After learning that a Holland woman who defied state lockdown orders by keeping her restaurant open might go on Fox News to tell her story, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said in a March 12, 2021, email to her staff:

“Do we know her whereabouts? We should just have her picked up before she goes on. This is outrageous.”

Restaurant owner Marlena Hackney was arrested by the Michigan State Police seven days later, on March 19.

Nessel sent the email after learning from staffers that Hackney would be interviewed by Fox News host Tucker Carlson.

The Mackinac Center for Public Policy obtained the email exchange after filing a Freedom of Information Act request with the Department of the Attorney General. It had sought documents related to Hackney’s case.

Eileen Whipple, an assistant attorney general, sent an email to Nessel and others in the office, alerting them to Hackney’s planned television appearance.

“Should I be prepared to respond to this?” Nessel asked in an email thread that followed. “I hope she gets the full 93 days for this. (Is that the max for civil contempt or just criminal contempt?)”

In another email, Nessel asked about any actions officials with the Michigan State Police were planning.

“Does MSP intend to go find her? Or are they planning to wait until next week?” Nessel said.

Whipple told Nessel and others that their office was telling the police “about this new information.”

Whipple responded to Nessel’s comment about a maximum sentence for Hackney:

“As to the length of potential imprisonment, since this is a coercive civil contempt the Court (as the Court indicated in her Order) can keep her incarcerated until she complies or it becomes impossible for her to comply.”

The Fox News interview with Hackney was broadcast on March 17.

Hackney was arrested by the Michigan State Police on March 19. She was released from jail on March 23.

Kelly Rossman-McKinney, spokeswoman for the Attorney General’s office, released a statement on the emails: “Ms. Pavlos-Hackney willfully violated the state's food laws, public health orders and orders of the court--a dangerous act that may have exposed dozens of diners and employees to the virus following the discovery that one of Marlena's customers tested positive for the virus within two days of eating there. Ms. Pavlos-Hackney’s decision to then go on national television and flaunt her noncompliance compromised the state’s ability to protect public safety during a global pandemic and likely emboldened others to break the law.”

Michigan’s state-run public school retirement system promises traditional retirement benefits in the form of annual pensions to employees hired before February 2016. Most newer hires get employer contributions to 401(k)-type retirement savings accounts.

Meanwhile, statewide enrollment in public schools has been falling, which means at many districts there are fewer teachers and support staff on the payroll than in past years. But as many school districts are learning, fewer employees does not translate into lower expenses for retirement benefits.

The Lansing School District illustrates this point.

Even as enrollment and staff numbers have fallen significantly, the cost of unfunded pension obligations owed to employees hired before February 2016 is on the rise.

“Pension debt hurts teachers and taxpayers alike,” says James Hohman of Mackinac Center for Public Policy. “It drains resources for classrooms today into paying the debts on yesterday’s services. While lawmakers have done a lot stop future pension debts, they also got deep into the red before doing so, and districts are paying the price for it.”

The Lansing school district employs fewer people because it also enrolls fewer students: 10,498 in 2020, or a 22% decline from the 13,465 who attended in 2011. The number of employees also fell, from 1,537 full-time positions in 2011 to 1,226 in 2020, a 20% decrease.

But even with the smaller payroll, the district’s annual required contributions to the state-run pension system increased from $17.3 million in 2011 to $21.1 million in 2020, a 22% increase. The increase came even though since February 2016 no new hires have been enrolled in the old defined-benefit pension system that is responsible for soaring state taxpayer-funded expenses.

Lansing’s cumulative debt to the Michigan Public School Employees Retirement System has also grown. In 2014, its share of the state’s pension obligations was $197,731,925. In 2019, it had grown to $235,804,289, a 19% increase.

Why? State leaders and pension managers failed for decades to properly fund the post-retirement benefit promises the school pension system promised. The underfunding eventually led lawmakers to close the system to new hires starting in 2016, but the financial hole dug by years of failing to contribute enough to cover the benefit promises — which is still occurring — remains and is even getting deeper.