Richard Lewis will stay in the interim county administrator seat for Leelanau County until at least early next year.

At an executive board session of the Leelanau County Board of Commissioners held this past Tuesday, board members discussed the administrator position, which Lewis has occupied on an interim basis since April. Lewis (pictured), formerly Traverse City’s mayor, stepped into the job after former administrator Deb Allen stepped down. Allen resigned to make way for county administrators to hire someone who could serve as both administrator and CFO for the county – the latter function intended to help the county’s then-flailing finance department.

But commissioners have seemed to have a change of heart about the county leadership position since then, and have complimented Lewis for bringing more stability to the finance department than has existed since the department was created in 2021. While the board executed a full search for an administrator/CFO earlier this spring, they ultimately opted not to hire any of their candidates, with District 3 Commissioner Doug Rexroat arguing that giving Lewis more time to right the ship could eliminate the need to find someone with both administrative and finance experience.

“Then we aren’t looking for a unicorn after that; we’re just looking for a good administrator,” Rexroat said in June, using the term ‘unicorn’ to express the difficulty of finding a candidate with both skillsets.

Despite that decision, Lewis has been clear all along that he has no interest in becoming Leelanau’s permanent administrator. In June, when they decided not to make a hiring decision for the admin/CFO job, commissioners even discussed restarting the process as soon as late summer, if not this fall.

Now, that second crack at the administrator search will move into 2025. Lewis noted at Tuesday’s meeting that a majority of the Board of Commissioners will see turnover come November’s election, and argued that the new board should have the opportunity to choose the next administrator. Both Rexroat and District 1 Commissioner James O’Rourke did not seek re-election this year, which means both of those seats will see new faces come January. The same is true for District 1, which is already vacant, following the resignation of Jamie Kramer. And District 7 will have a new commissioner for the first time in nearly three decades, thanks to Melinda Lautner’s primary loss last week to Republican challenger Steve Yoder. All other seats are up for election this November, as well.

“You will have four new members, at minimum, sitting up here [next year], and we still haven’t gotten through to November,” Lewis said. “Is it right that this board makes that decision on who the next [administrator] is going to be? Personally, I don’t think so.” Commissioners agreed, and will vote next week on whether to extend Lewis’s interim contract until next May – or until the hire of a full-time replacement, whichever happens first.

As for whether the county will seek an administrator only or an administrator/CFO, the board plans to hold a special meeting sometime this month where they will formally define the job title and list of work responsibilities.