provide subsidized services to disabled parents, including disabled veterans, who simply can't afford $300 every time that they can't see their kids, and therefore end up with zero effective parenting time enforcement. The law even reminds them of their ability to waive fees. There is actually federal money to recover 90% of any spent this purpose, but the FOC does not use it. I am most concerned that $300 may be grossly inflated as the "expenses of the office for conducting an investigation". As far as I can see, most investigations of parenting time complaints consist of a worker receiving payment and complaint, someone handling paperwork, someone reading the report, and making a recommendation (sometimes less). Most FOC worker advertisements are at around $15 per hour for skilled workers and $9 per clerks. I simply don't understand how reading a form and processing the money takes more than 1.5 hours. This puts my total estimated "expenses of the office for conducting an investigation" at $22.50 of labor, and lets say $7.50 in overhead, or about $30, or about 10x less than the $300. This $300 does not even include a meeting with a single person! For that, it appears customary that even more fees are assessed!

"Before the investigative process can begin, $300 must be paid at the FOC Office ...Should the court r efer you to a T roubl eshooting meeting, payment c an be made t he day of th e appointment. If payment is not made, no meeting will take place and a report to that effect will be sent to the court." INVEST IGATI ON FEES IN FORMA TION Kent Coun ty FOC Investiga tion_Fee s_Informat ion.pdf Search: "Investigation_Fees_Information.pdf site:accesskent.com" on www.google.com to get active link.

To me, these "expenses of the office for conducting an investigation" are so far from what I suspect the real costs are that I feel the it is possible that people involved may be intentionally deceiving the parents involved (and by extension, the children). Note that that this information is available electronically via the Internet, telephone, as well as payments and processing done via check, credit card, and mail. Furthermore, as I understand them, the facts suggest that the parenting time grants that Michigan receives all go directly to people who seem to often have a connection to the FOC, and go to subsidize the funding of supervised visitation shelters run by those people. These shelters appear to offer no free or low cost services to parents and children, and I'm concerned that their prices could also be excessive (note in the news article below, the center requested county money to cover their fees for providing those services for poor parents), and given that they appear to be essentially monopoly providers of the only service that allows some parents to see their children, it is imperative for the safety of the children and the rights of the parents and children that the fees they charge be appropriate. The potential financial conflicts of interest have already drawn concern from at least one County Commission: