Leelanau HR Director Resigns, Adding To County's Growing Staffing Woes

The Leelanau County government has another staff vacancy to fill.

Darcy Weaver, the county’s director of human resources, submitted her resignation this week and will be leaving effective January 5. Weaver’s departure is the latest at the county government center this year, and a brand-new blow to a controversial 2021 reorganization effort that created new HR and finance departments within the county government. With Weaver’s exit, the county will need to find new heads for both departments: Sean Cowan, the county’s most recent non-interim finance director, resigned in October.

Weaver confirmed her resignation to the Leelanau Ticker on Wednesday, calling it a “personal decision.” Her exit marks the end of a 15-year tenure at the county. Before she was named director of HR in May 2022, Weaver was the chief deputy treasurer – and before that, a deputy account clerk.

The seeds for Weaver's acension to HR leadership were planted in May 2021, when then-county-commissioner Rick Robbins proposed creation of brand-new HR and finance departments – functions previously handled by the county clerk’s office. Controversially, the proposal passed the county commission without much discussion, with commissioners voting 4-3 along Republican-Democrat party lines in favor of the reorganization.

Since then, the finance department side has been plagued by hurdles and false starts. Between “permanent” hires and interim leaders, five different people have served in the county finance director role since that job was officially added to the county’s government structure in October of 2021. Weaver was actually one of those five people, taking the reins of the finance department on an interim basis in spring 2022, just as she was also getting underway in the HR role.

In January of that year, the county hired Jennifer Zywicki –  chief deputy clerk in the county clerk’s office – as its first-ever finance director. But Zywicki stepped down just a few months later, citing excessive workload and inadequate pay. She subsequently returned to her position as chief deputy clerk – a role she continues to serve today – and the county tapped Weaver to pull double duty. Weaver continued on as interim finance director until August 2022, when the county hired Jared Prince as a permanent replacement.

The county has seen three finance department baton passes since. Prince resigned in November 2022, with Deputy Clerk Cathy Hartesvelt taking over on an interim basis soon after. Hartesvelt held the role until June 2023, when the county hired Cowan. By September, though, Cowan was also heading for the door, complaining he lacked “the resources, authority, staff, or executive support necessary in order to be successful in the finance director role as we originally defined.” County commissioners scrambled to get Cowan to stay – even going so far as to offer him a more empowered CFO position – but he ultimately exited in late October. Commissioners subsequently scrapped plans for the CFO job, and Hartesvelt stepped back in as interim director.

For all the upheaval in the finance department, the HR piece of the 2021 reorganization has been largely stable until now. While Weaver relinquished her interim finance director duties in August 2022, she has continued to lead the HR department since – even winning over some of the people who were initially skeptical about her department’s creation.

“I did not believe we needed a full-time HR director,” says County Commission Chair Ty Wessell, one of the three commissioners who voted against the 2021 reorganization. “But I have been impressed with what [Weaver] has done since she was put in that position. She’s done a terrific job leading a policy review [for county HR], and I know she had lots of support from [County Administrator] Deb Allen and tremendous support from the staff. I do not know why she decided to leave.”

Weaver’s absence will leave the county with a new hurdle as it seeks to stabilize its newest departments. With both finance and HR in need of new leaders – and with the county already paying stipends to County Clerk Michelle Crocker and Chief Deputy Clerk Zywicki for their assistance in finance functions – the current situation raises a question: Should county commissioners simply cut their losses and revert to the old structure, where the clerk’s office handled both finance and HR functions?

Wessell admits the idea has crossed his mind. “We haven’t talked much about changing up HR, because [Weaver’s resignation] was a surprise for us. But we have talked about different options for finances. Do we want to put finances back under the clerk? Do we want to have the county administrator also be the chief finance officer? About a third of the counties in Michigan do have a joint administrator/finance officer position, so that’s definitely an option.”

But Wessell is also of the mind that the county is finally finding its footing with the finance department, with “a long-range plan in place to get where we need to be.” On January 3, he says, the county’s finance committee – a three-person panel within the county commission – will meet with a consultant from Michigan State University to get guidance on county finance best practices. Wessell expects the consultant will advise against returning financial responsibilities to the clerk’s department.

“The problem there is that the county clerk is an elected position, so you run the risk every four years of starting over,” he says. “That’s a little bit worrisome. If we knew [Crocker and Zywicki] were going to be there for the long haul, that would be one thing. But we don't know who might be in that department after 2025, so I think there’s a need for a separate finance department.”

As for HR, Wessell says one option is to have Allen take over HR leadership on an interim basis, on top of her administrator duties. 

Between the finance director woes, Weaver’s resignation, Evans’ exit, and other key departures like County Planner Trudy Galla, Wessell acknowledges it’s been a “challenging year” for the county government. He’s hopeful an in-progress “staff climate survey report” will offer some answers to those retention challenges.

“We paid for that survey because we are interested in hearing what staff are feeling,” Wessell says. “We get that report on January 3, so I am definitely anticipating that.”

When asked about the county’s high rate of employee departures, Weaver also points to the forthcoming survey report as a potential turning point, saying it “will hopefully bring insight into the cultural issues that exist and will assist in the development of a plan to move forward.”