Deadbeat trustee candidate in Clinton Township should run from his record, not on it
Dan Kress tells voters he is a proud father who has met many residents and small business owners, which is a fine thing when you're running for trustee in Clinton Township. What he left out of his campaign literature is that he has met some of those business owners in court, which also is where he spent a fair bit of time trying to avoid getting locked up for failing to pay child support.
Kress, 56, told me Friday in a text message that he is running to fill a vacancy on the board because he was "asked by the Macomb County Republican Party" and hopes to be "a common sense voice on the Board and seek a Property Tax freeze and advocate for all of the other topics listed in my literature."
We were supposed to speak on the phone Friday about his campaign and the voluminous public record he has created over the past 30 years, but after it became clear I had questions about some of what I gently referred to as a "fair number of legal disputes," that interview never materialized. More on that later, because the records speak rather loudly for themselves.
Kress, a builder and demolition contractor, has been sued about a dozen times in Macomb County's district and circuit courts for failing to pay his debts. The law firm that represented him in his divorce — a case in which his wife accused him of playing games with his assets — later sued him for failing to pay the bills they sent for representing him. The divorce case yielded a bitter harvest of revelations: From Kress' failure to pay income taxes from 1996 to 1999; to providing false information to obtain a mortgage; to failing to pay child support which, on more than one occasion, caused a judge to issue a bench warrant for his arrest.
These are the kind of things candidates rarely disclose about themselves in their campaign literature, and Kress is no exception. Voters will be able to pass their own judgment on Feb. 27, in a special election being held to replace Trustee Jenifer "Joie" West, who resigned last summer.
Other candidates for the vacant seat include Democrat Iona Means and Libertarian Michael Saliba. Means received a traffic ticket in 2009, but the case was dismissed. I was going to dig into Saliba's background but, let's face it, as a third-party candidate he's got about as much chance of being elected to the Clinton Township Board of Trustees as I have of being elected mayor of Detroit (don't worry; I'm not running to replace Mike Duggan. One White Mike is enough!)
Kress' latest legal entanglement involves some of the very officials he will preside over if he's elected to the township board. One week after the election, he's scheduled to appear in district court for a pretrial conference on charges he failed to get a certificate of occupancy for a hulking building that looks like a barn or lodge made out of cinder block that he owns off Millar Road. Township officials also charged Kress with failing to get the building inspected or obtaining permits for work to make the building habitable.
Kress alleged in one of the texts he sent me Friday that he is the victim of a political witchhunt, which is a phrase that has become quite popular in recent years.
"Not once in my 40+ years as a resident, or business owner (member, stockholder, or entity stakeholder) have I ever been presented with an 'Ordinance Complaint' or any other legal action from Clinton Township," Kress wrote.
"In my opinion this court case amounts to nothing more than a POLITICAL STUNT, orchestrated to tarnish my good name in the closing days of this trustee race!"
I can't speak to whether it's a stunt, but it seems unlikely given that Kress' campaign website says Clinton Township Supervisor Robert Cannon and Clerk Kim Meltzer endorsed him.
As for his "good name," check out what I found in my tour of Macomb County courthouses and judge for yourself.
Long-playing record
I was thinking about starting this section by detailing all the times Kress has been stopped by the cops for traffic violations ranging from expired plates and to failing to provide proof of insurance to driving with a suspended license. But, frankly, there are so many it would just bore you. Suffice to say, he doesn't appear to be as concerned about following the rules of the road as much as you, me or, possibly, Evel Knievel.
Instead, let's get straight to the lyin' and cheatin'.
Kress was first sued in 1990 by Snap-on Tools for a debt of $573. Court records show that he defaulted in the case, which means he didn't bother to show up and defend himself, and a judge ordered him to pay $663. When Kress didn't make good with the lucre, a wage garnishment was issued.
Three years later, the Michigan Department of Treasury sued him, presumably for unpaid taxes. This time it appears the parties reached an agreement to let Kress settle his debt of $1,063 for $800.
Subsequent lawsuits were filed by a doctor, the aforementioned attorneys, landlords and various businesses claiming that their interactions with Kress or his companies left them less than thrilled or fulfilled. Kress defaulted in several of those cases, some of which led to more attempts to garnish his wages and, in at least one case, of a payment that satisfied the party that sued him.
The legal action that shed the most light on Kress' interpersonal interactions was the divorce his wife sought in 1999. After perusing the voluminous file, it appears that Kress and his now ex-wife cared for their sons more than they ended up caring for each other. There was the standard sparring over maritial assets, including a claim that Kress tried to downplay his stake in a company by claiming that his mother and uncle were equal partners (a claim the judge rejected). But it is the disclosures about Kress' approach to things like paying taxes and child support and making disclosures on mortgage applications that may be of most interest to voters.
In a 2001 opinion and order, Macomb Circuit Judge Peter Maceroni wrote that Kress "denied earning any income in the years 1998 and 1999, but was able to secure a mortgage on the marital home in the amount of $120,000 in April 1999 based upon his representations to a financial institution that he earned monthly income in the amount of $3,106.83."
If you're having trouble following the logic of how someone who "denied earning any income" could also claim "he earned a monthly income in the amount of $3,106.83," something Maceroni wrote several pages later may help.
Kress "did testify that he had zero income in both 1998 and 1999," the judge wrote, adding that Kress "admitted in documents which he submitted to obtain a mortgage and which showed he earned in excess of $3,000 per month were incorrect."
If there's a nicer way of saying someone gave a bank fraudulent information to get a loan, I've never heard it.
The file also reveals judges ordering Kress to come to court to explain why he is not paying child support and, on occasion, issuing warrants for his arrest because he either failed to show up in court to explain himself or failed to make the required payment. There is no indication in the records that Kress was ever locked up, so it appears that he eventually met his obligation.
When it comes to his obligation to discuss these matters, however, Kress still has some catching up to do.
A little more conversation, a little less typing
Kress and I agreed Thursday to discuss his candidacy and legal matters on Friday. By Friday afternoon, he changed his mind.
"If you have any other specific questions outside of the current litigation, please text them to me and I'll be happy to respond," Kress wrote Friday after sending some texts, including his standard political boilerplate and his take on the township's case against him regarding the edifice off Millar.
Sadly, it's not uncommon for politicians to bail on an interview when they sense they may face more than a few Nerf balls. And, if you've read this column or followed my work over the years, you know I believe in genuine exchanges of information rather than a flurry of carefully crafted correspondence that could have been written by anyone but the person whose name is on it.
So I wrote back: "This is helpful, thank you! I have some questions about previous litigation, too. And some matters that came up in your divorce case. There is more than we can cover in text messages. Plus, I believe public officials, and people who want to be public officials, should be available to answer questions in a live interview. People want officials who will speak up. They are not looking for prepared statements or pen pals."
A couple hours later, Kress wrote back that he made "substantial compliance" with the terms of his divorce and that "periodic disputes are irrelevant and have no impact on Township business."
Again, I'll let you be the judge of that.
Clinton Township already was let down by one of its trustees — remember Dean Reynolds, who was convicted of public corruption charges — who turned out not to be so trust-y. He's due to be released from federal prison in 2031.
I'm not suggesting Kress is going to get caught up in a widespread federal corruption scandal. He's not the greatest at meeting his financial obligations, but I didn't see anything in the record that suggests he's a thief.
It's fair to say the public record indicates Kress has not shrouded himself in glory as a businessman. Default judgments can be a troubling sign that someone isn't good at facing their problems — until a judge gives them no other choice. The thing about being in government is you're not just there to face problems, you're expected to solve them.
It's possible Kress will somehow prove more successful handling the People's Business than his own business. But if Clinton Township ends up with another bum on its board of trustees, it may be de-fault of voters.
M.L. Elrick is a Pulitzer Prize- and Emmy Award-winning investigative reporter and host of the ML's Soul of Detroit podcast. Contact him at mlelrick@freepress.com or follow him on Twitter at @elrick, Facebook at ML Elrick and Instagram at ml_elrick.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Clinton Township candidate Dan Kress has fair number of legal disputes
