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Thursday, August 21, 2025 at 7:20 PM
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New hires join finance department

It’s been a rocky start for Leelanau County’s finance department, but the county Board of Commissioners is working to set up the department as a separate, self-sufficient entity. This includes hiring staff as well as upgrading systems and software, which the previous finance director said date back to the 1990s.

It’s been a rocky start for Leelanau County’s finance department, but the county Board of Commissioners is working to set up the department as a separate, self-sufficient entity. This includes hiring staff as well as upgrading systems and software, which the previous finance director said date back to the 1990s.

Interim County Administrator Richard Lewis already promoted the former interim director, Cathy Hartesvelt, to the permanent finance director in July. And at the county’s monthly executive board meeting Tuesday, they announced two additional hires.

“By Oct. 1, I should have a fully staffed team, and we’ll build you a department,” Hartesvelt told the county board earlier this week.

The new hires included Joey Logan as a new account clerk. Logan has a background in government finances from working in Ohio county government, and recently chose to move to her vacation home in northern Michigan and work in Leelanau County full-time.

Hartesvelt also said that her preferred candidate for the assistant finance director position accepted the county’s job offer Monday night. Hartesvelt said that she was “not at liberty to announce the name yet” because she only heard the news the night before the meeting, but mentioned he would relocate to the county from Grand Rapids.

Lewis also said that a new human resources (HR) manager, Jennifer Kane, has been hired, and will start in the new position Sept. 30. The job title for the county’s HR position was changed in August. Previously, it was held by a director, Heather Cade, who left the county to pursue work in the private sector in June.

Both HR and finance duties were separated into their own departments from the county clerk’s office in January 2022. They have experienced high turnover since then, with the finance department passing through five department heads and the HR position being occupied by four people now.

As mentioned above, the county’s finance director before Hartesvelt, Sean Cowan, said that he left the county in part because their financial software was “extremely antiquated” and unsustainably manual, and he felt there was little internal interest or board support for change.

The board has since shown some interest in modernizing these processes. And soon, state laws may help force their hand. According to executive documents, the state department of treasury notified local units of government that they must implement their uniform chart of accounts by January 2025.

Lewis said the county needs to convert its current chart of accounts system to meet state requirements before they move from their systems from the current- used Harris platform to a new one, possibly BS&A Software.

“If we’re going to go a different financial software … you’re going to have to get these charts of accounts corrected. It’s all wrong,” Lewis said.

“It’s actually what they call ‘obsolete,’” Hartesvelt said.

“Extremely obsolete,” Lewis agreed.

Hartesvelt also told the board that Clerk Michelle Crocker “offered to help the county to do this but was not taken up on her generous offer.” So instead, Hartesvelt contacted the firm Rehmann Public Sector Solutions and got a quote for developing a “crosswalk map” for converting the chart of accounts.

The county board will consider approving a $30,000 contract with Rehmann to complete this project at their Tuesday regular session. In Lewis’s opinion, this “map” is necessary to both comply with state laws and eventually convert to new accounting and finance software.

Also at next week’s meeting, the county board will consider salary adjustments for the chief deputy treasurer and chief deputy register of deeds, bringing both these non-union positions up from $62,523.38 to $69,283.85 salaries, effective at the pay period beginning after approval.

According to executive documents, this brings the chief deputies’ salaries in alignment with the assistant finance director and assistant emergency management/ 911 directors. The primary factor here, Lewis says in these documents, is that these positions need to fill the responsibilities of the director or an elected official in the event of sickness, vacations, or vacancies.

The ensuing discussion saw many of the board members express interest in a wage study for all county employees. Commissioner Gwenne Allgaier, for example, thought it was problematic that these chief deputies would have higher pay than the starting salary for the senior services director, although the senior services director would eventually surpass them after one year.

Lewis also said that the board members received copies of the proposed budget calendar for the next fiscal year Monday, and they are going to consider the 2025 budget next week.


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