Andrew sent a message to Gerard M. Anderson – Chief Executive Officer of DTE Energy Company – Email Address that said:
Mr. Anderson,
Due to not finding an email address directly to DTE to fix this issue I am resorting to using "emailthe boss.org". I apologize for using this forum for that purpose.
I represent the Oscoda/Roscommon County MVTF District. I am a volunteer as an Authorized Agent for this two county district.
Our district helps veterans with emergency needs with gas/electric shut off notices and other such misc emergencies.
Back in September 15, 2015, one of our veterans came into our office requesting such emergency need. He received a gas shutoff notice from DTE Please note that besides himself he has his wife and two other children living with him.
Our veteran’s office mailed a check to DTE in the amount of $367.53 to ensure that his household wouldn't get shutoff. However he believed the check ($376.53) would not get entered into the DTE system on time and that he would still get disconnected. The veteran would then have to pay for an additional re-connection fee (the veteran lives on a fixed income).
To ensure that this household would not get their gas shutoff our county controller used a county charge card to make sure that the veteran's house would not get shut off. The charge was accepted by DTE and the veteran's house was not shut off.
Meanwhile a check that was mailed in was also accepted into the veterans account. So now Roscommon County double paid $367.53 in the veteran's account. First, from the charge card and next from the check that was mailed in to DTE.
We recently did reconciliation for Veterans Trust Fund with the county and we are missing $367.53. This resulted from the double fund transfer to DTE. Apparently DTE has a policy of not mailing refunds.
The funds used to help veterans is not county money. Roscommon County is only a fiduciary of the of the Trust Fund. As a fiduciary the Trust Fund, Roscommon is authorized to use this money to help veterans. This money earmarked to Roscommon County Veterans Office is state money that comes from the Michigan Veterans Trust Fund (see mcl Public Act 9 f 1946). This is not county money but money from the state fund.
I am therefore requesting that DTE issue a check to Roscommon County in the amount of $367.53. Again, this is not county money as belongs to the state money and is legally allocated to Roscommon County for veterans’ emergency assistance.
The county needs this money to reconcile our financial records with Lansing. If not properly reconciled we could potentially lose future funding from the state to help our veterans.
I can be reached for more information.
