The Leelanau County board heard a presentation from John Amrhein, a governance educator with Michigan State University (MSU) Extension, on county finance structure at a committee of the whole session on Jan. 24.
Management of Leelanau County’s finances has been fraught with difficulties ever since the previous board of commissioners made the controversial decision to separate finance duties from the county clerk’s office and create a new finance department in May 2021.
Since January 2022, the county has gone through four finance department heads in short order – Jennifer Zywicki, Darcy Weaver, Jared Prince, and Sean Cowan. Since Cowan left on Oct. 20, the department has fallen under the leadership of former Suttons Bay treasurer Catherine Hartesvelt again.
