SAUGATUCK — Six months after a complaint was submitted to the Michigan Bureau of Elections against an organization called EPIC operating in Saugatuck, there’s been movement.
In his complaint, filed in October 2024, former Saugatuck Mayor Ken Trester claimed EPIC hadn’t filed a legal statement of organization (a requirement under the Michigan Campaign Finance Act), before posting campaign signage and newspaper advertisements for Saugatuck City Council incumbents Lauren Stanton, Helen Baldwin and Scott Dean.
An address listed for EPIC on the signage matched an address listed for “Empowering People Investing in Communities” on LARA, an online filing system for Michigan corporations. The directory lists Leigh G. Lewis (Garnet Lewis) as president and resident agent.
At the time, the Allegan County Clerk’s Office confirmed to The Sentinel that EPIC had not filed the required statement.
In March, the Michigan Bureau of Elections provided Trester with a copy of Lewis’ response to the complaint, in which she took responsibility for the error. In her response, Lewis claimed, after realizing the statement of organization hadn’t been submitted, one was filed with the Allegan County Clerk’s Office in November and processed in December.
Lewis also said the standard “error and omission notice” was received and signed in January 2025.
“I understand there will be a fine for (the) delay,” she wrote.
Lewis told The Sentinel via email the fine was $1,000.
“The issue has been resolved and the campaign committee has been dissolved,” she added.
But that’s not entirely true, according to Trester, who filed a rebuttal to Garnet’s response on April 11.
“I wish to request that you do not accept (Lewis’) application to dissolve EPIC,” Trester wrote. “There are many unresolved issues regarding this Super PAC. In particular, (Lewis’) response does not address EPIC’s campaign spending during the local elections of 2022 or 2023.
“I ask that the BOE not allow EPIC to be dissolved until the migration of the campaign finance reports that (Lewis) did file are complete, so that the public, which has been denied the opportunity to see who EPIC’s donors are and what its expenditures were, can have the opportunity to review those reports, to know who received funding from the PAC and if any irregularities occurred in the election campaigns.”
Garnet refused to comment on the rebuttal to The Sentinel.
“There is enough hate in the world,” she said. “I won’t add to it.”
Who is Garnet Lewis?
Lewis was first elected to Saugatuck City Council in November 2019. She secured re-election in November 2021 for a two-year term ending November 2023. Shortly after, Lewis was selected by council to serve as mayor for a one-year term, running through November 2022.
This isn’t the first time Lewis has run into election challenges. In August 2023, she pled guilty to a single charge of failing to report a violation on a nominating/initiative petition. In court, she admitted she failed to sign a petition sheet and didn’t report it.
Lewis agreed to pay $500 in fines and court fees, and was given a delayed sentence of six months. The case was later dismissed.
She has also faced ire over the listing of several individuals as directors and officers of EPIC on LARA, several of whom denied holding the roles.
In a letter sent to Allegan County Clerk Bob Genetski and provided to The Sentinel, Mary Fechtig, Elizabeth Estes, Julie Ridl and Holly Leo wrote, “We write to clarify in no uncertain terms that none of the undersigned had any knowledge of the EPIC entity before seeing (a) Facebook post on Oct. 25, 2024.
“In addition, none of us have any memory of agreeing to act as directors or officers of EPIC. Finally, after a review of our personal records, including emails, text, and hard copy materials, we can find no indication of any of us having involvement in (EPIC).
” … It goes without saying, therefore, that none of us have been involved in a decision related to EPIC’s funding or other support of political candidates in the current race of Saugatuck City Council.”
Dan Fox, another local resident, hopes to file a formal fraud complaint on that front, but is having difficulty finding the right department for enforcement.
LARA, he said, doesn’t have an enforcement role, and the Bureau of Elections wouldn’t investigate because another investigation is already underway.
The Michigan Attorney General’s Office directed Fox to their Charitable Trust Division. In their response, the Charitable Trust Division said the matter falls outside the scope of their normal enforcement and regulatory authority. Fox isn’t giving up, though.
“This lack of an appetite on the part of the State of Michigan to investigate and prosecute clear, evidence-supported, multiple fraudulent filings with the state is unbelievable, disheartening, and ethically vapid,” he wrote via email.
The rebuttal filed in the first complaint will enter a determination phase under the Board of Elections, which has 45 days to make a decision.
— Contact reporter Austin Metz at [email protected].
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