A resident of Central City in Sebastian County says that her husband is being threatened with arrest and retaliated against because of her ongoing pursuit of Freedom of Information Act actions against the small town.
Marta Kaelin of Central City, who says she has been involved in a protracted battle to get information from the town about water and sewer improvements for almost a year, said on Friday that arrest threats are being directed at her husband James for performing a task he has been doing for a number of years.
“James is a veteran of the Air Force and the Navy,” said Marta Kaelin. “As a proud member of the armed services and a patriotic American, he has always been concerned about protocol when it comes to the American flag.”
Kaelin said when she and James arrived for the June 19 city council meeting that no one else arrived for the meeting.
She contacted mayor Chuck Wallace who told her he had cancelled the meeting, but would come down to the city hall to meet with her about her concerns.
There were no posted legal notices at the city hall about the cancellation of the meeting.
While the couple waited James noticed that the flag was flying at half-mast and when he took it down in order to raise it again per flag etiquette, he noticed the flag was tattered.
“Several years ago when they were having personnel issues over there, James just kind of voluntarily stepped in and started keeping an eye on the flag,” said Kaelin. “The mayor knew we had taken the flag down and we had offered to get them another one.”
Kaelin said despite years of James being the unofficial “keeper of the flag” for the town, the city clerk and treasurer-recorder went to the one police officer for the town and demanded that James be arrested for theft of the flag.
“We have a city council meeting scheduled for next Tuesday night,” said Marta Kaelin. “So I find the timing just a little convenient … I’m pressing them on the FOIA complaint, we have a council meeting coming up and suddenly, after a month, they decide that James ‘stole’ their flag?”
“Draw you own conclusions,” Kaelin said.
Kaelin says the clerk and teasurer-recorder tried to facilitate the arrest because the flag “just had a small hole in it.”
“You can see from the picture that’s not the case,” said Kaelin.
James Kaelin, an advocate for veterans rights who has organized a daily round table gathering of vets at a local restaurant and successfully lobbied the Veterans Administration to get more help with soldiers suffering from PTSD, says he feels the threat of arrest is retaliation for the attempts to question the city about the sewer project and designed to intimidate he and his wife.
“They have tried to cram an illegal sewer project down our throats, they had people serving on both the city council and the water and sewer commission … and that’s just the tip of the iceberg” said James Kaelin.
“I’m just a guy who loves this country and respects the flag,” said Kaelin. “They should be ashamed of themselves for even flying a flag in that condition in the first place … that’s bad enough.
“But to use me trying to do the right thing by the flag and doing something I have kind of been doing for years in the first place to try to silence us on the sewer issue …t hat just seems kind of wrong to me.”
I have driven by that flag many times and noticed how tattered it was getting. I also heard that it had been stolen. I am glad to know that it wasn’t and was being respected by the Kaelin’s family.