The Leelanau County Board of Commissioners had some lengthy discussions on the issue of stipends for government employees this month.
Clerk Michelle Crocker and Chief Deputy Clerk Jennifer Zywicki have been receiving $250 stipends per week – at the rate of $25 an hour – to prepare the county budget, manage payroll, and work with an independent auditor.
These stipends were supposed to be canceled once the county’s finance department was established. According to Interim Administrator Richard Lewis, this has been done. The county board initially considered discontinuing the stipends at the end of the Nov. 29 pay period.
However, after discussion, the commissioners did the opposite. The board extended the stipends through Feb. 21, albeit at reduced rates. Starting next week, the stipends will be scaled back to $187.50 per week. Beginning Dec. 28, they’ll be $125 per week, and beginning Jan. 24, they’ll be $62.50 per week.
In Lewis’s recommendation, he says the stipends should be extended so Crocker and Zywicki can continue assisting the Finance Director Cathy Hartesvelt and her department in union negotiations, end-ofyear activities, and a chart of accounts conversion required by the state. Hartesvelt affirmed to the board that her department needs their help.
The gradual scaling back of the stipends represents a sort of compromise. They may have been renewed at the same rate, but board Chairman Ty Wessell persuaded the other commissioners that they did not need two people for a combined 80 hours per month to help with union negotiations.
The county began paying Crocker and Zywicki stipends after a finance director, Jared Prince, resigned in December 2022. Since the clerk’s office managed the county purse before a separate finance department was created, Crocker and Zywicki were effectively being compensated to resume these duties while the finance director position was vacant.
These stipends were meant to be a temporary solution, but as the county continued to struggle with high turnover within its fledgling finance department, the payments were renewed again and again to increasing controversy. Well over $50,000 in stipends have been paid.
“We cannot continue to say we have unlimited stipends to pay. I respect the administrator for saying we have to do something, but here’s what we can do to illustrate a little bit of compromise,” Wessell said.
According to a county employee survey from January, 46 out of 85 respondents felt employees were being treated unequally, with many citing the stipends paid to the clerk and chief deputy clerk as an example. These employees reportedly felt that “everyone else” helps other departments as needed without extra pay. The survey’s findings were supported by five elected officials.
“I have listened to countless county employees that are also affected by this. The idea that some receive a stipend for helping out someone in the other department –— it has really lowered morale in this county,” Commissioner Kama Ross said. “These stipends need to end. We need to say to the county employees that this is ending, and I’m very firm on that.”
But Commissioner Melinda Lautner, who discounts the findings in this survey, claimed that these stipends are only actually a problem to two unnamed people — one current and one former employee — who, she says, have made it their “purpose in life” to end these payments by the end of the year.
Lautner accused Vice Chairman Doug Rexroat of having these people “whispering in your ear about what to do about these (stipends)” at the Nov. 12 executive session, which Rexroat denied. Rexroat said that he respected the value of the information from the county clerk’s office but opposed continuing the stipends — at least without scaling them back.
“Your assertion is that with a fully functioning finance department, with all the people in place, you need the same amount of help on a continued basis,” Rexroat told Lewis. “That doesn’t make any sense to me. If we all have these parts in place, we shouldn’t need the same amount of help that we had previously.”
The gradual scaling back of stipends mentioned above was approved by a 4-2 vote, with Lautner and Ross both voting “no” for very different reasons. But as Rexroat noted, once the next Board of Commissioners starts their terms in January, they could very well chart a new course with these stipend payments.
Partway through the Nov. 19 regular session, the county board also held a public hearing on the proposed 2025 budget. Hartesvelt said the general fund here is $17,554,603, an increase of about 1% of the year-to-date 2024 amended budget, excluding American Rescue Plan Act funds.
Included in the list of capital projects are plans to build a cooling tower and air handler at the government center for an estimated $410,000, and new body cameras for the sheriff’s office. There is also a potential non-union wage and salary increase to consider, estimated at 3% with loaded benefits.
Hartesvelt said that the budget includes allocations for some projects that may be funded by 2% grants from the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, if the applications for these funds are approved. She further clarified that the budget is a living document and can be amended as the next fiscal year goes on.
The county board declined a late addition request for the Energy Futures Task Force (EFTF) to meet again in December. So far, the board has declined to make a decision whether to extend the task force beyond its first year of activity. Some comments by the commissioners suggest they plan to delegate this choice to the next board.
The county board also approved:
• Revisions to their apportionment report reflecting millages passed in the Nov. 5 General Election.
• A contract extension with the Grand Traverse County Veterans Affairs office through Dec. 31, 2027, in the amount of $56,618.
• Scheduled a committee of the whole session for appointing members to boards and commissions, to follow the Dec. 10 executive session.
• A resolution in support of House Bill 5430 for the expansion of the Michigan Historic Preservation Tax Credits.
