The Leelanau County Board of Commissioners interviewed seven people who applied to fill the most important non-elected position in county government, county administrator and chief financial officer (CFO) last week.
Of these seven, four were chosen to advance to a second round of interviews: Mark Justin, Kip Belcher, Michael Belsky, and Tracy Byard.
At the start of the first day of interviews, county consultant Chet Janik told the board that the goal of these sessions was to whittle the number of candidates down from seven to three. Ultimately, however, the board chose the four names listed above. An eighth candidate, Ahmed Abou-Ismail, was scheduled to be interviewed Thursday, but canceled the day before on May 29.
Janik said the board members will have “more of a dialogue” with these four candidates in the second round of interviews, which are scheduled to start at 10:30 a.m. Monday.
He recommended the board set aside an hour and a half to interview each candidate, plus an additional hour each for “open interviews” where county employees can meet and have dialogues with them.
To help the commissioners choose which candidates to invite back for a follow-up discussion, Janik conducted a straw poll after the interviews were over. The board members identified the applicants they wanted to advance or “advance with reservations,” meaning the commissioner had unspecified additional questions about the candidate they wanted answered.
Janik stressed that this straw poll was only meant to start discussion among commissioners, saying that “just because someone gets the most votes, doesn’t mean they’re the leading candidate.” The results of the poll were disclosed publicly.
Justin and Byard were tied for the most votes in the straw poll, with all seven county commissioners choosing them to advance to the second round. Justin received five “advance” votes and two “advance with reservations” votes, and Byard got four “advance” and three “advance with reservation” votes.
Of the four candidates who advanced to the second round, Belsky received the next most votes with four commissioners voting for him to advance and one voting for him to advance with reservations. Belcher got four votes to advance without any reservations.
Justin previously interviewed for the interim administrator role in March, but the position went to former Traverse City Mayor Richard Lewis. After working in finance and marketing across the country for over 30 years, Justin moved back to his hometown of Gladwin. He was approached by the county for their new administrator position, which he accepted in 2021.
Justin’s resume boasts that as Gladwin County administrator, he directed and managed all financial and budget operations for the county, carried out all resolutions, ordinances, and motions by the county board, and directed union negotiations.
However, Justin was fired from this position in September. In an interview with Midland Daily News, Justin alleges the county clerk entered a pay increase for him along with all other employees, despite prior instruction to wait for board approval. He said he discovered this error, reported it to the treasurer, and planned to address it with the board, but was fired before this could happen. He said this was due to unproven accusations by the Gladwin County board chairwoman.
“I take a little bit of risk with this board by talking about this, but from my view, our board chair had a couple of major conflicts of interest that were bordering on being ethical violations, and after sitting back and watching it for a few months, I had to address it with her. That conversation did not go well. She turned on me immediately,” Justin said.
“Well, I walked into that board meeting (in September), and the chair opened the meeting by saying, ‘I’d like to amend the agenda to terminate the county administrator for misappropriation of county funds,’” Justin said. “She had obviously already had a couple of the other commissioners convinced of this. They went right to a vote, the vote was 4-1, and the sheriff was walking me out the door… It was just the culmination of the conversations I had with her earlier on these conflicts of interest.”
Byard started as an assistant administrator in Clare County, Michigan, before becoming county administrator in 2010. She stayed in this role until mid-2022, at which time she moved into her present role as county administrator in Oceana County, Michigan. Byard earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration at Northwood University in Midland, Michigan.
According to Byard’s resume, she had similar duties and responsibilities as county administrator in Clare and Oceana counties. These include preparing county budgets, continual oversight of the county budget/ forecasting/ planning, preparing the agenda and packet information for the boards of commissioners, and being responsible for negotiations of labor relations.
“My husband is a salesman, and he’s taking on more sales within the Traverse City area. Up this way, he sells to construction workers and those type of companies, and so, this position came open and it just kind of fit,” Byard said.
Belsky said he has “deep ties” with Leelanau County, attending the Leelanau School in Glen Arbor. 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.
“My whole career has surrounded government, local government, government finance. I’m a true believer that state and local government — or really local government — is the only place where things really get done in this county. You’re providing very basic services to people,” Belsky said.
Belsky was 15 minutes late to the interview, attributing the delays to construction on Grandview Parkway and Front Street in Traverse City. Several commissioners said that he seemed nervous because of the late arrival, but nonetheless found him to be qualified for the position and wanted to interview him again.
Belcher is a Michigan State Police multijurisdictional 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.
“I’m not into that ‘open door’ philosophy,” Belcher said. “How many people come in and see the boss, walk through the door? I don’t think there’s a ton of people. No, the boss needs to get out and walk amongst the staff. And that’s what I’ve always done with my teams. I take the initiative. … It’s my responsibility to get out there and interact and be a part of things.”
When discussing these candidates, County Commissioner Doug Rexroat reiterated that the county board is looking for someone with administrative and financial experience, plus the “people skills” needed to complete the creation of the county’s own separate finance department, which was set in motion by the previous board of commissioners in May 2021. He also mentioned acting on recommendations for the finance department from the county’s auditing firm, Rehmann.
