Former Leelanau County Administrator Jim Dyer sat down for an extended interview days after reaching a separation agreement with the county.
Dyer was reluctant to talk at all, he said, because he doubts an interview will change many minds.
Dyer, an attorney, said he has no plans to file a lawsuit against the county over his departure.
“I wouldn’t want to anyways. That’s not my style,” he said.
He rejected the idea that the separation agreement implies wrongdoing by either side.
He also dismissed a commissioner’s public comments about the settlement in last week’s story.
“Alan Campbell has no clue about legal issues involving my separation… No clue.”
Dyer would not encourage anyone to take his old post as it is currently structured.
He said the county should be restructured entirely.
“This currently structured role — no, I wouldn’t encourage someone to take it,” Dyer said. “The county needs to adopt a controller system of government. It gives the administrator significantly greater authority to run day-to-day operations.”
He said the structure would also insulate the position from the kind of political pressure he says led to his own departure.
“The controller statute specifically requires a two-thirds majority to remove a controller,” Dyer said. “How many board members does it take to fire a clerk? You can’t do it. That’s the whole point. If you have finances vested in the clerk, there’s nothing you can do if you disagree with how the clerk operates.”
Dyer said his departure fits a pattern of turnover he traces back to conflict with the Clerk’s office, pointing to a pre- decessor Chet Janik.
“He was going to be pitted between the clerk and the board, exactly where I’d been.”
He urged comparing resignation letters from past finance staff.
“Go see if you can get Jen Zywicki’s letter — when she quit as finance director. I believe she accused (Janik) of misconduct. Compare the language in her letter to Rio’s (Rio Risbridger, current finance head) letter. I bet you’ll find a lot of similarities. Same with the letter Mike Birchmeyer wrote after he quit — almost direct quotes. And Elizabeth Gray, too.”
Reflecting on the outcome, Dyer said he doesn’t view himself or others in the dispute as victims.
“There are no victims. There are only volunteers. I knew exactly what I was getting into,” Dyer said. “I take no pleasure in saying that, but... the history’s just too much. It is what it is, and I have absolutely no regrets. I did it with my eyes wide open. I knew exactly where the problems were going to come from.”
Dyer was quick to single out employees he says had nothing to do with the conflict.
“Some of the very, very best people I’ve ever worked with: Amber Weber — you couldn’t find somebody better. Lena Vandermeulen, top-notch. Liana Wilson, tremendous. Matt Ansorge,” he said. “Even Pat Roach, who’s had some problems, had the best interests of the county in mind.”
He said he wasn’t surprised by the sheriff’s public support when Mike Borkovich defended him in Public in June.
“That didn’t surprise me. Not one bit. He’s a stand-up guy.”
He also described an improving relationship with the county’s director of Planning.
“The relationship with her started out with her thinking I was going to fire her — where do you think she got that idea? From her buddy across the hall. But towards the end, she was even coming around. She needs a lot of help ... There’s nobody in that building I had a bad relationship with ... except those directly connected to or influenced by the clerk’s office.”
Dyer said he sees only one realistic path for fixing the clerks office — and it isn’t the courts.
“I know a lot of people have encouraged me to file suit. I spent 35 years doing that — if you know anything about me, you know I loathed it. You get a lawyer that’s anxious to file suit, get another lawyer. You have absolutely no control over that process,” Dyer said. “The only real effective remedy with an elected official is a recall campaign. That’s the only really effective one ... So what? There’s still a lot of people out there who continue to support her.”
