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Scottville City Manager Clarence Goodlein
By Rob Alway, Editor-in-Chief
SCOTTVILLE — Two years after facing a financial crisis that threatened the city’s ability to provide essential services, the City of Scottville is projecting a positive general fund balance of approximately $220,000, with that amount expected to grow to about $325,000 by the end of the current fiscal year.
City Manager Clarence Goodlein said the city’s financial condition has improved significantly since 2024, when the city reported nearly $500,000 in accumulated deficits over three fiscal years. He credits the turnaround to reduced spending, changes in city operations and a commitment by city commissioners and employees to rebuilding the city’s financial reserves.
“I think that the city is in good financial condition,” Goodlein said during a recent interview with Mason County Press.
Goodlein said the city’s general fund had a negative fund balance of approximately $53,000 when he became interim city manager in June 2024. By the end of fiscal year 2024-2025, the city had reversed that deficit and finished with a positive fund balance of approximately $40,000.
The fund balance continued to grow during the 2025-2026 fiscal year, which ended June 30. Goodlein said he anticipates the final figures will show approximately $220,000 in reserves. That would equal about 22% of the city’s annual operating expenses.
For the current 2026-2027 fiscal year, the city has budgeted slightly more than $1 million in revenue and approximately $888,000 in expenditures. Goodlein anticipates the positive fund balance will reach approximately $325,000, or about 32% of annual expenses, by June 30, 2027.
The figures for the recently completed fiscal year remain estimates, while the projections for the current fiscal year depend on actual revenues and expenditures.
Goodlein said the Government Finance Officers Association recommends that municipalities maintain an unrestricted fund balance equal to at least two months of operating expenses, or approximately 16% to 17% of annual expenditures. He said maintaining greater reserves during uncertain economic conditions is a prudent practice.
He compared the fund balance to a household savings account.
“The importance of having a healthy fund balance is it carries you in bad times and it carries you if some sort of a disaster occurs,” Goodlein said.
Goodlein said his long-term goal has been to establish a fund balance between $350,000 and $450,000. Once the city reaches that level, additional savings could be directed toward capital improvements, including street reconstruction, parking lots and other infrastructure projects.
How the city got into financial trouble
In October 2024, MCP reported that Scottville had accumulated $473,379 in general fund operating deficits over three fiscal years, beginning in 2021-2022.
The city’s financial problems included expenditures that had not been anticipated in its budgets, including a $368,005 water main replacement project, approximately $43,000 in parking lot improvements and issues involving the management of a $50,000 state grant.
Goodlein, who had been appointed interim city manager earlier that year following the resignation of Jimmy Newkirk, warned commissioners that substantial reductions in spending would be necessary to address the situation.
The city’s negative fund balance required a deficit elimination plan to be filed with the Michigan Department of Treasury.
Goodlein said the problems were the result of spending decisions that had not adequately accounted for their long-term impact on the city’s finances.
“I think the spending was without regard to what the outcomes were going to be by taking money out of the fund balance,” he said.
He said city administration began reviewing every expense and conducting cost-benefit analyses to determine whether purchases or services were necessary.
“We looked at every expense and started to do a cost-benefit analysis,” Goodlein said. “We looked at what everything that we were doing was costing us, and how much benefit that we were getting out of it.”
One of the most significant decisions was eliminating the Scottville Police Department and relying on the Mason County Sheriff’s Office and Michigan State Police to provide law enforcement services.
At the time, Scottville employed two police officers but continued to rely on county and state law enforcement agencies for much of its police coverage.
Goodlein said the city determined that it could continue receiving law enforcement services without the expense of maintaining its own police department.
The decision resulted in significant savings, although it also eliminated the city’s dedicated police patrols. The city has previously acknowledged that the change reduced its ability to enforce certain municipal ordinances, an issue officials have been working to address.
Goodlein said the police department’s elimination was only one part of the city’s financial recovery.
“The other thing was is we just we pinched pennies,” he said. “We didn’t spend any money at all, and every expense was looked at like three times before we decided that we were going to spend any money at all.”
He said city employees were encouraged to consider whether purchases could be delayed, avoided or replaced by something the city already owned.
Goodlein’s background in public service
Goodlein came to Scottville in June 2024 with more than 45 years of experience in public service. The Scottville City Commission selected him as interim city manager after interviewing him and another candidate in May of that year.
Before joining Scottville, he served as zoning administrator and blight enforcement official for Leroy Township and the village of Leroy in Osceola County. He was city manager of Flushing from 2020 to 2022 and served as city manager and emergency management director of Wixom from 2015 to 2017. Earlier, he was Wixom’s public safety director and police chief from 2004 to 2015 and its police chief from 1999 to 2004.
Goodlein also worked as an adjunct professor teaching psychology, statistics and research methods from 2005 to 2016. He has a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from Madonna University, a master’s degree in clinical psychology from the University of Detroit Mercy and a master’s degree in public administration from Oakland University.
In March 2026, the Scottville City Commission was scheduled to consider a proposed employment agreement with Goodlein that listed a $90,000 base salary, health insurance and defined-contribution retirement benefits. The proposal did not include reinstating the city’s former defined-benefit pension plan.
Mayor credits employees and commissioners
Mayor Dixie Spore said the financial turnaround has required sacrifices from elected officials, the city manager and employees.
Spore noted that Goodlein voluntarily accepted a reduction in salary and that city commissioners voted to eliminate their own compensation.
“Clarence did take a cut in his pay and the commissioners don’t get paid anymore,” Spore said.
Goodlein said he reduced his compensation within six months of becoming city manager and has not accepted subsequent pay increases. He said he wanted to make sure the city’s other employees could receive wage increases.
“I did that so that employees could get a pay increase, and so that we could negotiate their contract,” Goodlein said. “The employees, they deserve a pay increase. They work hard every day, they do a good job every day, and they deserve to take care of their families.”
The city recently negotiated a three-year labor agreement with the Technical, Professional and Office Workers Association of Michigan without mediation or arbitration, according to Goodlein.
Scottville’s employees joined the union in December 2022 following concerns about city government operations and uncertainty surrounding their employment.
Goodlein said the city has also established employee development and succession planning procedures intended to improve training, retention and continuity of services.
The city currently operates with six full-time employees, along with limited part-time and seasonal staffing.
Goodlein said those employees handle a wide range of responsibilities, often beyond their primary job descriptions.
“The whole city operates with six full-time employees, which I think, honestly, is pretty remarkable,” he said.
Spore said the public does not always realize how few employees are responsible for providing city services.
“People have to understand. There’s not 15 people in here to get out the records and do all them extra jobs that these people are doing on a daily basis,” she said.
Goodlein said employees have even assumed routine building maintenance responsibilities to reduce expenses.
“We clean our own toilets and we empty our own trash,” he said.
Spore praised the Department of Public Works employees, particularly for their work during major winter storms.
The department operates with three employees responsible for street maintenance, snow removal, water and sewer infrastructure and other public works responsibilities.
Infrastructure improvements remain a priority
Despite the city’s efforts to reduce expenses and build reserves, Goodlein said Scottville has continued to make infrastructure improvements.
He said the city has used its own funds to repave portions of Columbia Avenue, West Broadway Street and Reinberg Avenue. Those improvements were separate from the grant-funded water main replacement project.
Goodlein said he hopes additional streets can be repaved and that the city will eventually be able to improve the west municipal parking lot near Main Street.
The city is also considering additional improvements at MacPhail Field and Riverside Park.
However, Goodlein cautioned that aging infrastructure remains a significant financial concern.
Some of the city’s water mains that were not included in the recent replacement project are approximately 100 years old, he said. Unexpected failures could require substantial expenditures.
The city also depends on state revenue sharing, which Goodlein estimated at approximately $200,000 annually, or about 20% of the city’s operating revenue.
He said an economic downturn could reduce that revenue, while state limits on increases in taxable property values restrict the city’s ability to increase revenue through property taxes.
Goodlein said those uncertainties make maintaining adequate reserves especially important.
“I think that you have to have money at hand in case something crazy happens,” he said.
City finances become election issue
The city’s finances have also become a topic in advance of the Nov. 3 General Election, when Scottville voters will select five members of the seven-member city commission.
An unsigned flyer circulating in the community, titled “Time to Vote,” endorses four commission candidates: Joseph Seabolt, Diane Point, Donald Pasco and Edward Hahn.
The flyer states that the four candidates will represent the people of the city rather than “just go along with the City Government.”
It also states that those candidates will “work to bring spending under control.”
The flyer does not identify an author or organization responsible for producing it and does not provide financial figures supporting its implication that city spending is not under control. The information is contradictory to the actual facts and data.
Seabolt and Point are among five candidates seeking three full four-year commission terms. Mayor Spore and incumbent commissioners Jamie Daws and Mackenna Kokx are also candidates for those seats.
Pasco and Hahn are former city commissioners seeking two partial terms ending in 2028. Bobbie Morris is the third candidate in that contest. Both Pasco and Hahn resigned their positions prior to the ending of their respective terms.
Goodlein acknowledged that some people have questioned the city’s spending practices but said the financial figures demonstrate the progress made.
“I know that there’s some people that don’t agree with that, but I would say that I don’t think that they have all the data, and I don’t think that they have all the facts,” he said.
He pointed to the current budget, which anticipates spending considerably less than projected revenues.
Goodlein said the city should continue building its reserves and avoid returning to the spending practices that contributed to the earlier financial problems.
He said he is optimistic about Scottville’s future and believes the city’s improved financial condition will eventually allow additional investments in infrastructure and public services.
“I think the future for the city is very bright,” Goodlein said. “I think Scottville is a wonderful city, and it’s got a lot of character and a lot of history, and it’s a good place to live.”
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