Published: December 21, 2007 09:39 am      

Newsmakers: Shed contents more ordinary

Tanning bed, drug items were found in room

BEULAH -- A room in a maintenance shed at the Benzie County government center is now stocked with power tools, paint and other ordinary things.

The same room last year housed stacks of Playboy magazines, drug paraphernalia, a tanning bed and other items linked to a couple of custodians who used the taxpayer-funded space as a personal clubhouse.

"We moved forward," said county Administrator Chuck Clarke, adding the questionable items were purged from the room months ago.

Custodian Alan Blattner still works for the county, despite pleading guilty in March to a misdemeanor embezzlement charge related to his unauthorized use of county electricity to fuel the tanning bed. Blattner, 56, co-owned the bed with another custodian and eventually took it home, Clarke said.

Criminal charges were dismissed in July against a Benzie-based state employee suspected of receiving stolen items from another custodian who frequented the room, but she hasn't returned to work.

Elaine Saffron, 49, is suspended with pay pending the outcome of an internal investigation, Michigan Department of Human Services spokeswoman Maureen Sorbet said. She wouldn't provide details and said she didn't know how long the investigation would take.

Neither Saffron nor Blattner returned calls seeking comment.

Benzie's government center houses a DHS office where Saffron worked, and officials alleged former county maintenance supervisor Donald Zaleski gave her computer equipment, office furniture and other items purchased with county credit. She also was suspected of taking a laptop computer.

Zaleski, 55, died in a car crash in December 2006, about a month after the investigation began.

Saffron initially was charged with multiple felonies by Manistee County Prosecutor Ford Stone, who took the case after Benzie Prosecutor Anthony Cicchelli declared a conflict of interest because charges also were sought against county employees. Stone later downgraded the charges to misdemeanors, and they were dismissed altogether by July.

The prosecution's case was damaged by the poor credibility of Saffron's estranged ex-husband, who initially reported the alleged wrongdoing to police, Cicchelli said. Cicchelli was back on the case once Blattner pleaded guilty. He refused to comment for this story.

Some of the items in the shed, including several marijuana pipes, were traced to the evidence room at the Benzie County Sheriff's Department. Officials suspect custodians removed them from the trash after they were cleared from the evidence room to make space, Undersheriff Rory Heckman said.

It won't happen again, Heckman said, because drug-related items are now smashed to bits before they're discarded.