The commissioners from Leelanau County’s first three districts have opted not to run for reelection this year, leaving their seats open to both new and old faces.
The Enterprise is reaching out to these candidates for comments, starting with people who have previously served in the government center and now are seeking to reenter local politics after being away for some time.
Among the returning faces is the former county administrator, Deb Allen. Allen is running for the District 1 Commissioner position as a Republican, which will be left vacant once Jamie Kramer’s term expires in 2024.
Allen had just ended her time as county administrator a week before filing her paperwork to run for office. She said she was stepping down as administrator so the county could hire a person with a “deep” financial background, as they seek to create a new administrator/chief financial officer position.
Allen was hired by the county in December 2022 to replace previous county Administrator Chet Janik. She was serving as a township trustee in Elmwood Township at the time and had to resign so she could serve as administrator.
“Service to my neighbors in Elmwood Township was a priority since the beginning, but now that I have the opportunity to serve the township and the county in a different way, I’m excited about that,” Allen said. “I have experience, education, and perspective on the opportunities and the challenges at the county, such as with the finance systems.”
Allen said that she wants to take a “holistic approach to the efficiencies of county governance,” and hopes to lead the county in adopting some of its auditing firm’s recommendations on best practices for its finance department, and some of the “modernization” processes that previous the finance director, Sean Cowan, recommended, seeking to update 30-yearold finance systems.
She will face fellow Republican Tim McCalley for the nomination.
Also running for the District 1 Commissioner seat is Rick Robbins, who held the position before Kramer from 2020-2022. Robbins is perhaps most wellknown for motioning that the board of commissioners remove control of county finances from the clerk’s office and assign the duties to a new finance department as a late addition to a May 2021 meeting agenda.
This decision was approved by a 4-3 vote, with Robbins voting “yes” along party lines as one of the Republicans who represented the board’s majority at that point. For this election cycle, however, Robbins declared that he was running as a Democrat.
“(When I ran for election in 2020), if you wanted to be a commissioner, you ran as a Republican. But when I got up there, I realized that I didn’t always agree with the other three Republicans on the board,” Robbins said. “When I made it known I wanted to run again, I found out that I wouldn’t have the backing of the party; I was told I compromised too much. ... I vote for the people, not the party.”
Former police officer Jim O’Rourke announced that he was not running for re-election as District 2 Commissioner, but another former lawman may step in to fill his place. Mark Walter served as county commissioner from 2002 to 2008, stepping down to run for sheriff but losing to then incumbent Sheriff Michael Oltersdorf.
Walter said that he was considering running two years ago but did not wish to challenge his friend O’Rourke for the position. O’Rourke may not be seeking another two-year term starting in 2024, but Walter is being challenged for the Republican nomination by newcomer Forrest Welch. The winner of the primary will face Democrat Scott Robert Perry for the position in the November election.
“I would like to maintain a hold on the fiscal responsibilities of the office,” Walter said. “With some of the tax issues, we’ve raised our taxes in the last six years. I don’t see the need for that. I think that we might be off course. I’m also trying to get a finger on the employee turnaround; that’s an indication of morale, and morale is an indication of leadership.”
District 3 Commissioner Doug Rexroat filed the paperwork to run for reelection but chose to withdraw shortly after the April 23 deadline. Rexroat has so far declined to comment but in any case, this sets up another round in a longstanding rivalry between Democrat Lois Bahle and Republican Will Bunek, who have often campaigned against each other for this seat and have held it at different times.
Bahle served on the county board briefly for the remainder of Bunek’s term after Bunek was recalled in May 2022 following his motion to set the millage rate for the county’s Early Childhood Services program to zero. During her brief tenure in office, Bahle advocated for a new sanitary code requiring well and septic inspections prior to the sale or transfer of properties. She cited this as an example of the direction she wants to lead the county board in.
“I’m a strong advocate for housing and trying to find ways for county government to get involved in housing in a positive way,” Bahle said. “I’m also on the Energy Futures Task Force. I advocate for clean, renewable energy, and believe it’s important to think globally and act locally. I also support beginning the transition to electric vehicles.”
Despite his efforts to reduce the Early Childhood Services millage leading to his recall, Bunek still stood by his motion in a recent conversation with the newspaper: “I spoke the truth. It’s our responsibility to protect the people when they’re being overtaxed. When I brought up reducing the taxes on the Early Childhood program, they reduced the taxes.”
Like Walter, Bunek says he thinks the county’s taxes are too high and views the string of resignations among county employees — which have included the county’s last finance director, planning and community development director, senior services director, and the county administrator — as a failure of leadership.
