It’s not often one finds a model of confrontational chaos being played out that is as easy to follow as this Kalkaska Michigan story. You’ve heard of deep state by now, of course, but have you ever considered the shallow state?
Picture then, if you will, the headwaters of political corruption where the rich soil is the idle chatter of happy hour and graft is born from the spoiled fruit of the empty thoughts that drift languidly through such gatherings and blend surreptitiously with the plans of the obdurate predators of the locally taxed.
Such is the shallow state. Found in small towns across America they feed the corruptive pipelines nourishing the criminal enterprises with the book title name Deep State.
Small towns also produce resistance to the shallow state. In Kalkaska, resistance to the shallow state has been encouraging. The good news is less than half the village appears to agree with the outside agitators.
What is UNsettling about that is the lack of discernment the offended ones display. How do they survive living up there in the north where Bear Lake is called Bear Lake for a reason?
If a villager wanted to be upset about something you would think learning your village is on the verge of collapse because of some sweet heart deal made 15 or 20 years ago would be all a normal person needed…
…People should pay closer attention to how the village is being run because it is on the verge of collapse, said attorney John Di Giacomo, who represents a retired village clerk and other former village employees who have recently sued the village over suspended retirement benefits.
DiGiacomo sent a letter to the village on behalf of Virginia Thomas after her health benefits were cut off by trustees several years ago.
Thomas, a former clerk and village president, retired in 2010; in 1996, she and other employees negotiated to receive lifetime health benefits to be paid by the village.
Whether or not that was a prudent move by the village at the time, a jury, the Michigan Court of Appeals, and the state Supreme Court have found that Thomas was owed the benefits.
Despite the initial finding by a jury in Kalkaska, however, the village continued to pursue a losing case.
The village appealed the jury verdict, and the Court of Appeals rejected each one of the village’s arguments, which meant the village was then on the hook for the plaintiff’s court costs. Rather than relenting after the release of that decision in March 2016, the village hired retired Michigan Supreme Court Justice Clifford Taylor, presumably seeking an inside track to a favorable opinion. The gambit failed. In September, the Supreme Court refused to hear the case. The Northern Express filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the village to discover the cost of hiring Taylor; it was not immediately fulfilled.
Di Giacomo said that throughout the lawsuit, he offered the village numerous opportunities to settle for an amount that would have been far less painful than what the jury finally ruled…
If only the career paths of the leading bleeding heart of Kalkaska and the past president of the village weren’t crossing in the same corporate construct, this whole odious reaction from outside the village boundary focused on one American’s opinion wouldn’t seem like it’s a cover for those responsible for the burden birthed long ago in the shallow state whose full and dire consequences are yet to be experienced.
Background
http://www.record-eagle.com/news/local_news/kalkaska-loses-retiree-benefit-appeal/article_99831647-eff1-5d8a-b5bc-3e2e4abc4641.html
http://www.traverseticker.com/story/fight-rages-over-soul-future-of-Kalkaska
http://interlochenpublicradio.org/post/governments-struggle-balance-yesterdays-promises-retirees-budgets-today
http://www.infomi.com/city/kalkaska/gov.html
http://michiganradio.org/post/kalkaska-town-divided-over-officials-anti-muslim-posts
https://www.coldwellbanker.com/agents/jeffrey-fitch-49646
https://www.coldwellbankerrealestate.com/Coldwell-Banker-Schmidt,-Realtors-8377c/Cindy-Anderson-350785a
http://www.kalkaskavillage.com/?cat=3
https://www.northernexpress.com/news/feature/unwelcome-to-kalkaska/
http://michiganradio.org/post/kalkaska-village-president-defends-his-controversial-facebook-posts