Kramer Resigns County Commission Seat; Cites Time Commitment, Alleged Sexism Among Reasons

The Leelanau County Board of Commissioners will be down a member come the end of the month as District 1 Commissioner Jamie Kramer has decided to abdicate her seat.

In a resignation letter dated June 29, Kramer told fellow commissioners she was no longer able “to fulfill the responsibilities of this role effectively.” While Kramer cited “significant changes in my life situation” as her primary reason for leaving, she also identified bigger-picture issues on the board – including an increasingly demanding meeting schedule and alleged sexism on the part of Board Chair Ty Wessell – among the factors that pushed her to a breaking point. Kramer’s last day is July 31.

“I have faced considerable challenges as a working professional who is not retired,” Kramer wrote. “The all-day meetings and the frequency of these gatherings have made it increasingly difficult for me, and potentially for others of working age, to participate fully. This issue underscores a broader concern about the accessibility and inclusiveness of public service roles for individuals who are still actively engaged in their careers.”

At 42, Kramer is the youngest of the seven Leelanau commissioners by a two-decade margin. Kramer also has two young children – an 11-year-old and a three-year-old – and runs her own business, Earthly After. Kramer tells the Leelanau Ticker those life responsibilities made the commitment of being a commissioner too much to bear. She’s worried the same will be true for most younger people who might consider running for local office.

“When you have six-hour meetings and multiple meetings a week, it becomes a barrier to everything,” Kramer says. “It's really disheartening, because I see a desperate need for young people to be involved in politics, but I think board representation will be extraordinarily limited if we continue with this kind of schedule.”

Kramer acknowledges that recent circumstances have meant a workload above and beyond the typical responsibilities of a Leelanau commissioner: Kramer is Leelanau County’s sole appointee to the board of Bay Area Transit Authority (BATA), which saw an uptick in activity last year due to a legal standoff with Grand Traverse County.

Kramer also points to recent attempts at hiring a new county administrator as a frustrating waste of time. After numerous marathon meetings last month, commissioners decided against hiring anyone, choosing instead to extend the contract of Interim Administrator Richard Lewis with plans of restarting the admin search later this year. Kramer, notably, missed key parts of those meetings, including the deliberations that determined the final two candidates and the special meeting when commissioners declined to make a hiring decision.

“I got comments from other commissioners for having to leave early [on one of the interview days], but I had to go pick my kids up from school and we’d been there since 9am,” Kramer says. “I was frustrated, because we had all these meetings, and brought in all these resources to interview all of these people, only to decide: ‘Never mind, that wasn’t the right fit.’ I’m glad they all have time for that, but not all of us do.”

Kramer’s resignation letter also blasted Wessell specifically, accusing him of sexism in his leadership.

“I have experienced feelings of being prohibited from decision-making and board choices due to my gender, particularly from our board chair,” Kramer wrote. “This has been a significant hurdle in my ability to serve effectively and contribute fully to our community.”

When asked to elaborate, Kramer suggests there is “a general patronizing aspect” to Wessell’s leadership, particularly in his interactions with female board members and county staffers. She says she’s often had a hard time getting her voice heard in meetings, saying of Wessell: “Sometimes I’ll be sitting next to our board chair, and he’ll ask a question, and it’s like I don’t exist in that space.”

Kramer also accuses Wessell and former County Administrator Deb Allen of pointedly leaving her out of a meeting the two had last year with Grand Traverse County, concerning the BATA kerfuffle.

“I insisted that I be at that meeting, because I was the only person who serves on the BATA board from the Leelanau County Commission,” Kramer tells the Leelanau Ticker. “I thought it was necessary that, if they were going to a meeting to discuss BATA, they have a representative who knows what’s happening. And they completely left me out.”

Wessell confesses he was caught off guard by Kramer’s accusations, noting that he immediately reached out to two of the other women on the board – Kama Ross and Gwenne Allgaier – to ask if they’d ever felt similarly. Neither expressed comparable concerns.

“I’ve been on the board for three and a half years, and I have never felt discriminated against as a woman,” Allgaier tells the Leelanau Ticker. “I firmly believe that Ty is an excellent board chair, and that he bends over backwards to be fair.”

Ross concurs: “My experience with Ty Wessell over the last 18 months as a fellow board member has been very respectful and very engaging,” she says. “I have never felt any bias because of my gender or because of my being a newbie on the board. He's worked hard to make me feel like a valuable member of the team.”

“As board chair, I try to listen more than I speak, and I feel badly that Jamie feels she was discounted because of age or gender,” Wessell says. “With that said, if Jamie feels that way, it’s legitimate, and I need to reflect on that.”

Regarding the BATA incident, Wessell says the meeting was set by Grand Traverse County and was intended to involve solely the administrators and board chairs of the two counties. “It was not my meeting to invite or uninvite anybody to,” he argues.

But Wessell does agree with Kramer that “there are opportunities to readjust our meetings and the way we do business” to make the board of commissioners more efficient – and hopefully, more welcoming to people other than retirees.

“We definitely need to figure out a way to have more diversity on our board – not only of different ages, but also different races and demographics,” he says. “We need to make sure that we represent everyone.”

Kramer’s departure means the board will need to find a new District 1 representative to finish out the final months of her term. All seven board seats are up for reelection in November, but the victors of those races won’t start their terms until January 1. Kramer had already decided against seeking a second term.

According to Wessell, the county administrator, clerk, and legal counsel “are doing some homework right now” to determine what the exact next steps need to be, and will share that information at an executive board session scheduled for next Tuesday.

“My initial understanding is that we have to appoint somebody, and if we’re unsuccessful in doing that, we would need to have a special election,” he says.