YOU Get a Water Filter, and YOU Get a Water Filter, and YOU Get a Water Filter – EVERYBODY Gets a “Free” Water Filter! 😂😂😂

I’m not sure if you went to the February 26, 2024, city council meeting, read the unofficial transcript on the Clarkston Sunshine website, or had to spend over two hours listening to the video recording, but if you did, you wasted about half that time listening to an extended sales pitch for some fancy schmancy water filters. (Sadly, you’ll never get those life minutes back.)

Apparently, we’ve got trouble. Right here in the City of the Village of Clarkston. And that starts with T and that rhymes with W, and that stands for Water Filter. (OK, so it doesn’t rhyme. 😂)

But wait! They aren’t just any water filters. No! These filters incorporate – dum-dah-dah-dah – [[[NANOTECHNOLOGY]]]! And just like the Henry Ford cars that came in any color you’d like (so long as it’s black), these water filters only come in a space-hogging, counter-top version. (Think Brita water filter pitchers, but oh so much better because of the [[[NANOTECHNOLOGY]]]!)

Oh, you’d prefer a faucet filter? Sorry, they don’t make them. Want a whole-house filter? Sorry again (they don’t make them, and an under-the-sink option could also be a “nightmare” for the municipality and the city – because I guess we’re too stupid to figure out how to install and change them?). How about a filter for the icemaker on your refrigerator? Aww, sorry, the answer is also no, but we’re told that’s “in development.”

The company’s concept is OK, and they are one of many water filter providers. They say their product removes lead, arsenic, and PFAS (polyfluoroalkyl substances, also known as “forever chemicals”). They claim to have good test results and assert their product is head and shoulders above all the other options out there. You know what? That might be absolutely true. I’m not a scientist, and I have no way of checking their data. And just like everyone else, I’m also concerned about clean drinking water and eliminating lead, arsenic, and PFAS from my water.

For the purposes of this post, I’m going to assume these water filters are the absolute best water filters in the world because I don’t have any evidence they’re not. I’m also going to assume that everything they said at the meeting and on their website about their test results is true as well. To be crystal clear, nothing I’m going to say is intended in any way to cast aspersions on the product or the company. If you want one of these filters, you should go out and get yourself one – today! Like right now. No, really. Stop reading and go get you one of those water filters with [[[NANOTECHNOLOGY]]]!

My comments come from the perspective of a resident and taxpayer expressing my opinion about a presentation city manager Jonathan Smith forced everyone to listen to that, if effectuated, will drain the treasury for another of his unnecessary pet projects. I shouldn’t be surprised that Smith subjected the city council (his boss) and Clarkston residents to a sales pitch to try to convince us to spend $90,000 a year of our tax dollars on “free” water filters for every household in the city without any flipping clue what the cost to the city would be before inviting them here. When he broached the subject with the city council at the January 22, 2024, city council meeting, Smith even claimed the initial cost for these filters was very low. This kind of behavior makes me question whether our city manager had any management experience before the city hired him because there is no way in Hades a private sector executive wouldn’t rip him a new orifice for asking that executive to spend an hour of time listening to a presentation without knowing how much the product costs or how it would be paid for.

Personally, I didn’t like the presentation. Not only was it excessively long, I think the presenters’ approach was too slick by half with their repeated suggestion that getting the council to spend a ton of taxpayer money on “free” water filters was some sort of “public health initiative” or “partnership.” And it didn’t come out until the end of the presentation that this company was actually asking the city to give the company $90,000 a year of our tax dollars to buy their water filters for everybody in the city. I also resent the fact that one of them (Zach Silver) thought it would be an excellent idea to come into our house at Smith’s invitation and (figuratively) poop on the floor by insulting one of the residents.

I was so offended by Silver’s smart-ass treatment of Paul Angelini – a resident, taxpayer, and self-made Clarkston business owner – that I decided to do more research on some of the things Silver and his two colleagues told the city council (and the public) at that meeting. I happen to agree with every single word Mr. Angelini said, so by extension, Silver’s snide comments were also directed at me and every other taxpayer who believes there are far more pressing matters in the city than buying water filters for each other.

Let’s begin at the beginning, shall we?

This water filter company was scheduled to appear at the January 22, 2024, city council meeting. They surprised Smith by not showing up, and we were never told whose fault that was. Smith briefly spoke to the agenda item, claiming the company has worked with other communities in Michigan to provide water filters to residents. Smith said they approached Smith and former mayor Eric Haven separately, and Smith said he thought the initial cost was very low. When councilmember Ted Quisenberry asked Smith why the council should sit through a sales pitch when anyone could buy a water filter at Home Depot, Smith suggested that the Michigan Municipal League had sponsored them, and it’s been presented as something superior to what you can find at Home Depot. Quisenberry suggested they wanted a municipal endorsement to sell their product and questioned whether the city council wanted to be involved in something like that. Smith claimed there is no cost to obtain the countertop unit but admitted it was a sales pitch to sell filters.

The water filter company managed to finally grace us with their presence a month later at the February 26, 2024, city council meeting. Smith told everyone he talked to the company at the fall Michigan Municipal League conference. Smith said they were there to discuss chemicals in the water, to provide information specific to Clarkston, and he thought the council should at least listen to them.

Silver claimed they bring “public health initiatives” to different municipalities, and they believe clean water is a human right. They partner with cities to provide filters directly to residents. Silver’s colleague said Michigan government has considered but apparently has not yet established a formal limit for PFAS (but the level detected in the Independence Township water that some residents use was below the recently proposed level that the representative said was based on “best data.”) She claimed that water tests indicated the presence of arsenic and lead in our water, though both were below the maximum allowed level by the Environmental Protection Agency (but they were not less than the maximum health goal because that’s 0), and the presence of lead is largely related to infrastructure, not wells. She asserted the level of arsenic in the drinking water was 4.8 parts per billion, and for perspective, the Food and Drug Administration allows only 2 parts per million in food. (Um, what? 4.8 parts per billion converts to .0048 parts per million, which is significantly less than 2 parts per million and makes this a weird comparison. You can check the math for yourself by going here, and if you’re interested in learning more about the EPA standards, you can find them by going here.)

Silver said his company had been independently verified to (mostly) remove these materials, asserted their filters are the only ones that can remove PFAS at that level, and they can do it for the (low, low, low) cost of $.80 per day or $250 per household per year for a family of four, assuming four new filters per year per household – even though .8 X 365 is $292, not $250.  (If you’re interested, I found other PFAS filtering suggestions from Consumer Reports and the Environmental Working Group).

No need to fret about our awful, no good, terrible water – Silver’s other colleague claimed they had a solution for us! They proposed their “public health initiative” as the answer to all our problems. What is that? Well, it’s a partnership between them, all the municipal leader folks, and the residents to provide contaminant-free water in the form of filter cartridges delivered directly to the residents. They’ll provide educational materials that would help with their “outreach” talking about the “science stuff” because apparently, we trust our elected officials to ensure we have clean water and we’re just too stupid to take responsibility for this ourselves (even though Clarkston officials have nothing to do with our water except to maintain pipes within the city limits). And, if the city didn’t want to completely jump in right away, they proposed a “tiered approach” to target “specific vulnerable populations” in Clarkston. Exactly where would that be in our half-square mile sized city where we don’t even own the school system?

Sliver claimed they’ve done this in other communities and currently have over 1,000 filters operating in Illinois with “verbal agreements” with other municipalities to expand, including Michigan. He claimed when you educate the public and provide solutions, members of the public experience gratitude and are thankful to have a sense of safety and ownership over the problem. (Gratitude for spending our tax dollars on each other? My dude, you must think our city council needs a lot of stroking, that Clarkston is filled with mouth-breathing idiots, or both. 😂)

Who pays for this? Well, Silver said the way they think about it is that Clarkston taxpayers would pay for it because using their product to filter and clean our water is a necessity that is just as important as paying for fire and police protection. (Is he serious?) Oh wait, he never said Clarkston taxpayers would pay for this. The “free” water filters would be paid for with Clarkston government money, which is completely different than Clarkston taxpayer money. (Yet another reminder you should never underestimate the value of a good civics education to enable our children to understand where “government money” comes from.)

Silver’s colleague talked about exploring good “funding opportunities” (i.e., “free” money from the State of Michigan that comes out of your state taxes rather than your local taxes). Silver said in one of the municipalities they worked with in Illinois, they partnered with a school system and 300 people were just thrilled to sign up. Silver suggested “collaborative” media and outreach efforts in this “partnership.” And in an attempt to stroke the council members’ egos even more, Silver said he could even put photos of the mayor and/or city council members on their proposed educational materials! (Since a goodly number of people in the city don’t even know who is on the city council or bother to vote when only council elections are on the ballot, I’m not sure this would be a huge marketing incentive, but what do I know. 🤷🏻‍♀️)

You can buy these water filters from their website if you want them, but they really, really want to “partner” with the City of the Village of Clarkston. (Why bother with one-off sales when Clarkston taxpayers can be forced to pay for hundreds of water filters so we can all get them for “free”!) They also purportedly “partnered” with the Michigan Municipal League.

Silver’s colleague suggested it would “only” cost $90,000 per year for this wonderful opportunity (such a steal!). We can “lean on other partners” to find options for funding (i.e., get taxpayer funds from somewhere else) or adopt a “tiered approach” (to provide “free” taxpayer-funded filters to some Clarkston residents, but not all Clarkston residents).

When asked why their sales pitch used a government-sounding phrase (“public health initiative”), it became clear that it was simply the wording they used in Illinois to “educate” residents and entice them to sign up for a “free” water pitcher and “free” filters. However, they said they would be open to ideas regarding other words that might convince Clarkston residents to accept “free” water filters, suggesting they could call it a public/private partnership if that’s easier. (Perhaps we should refer to all our contracts as public/private partnerships – it has such a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?) When someone pointed out that many, many Clarkston residents aren’t connected to Independence Township’s municipal well, the representatives assured us that their company would allow us to be “safe” despite having private wells. (It’s unclear how they would know if someone using a private well actually needed one of these filters, because private wells apparently weren’t tested).

And, for some reason, we were told we should remember the Flint, Michigan water debacle. You may recall the Flint problems involved a failure of public officials to treat water from the Flint River before it was pumped through the city’s water system, causing lead to leach into the drinking water because the untreated river water was corrosive. No clue how this relates to Clarkston water, but I guess the takeaway is Flint water = bad; their water filters = good; so, get their “free” water filters, gosh darn it. 🙄

I wouldn’t have bothered doing research on a silly, time-wasting sales pitch if Silver hadn’t mouthed off to Paul Angelini because he had the audacity to suggest the expense of providing an ancillary product like a water filter might not be a good fit in our city budget. (How dare he!) Silver said he didn’t think removal of contaminants was a luxury as Mr. Angelini was “privileged” to think.

OMG. Did Silver really suggest that a resident – someone whose tax dollars Silver wanted to flow to his company – should “check his privilege”?

Yeah, that’s pretty much exactly what happened. For those of you who aren’t familiar with this phrase, suggesting someone “check their privilege” is deliberately intended as a snarky, conversation-stopping comment. Rather than engaging on substance, a person using this phrase is saying the other person can’t possibly understand an issue because s/he is advantaged in some way because of race, sex, socioeconomic status, or any other status du jour (fill in the privilege blank – they are interchangeable for this purpose). In sum, Silver thought Mr. Angelini’s comments were meritless because he had some unnamed advantage that others may not have. (Did Silver learn this tactic in his Sales 101 class, spending time on TikTok, or by projecting from his own place of “privilege”? Inquiring minds want to know. 🤔)

Mr. Angelini also said people have lots of water filter options they could sort through on their own as a personal choice, but as a city, we have more pressing needs for our tax dollars – like fixing sidewalks, for example. Apparently offended a taxpayer would express an opinion about how his tax dollars should be spent, Silver focused on the word “choice” and moved the discussion away from choosing water filters to choosing what water comes out of your tap – that he claimed was provided by our city – because, hello, you have no choice about that! (Um, “our city” doesn’t provide our water, but whatever.)

Silver was so offended that Mr. Angelini used the word “choice,” he “implored” Mr. Angelini to just “Google” the health impacts of arsenic. I guess Silver was implying Mr. Angelini was too stupid to understand the importance of making Clarkson taxpayers pay for “free” water filters from his company (that we could buy directly from his website if we wanted them), but Mr. Angelini assured Silver he understood the impact of arsenic in drinking water; his point was he doesn’t need this product. Jumping into the discussion (after Sue Wylie cut the discussion between Silver and Mr. Angelini off), Quisenberry said actually, we do have a choice to buy an “Acme” filter, a top-of-the-line filter, or just drink tap water. Silver agreed with Quisenberry, so apparently, Silver thinks it’s OK to be rude to taxpaying residents but not to a city council member. (Perhaps Silver might want to Google “representative government.”)

Two other residents made pointed comments. One asked why Clarkston was being targeted, and Silver’s colleague said the company is looking at all potential “partnerships.” (So, any other city officials wanting to waste an hour of meeting time can hear about it too!) Another resident asked why they couldn’t just directly ask residents to buy their water filters. Silver said they offer “retail space” (a fancy way of telling people to go to their website), but since they believe clean water is a human right and we inherited the pipes in our homes, they are approaching municipalities to “get that widespread effect.” (After all, who wants to sell filters to one person at a time when you can convince a municipality to force taxpayers to provide “free” water filters to each other? Cha-ching!)

So, what do we know about this company? FYI, the reason I’m not specifically naming them in the text here is because I’ll be damned if I’m going to give them “free” advertising. If you want to know who they are and how to find them, look at the city council packet from February 26, 2024, and take Silver’s smart-ass advice to just “Google it.” I’m going to do what I always do – express my opinion and let you decide what value to give it.

What does the company’s website say? Well, among other things, you can buy their 40-cup countertop dispenser for $149.99, and you can get a six-month bundle for $249.00. Individual filters are $49.99 every three months whether you subscribe or purchase them outright. They list their chemical filtering rates, and as an added bonus, they suggest their filters “make[ ] you happier in life.” (Really? Does that come at no extra charge?) The website includes a form for Elmwood Park residents to complete because Mayor Saviano and the company want people to sign up for their “free” filters and to make sure they’re eligible, but if they’re not, I suspect the company will follow up with a sales call. (More on Saviano later.)

Who owns the company? As Silver and his colleagues repeatedly said, that’s a good question! The company’s LinkedIn posting states the company is headquartered in Chicago, has six employees, and the CEO is someone named Ron Silver. Ron Silver’s LinkedIn page indicates he has been the CEO since January 2017. He’s a physician with quite an impressive resume, and his biography lists decades of experience as an orthopedic physician and surgeon in Chicago and Evanston, Illinois; he was also a clinical instructor at a medical school.  I wonder – is Dr. Ron Silver any relation to the Zach Silver who made the Clarkston presentation and who is listed as the company’s Chief Marketing Officer on signalhire.com? If they are related, maybe as father and son(?), that might explain why Zach is so sensitive to “privilege.” Perhaps Zach can tell us what their relationship to each other is. (Please note that unless I state otherwise, any references to “Silver” going forward means Zach Silver, one of three company representatives making the presentation at the February 26, 2024, city council meeting, not Ron Silver.)

Who are their clients? While I cannot possibly know the extent of their client list, I can link to what I found in a search.

• • The company boasted about providing filters for 50 North Lawndale families, but the link to the 5Chicago news website brings up a blank page.

• • The smiling face of “Skip” Saviano, Village President of Elmwood Park, Illinois, is referenced in a company LinkedIn article from a year ago indicating the “mayor” and the Elmwood Park School District have joined forces to provide lead and contaminant free water to the children of Elmwood Park. The link to “learn more” returns a “page not found” error on the company’s website. I also found a PDF flyer referencing village president Saviano without the smiling photo, linked here. (I guess Quisenberry was right about wanting a municipal endorsement, but the company is apparently unaware the Village of Elmwood Park has a village president, not a mayor.)

• • I located a contract (linked here) that was posted online as part of a May 9, 2023, response to a FOIA request from WTTW, an Illinois news station. The contract is between the company and the Village of Elmwood Park, effective November 1, 2021, signed by Ron Silver, and provides a business office location for the company in Las Vegas, Nevada. (This is different than the LinkedIn information indicating the company is located in Chicago. I couldn’t find a business listing in Illinois or in Nevada, so perhaps I’m not looking in the right place or they’ve moved.) The implementation plan in Exhibit A of the contract refers to Elmwood’s “public health initiative” and referenced a pilot program to purchase a maximum of 500 units (the counter-top unit plus four sets of filters) at a cost of $220 each, not including any taxes and duties. The term of the contract was for one year or when 500 units were claimed, whichever occurred sooner. The agreement required the “mayor” to do a ton of legwork to introduce the company to schools, businesses, churches, medical offices, and community service organizations. Despite Zach Silver’s comments to the contrary, the contract expressly said it was not intended to establish a partnership (or any relationship beyond an independent contractor). I’m not aware of any other contract between these parties, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t one, especially since it’s been more than a year since November 1, 2021, and the company still has a webform inviting people to sign up for a “free” filter on its website. I also find it very odd that a village of almost 24,000 people agreed to purchase only 500 units, but perhaps this suggests the project was far less important to the village than it was to the water filter company.

Did the Michigan Municipal League (MML) “partner” with Silver’s company? I’m pretty sure it was the other way around since you can find the company’s name under the “Thank you to our sponsors!” section at the bottom of the page discussing the MML’s 2023 convention. (This would have been the “fall Michigan Municipal League conference” Smith referred to as the place he was when he said he talked to them.) No one from Silver’s company was listed as a speaker, but Silver’s company and Verizon provided lunch and Silver’s company provided a registration bag to attendees. Was a water filter sale pitch the cost of the “free” lunch? I can’t say for certain since I wasn’t there, but I wouldn’t be surprised, especially since the MML’s Sponsorship Brochure provides a list of sponsorship costs and the benefits associated with each level. A lunch sponsor paying $5,000 is allowed the opportunity to deliver opening remarks, and the cost to provide a registration bag to attendees is $2,500.

The company representatives claimed to have provided 1,000 filters in Illinois and 300 people in an unnamed school system in one of the municipalities they work with were “thrilled” to sign up for “free” water filters. It’s entirely possible that the information I provided above is the extent of the arrangements the company has with municipalities, i.e., there’s only one, since the contract that I posted referenced outreach programs to schools. But it’s also entirely possible that my search didn’t reveal all their existing contracts, so I’d like a list of them before they get even $1 of my tax money.

During the city council meeting, company representatives suggested they had “verbal agreements” with other municipalities, including municipalities in Michigan. I can’t speak to what it’s like in other states, but there is no such thing as a legally binding “verbal agreement” with a Michigan municipality. Unless the local legislative body approves an agreement, there isn’t one, and any private company believing otherwise is going to receive a rude awakening if it ever tries to sue on any claimed “verbal agreement.” As for Smith’s assertion this company has worked with other communities in Michigan, who exactly are those communities? Most companies are proud to list their clients. Yet there were no Michigan municipalities – or any other municipalities – listed on the company’s presentation materials that would allow us to inquire further into how they performed in these relationships. Why not?

As for the company’s claim that clean water is a “right,” may I suggest that is not actually the case. Clean water for everyone is an aspiration, albeit a very good one. However, a blanket statement that clean water is a “right” that Clarkston residents possess requires a corresponding duty for someone to ensure that clean water is provided to us (which we apparently would fulfill by being forced to pay for the “free” water filters that we give to each other). Putting this concept in a different way, if I declare that everyone has a “right” to orthopedic care, does that mean Dr. Silver must be enslaved and forced to provide it to us? Of course not. That’s silly, and adults in the real world understand the difference between rights and aspirations.

Unfortunately, by the end of the meeting, Quisenberry appeared to the biggest water filter cheerleader in the room and wanted to learn more about getting “free” money to pay for the “free” filters. Quisenberry was referring to grant opportunities, but I think I can safely predict without even checking there are no grants that will last forever, cover the full cost, and it’s doubtful that wealthy Clarkston will be eligible for them in any event. If we bought into this sales pitch, it means taxpayers are going to be on the hook to pay for all (or most) of the cost of the “free” water filters. (It makes me wonder whether there was any “Kool-Aid” added to the water the company provided to the council, because Quisenberry usually isn’t quite so gullible.)

If you haven’t figured it out yet, let me go a step further regarding my feelings about the stupid notion that we need to buy water filters for each other. Any council member that supports spending $90,000 a year for “free” water filters needs to be recalled. And if Quisenberry is truly enamored with this product, he can go to the website, and they would be happy to sell him one. I have zero interest in buying Quisenberry’s water filters for him.

As for Silver, should he ever return to the city (and I truly hope he doesn’t), he owes Mr. Angelini and every other city resident an apology. We decide our tax priorities, not some out-of-state water filter company, even if they do have [[[NANOTECHNOLOGY]]]!. And before Silver suggests anyone else needs to check their privilege, he should look in the mirror.

Here’s another thought – rather than asking us to pay $90,000 a year to buy water filters for each other, perhaps they could just provide a really good coupon code to Clarkston residents interested in buying their product.  I’ll bet Quisenberry would be all over that. 😉