Commissioners-Elect Will Participate In Administrator Interviews - But Won't Get A Vote

Sitting members of the Leelanau County Board of Commissioners and commissioners-elect will both have the opportunity to participate in county administrator interviews scheduled for this Thursday.

At a special board session held Tuesday afternoon, sitting board members worked out a basic plan that will allow commissioners-elect to ask administrator candidates questions and offer input on who to hire. Commissioners-elect still won’t have a vote on the ultimate hiring decision, however, as they are not technically serving as public officials until January 1.

Leelanau’s current board is hoping to have a signed contract with a new county administrator by December 31. Two finalists, Northport Village Managers James Dyer and local CPA Mark Brown, will interview for the job at a meeting on Thursday, after which commissioners will likely decide who gets a formal job offer.

That decision could prove to be the last major action of the current board of commissioners, as four of the six sitting members will relinquish their seats come January. Because of that turnover, Commissioner-Elect Alan Campbell of District 5 raised the question late last month of whether he and other incoming board members would be given time to sit down with administrator candidates or participate in the interview process.

“I see where times are reserved to meet (and greet) with employees and commissioners,” Campbell wrote in a November 26 email to Chet Janik, the consultant assisting the county with the administrator hiring process. “Will time also be provided to meet with commionsers-elect? This seems to me to be as important as meeting with present commissioners, of which only two will remain when our new administrator takes office. It will be the expectations and missions of the next County Board, not present commissioners, that he will need to meet and accomplish.”

“Given that new commissioners will be seated less than three weeks after the final interview, I urge you to consider this request,” Campbell concluded. “The new administrator will likely never work for the present county board.”

Interim Administrator Richard Lewis referred the question to attorney Mark Norfjord, who provides legal services to the county through the firm Cohl, Stokers & Toskey. In a response to Lewis dated December 1, Norfjord wrote that there were “no legal concerns with including commissioner-elects in this process,” but noted that incoming board members “don’t have a formal vote currently.”

Sitting board members unanimously agreed at Tuesday’s special meeting to allow commissioners-elect to ask questions and provide input at Thursday’s administrator interviews. Additionally, Lewis pledged to figure out a layout of the meeting room that will allow the five commissioners-elect to sit with or near existing board members, to ensure that everyone can have eye contact with interviewees and watch their facial expressions.

Four of the five commissioners-elect – Campbell, District 1’s Rick Robbins, District 2’s Mark Walter, and District 7’s Steve Yoder – were present at Tuesday’s special session, and all expressed their appreciation to the board for being included in the process.

Thursday’s board meeting is set to begin at 9:45am with Brown’s interview kicking off at 10am and Dyer’s scheduled for 11am.