Lawsuit to remove Macomb County's Karen Spranger from office allowed to proceed

A lawsuit that seeks to remove controversial Macomb County Clerk Karen Spranger from office for allegedly lying about her residency has been allowed to proceed -- though the meat-cutter-turned-politician says she's not worried about losing her job.

County attorneys have accused Spranger of lying on an affidavit about where she lived so that she could run for Macomb County clerk/register of deeds: The address listed on the form was a blighted Warren house filled with garbage and dead animals.

As Macomb County attorney John Schapka put it: "There's no way anyone could live there."

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But Spranger, who is also accused of creating a hostile work environment in her first year of office through a rash of firings, believes the law is on her side and denies lying about her residency.

"I live in Warren and that's all I want to say right now," Spranger said in a phone interview Monday, adding that the lawsuit to remove her from office will fail.

"I feel very comfortable," she said.

Over the objections of Spranger, a St. Clair County judge on Monday allowed the lawsuit challenging Spranger's residency status to proceed.

Spranger now has a week to answer various questions from the county, including questions about documents that Spranger allegedly removed from county offices since she took office.

"She was taking records out of the office ... I want to know what was taken out and why," Schapka said.

Spranger, who has been embroiled in numerous legal and political controversies since taking office last year, believes she is unfairly being attacked for trying to do a difficult job with limited resources. She believes that she's unfairly being portrayed as a mean boss by political opponents who are involved in what she called a "family feud."

"I am not a mean person," said Spranger, stressing that others in county government have a positive view of her. "My story will come out some day ... I got here because the people listened to what I had to say. I campaigned and my message got out."

Schapka and labor leaders tell a different story.

Since taking office on Jan. 1, Spranger has been hit with 22 grievances filed by union employees and is facing multiple lawsuits over her firings of subordinates that she deemed unfit or uncooperative, and for placing others on administrative leave.

Schapka said that Spranger has created a work environment so hostile that several employees have broken down, left their jobs in tears and have sought counseling. As a result, he said, the county placed those employees on administrative leave.

"We had to do something to rescue them or the county could get sued for (having) a hostile work environment," Schapka said, adding Spranger is "exposing the county to a bottomless pit of potential liability."

On Monday, a judge ordered four county employees who were let go by Spranger to temporarily return to their jobs. St. Clair County Circuit Judge Daniel Kelly also ordered Spranger not to "harass, interfere or impede" the four employees from performing their job duties. The employees are a court clerk, a supervisor of records, a cashier in vital records and a civil service commission worker.

Spranger has been ordered to appear in court on Dec. 11 to argue her side and explain why those four employees should not be allowed to work.

Spranger has argued that she has the right to discipline county workers as she deems fit. In a lawsuit she filed against the county last spring, her lawyers have asked a judge to declare that Spranger is "the boss" over her staff.

But union leaders and county attorneys are putting up a fight, claiming Spranger has crossed a line in how she handles employees and needs to be disciplined. Union lawyers have gone so far as to ask a judge to throw Spranger in jail for sending a union steward home from her clerk-typist job, allegedly in retaliation for her union activity.

On Wednesday, Spranger has to appear before a judge to answer to that complaint. That same day, she also has been ordered to appear before the county Board of Commissioners to answer nearly 100 questions about her budget, the number of vacant positions in her offices and the wait times at county offices.

According to Schapka, Spranger has "been derelict" in many of her duties involving the county treasurer's office and sheriff's office and that it's "starting to strangle county operations."

"Thousands of court documents aren't being recorded. Warrants aren't being canceled out," he said. "It's beyond wild."

Bill Laitner contributed to this report. Tresa Baldas can be contacted at tbaldas@freepress.com