Teh One Who Knocks
11-02-2018, 11:35 AM
Christina Hall, Detroit Free Press
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Macomb County's ousted clerk, Karen Spranger, once suggested installing toilets over holes in the floor containing fecal-eating worms as a way to add more bathrooms to a county building without having to run additional plumbing.
That was among the odd, and sometimes outright bizarre, revelations that came out in depositions taken in a federal whistleblower lawsuit filed against Spranger by two of her former top deputies, who she fired within months of appointing them.
Another tidbit: Spranger literally flipped a coin to decide whether to run as a Republican or Democrat for Macomb County clerk/register of deeds in 2016. She also wouldn't allow her secretary into her office and required her to pass materials under the door.
The Free Press recently obtained transcripts of some of the depositions, including Spranger's, which were taken this year in the ongoing lawsuit. A settlement conference was held Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Detroit, but no agreement was reached, according to court records.
Spranger, who was removed from office in March after a judge determined she lied about her residency on paperwork she filed to run for office, did not appear at the settlement conference, the records show. Macomb County is continuing to pay Spranger's legal fees in the lawsuit.
The fecal-eating worms were suggested by Spranger during remodeling of the Talmer Building in Mount Clemens where some of her staff were being moved as part of a downtown campus renovation plan, according to testimony from Chief Deputy County Executive Mark Deldin.
Deldin testified that Spranger decided that there were not enough bathrooms, and she wanted more for the employees. He told her the plans were drawn many months ago and that was not going to happen.
"And did she evidence any comprehension that things weren't going to change just because she was demanding that change?" asked attorney Jennifer Lord, who is representing Spranger's former aides, Paul Kardasz and Erin Stahl, in the lawsuit.
"I believe she understood it wasn't going to happen because it was a cost issue," Deldin replied. "I do believe that, because she said to me, 'What if I can show you or tell you a way that we can add bathrooms with no cost?' And, you know, having been involved in building facility construction most of my career, I just kind of smiled and said, 'I'd love to hear that one.' "
"And how did she say she was going (to) do it?" Lord asked.
"She was going to give me a business card, which I did not take, of someone that she knew that could come in and talk to me about providing toilets in rooms where she wanted them, and just a hole in the ground, and you place fecal eating worms inside of this hole. No plumbing, and that's how you get more bathrooms."
"She actually used the phrase ...," Lord asked.
"Fecal-eating worms, yes," Deldin interjected.
In her own deposition, Spranger offered some insight on how she chose to become a Republican candidate for the clerk/register of deeds job in November 2016.
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Spranger — who came into office with few qualifications other than that of a political gadfly known to show up at government meetings in tinfoil accessories and dark glasses to protest smart utility meters — said she decided to run for clerk because of personal interest, and she was not registered as a Republican at the time.
"What made you decide to run as a Republican?" Lord asked.
"You had to choose and I chose," Spranger replied.
Lord then asked whether Spranger recalled flipping a coin to decide whether to run as a Republican or Democrat.
"That is a scenario of how I explain when people ask me which party I'm more loyal to, which is neither one. I notice in my observation you don't have to be a good politician, whether you're Democrat or Republican," Spranger replied. "It's just understanding the law and the responsibilities of that office. So I would say, 'I just closed my eyes and said a prayer and I had a coin and I flipped it.' "
"OK," Lord said. "So, it actually happened?
"I actually did that," Spranger replied.
County Corporation Counsel John Schapka testified in his deposition that Spranger once canceled a 10 a.m. meeting, then walked into his office at 10:01 a.m. to discuss the meeting she said she couldn't be at.
He testified that she stayed for an hour, talking about "everything under the sun" including that she was born either 11 months or 13 months after her next older sister "because her father insisted on exercising his husbandly rights," according to the transcript.
Both Schapka and Deldin were asked about whether they heard that Spranger dressed up in disguise, pretending to be her predecessor as clerk, Carmella Sabaugh, at a January 2017 conference. Deldin said he had not heard that; while Schapka said he heard about that probably a year later from an employee.
When asked in her deposition whether she attempted to disguise herself as Sabaugh at the conference, Spranger replied: "I was wearing a wig to figure if I wanted to cut my hair or not."
According to her transcript, Spranger was more than an hour late for the start of her deposition in April in Royal Oak. She said she had another commitment and "by the time I did get the actual directions here, I got lost," she explained.
http://imagizer.imageshack.com/img922/8978/Hzu0e4.jpg
Macomb County's ousted clerk, Karen Spranger, once suggested installing toilets over holes in the floor containing fecal-eating worms as a way to add more bathrooms to a county building without having to run additional plumbing.
That was among the odd, and sometimes outright bizarre, revelations that came out in depositions taken in a federal whistleblower lawsuit filed against Spranger by two of her former top deputies, who she fired within months of appointing them.
Another tidbit: Spranger literally flipped a coin to decide whether to run as a Republican or Democrat for Macomb County clerk/register of deeds in 2016. She also wouldn't allow her secretary into her office and required her to pass materials under the door.
The Free Press recently obtained transcripts of some of the depositions, including Spranger's, which were taken this year in the ongoing lawsuit. A settlement conference was held Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Detroit, but no agreement was reached, according to court records.
Spranger, who was removed from office in March after a judge determined she lied about her residency on paperwork she filed to run for office, did not appear at the settlement conference, the records show. Macomb County is continuing to pay Spranger's legal fees in the lawsuit.
The fecal-eating worms were suggested by Spranger during remodeling of the Talmer Building in Mount Clemens where some of her staff were being moved as part of a downtown campus renovation plan, according to testimony from Chief Deputy County Executive Mark Deldin.
Deldin testified that Spranger decided that there were not enough bathrooms, and she wanted more for the employees. He told her the plans were drawn many months ago and that was not going to happen.
"And did she evidence any comprehension that things weren't going to change just because she was demanding that change?" asked attorney Jennifer Lord, who is representing Spranger's former aides, Paul Kardasz and Erin Stahl, in the lawsuit.
"I believe she understood it wasn't going to happen because it was a cost issue," Deldin replied. "I do believe that, because she said to me, 'What if I can show you or tell you a way that we can add bathrooms with no cost?' And, you know, having been involved in building facility construction most of my career, I just kind of smiled and said, 'I'd love to hear that one.' "
"And how did she say she was going (to) do it?" Lord asked.
"She was going to give me a business card, which I did not take, of someone that she knew that could come in and talk to me about providing toilets in rooms where she wanted them, and just a hole in the ground, and you place fecal eating worms inside of this hole. No plumbing, and that's how you get more bathrooms."
"She actually used the phrase ...," Lord asked.
"Fecal-eating worms, yes," Deldin interjected.
In her own deposition, Spranger offered some insight on how she chose to become a Republican candidate for the clerk/register of deeds job in November 2016.
http://imagizer.imageshack.com/img922/4773/2YadtL.jpg
Spranger — who came into office with few qualifications other than that of a political gadfly known to show up at government meetings in tinfoil accessories and dark glasses to protest smart utility meters — said she decided to run for clerk because of personal interest, and she was not registered as a Republican at the time.
"What made you decide to run as a Republican?" Lord asked.
"You had to choose and I chose," Spranger replied.
Lord then asked whether Spranger recalled flipping a coin to decide whether to run as a Republican or Democrat.
"That is a scenario of how I explain when people ask me which party I'm more loyal to, which is neither one. I notice in my observation you don't have to be a good politician, whether you're Democrat or Republican," Spranger replied. "It's just understanding the law and the responsibilities of that office. So I would say, 'I just closed my eyes and said a prayer and I had a coin and I flipped it.' "
"OK," Lord said. "So, it actually happened?
"I actually did that," Spranger replied.
County Corporation Counsel John Schapka testified in his deposition that Spranger once canceled a 10 a.m. meeting, then walked into his office at 10:01 a.m. to discuss the meeting she said she couldn't be at.
He testified that she stayed for an hour, talking about "everything under the sun" including that she was born either 11 months or 13 months after her next older sister "because her father insisted on exercising his husbandly rights," according to the transcript.
Both Schapka and Deldin were asked about whether they heard that Spranger dressed up in disguise, pretending to be her predecessor as clerk, Carmella Sabaugh, at a January 2017 conference. Deldin said he had not heard that; while Schapka said he heard about that probably a year later from an employee.
When asked in her deposition whether she attempted to disguise herself as Sabaugh at the conference, Spranger replied: "I was wearing a wig to figure if I wanted to cut my hair or not."
According to her transcript, Spranger was more than an hour late for the start of her deposition in April in Royal Oak. She said she had another commitment and "by the time I did get the actual directions here, I got lost," she explained.