In May, the Leelanau County Board of Commissioners authorized Interim Administrator Richard Lewis to create a finance and accounting department. And last month, newly appointed fulltime Finance Director Cathy Hartesvelt promised the county board that she would “build (them) a department.”
Since then, the county hired a new assistant finance director, Michael Birkmeier, and account clerk, Jodi Logan. Birkmeier and Logan started Tuesday. They also hired a new human resources (HR) manager, Jennifer Kane, who started a day earlier.
“For the first time in two years, thanks to a lot of work from the clerk’s office, and the treasurer’s office, and from Cathy and the administrator, we are fully staffed. We have a finance department. We have an HR department,” Board Chairman Ty Wessell said Tuesday. “That’s a day to celebrate, I think.”
