Grand Rapids stripped comptroller’s authority after he questioned spending, lawsuit says

The Grand Rapids city comptroller, who alleges that various other officials violated the city charter by transferring some of his duties, staffers and budget to other offices, suffered a setback last month in his lawsuit against the city commission, manager and chief financial officer.

Judge George Jay Quist of the 17th Circuit Court of Kent County ruled against comptroller Max Frantz, who asked the court to enjoin employees outside his office from performing duties previously housed in his office. Quist also denied Frantz’s request that the court order Grand Rapids to pay his legal expenses.

Frantz, in a lawsuit filed in December 2025, said that officials violated the city charter, the rough equivalent of the city’s constitution, by transferring several responsibilities from his office to the city manager and others in the executive branch. The comptroller, a part-time position, is elected independently to a four-year term, and the charter gives specific responsibilities to the office, Frantz said. The city manager and attorney started to downsize his office after he had lodged several complaints about city employees, including the city manager and chief financial officer.

Frantz filed a complaint with the Michigan State Police in August 2024, according to his lawsuit, saying that City Manager Mark Washington had misused city funds. Washington, Frantz said, used city funds to pay a $323 restaurant bill at Bistro Bella Vita and tried to get the city to pay an $822 restaurant bill on behalf of an organization of which he was a board member. The local prosecutor declined to press charges. But Frantz approached the state police again in November 2024, according to the lawsuit, saying that Chief Financial Officer Molly Clarin and others may have violated the Open Meetings Act.

The next month, Frantz said, the city manager and attorney started a move to transfer some of the comptroller’s responsibilities to the city manager’s subordinates. The transfer involved 13 employees and $1.3 million in funding.

Comptroller sues city of Grand Rapids by mcclallen

The city rejects the accusations. It cites the Feb. 27 ruling from Quist that denied Frantz’s motions for a preliminary injunction and a specially appointed counsel.

Quist wrote in part: “While the Court respects Plaintif (Frantz’s) arguments regarding the alleged violations, he has failed to meet his burden of proving success on the merits. It is too early in the case for the Court to make an informed decision regarding whether Defendants (Washington, Clarin and commissioners) violated the Charter, the (Home Rule City Act), and/or the (Uniform Budgeting and Accounting Act). Because Plaintiff has the burden of proof, the Court finds this factor is neutral and favors denying the preliminary injunction.”

GR CCR - Opinion - 2-27-2026 by mcclallen

A city spokesperson told Michigan Capitol Confidential in an email that the 2024 reorganization optimized the city’s financial structure and was “rooted in good governance.”

“As stated in a prior media release, in 2024, the city manager, in consultation with the city treasurer, human resources director, and city attorney, determined that certain positions — based on their functions — would more appropriately report to the City’s chief financial officer or the city treasurer,” Steven J. Guitar, media relations manager, wrote.

“As evidenced by the comptroller’s recently presented annual comprehensive financial report,” Guitar continued, ”the City fully embraces the comptroller’s independent review and reporting of our public finances.”

The Grand Rapids City Commission appoints the city manager to serve as the chief executive officer for the city. Meanwhile, Frantz is an elected official whose term stretches through 2026. Commissioners appointed Frantz as comptroller in December 2019 after the previous comptroller resigned. He won a four-year term when he ran unopposed in 2022.

“My concern is absolutely misuse of authority,” Frantz told CapCon in a phone interview. “These internal controls were set up for a reason. Whether it’s something one week from now, six months from now, or five years from now, the groundwork has been laid to create that type of environment to allow for misuse of authority by concentrating all of these powers under one individual or office, which our charter doesn’t authorize.”

The city charter creates three divisions to manage finances. The treasurer collects city money, the city manager builds the budget, and the comptroller issues payments of funds and provides accounting to the public.

Frantz said that the change consolidates power under the city manager, who is appointed, not elected. But the charter authorizes certain duties to elected officials, which doesn’t include Washington’s office, he said.

“This is how the system is set up by design,” Frantz said. “We’ve had checks and balances in our government that really serve to benefit the public. The issue is that the city manager with this fiscal services department created financial officers reporting to the city manager, which have usurped the duties of the comptroller’s office,” Frantz added.

Grand Rapidians have rejected structural changes in 1969, 1971, and 2012, Frantz wrote in the lawsuit.

Consolidating spending and auditing functions in the same department is a clear internal conflict of interest, Nicholas Gumina, an attorney at Eardley Law offices that represents Frantz, told CapCon in a phone interview.

“The lawsuit aims to restore the separation of powers that’s provided for under the city charter,” Gumina said. “The separation of powers, at its core, is important because it creates a separate financial oversight that is not supposed to be controlled by either the executive or legislative branches of the city government.”