A failing grade: That’s what Leelanau County government employees gave the county in an organizational climate and culture survey conducted late last year. The results were presented to the Leelanau County Board of Commissioners at a committee of the whole meeting held last week, and raised concerns about the organizational culture at the county government center. County staffers identified a toxic workplace culture characterized by distrust, insufficient pay, poor employee morale, and lack of strong leadership. Commissioners are set to discuss the study – and sketch out next steps – at an executive board session scheduled for 9:30am tomorrow (Tuesday).

In November, county commissioners voted 6-1 to hire the Michigan Leadership Institute (MLI), a downstate-based educational consulting firm, to conduct a study of its workplace climate and employee culture. (Commissioner Melinda Lautner was the sole dissenting vote on the matter.) Commissioners had discussed the possibility of a third-party culture study earlier in the fall, after Sean Cowan – then the county’s fifth finance director – submitted his first letter of resignation. The idea fell by the wayside as commissioners took steps to change Cowan’s mind and retain him as a county employee. When Cowan resigned again in late October, though – this time for good – calls for a culture survey grew louder.

To conduct that study, MLI Regional President John Scholten – a former northern Michigan superintendent who previously worked for both Glen Lake Community Schools and Petoskey Public Schools – set up shop at the Leelanau County government center in December to interview county staff. During his report to commissioners last week, Scholten said he met face-to-face with “52 or 53 people,” asking them questions about the positives of working for Leelanau County, the issues facing the county, and the state of the county’s workplace/organizational culture. Another few dozen employees submitted feedback via an anonymous online survey. All told, Scholten said he got responses from 85 of the county’s 117 employees.

The takeaways from those interviews were largely grim. One question asked employees to grade employee climate and culture on a scale of 1-10, with “1 being broken, and 10 being healthy.” The average score across Scholten’s 85 surveys was a 3.8 out of 10.

“That should be a little bit concerning,” Scholten told commissioners. Some employees, he added, couldn’t even come up with a single positive thing to say about the work environment at the county, telling Scholen “‘There’s nothing positive. It’s toxic.”

One major challenge cited by employees, Scholten shared, was low pay – especially given the cost of living in Leelanau County. Leelanau was ranked as Michigan’s wealthiest county last year by the financial technology company SmartAsset, and the phrase came up multiple times in Scholten’s interviews. “I think that’s something you need to hear, because that term – ‘the wealthiest county’ – wasn’t from just 2-3 people,” Scholten told commissioners, before adding: “You all need to open your pocketbook a bit more, to take care of your employees.”

“I think a lot of [county employees] are tired of hearing: ‘It’s too bad you can’t afford to live here,’ or ‘You don’t need to live here [to work here],’” Scholten continued.

But while home values and cost of living were commonly-cited issues, most of the challenges identified by county staffers had to do more with internal matters. Scholten said the county clerk’s office – and particularly Clerk Michelle Crocker, Chief Deputy Clerk Jennifer Zywicki, and Deputy Clerk Cathy Hartesvelt, who also serves as interim finance director – came under fire repeatedly in survey responses, with numerous county employees referring to the trio disparagingly as “the group of three.”

“There’s a pretty strong sense out there that the clerk’s office is vindictive, and quite a few felt dishonest,” Scholten explained, noting that many employees feel the so-called “group of three” are “mean-spirited,” talk dismissively or cruelly about other employees, and “seem to put their noses in everything.”

“There’s a real sense that if one speaks out against this group, there’s going to be trouble for you,” Scholten said of the clerk’s office.

That culture of fear and distrust, Scholten said, was a common thread in his talks, and went beyond just the clerk’s office. Many employees, he explained, feel that “political alliances” run rampant at the government center, and that “if you have a concern, you’ve got to be careful what you say.”

The board of commissioners also took some heat in Scholten’s report, with employees saying they were embarrassed by instances of bickering and infighting that have broken out between public officials during meetings. Employees also expressed embarrassment to Scholten about the county’s revolving door of finance directors – among other staff turnover issues – with much of the blame landing at the feet of commissioners. “At times, you’re embarrassing as a board,” Scholten said bluntly.

Commissioner Lautner got the most criticism of board members, with Scholten noting that “a fair amount” of employee complaints “centered in on her.”

“[Employees] thought she was pretty toxic, that she was mean-spirited, that she’s actually anti-employee, a little bit erratic,” Scholten said in characterizing the criticisms of Lautner. “And there was a pretty strong sense that [county employees] feel there’s a conduit [from Lautner] to the clerk and the chief deputy clerk.”

As part of his report to commissioners, Scholten recommended that the board “commit to training and dedication” to ongoing board governance work, a new board code of conduct, improved communication, and healthy teamwork. The report also called for a complete and final separation of finance and human resources functions from their former home in the clerk’s office, urging the board to provide “all necessary tools to make [that] transition be smooth and work.” Other recommendations included a new wage scale study to assess pay rates for government workers in Leelanau County; and “increased/improved leadership from administration,” including more of an open-door policy from County Administrator Deb Allen and more respect and support for Allen from the board of commissioners.

Commissioners are slated to discuss it all at their executive board session this week. The agenda calls for discussion of an “effective board governance workshop,” as well as talk about “next steps” for county administration (including staffing updates for the county’s vacant executive assistant, human resources director, and planning director positions) and finance.

MLI’s full climate/culture study report can be viewed here.