Ex-mayor sues City Hall, wins justice, and refunds, for allThrift, perseverance pay off big in Berkley fight against water feeJuly 12, 2001
BY BILL LAITNER
In a pink dress she sewed herself the night before, and with her 1979 Ford Thunderbird parked outside, Berkley's penny-wise ex-mayor spent Wednesday morning in a Pontiac courtroom getting money back for her neighbors. Nearly 7,000 of them. Each of Berkley's residential property owners will receive a $19.65 break on this fall's water bills, and commercial owners will get breaks of varying amounts -- a citywide rebate totaling $166,000. They can thank Maybelle Fraser, 70, whose lawsuit showed that a storm-water fee appearing on water bills since 1994 amounts to a hidden, and illegal, tax. Fraser and friend Pat Zebzda, who joined her Wednesday, celebrated afterward at a Birmingham sandwich shop. "She's a thrifty girl," Zebzda said. Wednesday's class-action settlement will echo in city halls statewide, reminding other communities that they must ask voters before imposing flat service fees. Under the Michigan Constitution's Headlee Amendment, cities and townships can raise a fee only if it covers what a service actually costs. Berkley's storm-water fee didn't, and she knew it, said Fraser, mayor from 1995-97 and a council member from 1989-93. When other officials proposed the fee to defray the ballooning costs of the city's water and sewage service, she tried to quash it, then found her distaste growing as she paid it, year after year. Soon after a retired General Motors Corp. maintenance worker won a similar case against Lansing, Fraser sued Berkley in 2000. "It was the old battle cry: No taxation without representation," she said. She didn't scrimp when it came to hiring a lawyer. Fraser called the very attorney who won the Lansing case before the Michigan Supreme Court -- Frederick Baker Jr., at Honigman Miller Schwartz and Cohn, one of the priciest law firms in the state. Baker agreed to charge her 80 percent of his standard rate of $310 per hour and to recoup the 20 percent from Berkley if the case went to trial. It didn't. Despite the discount, Fraser shelled out more than $30,000 in legal bills. Part of Wednesday's deal requires Berkley to repay her legal fees. The settlement also provides for a rebate of the city's storm-water fee going back for only a single year, which suits Fraser fine. "I didn't do this to put my city in the hole. I was just trying to set the record straight," she said. At Monday's City Council meeting, Berkley officials will move to put the storm-water fee on the November ballot, said city Treasurer Michael Tyler. Voters will decide whether it stays on their bills or disappears, to be replaced by a general increase in water rates, said Tyler. "I realize the money has to come from somewhere," Fraser said. Contact BILL LAITNER at 248-586-2608. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment for non-profit research and educational purposes only. [Ref. http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml]
|