County Hiring Freeze Stokes Tensions Between Finance Department, County Administrator

Controversy reared its head at the Leelanau County Government Center last week as county board members, staffers, and even members of the public sniped at one another over a temporary government hiring freeze. While commissioners ultimately voted to implement the freeze -- intended to remove complications from the in-progress 2026 budgeting process -- conversations at last Tuesday’s board meeting exacerbated long-simmering tensions between the county and its finance department.

District 1 Commissioner Rick Robbins proposed the hiring moratorium last month, arguing that filling any vacant positions authorized in the county’s 2025 budget “would have a financial impact on the 2026 budget and the ability of the Board of Commissioners to modify the number of full-time equivalent employees authorized in the 2026 budget.” The freeze will only remain in effect until the board approves a budget for next year, and the resolution includes language to allow for exceptions if “the relevant elected official or department head” and the county administrator agree in writing “that filling that position is essential to continuation of the existing level of service.”

While commissioners voted 4-3 to implement the freeze, the matter led to considerable back-and-forth, with some commissioners – including District 3’s Will Bunek and District 5’s Alan Campbell, both Republicans – saying the moratorium was little more than political brinksmanship targeted at the county’s finance department. Finance is one of two county departments with a vacant position approved in the 2025 budget (the other is the sheriff’s office). Per Finance Director Cathy Hartesvelt, the department has been trying for months to hire a second account clerk.

“Shortly after Administrator [Jim] Dyer was hired, we did talk about the opening in my office, and the search was on, with postings to Indeed and downstairs [at the Government Center],” Hartesvelt told commissioners. Hartesvelt said she’d identified the candidate she wished to hire toward the end of summer, with the offer letter making its way to Dyer’s desk “on the Thursday prior to Labor Day” – the same week commissioners started exploring a hiring freeze.

Hartesvelt said she and Dyer had conflicting views of what the board hoped to accomplish with the freeze. “I thought it was more directed to expanded workforce, expanded hours, expanding for the 2026 round; but my position that we have open is approved and budgeted, both in ’25 and ’26,” Hartesvelt said. Dyer, meanwhile, felt the freeze applied to all hiring, and did not sign off on the offer letter.

While Hartesvelt didn’t openly accuse Dyer of blocking her hire for political reasons, Campbell did it for her, arguing it was “very obvious” that the freeze was “directed at just one department.”

Earlier this summer, Hartesvelt filed a grievance against Dyer, reportedly stemming from a disagreement on an unrelated budgeting issue. That grievance is with the county’s legal counsel and has not been released to the public. Campbell argued that, because of the grievance, the county needed to tread carefully in instituting a policy that could be seen as retaliatory.

“We have a reason not to institute a hiring freeze directed at the finance department, and that is the thing we’re not talking about: a personnel complaint that was filed,” Campbell said. “I’m afraid [this freeze] comes back at us, depending on the outcome of that issue.”

Dyer countered that the hiring freeze was not his idea – Campbell, in fact, initially raised the possibility – and cited conversations with Hartesvelt that led him to believe the second clerk position might not actually be needed. When he was “handed an offer letter” for the job, Dyer insisted on waiting to proceed until the county board made a decision on the freeze.

“You would think that, if it was so essential that [the finance department] position be immediately filled, the department head would have come to me…and discussed why that position was essential; that has yet to happen,” Dyer said. “Instead, individuals in this building have attempted to build a political case for whether that position should be filled by the board, rather than by me. You hired me as your chief administrative officer; I’m responsible for hiring and firing of those below the administrator level. And instead, this has been turned into a political issue, to assert power and to attempt to reduce the ability of the administrator to actually do his job.”

“And this is not the first time,” Dyer continued. “This is just another example of how business is done here. You have reports from before I even darkened the door of Leelanau County, that says there are people in this building that are obstructive, have refused to consider alternatives to what’s been done in the past, and frankly, you get the government that you deserve when that happens.”

Dyer's remarks are a reference to an organizational climate and culture survey conducted at the Leelanau County Government Center in late 2023, wherein members of the county clerk’s office – including Clerk Michelle Crocker, Chief Deputy Clerk Jennifer Zywicki, and Hartesvelt, who served as both deputy clerk and interim finance director at the time – came under fire repeatedly. “There’s a pretty strong sense out there that the clerk’s office is vindictive, and quite a few felt dishonest,” consultant John Scholten reported to the board in January 2024.

Following Dyer’s remarks, Jim White, chairman of the Leelanau County Republican Party, gave a public comment excoriating the administrator for losing his temper.

“If this is what happens on camera, what happens behind closed doors with his employees, who serve at will?” White asked, suggesting that Dyer’s “flashes of anger at public meetings” should raise “concerns about this private behavior.”

“This is not the leadership that Leelanau County deserves – and commissioners, you have both the duty and the authority to insist on a higher standard,” White added.

Robbins came swiftly to Dyer’s defense.

“I though cherry-picking season ended about six weeks ago, but it seems a lot of people in this room like to cherry-pick when it benefits them,” he said. “I hear from [the local Republican party] that you want us to be transparent on our budget, you want us to slow things down. I listened to another commissioner at a meeting say, ‘We should have a hiring freeze.’ I ran with it; I talked to [the Republicans], and you said run with it, too. You’re tired of us spending money. So, I’m doing what you’ve asked me to do. But then you come up here, you crucify our administrator, you crucify us board members when we’re trying to do the right thing. And it’s getting old."