Cadillac’s Local Development Finance Authority has a new person heading the organization and he’s hoping to make some changes, in light of the recent PFAS contamination.
The LDFA oversees the clean-up of the industrial park area and was formed back in the 1990′s.
Incoming chairperson Matthew Schichtel said he’s feeling optimistic about his fellow board members.
“It’s just about facilitation and we have good people on the board now. So, I’m encouraged,” said Schichtel.
Schichtel said the board has done an amazing job in years past but has gotten complacent.
“We weren’t having monthly meetings. We didn’t have a quorum. We weren’t doing regular reports to the city council. We weren’t electing officials, on a yearly basis,” said Schichtel.
Schichtel said now is a great time for a kind of restart of the LDFA.
“We have a bunch of new board members. And my goal is just to get everyone involved and engaged. and, and to get everybody accountable,” said Schichtel.
He said the board has been treading water in recent years.
“They had done an amazing job in the past, but now we have emerging contaminants, some different issues that are coming up, and it doesn’t seem like some of that information was passed on to not just the community, but also city council,” said Schichtel.
He said he’s not pointing fingers, even though both the city manager Marcus Peccia and utilities director, Jeffrey Dietlin, have been long-time board members of the LDFA. Peccia is the former chair and oversaw the board for years.
“I think you have to be careful with the blame game. Some things did happen on people’s watches, and I get that. But my goal right now is to try to get the board to be as efficient and as accountable as possible so that we can catch up on some of the business that hasn’t been done in the last few years,” said Schichtel.
He said digging into those missteps has been a challenge.
“We did get some of the meeting minutes. But the problem is for me to truly understand what’s gone wrong in the past, I need the information of what the business has been in the past. And I’ve been told that there’s been corrupt files, and it was only on one person’s computer,” said Schichtel.
Still, he said he’ll keep asking for the information as they press on to fix the way the board has been running.
“We’re trying to be compliant to the EPA, regardless of what strategies have been done in the past. So, we need to be compliant with the EPA to have a management system, to have a well testing plan to do quarterly testing. And we just voted that through in the last meeting,” said Schichtel.
He said he doesn’t have all the answers, but he thinks they are headed in the right direction.
“I’m kind of the new kid on the block, so I have a lot to learn. I don’t have all the answers, but I do know that if we have integrity and that we hold each other equally accountable, that we can proceed and get some things done,” said Schichtel.