Leelanau County’s interim administrator, Richard Lewis, said Tuesday that Cathy Hartesvelt has been hired as permanent finance director, after she served as interim finance director for almost nine months. She has been department head since the last permanent director, Sean Cowan, left the county in October 2023.
Lewis requested that the board grant him power to appoint Hartesvelt finance director at the board’s July 9 executive session. Board Chairman Ty Wessell said at last week’s meeting that he thought they should “officially approve this next Tuesday” at the regular board meeting, but ultimately, Lewis offered Hartesvelt position the same week, which she accepted.
“I’ve been here through all of this – since 2021 – in one capacity or another,” Hartesvelt said at the executive session. “I realize that a finance department has been established, and a staffing level to handle the county finances. I remember hearing, ‘Let’s not recreate the wheel, we’re just putting new people in charge.’” Hartesvelt is referring to the previous county board’s controversial 4-3 vote to remove finance and human resources duties from the county clerk’s office as a late addition to their May 2021 meeting agenda. Before a separate finance department was created, the county’s finances were managed by the clerk’s office for over 25 years.
Many Michigan counties eventually separate these responsibilities into different departments, especially when they grow larger. But several Leelanau County commissioners have admitted their transition was poorly planned and lacked buy-in from all officials and staff.
“It’s nobody’s fault, it’s just where we are today, at least in my humble opinion,” Lewis said last week. “It’s not the ‘what’ that took place three years ago. It’s the ‘how.’ The process of bringing it here sucked. It was just not done in a proper manner. I’m not faulting anybody. And it seems like it has burdened us and has stayed with us for a long time. Get rid of it. Own it, it happened, and we’re moving forward.”
Since the finance department launched in January 2022, it has passed through five department heads: Jennifer Zywicki, Darcy Weaver, Jared Prince, Cowan, and Hartesvelt. Between her current nine-month run and an additional six months as the interim director between Prince and Cowan, Hartesvelt has served as finance department head the longest.
In fact, the county board had previously discussed appointing Hartesvelt as the permanent finance director five months ago in February. Commissioner Melinda Lautner attempted to amend an unrelated motion to appoint Hartesvelt to this position. Her amendment was ultimately withdrawn, however.
Earlier this year, the board was looking to combine the county administrator role with a new chief financial officer (CFO) position. Since the person appointed to this position was expected to work closely with the next finance director, the board wanted to let the new administrator/CFO choose who to hire for this position, which is part of why Hartesvelt was not appointed sooner.
Since then, however, board members appear to have changed their minds. Commissioner comments suggest that they may remove the CFO title from the county administrator job description when they advertise for the position again. They instead deferred the decision to hire a new finance director to Lewis last week.
Lewis let the county commissioners know in advance that if he was given the authority to name a new finance director, he would appoint Hartesvelt.
“I believe (Hartesvelt’s) got the experience. We talked about relationships. Thank goodness she has relationships throughout this building. Can some of them be improved? More than likely. My relationship with each of you can always be improved,” Lewis said.
In addition to hiring Hartesvelt as finance director, Lewis plans to hire an assistant finance director. This is intended to address deficiencies in the county’s internal controls over finances identified in the last two county audits.
The county has also been paying County Clerk Michelle Crocker and Chief Deputy Clerk Jennifer Zywicki $250 stipends per week since December 2023 to prepare the county budget, manage payroll, and work on the county’s 2023 audit. The board started paying Crocker and Zywicki after Cowan left to ensure these functions were still being done.
Hartesvelt said that although the county has been paying stipends to Crocker and Zywicki, “since we don’t have a fully functional finance department, we have a dual control issue.” Hiring an assistant finance director is intended to address this.
Lewis said they posted an opening for assistant finance director at Tuesday’s meeting and hope to hire someone in the next month. Either way, Lewis says they will discontinue Crocker and Zywicki’s stipends by Sept. 13, after the county’s fiscal year 2025 annual budget is complete. Hartesvelt and Lewis also plan to upgrade the finance department to BS&A Software.
