No Certification

On June 1st I published a story about a FOIA
request I submitted to the county about the
dog catcher/animal control officer for Iron
County. I closed with the question:

"Is our dogcatcher in his position legally, or
did the county illegally waive the requirements
imposed on them by state law in order to hire
the son of the chairman of the county board of
commissioners?"

The answer arrived dated June 15th. There are no
documents laying out the county's hiring policy,
"physical, educational, mental, and moral fitness
minimum standards" for hiring a dogcatcher. Also
there is no documentation of Mr. Tom King ever
having completed a 100 hour instructional course
as prescribed by the Michigan Department of
Agriculture.

These are requirements specified in a state
statute, and our dogcatcher doesn't meet those
minimum standards.

So what? Does this really matter? Who cares that
the chairman of the County Board gets her son
hired to the job.

I care, as we all should. This, it tuns out, is
much more than another little bit of corruption
and nepotism. Beside that, Thomas King has not
demonstrated in any way that he is qualified for
the job of animal control officer. Is Mr. King
actually able to qualify by passing a prescribed
course of study?

Earlier this year, the state, through the
prosecutor's office, ran a case through district
court in front of Judge Schwedler, and prosecuted
a man who was bitten by a dog and then stabbed the
dog with an arrow to stop the attack. It is the
case of People vs. Barrette, and a case you'll
be hearing a lot more about in coming months.

Today's report concerns only the simple fact that
Tom King was called by the prosecutor as an
expert witness.

Mr. King does not qualify as the county animal
control officer, and putting him on the stand as
an expert witness, using some presumed but non-
existent credentials to bolster his testimony
constitutes a fraud upon the court by the
prosecutor.

That's a fraud upon all of us, because the case
was brought in the name of the people!

Since out illustrious judge sits to advise the
County Board, he either knew or should have known
that presenting King as the animal control officer
was yet another sham, one of many, in the state's
case. He sat silent and permitted the county
prosecutor's office to proceed. What disgusting
conduct on the bench!

I'm sad to say that this speaks ill of the County
Board, Judge Schwedler, Tom King, the Iron County
Sheriff's department, Melissa Powell Weston, the
person I supported for the job of prosecutor some
months back, and Lisa Brouilette, the assistant
prosecutor who conducted the actual case in court.

This is not a case of simply overlooking a requirement
for someone to be hired as animal control officer, it
is the usual case, in Iron County Michigan, of the
collusion of a number of individuals who have been
given a public trust throwing every semblance of
honesty and decency to the winds, because a county
employee's dog, running loose with no license, was
injured.

As if that's not enough, there's more to come on this
story which continues to unfold.

Bill Vajk