Grosse Pointe City earns praise during random election audit

GROSSE POINTE CITY — Getting audited is an intimidating experience for taxpayers, and it’s no different when city clerks learn they’re going to be subjected to an election audit.

Grosse Pointe City Clerk Christopher Hardenbrook emerged from the process triumphant.

Earlier this year, Hardenbrook said, he found out that the city had been selected for a random election audit for the November presidential election.

“Two years in (as city clerk), and I got audited,” Hardenbrook told the Grosse Pointe City Council at a meeting Feb. 10. “Talking with (longtime retired City Clerk) Julie (Arthurs), I don’t think she was ever audited.”

Hardenbrook said he got high marks from the auditors.

“It turned out to be a perfect audit,” Hardenbrook said. “No errors were found.”

City Manager Joseph Valentine read remarks from the auditors, who complimented the staff and their performance.

Auditors from Wayne County came in to conduct the audit on Feb. 3. Hardenbrook said the process took approximately five hours, which was less time than the auditors anticipated.

Hardenbrook said only one aspect of the election — such as an individual precinct — is audited, and that aspect is selected randomly. In the city, that aspect was early voting.

City officials praised Hardenbrook, including City Councilman Christopher Walsh, who congratulated him on the audit results.

“Chris, this is tremendous — a perfect audit,” City Councilwoman Maureen Juip said.

Mayor Sheila Tomkowiak weighed in as well.

“Everybody’s doing a great job and working very hard,” Tomkowiak said.

Hardenbrook refused to take credit for the audit, thanking the election workers for their efforts.

“They run the elections,” Hardenbrook said. “It was their work that was reflected.”

Hardenbrook might have only held the city clerk title for a couple of years — he was named the clerk on Dec. 19, 2022, on the cusp of Arthurs’ retirement at the end of that year — but he had considerable election experience prior to that. He trained under Arthurs for about two years in anticipation of her retirement and had worked on elections since roughly 2012.

Hardenbrook has worked for Grosse Pointe City since about 2003. He was first hired as the parks and recreation director.