Detroit Public Lighting Department substation, according to DTE officials. Freud will be serviced by DTE by the end of the year as a part of a long-term agreement with the city.

GLWA has acknowledged electrical problems hampered two of Detroit's east-side pump stations run by the authority during the June storm: Conner Creek and Freud. But McCormick had emphasized that the flooding was chiefly caused by an intense amount of rain, more than 7 inches in some areas.

At a news conference after the storm, McCormick said that two pumps at Freud were working as the rain started. At the time, the station had only three of its six pumps available due to an interruption in the power supply. Separate "electrical trips" also prevented a third pump from immediately starting, McCormick said. The third pump at Freud started working after 2 a.m. on June 26.

"The timeline of the occurrence of this power outage is a part of the GLWA's internal after-action investigation, as well as the GLWA Board's independent investigation. GLWA was notified on June 30 that repairs had been made (to Ludden) and that the external power to the station was now fully operational," Zdrodowski said in a statement.

The GLWA formed in 2014 as a part of Detroit's bankruptcy restructuring, entering into a long-term lease with the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department system that had been city-run for 180 years.

On Tuesday, Detroit City Council President Brenda Jones asked McCormick whether the Freud electrical problems that were reported by DTE to have occurred June 22 were passed along at the time to GLWA's top leadership.

"No madam chair ... we have begun our independent investigation. I anticipate that in fact it is quite possible that we will find that there may be something somewhere in the system where someone knew, but no one at the leadership was aware of any outage in electric service at the Freud pump station," McCormick said.

Jones said leadership needs to immediately improve communication, which McCormick said was happening.

"Power quality monitoring issue will give us direct knowledge in our systems control center, which will provide notification to executive team," McCormick told the city council.

McCormick stressed in her resignation letter that the authority must address a future of "volatile weather due to climate change."

"We must look at the balance between environmental protection and the cost and consequence to homeowners with an associated increase in wet weather events impacting their lives and property," McCormick wrote.

While at GLWA, McCormick faced questions about lucrative retirement benefits that netted her more than $90,000 in additional retirement money in 2018. The payout was so large that it was split over two years to conform with Internal Revenue Service maximum retirement contributions by an employer. GLWA officials denied there was anything improper about the retirement bonuses.

On Tuesday night, Macomb County Executive Mark Hackel said in an interview that he was not certain how recent flooding played into McCormick's decision to resign, but he expects the move to be beneficial to both her and GLWA.

Macomb County's representative on the GLWA board, Brian Baker, has at times struggled to get answers to his questions about the water authority, according to Hackel.

"I just think there have been a lot of challenges along the way," he said. "Let's just say I think she made the appropriate decision."

Contact Christine MacDonald: [email protected] or 313-418-2149.

Contact Joe Guillen: [email protected].

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