Seven candidates have accepted Leelanau County’s invitation to interview for the open county administrator position next week.

As the Leelanau Ticker reported this morning, county commissioners decided at a meeting Tuesday to invite nine candidates from a 37-person applicant pool to a first round of interviews. One of those candidates declined the invitation, while the other is currently out of the country, leaving seven prospective administrators for the Board of Commissioners to interview next Monday and Tuesday.

The candidates who won’t be a part of the initial interviews are Robert Reinshuttle, a former deputy county administrator and public safety director for Manatee County, Florida; and Brandon Fewins, who lives in Traverse City and works as Michigan’s state director for USDA Rural Development.

In an email sent to commissioners late Tuesday evening, Chet Janik – who is coordinating the administrator search as a third-party consultant – wrote that Reinshuttle “declined the invitation due to the prohibitive costs of airline tickets on fairly short notice from Florida.” Fewins, meanwhile, is currently out of the country, but “is still very interested in the position and would appreciate the Commissioners considering interviewing him upon his return,” per Janik.

The interview schedule for the remaining candidates is as follows:

Monday, November 18

9:30am: Matthew Marske
10:30am: Eric Ceci
11:30am: Mark Brown
12:30pm: James Kiessel

Tuesday, November 19

9:15am: Kipling Belcher
10:15am: Jeffrey Thornton
11:15am: James Dyer

All interviews will be conducted as part of public meetings to be held at the Leelanau County Government Center. Any and all are welcome to observe the interviews, either in person or via the county’s YouTube livestream.

“At the end of the November 19 meeting, Commissioners can discuss which candidates to invite to a second round of interviews,” Janik added in his email. “The second round will last approximately 90 minutes and be conducted in a dialogue format. The tentative meeting dates for the second round are December 12 and 13.”