18 Complaints, Not a Single Change

Between 2020 and 2024, 18 grievances were filed against the Kalamazoo County Friend of the Court. The result: zero corrective actions. Not one. Not a single change to office operations. Not one personnel action. Every complaint was either denied or deemed nongrievable.

A new civic transparency project has extracted this data from government reports and published it in a way regular citizens can actually understand. The Kalamazoo Transparency Act website shows the full story of a system that investigates complaints about itself and finds nothing wrong every time.

The numbers speak for themselves. Across 18 grievances over 5 years, the FOC made no changes to office operations and took no personnel actions. Every complaint resulted in nothing.

This is not a statistic. It is a pattern of dysfunction that has gone completely unchallenged.

What People Actually Complained About

The grievances reveal real problems affecting real families across Kalamazoo County. Here is what the 18 complaints were about:

  • 13 grievances involved employee complaints
  • 5 grievances concerned child support enforcement
  • 11 grievances involved other issues
  • 2 grievances involved parenting time disputes
  • 1 grievance involved custody issues

The employee complaints alone make up nearly three-quarters of all grievances filed. Parents and case workers have complained about FOC employees repeatedly over five years. Yet the office has taken no action on any of those complaints.

How Kalamazoo Responded to Each Complaint

The Kalamazoo Transparency Act has broken down every single outcome. Here is what happened to each grievance:

2020-2024 Breakdown

  • 6 grievances were denied outright
  • 12 grievances were deemed nongrievable
  • 0 grievances were acknowledged in part
  • 0 grievances were acknowledged in full

Every grievance filed against the FOC was either denied or deemed nongrievable. Not a single complaint was acknowledged in full or in part across 5 years.

This is a 100% denial rate. The FOC has found every single complaint to be invalid. The data shows no exceptions. No complaints were even partially acknowledged as valid.

The Missing Oversight Committee

While the courts are overloaded at 119% capacity, the Friend of the Court investigates complaints against itself and finds nothing wrong every time. There is no Citizen Advisory Committee reviewing whether those denials are justified.

Michigan law allows every county to establish a Citizen Advisory Committee. The county board of commissioners can make it happen. The chief judge can support it. But Kalamazoo County does not have one.

Only 2 of 75 FOC offices in Michigan have one. Michigan law allows every county to establish a CAC. The county board of commissioners can make it happen.

The Kalamazoo Transparency Act data shows that only Kent County and Macomb County had active Citizen Advisory Committees as of 2024. Kalamazoo is left without independent oversight of how the FOC handles complaints.

The Law Already Has a Fix

Michigan law already provides the answer. MCL 552.504a authorizes every county to establish a Citizen Advisory Committee. The statute clearly states:

The committee shall review and investigate grievances concerning the friend of the court and advise the court and the county board on the office's duties and performance.

This law exists. It has been on the books for years. But Kalamazoo County has never activated it. The county has chosen to operate without independent oversight while the FOC denies every single complaint.

A Pattern, Not an Accident

The Kalamazoo Transparency Act makes it clear that zero corrective actions is not an accident. It is a pattern.

Across 18 grievances over 5 years, the FOC made no changes. No operational changes. No personnel actions. Every complaint resulted in nothing.

Data without action is just numbers. We use it to push for real oversight, starting with a Citizen Advisory Committee for the FOC.

The website explains that this is not just about statistics. It is about people. Parents across Kalamazoo County have complained about the FOC for years. Now there is a website that tracks the data. Here is what it shows.

What This Means for Families

When the court is overloaded and has no oversight, the families who depend on child support payments are the ones who suffer. The Kalamazoo Transparency Act shows that Kalamazoo County has been below the state average in child support collection every year since 2020.

  • 2020: 69% collection rate (5 points below state average)
  • 2025: 65% collection rate (3 points below state average)

That is a 4 percentage point decline in five years. When the court is overloaded at 119% capacity and has no oversight, families lose out.

The Data Is on Your Side

The Kalamazoo Transparency Act makes the data accessible, searchable, and understandable for regular people. Government reports are published as PDFs that nobody reads. This project pulls the data out and structures it so you can actually use it.

Every dataset becomes a free, open API endpoint. No keys. No authentication. Just the data, available to anyone who wants it.

The website provides links to the original source documents:

  • 2024: 40th Annual Grievance Report to the Legislature
  • 2023: 39th Annual Grievance Report to the Legislature
  • 2022: 38th Annual Grievance Report to the Legislature
  • 2021: 37th Annual Grievance Report to the Legislature
  • 2020: 36th Annual Grievance Report to the Legislature

Demand a CAC

Data without action is just numbers. The Kalamazoo Transparency Act uses this data to push for real oversight. They are making sure the county commissioners hear the demand.

The county board of commissioners can make it happen. The chief judge can support it. We are making sure they hear the demand.

The website is calling on citizens to:

  • Call their county commissioner
  • Write the chief judge
  • Show up to board meetings

The data is on your side. Use it.

How to Get Involved

The Kalamazoo Transparency Act provides multiple ways to engage with this issue:

  • Explore the FOC data at https://www.kalamazootransparencyact.com/9th-circuit/family/foc
  • Learn about the Citizen Advisory Committee at https://www.kalamazootransparencyact.com/cac
  • See all the data about Kalamazoo County courts at https://www.kalamazootransparencyact.com

The Bottom Line

Kalamazoo County has not addressed a single grievance filed against the Friend of the Court in five years. The data is clear. The law provides a solution. But the county has chosen to operate without oversight.

18 grievances filed. 0 corrective actions taken. That is the pattern.

The Kalamazoo Transparency Act is exposing this pattern in real time. The data is on your side. Use it.