Four Write-In Candidates File for Open Alma Commission Seat; Commission Votes Tuesday on $136,975 Software Purchase

By W.E. | Gratiot County Whistleblower

Published: Oct. 25, 2026
Sources linked: 3

Corrections & updates are posted in public.

AI assistance includes research, checking against the linked records, and drafting assistance. How we use AI

Four seats are on the ballot and three candidates filed petitions. The city manager’s newsletter lists four write-in candidates. The Oct. 27 agenda includes a software purchase and $2.5 million in investments.

Listen to this article (AI voice)

Read aloud by an AI voice, not a person; about 4 min. It reads the report below and skips tables and charts.

Our two reading voices are named in remembrance of Koda and Queenie, the two dogs from our report. Read that report · Why we named them.

Welcome to Alma sign with the city's thistle emblem

City of Alma welcome sign. Photo: Chelseyafoster, public domain. The photograph was taken in 2006.

ALMA — Four write-in candidates have filed for the Alma City Commission, where four seats are on the Nov. 3 ballot but only three candidates filed nominating petitions, according to the city manager’s Oct. 23 newsletter in the packet for Tuesday’s commission meeting.

The write-ins

The newsletter says the deadline to file as a write-in candidate was 4 p.m. Friday, Oct. 23, and that the city clerk received four write-in applications. In the order the city lists them: Emily Ahern, Justin Fonley, Erin Mayle and Mikyla Sweet. Andrew Bare, Roxann Harrington and Danny Wernick are the three candidates on the printed ballot. Commissioner Michelle Pitts’s term also ends this year, and she did not file, as we reported Sept. 18. Under the city charter, the three top vote-getters serve four-year terms and the fourth serves two years.

Tuesday’s meeting

The commission meets at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 27, at the Alma Municipal Building, 525 E. Superior St. The agenda includes:

$136,975 to BS&A Software for a cloud migration and related annual support. The vendor’s quote lists $63,100 for the upgrade implementation, with the rest in annual fees for modules including utility billing, taxes, assessing, work orders, business licenses and cemetery management.
Ratifying $2.5 million in investments: ten $250,000 purchases made Oct. 13–15, nine U.S. Treasuries through Fifth Third Securities at rates from 4.37% to 4.80%, maturing between August 2027 and September 2029, and a PNC Bank CD at 4.50%.
Two mortgage discharges under the city’s Housing Rehabilitation Program for loans dated 1997. The agenda notes the city received the payoff Oct. 22.

Speakers at public comment state their name and address and may speak up to five minutes.

A work session on Public Act 152 of 2011, the state law on public employers’ health insurance contributions, and on a transportation agreement with Gratiot Integrated Health Network did not take place Oct. 13 for lack of a quorum. The city manager suggests rescheduling it after the new commission is sworn in.
Eight residents attended an Oct. 22 neighborhood meeting on the Liberty Street water main. Work could start the first week of November if the state permit arrives the week of Oct. 26. The commission approved $231,520 for the project on Oct. 13.
Leaf pickup has started with the city’s new leaf vacuum. Bagged yard waste and brush pickup has ended until April 2027.

Corrections and responses are welcome.

City of Alma: Oct. 27, 2026 City Commission agenda packet City of Alma: Oct. 13, 2026 draft minutes City of Alma: City Commission page