‘I’m kind of tired after 28 years, here’s my resignation’ Michigan food supervisor forced to resign

I get it.

Burdened with never-ending bureaucracy, who wouldn’t resign.

I did (KState said I resigned, but really, they fired my ass).

And followed a girl to Brisbane.

But the only thing wrong about my resignation was I never got any severance from Kansas State University, and still cringe every time I hear about the parachutes — golden or not — bureaucrats get upon departure.

I was dumb about that.

I was also hopelessly naive about my belief that universities were places of higher learning and that effort and achievement would be honored.

Nope

Cody Combs of WWMT reports a former employee of a West Michigan county health department once in charge of overseeing restaurant inspections is now coming under criticism after the I-Team learned the employee was forced to resign.

This comes as the Newschannel 3 I-Team uncovers how some say the restaurant inspector neglected to keep up with inspections, potentially putting the safety of many in and around West Michigan at risk.

The I-Team started asking questions about the health inspections after portions of a Van Buren/Cass District Health Department document were anonymously sent to Newschannel 3.

“Inspect the 40 restaurants which have not been inspected since 2015,” reads the document.

That rate of inspections falls far below state regulations, according to staffers at several West Michigan county health departments.

The I-Team then pored over Van Buren/Cass Health Department meeting minutes, and found a brief mention during a meeting in March of a resignation from a worker named Cary Hindley, now the former food service supervisor.

Over at the Van Buren/Cass Health Department, we asked Director Jeff Elliott about the inspections or lack thereof, and Elliott explained Hindley’s departure.

“He said, you know what Jeff, all the regulations we have to follow and everything, he said, I’m kind of tired after 28 years, here’s my resignation,” Elliott said.

But Elliott disagreed with the internal document saying 40 restaurants were last inspected in 2015.

“I don’t think that’s gospel,” he said.

Elliott says the files may need to be located.

Other staffers, speaking on the condition of anonymity, say finding the documents, if they exist, may prove impossible.

At Wednesday’s Board of Health meeting, more concerns about the restaurant inspection discrepancies were voiced from board members, as well as other county health officials.

 

 

 

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About Douglas Powell

A former professor of food safety and the publisher of barfblog.com, Powell is passionate about food, has five daughters, and is an OK goaltender in pickup hockey. Download Doug’s CV here. Dr. Douglas Powell editor, barfblog.com retired professor, food safety 3/289 Annerley Rd Annerley, Queensland 4103 dpowell29@gmail.com 61478222221 I am based in Brisbane, Australia, 15 hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time