Commissioners honor local hero

MOUNT CLEMENS — City commissioners took time out of the Nov. 17 meeting to recognize a local hero for her actions.

Kieara Searcy was the talk of the Mount Clemens City Commission meeting, where commissioners honored her with a Citizen Hero Award for her actions to help a resident who was being targeted by a cryptocurrency scam in September.

“(Searcy’s) actions were deeply appreciated by (Seewald’s) family as well as by the residents of the city of Mount Clemens,” Mayor Laura Kropp said. “In recognition of her quick and heroic intervention efforts last September, during which she assisted Fred Seewald and prevented him from becoming a victim of an online Bitcoin scam. We want to thank her for being a citizen hero … It was very important to (Seewald’s family) and to him to recognize Kieara because she went above and beyond what a citizen is probably meant to do. It’s nice to see that in our community, community spirit and taking care of one another is alive and well.”

In light of the incident — as well as Kropp mentioning the $259 million lost to cryptocurrency scams annually on a national scale — Commissioner Spencer Calhoun floated the idea of an ordinance regulating cryptocurrency ATMs in the city. Grosse Pointe Farms began regulating the ATMs in July. The ordinance requires cryptocurrency ATMs to be registered with the Department of Public Safety, requires operators to have a business license, requires fraud warnings to be placed around the ATM and limits a $1,000 daily purchase limit for new members and a $5,000 limit over a two-week period.

 

New commission business
Being the first full-scale meeting of the Mount Clemens City Commission following the November elections, the Nov. 17 meeting meant it was Commissioner Roxanne Brown’s first true meeting in her new role. Brown took the seat at the table formerly occupied by Barb Dempsey and, aside from a delayed vote when excusing Commissioner Laura Fournier’s absence, the meeting was smooth sailing. Brown was elected to the commission alongside commissioners Fournier, Erik Rick and Mayor Laura Kropp, all of whom retained the seats they held prior to Nov. 4.

An organizational meeting of the commission was held on Nov. 10 to go over the processes and procedures of the board, but the question of who the mayor pro tempore should be lingered into the Nov. 17 session. No candidate for the role achieved the required four votes at the prior meeting. Calhoun spoke in support of the absent Fournier continuing in the role prior to votes being cast.

“I think one of the reasons why we’ve been able to work so well on this commission has been our diversity of experience, thought and background,” Calhoun said. “We’ve been able to leverage that and turn that into action with information from our city leaders. We’ve been able to make great decisions based off of that, and in some cases the best decision we can get given the circumstances. I think that as a practice we should, and as a democracy, shouldn’t let tradition rule but should allow the experience, ideas and vision as well as the leadership of our members define our support for them; and that’s what I am proud to be supporting Commissioner Fournier on her merits. She’s earned every vote that she’ll receive, and I think that that’s a testament to her character and the power of our democratic process in action.”

Commissioners unanimously voted for Fournier to be mayor pro tem. The mayor pro tem leads meetings when the mayor is not present, which Fournier did for this year’s May 19 meeting.

 

Delinquent property tax
Commissioners voted to place over $131,000 worth of delinquent utility and general billings on the tax roll as special assessments as part of winter 2025 taxes.

Brown mentioned the city should inform people of utility bill assistance available to them.