Former Leelanau County Administrator Chet Janik found himself back in the government center meeting room on Tuesday. This time, Janik was there in his new capacity as consultant for the Michigan Leadership Institute (MLI), under contract with the county to find a replacement for his immediate successor, Deb Allen, whose resignation goes into effect on April 12.
Allen, who was hired to replace Janik in December 2022, recently announced that she was stepping down to make way for a new person with a “deep” financial background. In fact, her position will be combined with a new chief financial officer (CFO) role to help implement changes to the county’s organizational structure set in motion by the creation of a separate finance department in May 2021.
In his words, Janik presented an “aggressive” timeline to the board, where he recommends formally approving the salary range and job description for the new position at the board’s regular session on March 19. He hopes to help the county choose a candidate and approve an employment agreement by the week of May 27.
Janik also provided a draft job description for the new position based on descriptions for similar positions in Kalkaska and Ogemaw counties. He said that he will work on finalizing the description with the county’s new human resources director, Heather Cade. The salary for the position still needs to be determined by the county board.
This will leave a gap between Allen’s exit and the arrival of the new administrator/CFO, so the board agreed to hold a special meeting at 1 p.m. on Tuesday prior to the regular session at 7 p.m. to discuss appointing an interim administrator. Janik suggested that this interim administrator work three days a week with a stipend of $700 per day.
After Janik’s presentation, the county board planned to discuss the possibility of promoting the county’s current Interim Finance Director Cathy Hartesvelt to finance director, to serve under the new administrator/ CFO. Commissioner Doug Rexroat asked Janik to weigh in on this item.
“Obviously, it’s your choice, but from an outside perspective, you’ve had a rough couple years here,” Janik said. “If you truly are going to go with a new structure, and a new leadership style, and a new position … I think out of fairness to the staff, out of fairness to the clerk’s office, out of fairness to the person serving in the interim position … you want to hire the administrator/ CFO first, and have that person make that decision (on who should become finance department head.)” “Probably the most critical person that the new administrator will have to work with will be the finance director, and you have to make sure that person is comfortable with whoever’s in that position,” Janik continued. “I think if you name someone as finance director now before you go through the search, it kind of goes against the grain of what you said you were going to do instead of truly having an open process.”
Janik said that he’s already receiving calls from people who are interested in the CFO/ administrator position, but they are aware of the controversies surrounding Leelanau County’s finance department and are concerned about whether they’ll be able to choose their finance director.
To Janik, who appoints the county’s next finance director is a very charged decision. He said that the next CFO/administrator could choose Hartesvelt for the position and if they do, their decision is more likely to be respected by other government center staff.
If the board of commissioners promote Hartesvelt, however, Janik thinks it will “send a message” to the next administrator that they won’t have the ability to choose their finance director and feed the rumors that Hartesvelt and Clerk Michelle Crocker still control the county purse strings.
District 7 Commissioner Melinda Lautner, who had tried to name Hartesvelt finance director at last month’s executive session, was upset at Janik’s recommendation, and seemed to suggest that paying an interim administrator a stipend went against the county’s stated goal of stripping back the issuing of stipends to employees.
“We are acting on issues that others are making. We’re asked to make a decision based on the politics in this courthouse, basically the ideas of people who don’t serve on the board of commissioners that is elected to do this job. So, we’re saying, ‘Well, we’ve got these things out there – we’ve got these feelings, or this atmosphere – so therefore, we should act in a certain way.’ … I’m alarmed by it. I’m alarmed by all this. And it hasn’t happened too often, but I think I’m speechless,” Lautner said.
However, Lautner appeared to be alone in these objections, with the other commissioners seeming to accept Janik’s reasoning. In Commissioner Doug Rexroat’s words, “I don’t think there’d be any expectations on this board that until we get someone in place, that we’ll just – for lack of a better word – tread water” without an interim administrator.
The county board approved a contract with Janik at their Feb. 20 regular session. According to the search proposal provided to the board Chairman Ty Wessell, Janik’s services will be provided for $4,500 plus direct expenses not to exceed $1,000.
