City Commision: Mount Pleasant City Clerk resigns
Mount Pleasant City Clerk Heather Bouck submitted her letter of resignation effective March 26, to accept a position with the state of Michigan.
In the meantime, the commission has appointed Marilyn Wixson, the city's current deputy city clerk, as the interim city clerk. Wixson has been the city's deputy clerk since Sept. 23, 2024.
“Although we will miss Heather and the skill set that she brings, we certainly wish her well in her new venture,” City Manager Aaron Desentz said.
The vacancy of City Clerk was discussed at the Mount Pleasant City Commission meeting on March 24. The city is responsible for administering an election on Tuesday, May 6.
According to Desentz, city staff have moved quickly to post the position of city clerk, but will not have enough time to recruit, onboard and train a new clerk within that time frame.
The duties of the clerk include:
- Serving as the Freedom of Information Act coordinator;
- Administering the city's property and insurance program;
- Functioning as the recorder for the city.
Both commissioners and other community members had emotional responses to Bouck's resignation.
“I came here today to express my deep appreciation for Heather Bouck and the exceptional service that she has provided the community during her tenure as city clerk,” Mount Pleasant resident Alice Ciccu said. “I know she wears a lot of hats, so my comments are based on her position as the head of Elections for the city.”
Ciccu is a poll worker. She said Bouck's professionalism, knowledge and management skills made the election polls run flawlessly. Ciccu said that with the political climate changes, Bouck diffused charged situations, both ahead of elections and in real time on Election Day.
“(Bouck) is leaving very big shoes to fill, and I hope you realize what we are losing,” Ciccu said. “I don't know how easy it will be to replace her, but I urge you to work very hard to find someone as knowledgeable as she is and as competent as she is.”
The commission also discussed a city internship program addressed by Desentz and Mayor Boomer Wingard.
“I think in the years in the future, what we want to do is start to budget for a pool of internships across the organization," Desentz said. "This is in collaboration with our value of development and trying to foster more internships and greater connections with the secondary education facilities here in Mount Pleasant.”
Desentz said he is asking for a budget amendment of $30,000 to allow for four interns to work at City Hall during the summer, specifically to fund two paid opportunities.
The first opportunity would be for a Central Michigan University student who would work on Tax Increment Financing District updates, looking at different ordinances and doing research on the opioid settlement funds.
A second allocation would be to build a cohort of three different interns that would work with city staff to develop some centralized, organization-wide training materials to use for new employees, as well as for leadership development.
The next City Commission meeting will be held 7 p.m. on April 8, in City Hall.
