Earlier this summer, the newspaper reached out to Leelanau County’s finance department head — then-Interim Finance Director Cathy Hartesvelt — to get estimates on the total amount of money spent on the county’s finance and human resources (HR) departments. According to the county’s administrative department, based on data from Hartesvelt, $692,102 went into these departments by mid-2024.
The county formally began setting up finance and HR departments in May 2021. The previous county board of commissioners — with different elected officials occupying four of the seven positions — voting 5-2 to explore the option. The departments were activated in January the following year.
The county’s interim administrator, Richard Lewis, released some of the expenses noted by Hartesvelt to the paper. She estimated the county had already sunk $440,544 into starting its finance department by late June, just before she was hired as director. The largest single item going into this figure was $267,597 in wages and benefits for the directors, interim director, and assistant director.
