Grand Rapids has yet to fulfill a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request seeking information about vehicle stipends paid to city executives, which was filed over six months ago.
The request, filed on March 30 by The Grand Rapids Herald, specifically sought internal documents showing which city executives received payments to reimburse them for the use of their personal vehicles. It remains unfulfilled as of Oct. 1, over six months from the time it was filed.
Comptroller Max Frantz had originally raised concerns about vehicle stipends paid to city leaders in a letter written to members of the City Commission. At the time of Frantz’s October 2024 letter, he warned that $24,900 sourced from city property and income tax dollars had been issued to just four employees to pay for their personal vehicle expenses.
“These fixed monthly reimbursements toward use of their personal vehicles are incremental to their standard salaries & wages and range from $250 to as high as $700 per employee each month,” Frantz wrote.
“As a reference, a $700 per month payment to a City employee toward use of their privately-owned vehicle equates to a gross amount of $42,000 received over a 5 year period,” he added. “For that amount the City could feasibly acquire and own a new vehicle that would be a financial asset for the City and provide for the eligible transportation needs of multiple City departments and employees.”
A city spokesperson confirmed to The Grand Rapids Herald in April that Mayor David LaGrand, City Manager Mark Washington, Deputy City Manager Mary Kate Berens, Assistant City Manager Doug Matthews, and Government and Legislative Affairs Officer Karyn Ferrick each received the reimbursements. Former Police Chief Eric Winstrom had also received an allowance during his tenure.
“The City of Grand Rapids strictly adheres to all applicable laws and established policies regarding the use of public funds,” the spokesperson wrote. “These roles require constant availability and travel across the City and the broader region at all hours. By providing a stipend rather than a City-owned vehicle, the City avoids costs associated with fuel, maintenance, insurance, and asset depreciation. This practice is designed to be a more cost-effective alternative to maintaining a municipal fleet for executive use. Please file a FOIA regarding specific financial records.”
The spokesperson added that “because the individual’s vehicle choices are not relevant to the stipend amount, details such as make, model, or year of privately owned vehicles are not tracked.”
On March 30, The Herald launched a FOIA request via the city’s online FOIA fulfillment service.
The request targeted the offices responsible for payroll, human resources, and fiscal services and sought internal city documents showing the total amount of vehicle allowance payments paid to city executives from 2018 to 2025. The request also asked for documentation tracking the vehicle expenses incurred by each stipend recipient over that same time period.
State FOIA law grants the city five business days to respond to FOIA requests. Because Grand Rapids considers FOIA requests received electronically as having been submitted the following day, the city did not respond until April 7, which was six business days after the request was filed.
On April 7, the city responded by saying it would apply a 10-day extension to the request, noting that such a decision “is required because of the time and effort required to search for and review the requested public records.”
On April 21, exactly 10 business days later, the city partially granted the request and claimed it would need to apply redactions to the documents. It also requested a deposit of $61.28 for the documents, which The Herald paid.
That amount was due to the “significant amount of employee time that must be expended, in order to search for and compile documents that comply with your request as well as reviewing the documents for relevancy and redaction of the records.” The city added the deposit was not the full amount of money it would request from The Herald, adding that “any remaining balance” would be billed to The Herald after the city had time to redact the documents.
As of Oct. 1, the FOIA is marked as “in progress” via the city’s online fulfillment portal. The city has sent no communications regarding the request since.
Comptroller Frantz told The Herald in April he was disappointed in city leaders for continuing to issue vehicle stipends despite his prior warning.
“It is reasonable to evaluate why the city executive office employees require tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars each year for their privately owned vehicles without transparent and accessible documentation substantiating the expenses they are incurring and being reimbursed for,” he wrote via email.
Kate Carlson, a commercial real estate reporter for Crain’s Grand Rapids Business wrote via social media in September that she too filed a FOIA with Grand Rapids which was still “in progress” after six months.
“The information is likely outdated now and won’t be useful for my reporting anymore,” she wrote. “We also paid a fee of $111.99.”
The ACLU in 2025 lost a lawsuit against Grand Rapids over the city’s FOIA response times. That complaint followed a FOIA request that went unfilled for over a year.
A Michigan appeals court ruled that because the city did eventually provide the requested documents, it did not violate FOIA law.
The ACLU filed a second request seeking information about what caused the delay. Grand Rapids said that while the request would take just two hours and 15 minutes to complete, it would be unable to do so for eight to 10 months due to the size of its FOIA backlog.
A state court ruled in December 2025 that Michigan’s Freedom of Information Act does not require municipal entities to respond to FOIA requests in a timely manner. This lack of enforcement mechanism can lead to delays in releasing time-sensitive information.
The city promised to completely eliminate its FOIA request backlog by 2027.
Write to jackson@grherald.com