One Leelanau County commissioner has filed a criminal complaint against another, the interim county administrator is facing a potential investigation for her handling of a county credit card snafu, and the county’s finance director has resigned.

These tensions, the latest to plague the troubled tenure of Leelanau County’s current board, exploded last week at a budgeting session, during which District 1 commissioner Rick Robbins stormed out mid-meeting following a heated confrontation with District 3 representative Will Bunek. Robbins had become irate during a review of the county’s proposed non-union wage schedule for 2027.

Two of the jobs on that list are the county’s facilities director and maintenance supervisor, roles currently occupied by Patrick Roach and Duane Flaska, respectively. Commissioners voted the previous week to eliminate the position of facilities director and redefine the maintenance supervisor job as a maintenance director. Explaining the difference, Interim Administrator Lauren Cypher said the facilities director position is “primarily administrative,” while the new maintenance director would blend the two roles for more of a “working position” at the department’s helm.

The shift is part of a broader shakeup to the building and grounds department, which would pivot from 3.5 full-time employees to four and bring some contracted labor in-house – including lawn-mowing and fertilizer application – to save the county a projected $107,000.

Cypher told commissioners the reconfigured maintenance director job “would be subject to the same process and procedure as any vacancy, where there would be applicants and interviews and an offer letter.” Robbins called it “a bunch of bull” that neither Roach nor Flaska would have guaranteed jobs in 2027 under the change. Cypher said both would be free to apply for the new position.

Then, during a brief break in the meeting, Robbins and Bunek got into a heated argument. In a video recording, Robbins can be faintly heard telling Bunek, “They’re trying to get rid of Patrick so that her husband can get hired,” accompanied by a gesture toward Finance Director Rio Risbridger. Bunek scolded Robbins for spreading “another rumor” about Risbridger, who had been accused the week before of trying to create a new staff accountant position in her department so she could give the job to former account clerk Elizabeth Gray. On the video, Bunek can then be seen following Robbins out of the room.

Reached just after 4pm Friday afternoon, Risbridger declined to comment on Robbins’ accusations against her.

Robbins tells The Ticker that, once they were out of the meeting room, Bunek berated him for a formal complaint he recently filed against Cypher. That complaint, Robbins says, pertains to Cypher’s handling of an issue that arose this summer with the sheriff’s department credit card. Robbins claims Cypher wasn’t honest with the board about the timeline around late payments on that card, and is requesting a formal investigation into the incident.

Robbins and Bunek were out of the room for roughly four minutes, after which Robbins returned to his seat, collected his things, and headed for the door. When asked where he was going by commissioner Alan Campbell, Robbins said he was “going to go talk to an attorney” about getting “harassed” by Bunek for filing the complaint against Cypher. Robbins was absent for the remainder of the four-and-a-half-hour meeting, which was the board’s final budget planning session for 2027.

“I’m not a whistleblower, but I kind of am, so I should be protected against harassment and intimidation by county officials,” Robbins tells The Ticker. He says he’s since filed a criminal complaint against Bunek with the Michigan State Police (MSP), alleging violations of whistleblower protection laws.

Asked about his belief that Risbridger was stacking the deck to get her husband a new job, Robbins says he was told as much by Flaska, who could not be reached for comment on this story.

Bunek disputes Robbins’ version of events, claiming Robbins actually followed him to the bathroom to continue the argument. “He’s accusing me of exactly what he did,” Bunek says.  Asked whether he or Robbins brought up the complaint against Cypher, Bunek says he can’t remember who steered the conversation in that direction.

As for Robbins’ whistleblower claims, Bunek says he wasn’t aware of the supposed MSP complaint against him, but sees irony in the bullying allegation.

“[Risbridger] actually does have a whistleblower complaint already, so for him to start talking about her in this way, he’s just endangering the county,” Bunek says, referencing Risbridger’s complaints against former County Administrator Jim Dyer from earlier this year. “It’s just amazing to me that he wants to bring up and make votes based upon unsubstantiated information.”

Both Bunek and Robbins say the complaint against Cypher will be discussed in closed session at the board’s executive board session Tuesday. Speaking to The Ticker shortly after 5pm Friday, Cypher said she doesn’t “have any information” about that agenda item, other than that it has to do with county credit cards.

“In my mind, [that issue] is completely resolved,” she says. “The Board of Commissioners have approved a commercial card program that's underwritten on the county's tax ID, and that is moving forward to implementation.”

Regarding the shakeups to the building and grounds department, Cypher says the proposal for the shift was actually “brought forward by the facilities department” as a way to “improve efficiency and enable the department to do more work in house rather than contracting out those services.”

“I can categorically deny the allegation from Commissioner Robbins that this change came from Rio Risbridger. The only part she had in it was working up the budget impact,” Cypher adds. “I can say Rio’s husband is a seasonal employee, so he would be eligible to apply for that position, should he be interested. I don't have a date as to when that would be posted, but it's a Teamsters position, so it would be posted internally first for five days, and then posted externally.”

Cypher then informed The Ticker that, as a result of Robbins’ allegations and The Ticker’s subsequent inquiries, Risbridger had tendered her resignation from the county shortly before 5pm Friday, effective immediately.

“It’s a shame, because she is exactly who the county wants and needs in that position,” Cypher says of Risbridger. “She is smart and tenacious, and she is interested in driving the county forward. But she was treated poorly, and it's really, really unfortunate. She'll be very missed.”

Pictured: Robbins and Bunek (back center) argue at last Tuesday's budgeting session.