The Leelanau County Board of Commissioners elected a new vice chairperson, amended meeting protocols, considered undertaking the county's first strategic planning process in recent memory, and talked 2026 goal-setting at their first meeting of 2026. The organizational session, held Tuesday, stretched on for nearly three hours and touched upon everything from conflict-of-interest safeguards to problems with waste and inefficiency at the county jail.

Walter appointed as vice chair

The first order of business was the appointment a vice chair. Per state law, a county board chair is elected in odd-numbered years to serve a two-year term, but a vice chair is elected annually. A year ago, Leelanau commissioners voted unanimously to appoint District 7’s Steve Yoder, a Republican, as board chair. Democrat Ty Wessell, meanwhile, narrowly won the vice chair seat, thanks to an across-party-lines vote from Yoder. Republicans have outnumbered Democrats on the board 4-3 since the 2024 election.

No such bipartisan gestures were to be found on Tuesday. District 2’s Mark Walter, a Republican, beat out Wessell 4-3, with the vote breaking along party lines.

New meeting protocols

The organizational session is the one opportunity commissioners have each year to propose amendments to the rules of order and procedure for meetings. That part of Tuesday's meeting yielded two major changes.

FRepublican Alan Campbell, who has been pushing for the county to review and update its conflict-of-interest policies, proposed setting aside time during each meeting for “declaration of conflicts of interest.” The new policy will offer a moment near the beginning of each meeting when commissioners can disclose if they have any conflicts of interest with any items slated to be discussed or voted on.

Democrat Gwenne Allgaier proposed an amendment to public comment policy to allow constituents one minute near the beginning of each meeting to discuss “information pertinent to the county, but not on the agenda.” Board policy had previously set aside two public comment periods: one at the beginning of each meeting when constituents could speak for up to three minutes about agenda-specific topics; and one at the end of the meeting for general topics. Allgaier argued that shunting general comments to the end of lengthy meetings was creating barriers for constituents to have their voices heard by commissioners.

“I have heard from constituents that they would like to make a comment, or raise a question, or have influence on the agenda, but they don’t want to come for the whole executive board meeting, not knowing how long that might last,” Wessell said in support Allgaier’s motion. “I think it’s especially important that we allow that one minute, just to hear from our constituents.”

Commissioners voted 4-3 in favor of the change.

Strategic planning

Yoder proposed embarking upon a strategic planning process as one of the county board’s key activities for 2026, reasoning that neighboring communities like Grand Traverse County and the City of Traverse City had recently undertaken similar exercises.

“To my understanding, there’s never been a full-blown strategic plan set forth for the county here,” Yoder said. “That’s something I’d like to pursue this year, if possible.” He called specifically for a five-year roadmap, informed by “input from the public, employees, and the board,” that “gives direction to this board” on what projects, initiatives, or priorities to focus on.

While some commissioners were lukewarm to the idea, Yoder ultimately got the green light to review strategic plans from other communities. He’ll bring takeaways back to the board for a more in-depth discussion about whether strategic planning is something the board wants to do.

2026 goal-setting

Finally, commissioners spent time suggesting potential goals for 2026. County Administrator James Dyer was directed to keep track of the suggestions and bring them back at a future meeting. Common refrains from commissioners included the county jail, housing, and a top-to-bottom review of county board policies.

On the subject of the jail, District 1 commissioner Rick Robbins noted that the facility is “starting to show its age,” and suggested creating a committee to look at crime trends in Leelanau County, space and staffing needs at the jail, and what improvements or changes might be needed there. Walter concurred, dubbing the oversized facility “a tremendous drain on our taxes” and calling for more efficiency.

Wessell and Allgaier discussed a desire to see the board get more involved in solving Leelanau County’s housing crisis, with Allgaier even suggesting that the jail problem could be a part of the housing solution.

“The jail, all that empty space, that’s an expensive issue, but there’s a lot of space there,” Allgaier said. “It could be developed into something else, and we would have a jail that’s appropriate for our needs.”

Campbell and Yoder want a review and overhaul of county policies.

“Starting with financials, I think we need to go through all of our policies and update them,” Yoder said. “There are some that are so outdated we don’t even abide by them.”

Pictured: Yoder (left) and Walter (right)