I am not kidding. At the same meeting where the city discussed jamming a 7-mill tax increase down the throat of voters who didn’t vote the “correct” way, our clerk asked for approval for a three-day conference in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan put on by the Michigan Association of Municipal Clerks (MAMC) on December 1-3. And while there are a couple clerky-type things to be discussed during the conference, there are also other fluff sessions scheduled, including “The Like Switch – The Skill of Winning People Over.” I guess this current clerk request goes along with the previous taxpayer junket put on by the MAMC that we were forced to pay for in August where they discussed such things as “Managing Gossip in the Workplace” and “You Are What You Bring to the Job.”
Most of this crap has absolutely nothing to do with the Clarkston clerk’s job. It’s just another example of our give me/buy me/take me city employees trying to suck as much milk from the taxpayer teat as possible simply because they believe they are entitled to it. In this case, our clerk is pursuing a higher-level voluntary certification from the MAMC, in addition to the voluntarily-acquired certification she already has, so she can add it to her resume as she searches for her next job. Fun fact: when our clerk walked off her Clarkston job last December in the middle of the holidays on two business days’ notice, she went to a job she found on the MAMC job posting board. Aren’t you glad you’re paying for her MAMC membership dues too?
Don’t get me wrong – I belonged to a professional organization (in addition to lawyer organizations). When I worked in human resources, there were several to choose from. I paid for my certification myself because I wanted to add it to my resume for future employers to see. The difference between our clerk and me is that our clerk feels entitled enough to insist that taxpayers fund her unnecessary, higher-level voluntary certification.
The MAMC is a private, non-profit 501(c)(6), which is the tax category that also includes things like chambers of commerce and professional football leagues. The non-profit designation allows them to escape all kinds of taxes that you and I pay. There are many clerk organizations. Michigan even has a separate one for county clerks. No clerk is required to join any of them. No MAMC certification is required to be a clerk. Most importantly, MAMC membership and certification is not a job requirement for the Clarkston clerk’s job which is the only thing Clarkston taxpayers care about.
Now, if you aren’t familiar with professional organizations and certifications, you might think taxpayers get a benefit from memberships like this because where else will someone learn all the clerky-type stuff that a clerk needs to know? Easy answer – they learn it from the State of Michigan, which provides all the up-to-date information each Michigan clerk could possibly need. Not only do they do it at no cost to Clarkston, but they’re also required to do it by law.
MCL 168.33(1) requires the state director of elections to train county clerks at least every November and before other elections the director considers advisable. County clerks are then supposed to train all the local clerks in the county. Should a county clerk fail to do this training, the state will step in, train the clerks in that county, and charge the errant county to do it. MCL 168.33(2) also requires the state director of elections to train all county, city, and township clerks who are involved in training precinct inspectors. If the county clerk is not certified to train precinct inspectors, then MCL 168.33(3) requires that the state director of elections conduct the precinct inspector training.
During the November 9, 2026, city council meeting, when the clerk insisted she just had to go to the December MAMC junket, she said: “This is part of my continuing education to excel me to the next level of certification. So, I’m working on my master’s through that, and this is part of that . . . [and] it’s part of being a professional.” But the question isn’t whether it’s a voluntary resume-building endeavor for the clerk because it obviously is – it’s whether taxpayers should pay for it. There’s nothing stopping the clerk from whipping out her own credit card and taking vacation days to go to this totally awesome event that will generate points for her next level of unnecessary MAMC certification.
Mayor Sue Wylie, who has never met a spending opportunity she didn’t like, claimed “[e]lections is [sic] an important part of the democratic process. It requires that we have a certified, competent clerk who knows what she’s doing. And these conferences, I think, make a big difference for that. And you’ve done that.” Apparently, Wylie is woefully ignorant of which “certification” is required for clerks – because it’s certainly not something awarded by a private organization so our clerk can frame it on the wall.
MCL 168.33(4) requires that Michigan clerks be certified by the State of Michigan, not some non-profit like the MAMC. And the state provides this certification at no cost to Clarkston. The statute says: “The director of elections shall conduct continuing election education training courses for county, city, township, and village clerks to attend. Each county, city, township, and village clerk is required to attend and complete continuing election education training at least once every 2 years to maintain accreditation as a clerk. The department of state is responsible for providing continuing election education training to the clerks at no charge to the clerks, counties, cities, townships, or villages.” (You can read the statute I’ve been citing to by going here.)
Michigan Elections has set up an entire website for no-charge, online learning here. Our clerk is eligible for an account and no doubt has one. And gosh, the clerk can avail herself of the entire State of Michigan knowledge base on election law without charging taxpayers $.76 per mile to drive her butt up to Mt. Pleasant where we are also forced to pay for her seminar, hotel room, and dinners.
Yeah, this December seminar request is an entirely self-serving waste of taxpayer dollars.
Wylie wasn’t the only spendthrift in favor of wasting our money this way. Our ever-so-brilliant council member Erica Jones also spoke out in favor of it. Weird that Jones was able to drag herself from wherever she’s been to finally show up for a meeting as a holdover (meaning that she is no longer serving her regular term but is “holding over” and was probably cajoled to come because council needs a quorum of four members present to conduct business).
Do you remember Jones? Her claim to fame was that she was elected because she was the only candidate who filled out her paperwork correctly to get her name on the ballot. She embarrassed the city by disrupting an Independence Township meeting by stomping up to the trustee table and throwing money at them when the trustees didn’t acquiesce to her financial wishes about how Independence Township should spend its own taxpayer dollars on Clarkston’s Deer Lake Beach. And earlier in last Monday’s meeting, Jones suggested that people who voted “no” on the millage were just too stupid to understand the ballot question and needed things explained to them as though they were five years old, although “yes” voters are super smart and apparently don’t require toddler treatment. (“Explain things to me like I’m five” is a current, kitschy phrase on the internet, but asking someone to explain something to you as though you were five is self-deprecating; using it in the way Jones did is simply an insult to Clarkston voters who disagreed with her.) In short, Jones is a real “see you next Tuesday” kind of gal (IYKYK). I’m so glad she decided to do the city a favor and not run for office again.
As for this non-essential clerk junket request, Jones said the clerk has to “know election laws.” Well, duh. She also said “it’s, it’s, it’s, it’s ever-changing and she’s gotta stay up on it.” (I could have missed an “it’s” there; not sure.) Jones claimed that “given the scrutiny that the clerk’s position faces, that it’s important for her to have the most up-to-date training and be going to these things.” No doubt sitting through a session of “Elements of Wellbeing Into [Her] Life Story” will move that ball forward, right council member Jones? And attending an “up-to-date training” session on “The Like Switch – The Skill of Winning People Over” is so much better than the targeted, relevant, and up-to-date training provided at no charge by the State of Michigan, right?
Or here’s a thought – maybe Wylie, Jones, and Laura Rodgers (who also voted to force taxpayers to pay for this crap) – don’t have an effing clue what they’re talking about, are entirely unaware what the MAMC is, what the State of Michigan offers for free and by law, are clueless about the difference between a mandatory and a voluntary certification, and they haven’t met a tax dollar spend request they didn’t like.
Enter council member Amanda Forte who was a taxpayer hero last Monday. Forte is familiar with her own professional certifications and questioned whether this was something that required in-person attendance and the expense that entails. My husband, who will take office on the council next month, suggested that the clerk attend only the one half-day session on the second day concerning elections rather than the entire three-day event. (Wylie was dismissive of his comment and offered a terse “thank you.”) I think my husband was being generous because the session he referred to – “Election Bureau Update” – will be conducted by the State of Michigan Bureau of Elections and it isn’t really necessary to get this information during a private conference. The Bureau of Elections doesn’t impart secret information limited only to MAMC members – the state provides information to all clerks at no charge.
But the clerk isn’t interested in attending only a half-day session. She told us what this is all really about when she said: “[Y]ou have to finish the conference, or you don’t get your points for your certification.” In other words, this has nothing to do with her Clarkston job and everything to do with her personal desire to obtain a higher-level voluntary certification from a private, non-profit organization. She’s only there for the points. She’s already a MAMC “certified municipal clerk,” wants to be a MAMC “master municipal clerk,” and she gets six points (two points per day) if she attends this three-day conference. That’s why she should take vacation time and pay for this conference herself.
Council requires at least four votes (a majority of the seven council members) to act on something. Because there were only four members present at the meeting, all four would have had to approve this waste of taxpayer dollars. But Forte voted “no” – and for that she deserves our gratitude.
But that didn’t stop our Tuesday girl Jones. Her reaction was even more unprofessional than it was when she didn’t get her way during the Independence Township board meeting. She looked at Forte and said: “I’m sorry. I just want to say that I think that’s disappointing. Because that’s training that she actually needs. And like the other thing, where we should have had Smith stay home for that one when we approved for him to go, which is, and yeah, no, that’s, this is so dumb. That’s disappointing.”
Training she “actually needs”? Gosh, council member Jones, tell us you don’t know jack about what training a Clarkston clerk actually needs without telling us you don’t know jack about what training a Clarkston clerk actually needs. Jones is obviously ignorant of the State of Michigan clerk requirements, the extensive no charge resources offered by the state, or the requirements of the Clarkston clerk’s job. The clerk doesn’t “need” any of the training offered by the MAMC. She already has a voluntary certification from this private, non-profit organization. The clerk admitted this junket is simply about wanting a bigger and better certificate level to hang on her wall – and she selfishly wants taxpayers to pay for that.
Gosh, I guess that makes Jones the dumb person in this scenario, not Forte. But ignorance never stopped Jones before so why should this time be different?
Ah, fellow taxpayers. If you think this three-day clerk junket issue has gone away, you’ve got another think coming. I have no doubt that the estrogen triumvirate of Wylie, Rodgers, and Jones will bring this back again at the next meeting and will use Al Avery, Ted Quisenberry, and/or Gary Casey to replace Forte’s “no” vote with their “yes” vote because they only need four “yes” votes to spend your money. (And they wonder why voters told them to go fornicate themselves on November 3.)
Thank you, council member Forte, for being the only person at the table on Monday who gave a damn about Clarkston residents and saw this bullshit request for the waste of tax dollars it actually is.