Hartesvelt Officially Out, Sean Cowan To Return As Finance Director

Cathy Hartesvelt has been terminated from her position as Leelanau County’s finance director, County Administrator Jim Dyer confirmed to The Ticker Tuesday evening. Hartesvelt had been on paid leave since early January, reportedly because of insubordination. According to Dyer, Sean Cowan, former finance director for the county, will step in next week to lead the department, at least on an interim basis.

Dyer tells The Ticker he “issued a notice of termination of employment” to Hartesvelt via email on Tuesday afternoon, effective at 5pm. That communication followed an executive board session of the Leelanau County Board of Commissioners that included an hour-long closed session “to consider written attorney client privileged communication exempt from disclosure.” Dyer wouldn’t confirm if Hartesvelt’s termination was the subject of that closed session.

Hartesvelt’s absence, combined with assistant finance director and account clerk vacancies in the department, has left the unit extremely short-staffed. Speaking during Tuesday's meeting, Commissioner Alan Campbell blamed short-staffing for “some problems with the last payroll,” where some county employees “were shorted money”; Campbell apologized for the error and promised it would be fixed.

Also during Tuesday’s meeting, Dyer and Commissioner Ty Wessell commended account clerk Elizabeth Gray for keeping the finance department going.

“She’s done a very, very good job under trying circumstances,” Dyer said of Gray. “I’ve told her that privately, but it certainly doesn’t hurt to say it again publicly.”

Gray won’t be alone for long. Dyer shared during the meeting he had recently hired an additional account clerk, Clara Ellis, who started Monday. Gray is training Ellis, who will primarily be responsible for accounts payable data entry, Dyer said.

Dyer also shared with commissioners that he had “been in conversations with an individual” about coming aboard as interim finance director, potentially as soon as next week.

Speaking to The Ticker later in the day, Dyer confirmed he had been speaking of Sean Cowan, who served as finance director for a stint in 2023. Cowan will be returning to the role starting next Tuesday.

“Fortunately, I can report that I made an offer [to Cowan], and that offer was accepted,” Dyer says. “I reached out to him, and after a lot of cajoling, convinced him to return for a minimum period of 60 days. We’ll wait and see how both of us are working together before we decide whether that'll turn into something more permanent or not, but at least I'll have a very highly qualified person in that position, effective almost immediately.”

Cowan was hired as finance director in June 2022, becoming the fifth person to hold the position since its creation in 2021. He submitted an initial resignation letter in September 2022, saying he lacked “the resources, authority, staff, or executive support necessary in order to be successful in the finance director role as we originally defined.” The board made a move to keep Cowan, creating a CFO job he agreed to take on in addition to his finance director responsibilities. By late October, though, Cowan had resigned again, this time for good. (Read more about the county’s finance department woes here.)

Dyer says he’d originally planned to announce Hartesvelt’s termination at the county commission’s January 20 meeting, but held off when the now-former finance director indicated she would “consider resignation in exchange for a severance agreement.”

“Her legal advisor notified us recently that she was no longer interested in that course of action, which led to the action I took [Tuesday],” Dyer says.

Dyer has maintained from the beginning that, since the finance director is an employee of the county administrator and not of the Board of Commissioners, any decision about Hartesvelt's employment is solely his to make. Looking forward, though, he says Hartesvelt does have the right to have his decision reviewed by the board.

“She would just need to file a file a complaint regarding the discipline imposed, and ask the board to review it,” Dyer says, citing board policy 1.07, which deals with non-union personnel.

Asked whether Hartesvelt’s decision not to pursue a severance agreement could leave the county at risk for a lawsuit, Dyer can't rule it out.

“Anytime you take an adverse employment action, there's that possibility,” he says.