The Leelanau County Board of Commissioners' Inspections Department Subcommittee will hold a meeting tomorrow, June 29, at 9 a.m. in the county's River Office Building meeting room in Leland.

According to subcommittee chairman Will Bunek, who represents District No. 3 on the county board, the meeting is being held to discuss issues surrounding the firing June 4 of Robert VanDyke, a 16-year county employee who served as a Building Official and head of the county’s Inspections Department.

“We’ll be discussing some of the procedures we’ll use to interview and select a new Inspections Department director,” Bunek said. “We’ll try to determine what kind of interviews we should conduct – whether they should be public interviews, and whether we should hold some evening meetings so more members of the public can participate.”

Bunek said he also expected his subcommittee to discuss “possibly establishing a new direction and philosophy” for the Inspections Department.

“Should we contract out much of the Inspections Department’s functions?” Bunek asked rhetorically. “Should we use non-union inspectors? Should we join forces with neighboring counties for inspections? It’s all on the table,” Bunek said, “and we’d welcome input from anyone interested in this subject.”

Members of Bunek’s three-person committee include District No. 2 commissioner Mark Walter and District No. 1 commissioner Jean Watkoski. In addition to serving as county commissioner, Bunek works full time as a licensed electrical contractor.

Since last week, the county has placed classified advertisements in this newspaper seeking a replacement for VanDyke. Among other qualifications, the job requires applicants to be registered with the State of Michigan as a Building Official, Plan Reviewer and Building Inspector.

VanDyke was receiving a $54,992 annual salary.