On October 6, 2025, Ann Arbor City Council Member Jen Eyer voted to approve an agreement that would direct $560,000 in federal funds to a client of her personal business, Eyer Consulting. Eyer did not recuse herself. In articles published in MLive, Council Member Eyer and the City attorney have claimed that there was no conflict of interest or ethics violation related to Eyer’s participation in approving the agreement. However, on October 20, 2025, that agreement will be rescinded in order to direct the $560,000 to a different entity. Dr. Missy Stults, director of the City’s Office of Sustainability and Innovations, has claimed that the agreement approved on October 6, 2025 was just a “mistake.”
DC-3 (25-1776) Resolution to Rescind Resolution R-25-383 and Approve a Subrecipient Grant Agreement with United Association of Plumbers & Pipefitters Local 190 to Lead Workforce Development as Part of the U.S. Department of Energy District Geothermal Grant in the Bryant Neighborhood ($560,000.00)
BACKGROUND
On October 6, 2025, City Council unanimously approved agreements and allocations of a federal grant from the Department of Energy. One of the items approved: a subrecipient grant agreement for $560,000 with UA 190-IBEW 252 LLC for “workforce development”:
DC-5 (25-1673) Resolution to Approve a Subrecipient Grant Agreement with UA 190 – IBEW 252, L.L.C. to Lead Workforce Development as Part of the U.S. Department of Energy District Geothermal Grant in the Bryant Neighborhood ($560,000.00)
The DOE guidelines attached to that item include “special terms and conditions” (bottom of page 26, top of page 27):
“In order to satisfy this notification requirement, the recipient documentation must, at a minimum, include the following:
…
4. An assurance that no planned, actual or apparent conflict of interest exists between the recipient and the selected subrecipient and that the recipient’s written standards of conduct were followed;”
This is the meeting discussion where it was approved. (CTN Ann Arbor YouTube link – timestamp 58m16s) Eyer advocated for it, voted to approve it, and failed to recuse herself.
CONFLICTS: “WHOLLY SEPARATE ENTITY”
In reports submitted to the federal Office of Labor-Management Standards (OLMS), two labor unions list payments to Eyer Consulting totalling $127,484. The payments start in 2021, shortly after Eyer was elected to City Council. All payments are from “ELECTRICAL WORKERS IBEW AFL-CIO” for “REPRESENTATIONAL ACTIVITIES”.
https://olmsapps.dol.gov/olpdr/#Union%20Reports/Payer/Payee%20Search
Search for “Eyer Consulting” in the “Name” box in the left column. According to reports submitted to the OLMS, Eyer is being paid by both IBEW 252 and IBEW 665. The IBEW 252 reports payments of over $65,000 to Eyer Consulting.
Eyer Consulting LLC was formed in March 2021, just four months after Jen Eyer was elected to Ann Arbor City Council. One month later (April 2021), the City’s Office of Sustainability and Innovations (OSI) announced a collaboration with IBEW 252 re: electrification programs for A2Zero. (link to A2Zero April 2021 newsletter)
The IBEW collaboration is boasted about repeatedly in subsequent OSI reports. The City also promoted the partnership with a dedicated A2Zero page on the IBEW 252 website. That page invites visitors to follow an IBEW 252 Facebook account, managed by “Eyer Consulting.”
https://www.ibewneca252.org/a2zero
On Thursday, October 9, 2025, I released a video summarizing the October 6, 2025 Council meeting during which Eyer voted on the contract benefitting UA 190-IBEW 252 LLC and I pointed out the connection to Eyer Consulting. You can watch that here: https://youtu.be/O7wmVNZ_XeY
In response, Council Member Eyer made statements on social media, claiming that IBEW 252 (the entity that pays her) is entirely separate from the UA 190-IBEW 252 LLC that would receive federal grant money, as directed by City Council. Eyer claimed:
“On this issue, I spoke with the city attorney and she confirmed there is no conflict of interest for me. The grant is being awarded to a wholly separate legal entity that I do not work for, and I do not stand to gain financially in any way.”
In the 2025 OLMS report filed on September 26, 2025 (link) IBEW 252 lists UA 190-IBEW 252 LLC as an “ASSET” that it owns 50% interest in (see schedule 7). The same report also includes over $19,000 that IBEW 252 paid to Eyer Consulting between July 1, 2024 and June 30, 2025. The UA 190-IBEW 252 LLC – the entity to which City Council directed $560,000 in federal funds – is an asset/subsidiary of IBEW 252. The IBEW 252 has paid Council Member Jen Eyer’s consulting business over $65,000.
“NO CONFLICT”…“HONEST MISTAKE”
An MLive article published on Monday, October 13 includes this explanation:
“City Attorney Atleen Kaur confirmed the city attorney’s office sees no conflict of interest.”
Local attorneys have questioned this interpretation. It is especially strange in the context of Ann Arbor City Council Ethics Rules, the first four of which address conflicts of interest.
City Council Ethics Rule 1 refers to state law (MCL 15.322 and MCL 15.324) with explanation that a public servant cannot take part in the approval of a contract with “Any firm, meaning a co-partnership or other unincorporated association, of which he or she is a partner, member, or employee.”
City Council Ethics Rule 2 prohibits a Council Member from voting on an issue in which they have any financial interest that is “unique to the Council member and not a financial interest shared by other members of the public.”
City Council Ethics Rule 4 explains that, in addition to financial interests, a Council member should be excused from voting when they have a “personal relationship with the matter at issue that 1) impairs their exercise of independence of judgment on the matter, or 2) creates a situation with conflicting fiduciary duties.”
https://www.a2gov.org/media/3iphn5qp/council-rules.pdf
On Wednesday, October 15, MLive published a follow-up article in which the original agreement is characterized as a “mistake”. The claim: the City never intended to execute an agreement with UA 190-IBEW 252 LLC but, rather, intended to execute the agreement with UA 190, alone. Dr. Missy Stults, director of the Office of Sustainability and Innovations (OSI) offered this explanation:
“The error of listing the wrong organization falls with me and I’m so incredibly sorry…It was an honest mistake as I was moving too quickly to get all grant documents together.”
Council Member Eyer made this remarkable statement to MLive:
“When I voted on the grant, I correctly believed it to be directed only to UA 190 because, in the geothermal transition, the workers who need retraining are primarily plumbers.”
If – as she claims now – Eyer was actually aware of the error in the agreement at the time of the vote, why didn’t she call Council’s attention to it and move to delete the mention of her client, IBEW 252? Eyer did not share her belief with colleagues and she apparently didn’t share it with Dr. Missy Stults, either. On social media recently, Dr. Stults explained:
“…when UA190 and I identified the error on Monday of this week, we immediately set to correct it.”
On October 20, 2025, City Council will vote to rescind the agreement directing $560,000 to UA 190-IBEW 252 LLC. They will vote to approve a new agreement that directs $560,000 in federal funds to UA 190, alone.
WHY THIS MATTERS
To the extent that a City decision confers any benefit to a client of Eyer Consulting, Council Member Jen Eyer can take credit for it – publicly or privately – in promoting her business and attracting more business.
Section 4.4 of the Ann Arbor City Charter states clearly that Council members should not vote on issues in which they have an interest. A financial interest is measured against the interest of the general public:
“(i) A member of the Council shall not vote on a question in which the member has a financial interest, other than the general public interest, or on any question involving the member’s own conduct.”
https://www.a2gov.org/media/j5gdtwr2/charter.pdf
A financial benefit to Jen Eyer is not the $560,000 that was – according to Dr. Missy Stults – “mistakenly” directed to an asset/subsidiary of her client. The financial benefit to Jen Eyer is the payments she can collect from potential and future clients. She can point to what she has achieved for current clients – specifically as a member of City Council – and use this to attract new clients. The website for Eyer Consulting currently does exactly that on the homepage, front and center. Jen Eyer advertises herself as a member of Ann Arbor City Council while taking credit for a relatively new City contracting policy.
“In her current business, Jen specializes in promoting progressive organizations. Jen also serves on the Ann Arbor City Council, where she championed and passed the city’s groundbreaking Best Value Contracting policy”
https://www.eyerconsulting.com
Eyer takes credit for a “best value” contracting policy that permits the City to reject the lowest responsible bidder on City work. As applied objectively by City staff, the “best value” rubric now regularly awards contracts to much higher bids, based on standards that favor union-affiliated companies. The “best value” policy has also opened the door for Eyer to direct lucrative City work to specific contractors, against the recommendation of City staff. Three times, Eyer has presented her own interpretation of “best value” and persuaded a majority of her colleagues to reject the work of City staff – assessment and scoring of hundreds of pages in bid documents – in order to give City contracts to more expensive bidders that she favored.
On October 6, 2025, Council Member Jen Eyer very clearly violated Council Ethics Rules. So far, none of Eyer’s colleagues have made any comment of concern. Like over 98% of Council votes since November 2022, their silence has been unanimous.