OPEN FOR BUSINESS
Macomb clerk promises to fully reopen office to public, install new software soon
The Macomb County Clerk’s Office likely will fully reopen to the public and start a new software system within the next few weeks.
Clerk Anthony Forlini said Monday all of his employees are now back in the office working after many of them had been working remotely during the past 11 months due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The offices, located in Mount Clemens, have been fitted with plastic dividers and employees, have been provided face shields, hand sanitizer and disinfectant wipes to protect them from spread of the coronavirus.
The next step for Forlini is to fulfill a campaign promise to fully reopen the Clerk’s Office to the public because the office exists to serve the public.
“When COVID hits, government is one place that should be open,” said Forlini, who has compared operating the office to running “the county store.”
The office has been partially opened to the public with between 65 and 100 people arriving daily for certified pistol licenses. Prospective CPL holders must turn in their proof of training and swear to the application’s veracity.
Residents also can drop off and pick up vital records.
The Register of Deeds in January recorded 16,195 documents recorded, and vital records about 10,000 transactions a month, Forlini said.
For those who wish to obtain or file a county document online soon will be able to do so on an updated system through a deal with Tyler Technologies.
Forlini said the new system is much more user-friendly than the current one.
“It’s like going from DOS to
Windows,” he said. “The difference between the two is huge. This one will be much more consumer friendly.”
For those wishing to purchase documents, the system provides a procedure similar to those provided on private-company web sites, including the ability to purchase or compare different types of documents and place them in a “cart” to buy with a credit card.
The new software has the ability “to drill down to specific criteria” and “keep several documents open at once for comparison,” Forlini said.
The five-year contract between the county and Tyler was reached in August 2019 but not yet implemented under prior Clerk Fred Miller. The new system is less expensive than the current system.
The Clerk’s Office has about 90 employees in three sections.
Vital records and Register of Deeds offices are located in the Talmer Building at 120 N. Main St. while the Elections Division is located nearby at the Clemens Center strip mall and the court section is located in the county courthouse at 40 Main St.