Will Leelanau County’s Finance Director Shakeup Affect the 2027 Budget?

Leelanau County had its 2027 budget drafted and ready for approval at the end of September. Then, just days after what was supposed to be the final budgeting session of the year, the county finance director resigned. A new interim finance director has since come aboard, but the shakeup delayed further budget talks by more than a month. Is the county still on track to adopt its new spending plan on time? The Ticker takes a look.

Last week, the county posted a notice and agenda for a bonus budget work session, scheduled to take place this Wednesday, November 4 at 2pm “or immediately following the Committee of the Whole meeting, whichever is later.” The meeting has just one agenda item: a 2027 budget walk-through. The session comes 36 days after the last time the Leelanau County Board of Commissioners met to discuss the budget.

But that session, on September 29, proved contentious, with District 1 commissioner Rick Robbins storming out of the meeting after a heated exchange with District 3 representative Will Bunek. Robbins had accused Rio Risbridger, then the county finance director, of manipulating staffing levels in the building and grounds department to give her husband – who has worked in that department in a seasonal capacity – a shot at a better job.

Risbridger had faced similar accusations in a budget session a week before, when District 4 commissioner Ty Wessell questioned her motivations for trying to shift the staffing levels in the finance department. Wessell had heard a rumor Risbridger was trying to create a new staff accountant position so she could give the job to former account clerk Elizabeth Gray. Risbridger and Gray wrote the complaints that ultimately led the county to separate from former County Administrator Jim Dyer.

Risbridger resigned from the county, effective immediately, three days after the last budget session, and the 2027 budget has been on ice ever since. At an executive board meeting on October 6, Interim County Administrator Lauren Cypher pulled numerous budget-related items from the agenda, citing the sudden and unexpected vacancy in the finance department.

“We, originally today, were going to present the appropriations act resolution and our 2027 budget rules. That is going to take a brief pause,” Cypher said at that meeting. “Budget is ready, but with the sudden changes we’re experiencing – and given that we are still, truly, in very good time for budget – we will be waiting for the formal budget presentation for November.”

Since that meeting, the county has hired an interim finance director: Fabian Knizacky, who served for 30 years as the administrator controller for Mason County. Knizacky will now guide commissioners through the final stages of the 2027 budget.

Asked whether constituents should be concerned about the month-long delay in the budgeting process, Cypher tells The Ticker that this week’s budget walk-through is not any kind of emergency session, but merely a chance “to review one last time.”

“The 2026 budget was finalized in November, so we aren't late for 2027 approval,” Cypher shares, noting that the only true deadline is that the budget must be formally approved and adopted by the end of the calendar year. “We are in good shape. The plan is to have a final budget for the public by November 6, well ahead of the public hearing.”

That public hearing is already on the schedule for 6:45pm on Tuesday, November 17, with a public notice appearing in last week’s Leelanau Enterprise. Per the notice, copies of the finished budget “will be available for public inspection at the office of the administrator” starting next Monday, November 9.

While Cypher was one of the loudest voices in condemning how Risbridger was treated and the instability created by her departure, she says she’s confident in Knizacky's ability to pick up the ball and get the new spending plan into the end zone.

“Fabian is very adept at government fund accounting and the budget process,” Cypher says. “There is a measure of getting up to speed, as far as the procedures unique to Leelanau County, but he is skilled in county finance and his insight has been valuable.”

Knizacky did not respond to a request for comment on this story.

Board Chair Steve Yoder, addressing Risbridger’s departure at the October 6 meerting, commended the former finance director for leading commissioners toward “a budget this board should be mighty proud of, with the savings made and the appropriate cuts.”

As drafted, the 2027 budget calls for $18,561,776 in general fund spending – up just 0.9 percent from the 2025 budget commissioners adopted last November, which earmarked $18,396,425 in spending. Comparatively, the budget grew by about 4.76 percent between 2024 and 2025.