County administrator David Gill has publicly acknowledged that he may have a "conflict of interest" in serving as interim head of the county Inspections Department.

Gill is also serving as “Owners Representative” for the largest building project now ongoing in Leelanau County – construction of the $10.6 million Leelanau County governmental center and courthouse off M-204 in Suttons Bay Township.

Earlier this month, Gill fired longtime Inspections Department head and building official Robert VanDyke. (See story beginning on Page One of this section.)

To “avert any appearance of a conflict of interest,” Gill said, he has set up an “Inspection Team” for the county governmental center – a team that does not report directly to him.

“All inspection supervision issues are to be referred to Robert Mickevicius,” Gill told Inspections Department employees in a June 18 memo.

Mickevicius has been employed by Leelanau County for three years and is registered with the State of Michigan as a Building Official, Plan Reviewer and Building Inspector.

“Any inspection problems or coordination issues are to be referred to Robert Mickevicius,” Gill wrote. Gill also assigned electrical inspector Laurie Baclich to the team as well as plumbing/mechanical inspector Scott Earl.

“With the exception of plumbing/mechanical, we are using contracted inspectors, as opposed to county employees, on this team to isolate the department from a Conflict of Interest,” Gill wrote. “I have discussed this with Scott Earl, and if at any time he feels conflicted, he will advise and we will attempt to replace him with a contractor.”

Gill added that he hopes to step down as temporary head of the county Inspections Department as a new department head is hired in the coming weeks. Construction of the governmental center is expected to be complete around the end of this year.