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Balkema, Sahu Compete in Contentious Race for Treasurer's Office

Mrs. Gemstone
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Flickr/Creative Commons license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/legalcode

The race for the Kalamazoo County Treasurer’s office has not been quiet this year.

Incumbent Republican Mary Balkema has questioned whether her opponent could serve if elected. Her opponent, Democrat Sunny Sahu, says that’s ridiculous. Meanwhile, Balkema has seen a lawsuit alleging racial discrimination filed against her office.

Both candidates have sought to convince voters that they’re the best candidate for the job.

Mary Balkema was appointed treasurer in 2007 and then elected to the office. She says her proudest achievements include creating the county’s land bank and tackling blight around the county.

“I think we’re at a good time where all of our books are balanced, the tax base is more – become more and more stable. I have a few projects I want to work on and I just really want to continue the good work that I’ve started,” Balkema says.

Democrat Sunny Sahu is a deputy attorney with the City of Battle Creek. He says if he’s elected, he’ll use the office to more effectively grow local business.

“If we don’t open this market up and in the treasurer’s office get out of our seat and go out and find the opportunities that we can bring back to this county, then in thirty years we will see the results of stagnation that we see in other places that try too long to hold onto the status quo,” Sahu says.

It’s the treasurer’s office that gets involved when someone falls behind on their property taxes. Both candidates say they want to help people avoid tax foreclosure. Balkema says she’s worked out payment plans in situations where she could have foreclosed – and raised money for people who are struggling.

“We’re a model for the whole state on the amount of money that we’ve raised and a lot of my fellow treasurers are jealous on the generosity of this community to raise money to keep people in their home,” she says.

But Sahu accuses Balkema of playing what he calls an ‘insider’s game’ when it comes to foreclosed properties.

“You can’t figure out how to be part of auction process, you can’t get information in time unless you happen to be one of a few people on a small list of people,” he says.

Credit Gary Yonkers Photography/Used with permission
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Gary Yonkers Photography/Used with permission
Kalamazoo County Treasurer Mary Balkema, a Republican, is running for another term.

Asked for details of supposed inside dealing, Sahu said that this wasn’t the time to explore them. But he did allude to a lawsuit recently filed against the treasurer’s office. The suit claims the county has made it nearly impossible for some African-American homeowners to buy back tax-foreclosed houses.

The county sometimes bundles those properties into larger, more expensive parcels. Balkema says she can’t comment on the case. But she says tax foreclosure – including bundling – is full of checks and balances.

“They have a right to go to the judge if they don’t like my decision, and the judge will order me to put one back or not put one back or maybe the process wasn’t completely fair,” she says.

Credit Courtesy photo
Democrat Sunny Sahu is running for the office of Kalamazoo County Treasurer.

Since treasurers handle a lot of money they have to be insured, or bonded, against theft. Balkema says she doubts Sahu could get a bond. In 2008 Sahu pleaded no contest to a drunk driving charge in Oakland County. Sahu also carried some federal tax debt until recently.

Balkema says she ran those issues by a staff member of the Michigan Municipal Risk Management Authority, the county’s bonding agency.

“I didn’t give a name, I just gave an example and this and they said ‘absolutely not,’ so. There’s no point in sending someone’s name out there prematurely. I said ‘can this type of person be bonded’ and they said ‘no.’”

Balkema did not know at the time that Sahu has paid the tax debt, though she says that’s not the only issue.

The MMRMA did not return WMUK’s request for comment on whether it would bond Sahu. A State Farm agent who’s in touch with the Sahu campaign says for her company, a drunk driving conviction and prior debt would not automatically preclude a bond.

A Kalamazoo GOP press release incorrectly implied that Sahu was also charged with stealing a car. While the words ‘stolen vehicle’ do appear on the arrest record, the only charge is an OWI. Sahu says that while he deeply regrets having driven drunk, Balkema’s claim that he can’t be bonded is simply not true.

“The DUI for example that I plead to, the operating while under the influence, is absolutely no bar to bonding. The fact that in the past a person has had debts that they’ve been fully responsible for and have taken care of is no bar to bonding,” he says.

Sahu adds that if the county’s bonding agency won’t cover him, he could get coverage from another company. State law does allow treasurers to seek a bond outside the county’s coverage.

While Sahu and Balkema vie for the elected treasurer’s office, Kalamazoo County also happens to be in the market for an appointed county administrator. Last year Balkema applied for that job and very nearly got it.

But she says if she’s reelected treasurer, she will not seek to become Kalamazoo County’s next administrator.

Sehvilla Mann joined WMUK’s news team in 2014 as a reporter on the local government and education beats. She covered those topics and more in eight years of reporting for the Station, before becoming news director in 2022.
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