For over 35 years, Lake Orion’s DPW Director John Ranville has been performing side jobs in the village. Now village council members are telling him to curtail some of his construction work.
LO Village Manager JoAnn Van Tassel told the council on Nov. 24, it’s a conflict of interest for Ranville to personally contract to do work within the village that the DPW crew would do.
She said she didn’t have a problem with him working in Orion Township outside of the village or in some other community.
“I thought I do work that didn’t conflict with the DPW. I do work that usually doesn’t need permits. Everyone does it. I haven’t had any problems for 36 years.
“A lot of my work is just working on water service which requires no permit. It’s on private property. I’m like the second or third contractor down,” Ranville said. “I don’t inspect my own work.”
“I’m more concerned about the water/sewer department, not building a house or felling a tree,” Van Tassel said.
Van Tassel first notified Ranville last July that he shouldn’t do any extra work in the village. She said she heard rumors that there was a possibility he would be hired to do water service connection work for the townhouses being constructed on Atwater.
The village in November then received a request from MISS DIG requesting water and sewer lines be staked at the southwest corner of Shadbolt/Florernce. The request came from Ranville. He told Van Tassel he had contacted MISS DIG because the owner of the property had requested a quote on disconnecting the water line.
Village attorney Gary Dovre called Ranville working side jobs in the village “a bad idea.”
“On the face of it, he’s probably not in violation of his contract. But I would see a problem with a DPW director doing work that would be inspected by an employee,” he added.
“It gives a bad impression. What’s the employee going to do, deny him?”
According to Ranville, Oakland County is supposed to inspect water service connects and disconnects.
“I can’t believe there’s no one more qualified. But could the village be liable somehow?” councilman Tom Albert asked.
“I could see that if only I pulled a permit/bond. But I don’t,” Ranville said.
Councilman Douglas Dendel agreed with Van Tassel. “This is similar to when we had a police employee moonlighting. It was an issue and we did look at that situation, he did leave,” he said.
“What have I done to deserve this?” Ranville asked. “It’s not fair. It’s a personal attack against me. I only do a couple of these a year and you won’t have to deal with this in another six months (Ranville’s probably retiring).
“I do do things around the community and save homeowners money. I give them advice.”
Councilman Harry Stephen reminded the rest of the council that Ranville didn’t follow the directive of the manager in July.
Dovre said some language would be drawn up for what is and isn’t permissible for Ranville to do, “something that the manager and I would be comfortable with.”
Council members agreed that Ranville would not be allowed to do side work inspected by the DPW or if permits are needed such as in water/sewer department or working on public sidewalks.