Roseland Town Council President, Mike Schalk, addresses accusations of corruption
ROSELAND, Ind. — ABC57 received emails and calls accusing Roseland Town Council President, Mike Schalk, of corruption.
The tips we received talked about health insurance for Town employee dependents being taken away, mishandling of funds and businesses being targeted. We reached out to Schalk for an on-camera interview to address concerns shared with us and he agreed, saying he "has nothing to hide."
Health insurance accusations
ABC57 was told employees were notified at the end of April their dependents health insurance would no longer be covered, and employees will have to pay a portion of their own premiums starting May 31.
Schalk says that was misinterpreted.
"We found that back in September 2024 without the council knowledge or voting on it, that with our prior clerk that was in office and his assistant, they changed the way the Town was paying health insurance coverage to where we were paying 100 percent of the employee and 100 percent for their dependents, which cost us close to $126,000 over an 18-month period and the Town has never paid 100 percent or any percentage for dependent coverage. So, the email stated that as of May 31, the Town will no longer be paying for dependent coverage," Schalk explained.
Schalk says employees received more than a 30-day notice of this change. Employees are still 100 percent covered until they switch to a new carrier July 1with a new 80-20 insurance plan.
"Until then, we still have health insurance for our employees. If the employees want to keep their dependents on the coverage, then it will be deducted out of their pay checks."
The email we received goes on to say employees were told there would be a meeting with the new insurance carrier but that hasn't happened yet.
"We had to see which plans that were comparable to what we’ve got, the cost and everything else. Then, we were setting up a meeting for the representative to come meet with the employees and explain any questions that they might have about the insurance change. I’m hoping to have that done before the end of this month and I was actually in the process of emailing back-and-forth with the rep to confirm a time, that way I can send out an email to the employees saying 'this is the date and time that the rep will be here to answer your questions and it will be before the end of this month.'"
Employee raises and bonuses
The tip ABC57 received says Town employees have not received promised raises or bonuses which were written into an ordinance approximately 18 months ago.
"There was nothing in the ordinance that has been passed that says they automatically get raises whatsoever. That I do remember because I would’ve voted on it and we did not vote to give them raises. The salary ordinance from 2025 is the same as 2026, so there is nothing in them that says they automatically get raises," said Schalk.
“The bonus all depends on the finances of the Town. If the town can afford it, the town would give out bonuses. We were in a tight budget constraint at the end of 2025 where we weren’t able to do bonuses that year. The year prior, yes, they were able to get bonuses," Schalk explained.
"We had a lot of expenditures through the year of 2025 for the police department for new squad cars, new equipment and everything that kind of blew the budget out of the water so when it comes down to it, we didn’t have the extra funds. It’s not a mandatory thing that they get a bonus, and it was explained to each one of them that we’re not able to do bonuses this year. We wish we could, but we weren’t able to," he continued.
"We've got to be financially responsible for our tax dollars that we get. Our budgets have been cut from downstate and county and everything else and we don’t have a lot of extra income. I mean, if our police department, they write speeding tickets we might get a dollar or two out of each speeding ticket, but they’d have to write thousands and thousands of tickets in order to make some kind of a difference. Our maintenance department doesn’t have an income. I mean we get it from gas tax or local street and roads, but we also have to try to repair roads and keep maintenance up on the vehicles and stuff, so we’ve got to look at every little thing. I mean we’re trying to save money so we can stay financially responsible to our taxpayers."
However, Schalk says police officers did receive a raise after he took office in 2024.
“I believe they got almost two raises that bumped them up and they were very surprised about that, but I knew that they were very underpaid for what they did and they hadn’t gotten raises for a long time," shared Schalk.
Mishandling of funds accusation
Lastly, Schalk says he was accused of being part owner of Advanced Property Maintenance in South Bend, which is a landscaping and property maintenance business.
He admits he's friends with the owner and was a part-time laborer, sometimes working the snowplow, but says he was never an owner.
The tip sent to us says Schalk filed a Conflict-of-Interest disclosure with the State, stating he worked for a company that was contracted through the town, for snow removal, salting and filling potholes, there were payments made to this company for more than a year in excess of $75,000 to cover one square mile. It also mentions the Town owns a plow truck and salt spreader.
"When I filed the conflict of interest when I first took office, prior to that, I had worked for Advanced Property Maintenance; however, the prior Council is the one that contracted with Advanced Property Maintenance to do the plowing of the streets at night because we’ve only got one maintenance person, one maintenance truck and it’s only able to do so much at one time," Schalk said.
While he acknowledged the friendship with the owner of APM, he says he didn't need to give him any extra money for his services because he believes APM doesn't need their business to stay afloat and believes the company is well off even without the Town's payments.
Thursday's 6 p.m. Town Council meeting
ABC57 received a call Thursday morning saying there would be lots of angry residents at Thursday's Town Council meeting. Schalk said he was warned ahead of time and was even told there would be calls for his resignation.
"I'm not going no place I'm here for the end of my term and if I decide to run again, I'll run again. If somebody wants to run against me, if somebody wants to step up and thinks they take a make a better difference, all power to them. They can run for office but as far as me resigning, it's not in my DNA. I wasn't raised that way. I'm not going to go cower in the corner or something like that when it gets tough. I knew what I was getting into and I ran for the office and I'm here for the duration. The more they come at me, it just kind of pushes me to want to run for another term," said Schalk.
Part of the tip we received said Schalk is targeting and harassing local business owners and property owners in Roseland. They claim an email was sent by Schalk and the council asking the police to perform illegal actions against one of the Town businesses.
During the interview with Schalk, Thursday afternoon, he mentioned Cheers Bar and Grill. That establishment was not mentioned in the tip.
"Well, our hotels and our businesses, if they get a certain number of calls within a month, they’re considered a nuisance property, and they are sent a letter. If it’s certain number of calls, then they get the nuisance property fine because the Town of Roseland does not get any hotel-motel tax out of any of our hotels here in Town," Schalk started to explain.
"If we get multiple calls to the hotels and it’s taking our resources to deal with them and especially if it’s something that’s could’ve been prevented, our officers if they get I believe three calls according to the ordinance which was actually put into place by the prior administration, they are sent a nuisance property fine and if they don’t pay it they get another fine, it jumps to $7,500."
At the meeting, the owner of Cheers was the first to speak during public comment. He was surrounded by what is believed to be his employees. After he spoke, he took a seat in the crowd and as public comment continued, was continuing to make comments towards Schalk from the crowd. Schalk said the owner could leave since he continued to have outbursts from the crowd and he said he wasn't leaving. Schalk asked for assistance from the police chief and the owner left on his own before the police chief got to him. A group followed him shortly after.
Schalk maintains his stance that there is no corruption in Roseland, only information that was interpreted.