Will commissioners-elect be allowed at the interview table this week when the Leelanau County Board of Commissioners interviews a pair of county administrator candidates? The current board has scheduled a special session for Tuesday afternoon to answer that question.

The sitting Board of Commissioners will conduct interviews with two admin candidates – current Northport Village Managers James Dyer and local CPA Mark Brown – this coming Thursday. Those two candidates were advanced from a wider pool of eight who interviewed for the job last month.

One point of controversy in the current administrator search has been the fact that five of the seven commission seats will be occupied by new people come January. Some high-profile voices – including Interim Administrator Richard Lewis and past administrator candidate Michael Belsky – have expressed the opinion that the new board should have the responsibility of hiring an administrator, rather than the outgoing board.

Now, a compromise is on the table. Late last week, the Board of Commissioners scheduled a special session to “discuss whether commissioners-elect should have the opportunity to participate in county administrator candidate interview on December 12, 2024.” It isn’t clear what that participation would look like, or whether commissioners-elect would have any voting powers even if they were permitted to participate. Those details should be worked out during the special session, which is scheduled for 1pm Tuesday, “or following the end of the Committee of the Whole meeting, whichever is later...”