The Leelanau County Board of Commissioners has been looking for a qualified candidate to fill a combined county administrator/chief financial officer (CFO) position since March.
So far, they’ve interviewed seven candidates for the position, but are not prepared to extend a job offer to any of them.
And additional interviews are not expected until the fall or early winter.
The board plans to put a hold on the search until mid-September while they make changes to the county’s finance department. The county commissioners seemed to reach the consensus Friday that it will be too difficult to find someone with the people skills and financial knowledge required for the administrator/ CFO role.
So, when the board resumes their search, they may revert the job title from administrator/CFO to just county administrator. However, they did not make a definite decision on the job title and responsibilities through a formal motion and roll-call vote. They also stated their intention to fill this position by December so appointing an administrator does not fall on the next county board.
The board combined the county administrator and CFO roles after the previous administrator, Deb Allen, announced she was stepping down in February. At the time, County Commissioner Doug Rexroat said they were merging the positions to hire someone who has “both administrative and deep financial experience” and could complete the creation of the county’s finance department.
The previous board of commissioners voted 4-3 to separate finance duties from the clerk’s office as a late addition to their May 2021 agenda. Yet, in September 2023, the county’s advisory firm Rehmann made a report to the board suggesting that the transition of duties from the clerk’s office to the finance department was still incomplete.
Several commissioners stated this decision was poorly planned. And when the board asked Clerk Michelle Crocker for comment during Friday’s meeting, she expressed her desire that the board “step up and acknowledge that this (creation of a finance department) was done on a whim for political purposes and nothing else.”
Also on Friday, county Commissioner Jim O’Rourke suggested reverting financial controls back to the clerk’s office. But his fellow commissioners Rexroat and Gwenne Allgaier made it unequivocally clear that they would not support such an action, and that they wanted to continue setting up a separate finance department.
The board seemed to think that to complete this transition, they needed to give the administrator direct control over the finance department as CFO. However, based on commissioner comments at a Friday special session, they now believe that the interim administrator they appointed in March – former Traverse City Mayor Richard Lewis – can carry out this task.
“I hear there is support for Administrator Lewis and getting the finance department going. I would endorse that path forward right now. If you have that department up and running the way it should, the CFO part of the administrator role is less of a requirement,” Rexroat said.
At the board’s Friday special session, board Chairman Ty Wessell said the interim administrator was willing to remain in this capacity “as long as he sees the commissioners making progress towards the end goal of hiring someone” as administrator or administrator/CFO.
Lewis was originally only going to serve as interim administrator for four months, but at the board’s regular session Tuesday, his term was extended through Dec. 31 “or before in the event a new administrator/CFO is hired by the county.” His work schedule was also extended from 20 to 25 hours per week at the Tuesday meeting.
The board interviewed seven candidates out of a pool of 39 applicants gathered by former county Administrator Chet Janik, who is now working as a consultant with the county through the Michigan Leadership Institute. The interviews started May 30 and continued through June 10.
By the end of the second round of interviews earlier this month, the county commissioners had narrowed down this selection to just two people: former Highland Park, Illinois, Mayor Michael Belsky and Michigan State Police Task Force Commander Kipling Belcher. However, most of the board were not overly enthusiastic about either of them.
Belsky watched the Friday meeting via YouTube livestream and was disappointed with its outcome. In a Sunday email to Wessell and Janik, Belsky said he is withdrawing his name from consideration both now and in the future, leaving Belcher the only remaining candidate.
However, the board has not offered an employment offer to Belcher at the time of writing. Janik told the Leelanau Enterprise that he will continue assisting the board with the search for their next administrator by presenting them with more applicants and facilitating interviews with them.
Also at the June regular session, Interim Administrator Lewis announced that county human resources Director Heather Cade is resigning. Cade was hired as HR director in January. According to Lewis, Cade is leaving county government to pursue work in the private sector.
