Clerk wants to consolidate offices to two city locations
Forlini eyes moving elections division
The Macomb County Clerk’s Office operates in three separate buildings in downtown Mount Clemens, which Clerk Anthony Forlini says is too spread out.
He would like to see the offices consolidated into two locations.
The office currently consists of the court section in the county courthouse at 40 N. Main St., Register of Deeds and vital records in the Talmer Building at 120 N. Main St. and the elections division at 32 Market Street in the Clemens Center.
Forlini would like to move elections into the nearby Talmer Building to streamline management operations and get it away
from the circuit court Probation Department, which operates in the same building and uses the same entrance.
Forlini, who took office Jan. 1, said it is challenging to manage when he is rotating among three locations.
He said convicts reporting for probation share the same lobby with elections at the Clemens Center. He was told by one visitor to elections that a proba- tioner was urinating in a cup in an open area as part of an apparent drug test.
Somewhat related to that, Commissioner Julie Matuzak, a Clinton Township Democrat, said the parking lot near the elections-and-probation entrance is dangerous to pedestrians because it is a cut-through for motorists between Northbound Gratiot Avenue and Market or Main streets.
“Walking into the elections department, I nearly got killed by a car speeding in front of the building,” Matuzak said at a committee meeting Thursday. “A placement of a speed bump would do wonders to save someone’s life. Truly, if you talk to security guards there, they will tell you that people speed through that little passage-way in front of the office, and someone is going to get hurt there. So anything we can collectively do to save a life with a speed bump, I’m in favor of.”
Forlini responded: “We have our elected officials go there, and candidates, and there’s quite a few of them. The less traffic we have over there (the better), and bring them over to 120 North Main, I think that would be a step in the right direction.”
But there is no room available at Talmer, which houses about 40 people in Register of Deeds and vital records on the first floor. On the second floor are the county Finance Department and purchasing division, who have a total of about 30 employees.
Chief Deputy County Executive Mark Deldin, who oversees facilities, said after the meeting he doesn’t oppose the move but indicated there is no space available at Talmer unless Forlini can squeeze-in the elections division on the first floor.
“If he really wants to do this, he’s going to have to see if there’s space in the Talmer Building to accommodate the four people they have in elections,” Deldin said.
Deldin said he and Forlini recently talked about the situation. The clerk is aware of the lack of available space but said relocating elections is a long-term goal.
“Sometimes when elected officials change, ideas change,” Deldin said.
Elections was placed in the county-owned Clemens Center by former clerk Carmella Sabaugh around 2015 when county officials began planning a major overhaul of its downtown Mount Clemens facilities. The revamp included construction of the new parking structure, destruction of the old parking structure and renovations in coordination with relocation of many offices. It required about two years of planning and cost over $70 million before it was completed in 2019.
Elections previously was located in the courthouse, most recently on the first floor of the lobby and before that off of a side entrance to the courthouse.