Leelanau County residents voting in this cycle have choices to make. All seven county districts have contested races for commissioner.
Top issues facing the soon-to-be-elected Board of Commissioners are hiring a new county administrator and controlling government spending.
And the two issues have been intertwined in recent months.
In 2021 a Republican majority of the board approved creating two new county departments: Finance and Human Resources (HR). No reorganization plan was included in the action to approve the government expansion, however.
Since the expansion plan was approved, a number of changes have taken place. The majority of the board flipped to Democrat beginning in 2022. Longtime County Administrator Chet Janik announced his planned retirement for the end of the year.
The task of figuring out the logistics of the expansion plan and the search for a new administrator landed on the laps of the newly elected commissioners.
The process has made many gyrations over the last three years, with one option being combining the administrator and finance director positions into a Chief Financial Officer role. That concept failed to find a qualified candidate. The Finance and HR departments now both have directors. Richard Lewis continues to serve as Interim County Administrator.
Adding two new departments to county government has cost an estimated $700,000 as of mid-2024, according to county administration. Those costs are not going away, as Finance and HR departments are functioning and appear to be a permanent part of Leelanau County government. The board will need to manage those increased costs into a budget that both provides the needed services to county residents, but also keeps tax rates under control.
The most recent deadline for county administrator candidate applications is Nov. 7. The newly elected board will need to prioritize hiring a qualified candidate to help lead county government. There has much-publicized turmoil within county government. The new administrator will need to professionally mitigate that turmoil.
Residents in all seven districts have a choice to make at the booth this election cycle. One thing is certain — there will be new faces on the board beginning in 2025. Only in District 4 (Wessell), District 5 (Ross) and District 6 (Allgaier) are the incumbents on the ballot. The remaining four districts will elect new representation on the board.
In a county that typically boasts of the highest voter turnout in the state, critical decisions will be made in the selection of board representation for the next four years. The commissioner term changes from the current two years to four years with this election.
Early voting and absent voting are underway. If you haven’t yet voted, please be sure to do so on or before Election Day, Nov. 5, 2024. Your vote matters and will help chart the course in county government.
