Official Statements
Press Releases
Official press releases from the Kalamazoo Transparency Act. All statements are sourced from publicly available government data.
Benny Clark Jr. Compensation Report: 2017-2023
Kalamazoo County FOC Domestic Case Enforcement Officer. Public payroll data sourced from OpenPayrolls. Child support collection data sourced from Michigan Courts SCAO.
Kalamazoo FOC Posted Another Perfect Record in 2024: Zero Grievances Acknowledged, Zero Corrective Actions. Now the 2025 Report Is Missing.
The 40th Annual Grievance Report confirms the pattern continued. Two grievances filed, both ruled nongrievable, no action taken. The 2025 report, due this month by the bureau's own five-year publishing schedule, has not appeared.
FOC Bureau Director Steven D. Capps Published Blog Posts Celebrating Portal Traffic While His Bureau's Grievance System Denied 100% of Kalamazoo Parent Complaints for Five Straight Years
From 2020 to 2024, zero grievances acknowledged. Zero corrective actions. Zero policy changes. During that same period, the director wrote about email opt-ins and website visits.
A Federal Study Proved That Jailing Parents for Child Support Makes Them Pay Less. Kalamazoo's FOC Still Uses Bench Warrants.
The University of Michigan analyzed 645,827 cases across the state. Bench warrants dropped payment by 23.9 percent. The Kalamazoo County FOC continues to use them.
The Federal Government Told States to Stop Jailing Parents Who Cannot Pay. Kalamazoo County's FOC Never Stopped.
The FEM Rule, the DOJ, and the Supreme Court all said the same thing. FOC offices in Michigan, including Kalamazoo, kept issuing bench warrants.
Michigan's Legislature, the Feds, the DOJ, and the Supreme Court All Flagged the Same Problem. Kalamazoo's FOC Kept Issuing Bench Warrants.
A timeline of warnings that went ignored. From the Supreme Court in 2011 to the state legislature in 2020, every level of government studied the issue. Kalamazoo County families are still living with the consequences.
The FOC System Has a Race Problem and Kalamazoo Families Are Caught in It
Black parents in Michigan pay 59.4 percent of obligations. White parents pay 78.8 percent. A 19.4 point gap built into the same system Kalamazoo County uses to enforce child support.
Half of Michigan's FOC Officials Do Not Trust Their Own Data System. Kalamazoo's FOC Uses It to Make Decisions About Your Family.
48 percent say MiCSES is inaccurate. 11 percent do not use it at all. These are the numbers behind the enforcement actions taken against Kalamazoo County parents.
97 Percent of Michigan's Friend of the Court Offices Answer to No One. Kalamazoo Is One of Them.
Only 2 of 75 counties have independent oversight. The other 73 let the FOC investigate complaints against itself.
Kalamazoo FOC Throws Out Complaints 3.6 Times Faster Than Any Other County in Michigan
83 percent nongrievable versus 23 percent statewide. Five years of grievances. Zero corrective actions. Not once.
Zero for Five Years: Every Single Grievance Filed Against Kalamazoo's FOC Has Been Denied or Dismissed Since 2020
Not one complaint acknowledged. Not one policy changed. Not one employee disciplined. The FOC reviews itself and finds nothing wrong. Every time.
Miss a Payment, Go to Jail. Withhold a Child, Nothing Happens. Michigan's Two-Tier Family Court System.
Michigan law forces automatic enforcement when child support is one month late. But when a parent is denied court-ordered time with their child, the FOC can legally refuse to act.
Kalamazoo Transparency Act Launches to Hold Local Courts Accountable Using the Government's Own Data
A new public interest project extracts court performance data from state reports and makes it accessible to every resident of Kalamazoo County