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MOUNT CLEMENS — Finances served as the main focus of the Dec. 16 Mount Clemens City Commission meeting, both looking back and looking ahead.
The commission received an “unmodified” audit report from the firm Maner Costerisan. It is the second audit to be conducted since consulting firm Plante Moran was hired as the city’s financial manager in spring 2023.
“There’s multiple opinions that can be given, but the city receives an unmodified opinion, which is a clean opinion — the best possible opinion you can get in accordance with GAAP, generally accepted accounting principles,” said Jordan Smith, a principal at Maner Costerisan. “Our job as auditors … is not to detect fraud, it is not to give an opinion on internal controls. If we note anything, we bring it to your attention. Thankfully, this year we did not note any internal control issues, or anything related. Last year, we had two. This year, we had none. So this is just positive, year over year.”
Mount Clemens holds a net position (the difference between assets and liabilities) of $54.99 million, an increase over 2023’s net position of $45.88 million. Revenues came in at $32.12 million with expenditures at $23.1 million.
While the audit only covers the city’s fiscal year ending June 30, 2024, Maner Costerisan’s report states that the $4 million from the sale of the Mount Clemens Ice Arena to Maryland-based Black Bear Sports Group will be put toward decreasing the remaining amount of the 2021 capital improvement bond. The city’s ice arena fund is set to be closed in 2025 with all remaining money in the fund to be transferred to the general fund.
CDBG application
After learning about additional Community Development Block Grant funds in the possession of Macomb County, city commissioners applied for about $31,575 to be put toward the purchase and installation of kitchen equipment at the Cairns Community Center.
According to Mayor Laura Kropp, the kitchen will be available to people renting the center and for culinary-related activities.
“The equipment will be available when people rent the facility, but it will also enable us to do some activities that require a certified kitchen,” Kropp said. “It is also a hope of ours to have it a certified kitchen where we could open it up to having people rent it if they have cottage businesses where they have to use a certified kitchen instead of a home kitchen. We have people who have asked to use it because they have jam and to sell, they have to have a certified kitchen (to make jam in).”
Acquired by the city in 2022, the Cairns Community Center has regularly been the subject of CDGB projects. Funding from 2022-2023 CDGB funding paid for new air conditioning units at the center, while 2023-2024 CDBG funding paid for a new playground.
“(The kitchen) is a continued investment in the center and it is a commitment of the city to keep the center a viable community asset,” Kropp said.
