The Leelanau County Board of Commissioners chose nine candidates from a pool of 37 applicants to interview for the county administrator position. Seven of them agreed to attend interviews starting 9:30 a.m. Monday and continuing 9:15 a.m. Tuesday.
The full-time county administrator position has been vacant since former Administrator Deb Allen stepped down in April. Former Traverse City Mayor Richard Lewis has been serving as interim administrator since then. Lewis’s contract expires May 31, 2025, or when a new administrator is hired.
The board hired another former county administrator, Chet Janik, to lead the search for Allen’s replacement. Janik is now working as a consultant with the Michigan Leadership Institute (MLI). Initially the search was targeted at finding a combined administrator/chief financial officer (CFO), but since this was fruitless, the board dropped the CFO from the job title.
