Oakland County Executive, David Coulter, pays $558 Water Bill

FERNDALE, Mich. (AP) — The leader of Michigan's second-largest county didn't pay his water bill for more than a year.

The Detroit News reports that Oakland County Executive David Coulter of Ferndale paid $558 after the newspaper raised the issue Monday. He last paid a water bill in November 2018.

"Unfortunately, this is the one bill I don't have automated," Coulter said. "It was an oversight."

Ferndale, unlike some other Detroit-area communities, doesn't cut off water to residents who don't pay their bill, city spokeswoman Kara Sokol said.

Coulter, a Democrat, is the former mayor of Ferndale. Oakland County commissioners appointed him to the executive's job last summer after the death of L. Brooks Patterson, a Republican who ran the county for decades.

Coulter is seeking election to keep the job.