Former County Administrator Jim Dyer said private conversations he had with staff, commissioners surfaced almost immediately in public comment seemingly the same day, and he traces the leaks back to the Clerk’s office.
“There were times when I would have a private conversation with Cathy (Hartesvelt, former finance director), and hours later that conversation was repeated in public comment by Mr. White.”
Jim White is the chairman of the Leelanau Republican Party.
“So where’s the information coming from? Directly from the clerk’s office.”
Dyer said an employee survey flagged the same underlying problem the board has never publicly addressed: a power struggle rooted in the Clerk’s office.
“The board understands they have a problem, and it’s in Suite 103,” Dyer said.
“As an elected official, (the board) can do nothing to her (Michelle Crocker). They can’t remove her from office. They can’t fire her,” he said. “They were looking for department heads that were responsible to them, that they could hire and fire if need be.
“That’s the best rationale for the clerk having no power in the finance or HR realm.”
He argued elected clerks shouldn’t run day-to-day county operations at all.
“The clerk should not ever be in control of the operations of the county’s day-to-day business. Period. They’re elected nonprofessionals,” Dyer said.
He credited Clerk Michelle Crocker’s staff with their core duties but said he believes they want more.
“I will be absolutely willing to say that Michelle Crocker and her staff do a great job. But frankly, I think they’re bored by that, and they just want to run the county,” Dyer said.
On claims that he screams at people to get his way, Dyer said he spent 45 minutes explaining the origin of one such story — involving a prior job and a county treasurer who, he said, yelled at him first — directly to White, who he said nodded along at the time but has continued to repeat the claim publicly.
“You won’t find one person in that building that will say I yelled and screamed at them. Not even Crocker or Zywicki. In fact, the one time I was rude to Jen Zywicki, I apologized to her that same day,” Dyer said.
He didn’t deny showing frustration.
“Was I frustrated at times? Did I demonstrate frustration with certain employees, particularly those in the finance department? Absolutely. And I had good reason to be frustrated.”
Dyer’s final hire was a professional accountant and current finance director, Rio Risbridger, whose formal complaint followed. He called hiring her one of the best moments of his tenure.
“Two happiest days of my life: the day I got hired ... the day I hired her, because I finally had somebody that knew what they were doing,…a professional accountant,” Dyer said.
He said he believes she was influenced by Crocker’s office after he left.
“She’ll do well if she gets herself away from the influence of Crocker and Zywicki,” Dyer said. “Everybody’s telling me, ‘Oh, they didn’t collaborate with the clerk’s office’. Balony.”
He pointed to specific language in her complaint that he said didn’t originate with her, involving a proposal to expand the county’s use of ACH (Automative Clearing House) payments.
“Rio and I were talking about how ACHs were safer and better for the county to use, and how we would expand their use, not contract it. Yet that’s in her complaint.”
Dyer described it as a newer employee being influenced by more senior staff.
“I think it’s just a matter of a young person going into a new job, and you’ve got these motherhen types... encouraging her, influencing her.”
He drew a comparison to a request made by a prior finance director, Cathy Hartesvelt. “What did Cathy Hartesvelt ask the board to do? Allow her to report to the board. The same thing (Risbridger) asked.
Pull the syntax and wording — it’s exactly the same type of stuff.”
Despite the fallout, Dyer said he stands by the hire.
“Even with this outcome, it was the right thing to do to hire her. We needed professional accountants. That’s the only way we’re going to get away from the way we’ve managed finances in the past.”
Dyer said he’s struggled to understand where Lauren Cypher, (now interim county administrator) stood amid the conflict.
“I have trouble understanding her position. I try to ask that question every time I see her, personally,” he said. “I don’t want to believe that ... She knew she had to do what I asked, and she also knew she was going to get pressured from the clerk’s office.
“She was trying to walk a very fine line, and I’m sure she’s still trying to do the same.”
Asked about public scrutiny of credit-card records tied to her, Dyer said he suspects outside influence rather than wrongdoing.
“That's the only thing that would suggest to me, not necessarily that she's in on it. But that she’s getting advice from the clerk about how to deal with that sort of issue,” Dyer said. “You get pressured from somebody else — what do you do? You blame it on the guy that’s not here anymore. It’s his fault. That is absolutely the Crocker/Zywicki playbook. It’s not my fault, it’s somebody else’s.”
