Last week marked the final meetings of 2025 for many of Leelanau County’s boards and commissions, answering some – but not all – of 2025’s big lingering questions. 

Conflict of interest committee

The Leelanau County Board of Commissioners voted last week to establish a new “conflict of interest and complaint policy committee,” which met for the first time on Friday. The committee was born out of a memo penned by District 5 commissioner Alan Campbell, who referenced multiple issues around County Administrator Jim Dyer.

Dyer was accused of courting conflict of interest during his unsuccessful campaign for a seat on the Cherryland Electric board this spring. The matter reared its head once more this summer, regarding Dyer’s concurrent service as a board member of the nonprofit Peninsula Housing and a pair of county boards – the Land Bank Authority and the Brownfield Development Authority – that made decisions affecting that nonprofit. Dyer is no longer a member of the Peninsula Housing board.

Campbell also took issue with county policy that technically puts the administrator in charge of investigating and resolving any grievances brought by county employees even when those grievances are brought against the administrator. One such grievance was filed against Dyer this year, and he was exonerated of any wrongdoing.

“The county conflict of interest policy, written in 2005 and updated in 2007 and in 2013, limits violations to ‘personal profit, gain or other benefits’ and ‘special favors or privileges,’” Campbell wrote in his memo. “It fails to address the types of conflicts that place a public servant in a position of representing two sides of an issue that may result in major financial or policy advantages for one body or contractor over another.”

The conflict of interest committee, which consists of Campbell, Dyer, and county board chair Steve Yoder, will revisit these statutes and consider revisions to expand the county’s definitions of conflicts of interest.

County vehicle leases

Also at last week’s meeting, commissioners voted 5-2 to authorize Dyer, alongside County Treasurer John Gallagher III and Finance Director Cathy Hartesvelt, to negotiate a “managed fleet vehicle leasing contract” with Enterprise Fleet. The county is looking to lease 3-4 patrol vehicles for the sheriff’s department, as well as a pickup truck “required by the building safety department.” During the 2026 budgeting session, Dyer proposed leasing those vehicles rather than buying them as a means of maintaining a balanced budget in the face of ballooning health insurance costs.

In a memo to commissioners, Dyer wrote that “outright purchasing of vehicles…would likely require a $300,000 capital expenditure” in 2026 based on county needs, “compared to approximately $60,000 in the first year of a fleet managed lease.”

Beyond those first-year savings, Dyer added that leases would also bring “a smaller impact on the general fund budget” going forward, “which is predictable and more manageable in the long term. It gives the County more control in a budget year where we experience both the need to purchase vehicles and an unexpected need to allocate $600,000 more for health care that had been initially anticipated.”

Based on the motion approved at last week’s meeting, Dyer for now only has approval to negotiate a fleet leasing contract. The actual contract will need to be reviewed and approved by the Board of Trustees before the county actually enters into any lease agreements.

Inland Seas permit

As the Leelanau Ticker reported last month, the Village of Suttons Bay voted to withhold a conditional use permit that the Inland Seas Education Association (ISEA) needs to convert the historic Millside building into additional educational and boat maintenance space for its growing programs. ISEA, which is nearing the end of an $11.2 million capital campaign, intends to use the Millside space as a cornerstone of an ambitious campus expansion.

At a second review of ISEA’s site plan last week, the planning commission provided a conditional approval with the stipulation that the matter go before the village’s zoning board of appeals (ZBA) sometime early next year.

The ZBA will have to decide whether or not to grant a “variance for build-to/setback along Dame Street,” the east-west street that runs between the current ISEA headquarters and the Millside building. The planning commission has held that Dame Street is a village road “and will be treated as a front” for the purposes of site plan approval. ISEA, meanwhile, has argued that Dame Street is more like a driveway.

The interpretation matters, because the Village of Suttons Bay has a zoning ordinance that demands a minimum setback to keep businesses close to the road. Having to comply with that setback would require ISEA to add on to the building to bring it closer to the road. A variance from the ZBA would clear the nonprofit from having to follow this rule, and would allow ISEA to proceed with its planned renovations.

“We are still disappointed that we have to go to the ZBA, but we are confident that the project will be approved as is at their next meeting on January 14,” ISEA Executive Director Fred Sitkins tells The Ticker.

Youth for Christ meeting

Two weeks after a public hearing for a controversial Christian group was cancelled due to over-capacity crowds, the Leland Township Planning Commission has announced a rescheduled date.

As the Leelanau Ticker reported last week, the planning commission will now meet at 5pm on Wednesday, January 7 to consider a special land use permit (SLUP) for the Leland LightHouse, a youth Christian ministry that operates as a branch of the multi-national Youth for Christ movement. The rescheduled meeting will take place at the Northport Performing Arts Center Auditorium to make way for more people than can fit into the commission’s usual meeting spot. Leland LightHouse is seeking a SLUP to operate in the commercial district of downtown Leland.