Council authorizes city to hire contractual employee for election

By Megan Kelley
Editor
mkelley@mihomepaper.com
CLARKSTON — During its regular meeting on Sept. 23, the Clarkston City Council unanimously approved wage increases for its deputy clerk and city treasurer.
At a meeting in August, the council approved promoting Evelyn Bihl from administrative assistant to deputy clerk. Her current salary, according to city documents, is $19.13 an hour. However, with her added responsibilities, city Manager Jonathan Smith recommended Bihl’s salary increase to $21 an hour.
In order to maintain correlation between office salaries, it was also recommended that the city treasurer’s salary increase to $21 an hour.
Also in the meeting, the council unanimously approved pre-authorization for Manager Smith to seek a contractual election worker to guide and assist Bihl through the upcoming election. This resolution was brought forward after a recommendation from the State Bureau of Elections.
The council authorized $7,500 if needed to hire a contractual worker but efforts to locate one have not yet yielded any results.
“I know this is money we don’t really have right now, it’s not in the budget,” Smith said. “That’s why the $7,500 was selected as kind of a middle ground solution. If we don’t need to spend it we won’t, obviously. We’re getting some good help from the surrounding communities like White Lake and Lake Orion.”
Smith added that he did not want to take any chances when it comes to the election.
“We just can’t take any chances when it comes to this election. If we have to spend $7,500 if we have to spend $10,000, then I think we have to do it,” Smith said. “We don’t want to be that community that’s on the front page of the Detroit News on Wednesday the 6th saying we goofed up (because) we didn’t have the right resources here and as a result our counts are questionable.”