The cards were stacked against Deb Allen when she began working as county administrator in January 2023.
Allen had worked since 2015 as executive director of development and community engagement for the Grand Traverse Pavilions, a municipal senior care facility in Traverse City. A Leelanau County resident, she also stepped down from her position as an elected trustee on the Elmwood Township Board to take on the administrator position.
She took the reins from 10-year administrator Chet Janik, who retired.
At the time, Janik said the biggest challenge he faced during his tenure was implementing commissioners’ controversial decision in May 2021 to remove finance duties from the county clerk’s office and create a new finance department.
The previous board added the new department without a plan as to how to make this happen. There were many starts and stops which included a recommendation from consultants to transition county finances from the county clerk to the administrator and finance department “as soon as possible.”
But this has yet to be accomplished. In fact, the finance director’s seat has been like a revolving door with no less than five persons to hold the title.
The controversy also has brought long-festering issues within the government center to a head.
Commissioners engaged the Michigan Leadership Institute to survey government employees. They asked employees to rate the work culture on a scale from one to 10, with one being broken and 10 being healthy. The average score was a “concerning” 3.8.
This was also reflected in the comments made to commissioner Kama Ross during informal interviews with staff.
Adding to the controversy Commissioner Melinda Lautner filed Freedom of Information requests for the documents which included information provided under the promise of anonymity.
Last week, commissioners agreed to change the organizational structure by hiring a new administrator/CFO with a “deep” financial experience.
Allen does not have the financial experience that will be needed. She and the county board signed a separation agreement Friday.
We wish her well in her future endeavors and thank her for her efforts over the past year.
We’re hoping that the board, going back to square one, will develop a game-plan and timeline for hiring a new administrator with the needed financial background.
We’re also expecting that some of the long-lingering issues which came to light in the past few months, in both the Rehmann and MLI reports, will also be addressed and resolved quickly.
