The Lansing Board of Water and Light has dismissed its General Manager J. Peter Lark, and the Lansing State Journal’s Steven Reed reports that Chief Administrative Officer Susan Devon was dismissed just one day later. The Board of Commissioners voted 5-3 to terminate Devon “for cause,” effective 5:00pm on January fourteenth.

Director of operations for BWL Dick Peffley was immediately selected as Interim General Manager after Lark’s dismissal, and the LSJ confirmed today by phone call with Peffley that Devon had also been fired and her staff were to be briefed on a “reorganization” of her responsibilities.

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David Prices, Chair of the Board of Commissioners, told LSJ that it was ultimately Peffley’s decision to terminate the second-ranking executive, and says both of he and Peffley were seeking a fresh start in BWL leadership, although no names have been specifically mentioned.

The terminations come after the lasting power outages during last year’s harsh Winter, as nearly 40 percent of Lansing residents waited in the cold. Lark and Devon joined BWL in the second half of 2009, and Lark quickly promoted as his assistant general manager. In May of 2014 the Community Review Team investigated the management of BWL, finding Devon responsible for BWL’s outage management system, the failure of which delayed power restoration.

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