The Leelanau County Board of Commissioners will interview eight candidates for the new county administrator/ chief financial officer (CFO) position, starting today.
They approved the schedule for these interviews at their May 21 regular session.
The county’s consultant on the county administrator/CFO search, former Administrator Chet Janik, presented a list of 25 candidates at the board’s May 14 executive session, and the commissioners narrowed down to eight applicants in closed session.
As previously reported, the eight candidates are Ahmed Abou-Ismail, Kipling Belcher, Michael Belsky, Tracy Byard, James Kiessel, Mark Justin, Anna Nelson, and Robert Reinshuttle.
The county board plans to perform half of these interviews today and the other half Friday. The first candidate, Abou-Ismail, is scheduled to be interviewed at 10 a.m. Abou-Ismail lives in Menlo Park, California, and will attend the interview remotely. According to his resume, Abou-Ismail graduated from the University of Cairo, Egypt, before moving to Los Angeles and working for several companies, most recently working as CFO for Menlo College in California.
The county board will interview Nelson at 11 a.m. today. Nelson’s highest level of education is a Master of Science in electrical engineering from Polytechnic University in Ukraine. She is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) in Ukraine pursuing certifi cation in the U.S. and has 25 years of experience in governmental and nonprofit organizations in at least three states.
After taking a lunch break, the board will continue interviews with Justin at 1 p.m. Justin previously interviewed for the interim administrator role in March, but the position went to former Traverse City Mayor Richard Lewis instead. He was county administrator in Gladwin County, Michigan, from 2021 to 2023, where he directed and managed financial operations, and he is also a CPA.
The last candidate to be interviewed today is the current Leelanau County Undersheriff James Kiessel. Like Justin, Kiessel interviewed for the interim administrator position. According to Kiessel, his major assets are his familiarity with government center staff after 25 years of being undersheriff and the fact that he already lives in the county in Leland Township.
Interviews will continue Friday starting at 9 a.m. with Belcher. Belcher is a Michigan State Police multi-jurisdictional task force commander based out of their post in Gaylord who has “significant administrative and budgetary experience,” according to his resume. He also earned a Master of Business Administration in Gaylord at Spring Arbor University.
The board is scheduled to interview Belsky at 10 a.m. Friday. Belsky is a graduate of Leelanau School. He is now managing principal for EKI Digital in Chicago, whose clients include state and local governments. He was also mayor of Highland Park, Illinois, from 2003 to 2011.
At 11 a.m. Friday, the board will interview Byard. Byard was county administrator in Clare County, Michigan for over 10 years, and has been county administrator in Oceana County, Michigan, from 2022 to the present. She earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration at Northwood University in Midland, Michigan.
The last candidate to be interviewed by the board is Reinshuttle, who is scheduled for noon Friday. Reinshuttle is the deputy county administrator in Manatee County, Florida, who earned his Master of Public Administration at Western Michigan University.
