The Leelanau County Board of Commissioners has narrowed down the pool of applicants for the new county administrator/chief financial officer (CFO) position and will interview candidates at 10 a.m. on May 30 and 9 a.m. on May 31.
According to documents provided to the board by former county Administrator Chet Janik, 39 candidates applied for the administrator/CFO position. The county hired Janik as a consultant to lead the search in March after his immediate successor, Deb Allen, announced that she would resign effective April 12.
The county commissioners reviewed the list of candidates in closed session Tuesday and chose eight to interview at the end of the month. They were Ahmed Abou-Ismail, Kipling Belcher, Michael Belsky, Tracy Byard, James Kiessel, Mark Justin, Anna Nelson, and Robert Reinshuttle.
Kiessel and Justin previously interviewed for the interim administrator position on March 19 to fill the gap between Allen and the new administrator/ CFO. This position ultimately went to former Traverse City Mayor Richard Lewis.
Kiessel is currently undersheriff at the Leelanau County Sheriff’s Office and lives in Leland Township. Justin is the former county administrator for Gladwin County, Michigan.
Abou-Ismail is a former CEO and CFO for several Los Angeles companies, and most recently worked as CFO for Menlo College in California. Belcher is currently a multijurisdictional task force commander for the Michigan State Police in Gaylord with “significant administrative and budgetary experience.”
Belsky is a graduate of The Leelanau School and is now a managing principal for EKI Digital in Chicago. Byard was county administrator in Clare County, Michigan for over 10 years, and has been county administrator in Hart, Michigan, from 2022 to the present.
Nelson is a certified public accountant with 25 years of experience in governmental and nonprofit organizations in at least three states. Lastly, Reinshuttle is the deputy county administrator in Manatee County, Florida, who earned his Master of Public Administration at Western Michigan University.
In the Tuesday executive session, the board reviewed a memo from Interim Administrator Lewis laying out actions to “create” the county’s finance department, which will report directly to the new administrator/CFO.
The actions recommended by Lewis, which will be considered for adoption at the May 21 regular session, include “eliminating” the accounting department, titling the new department the “finance and accounting department,” and transferring the wages/benefits funds to the new department.
Lewis’ memo also recommended updating staffing levels to eliminate the finance director position and to allow the hire of an additional account clerk. Per Lewis’ recommendation, the new administrator/CFO will choose their own assistant finance director. The board will consider approving these changes at their regular session on May 21.
