Board, staff react to survey results (2024)

Board, staff react to survey results

By Zachary Marano

zachary@leelanaunews.com

The Leelanau County Board of Commissioners heard the results of an organizational culture survey yesterday, which were reported in an earlier story. Everyone seems to agree that the survey painted an unflattering picture of county government, but county clerk Michelle Crocker may have gotten the worst of it. The newspaper reached out for reactions to the results from Crocker and other elected officials.According to the nine-page document presented to the board yesterday, the clerk’s office is “vindictive/dishonest — Crocker and Zywicki ‘put their nose in everything,’ note how they talk to people (is) mean-spirited.” Crocker said the survey findings represented a continuation of the previous board of commissioners’ “attack” on its clerk, referring to the board’s May 2021 decision to strip finance and human relations duties from her office. This decision was approved by a 4-3 vote with unusually little discussion as a late addition to a meeting agenda while Crocker was on vacation. “I am going to try to continue to adapt with grace and the patience I’ve shown since May 2021 when I was on vacation and was blindsided by a former commissioner (i.e., Rick Robins),” Crocker told the newspaper. “My term goes through the end of this year, and I plan to run at this point. This is a huge election year. I’m not going to be bullied.”Crocker said that she feels the survey reported to the board does not accurately reflect the county employees’ perceptions of her office and has already had several employees tell her they disagree with the findings. Like the perception that the board relies too heavily upon and favors the county clerk’s office over other departments, Crocker claimed that these feelings are not backed by “tangible” evidence. Crocker added that she was “a little worried about (her) safety after seeing some of this.” She declined to provide further clarification. The document also refers to an “interim business” director. No such position exists, but this – along with references to a “group of three” – may be referring to interim finance director Catherine Hartesvelt. Hartesvelt told the newspaper that while she may have gotten her start in county government in the clerk’s office, she ultimately reports to the board of commissioners now instead of the clerk.Zywicki, who participated in the face-to-face surveys with Michigan Leadership Institute (MLI) regional president John Scholten herself, said she was surprised when the results came in and contained personal attacks against her and others. She said she hoped the survey would focus more on improving county government.On the other hand, county commissioner and personnel committee chair Kama Ross said she was not surprised by Scholten’s findings. As committee chair, Ross voted in favor of recommending the county contract the MLI for $6,500 to carry out this survey, which the board approved at a Nov. 9 special meeting.“I want to start right away. Next Tuesday at 9:30 a.m. we hope to have on the agenda a discussion item that might bring action to the full board on governance issue, maybe. My take is that we need to show change first. We can’t expect Michelle Crocker or (county administrator) Deb Allen to make decisions if we don’t lead the way. We need to be more professional; we need to be more transparent,” Ross said.Crocker and Zywicki were not the only people called out by name in the survey, however. Although the survey results suggested that the entire board of commissioners wasn’t displaying quality leadership, commissioner Melinda Lautner was singled out. Ross said that she wasn’t surprised by this development either, saying that she can be difficult to work with. This isn’t necessarily surprising, as Lautner recently asked the county prosecutor to intervene when Ross declined to share information with her.Lautner opposed this survey from the beginning. The district 7 commissioner was the sole “no” vote when the county board voted to award the contract to MLI, accusing her fellow commissioners of circumventing the process of going through executive and regular sessions. It is perhaps unsurprising, then, that Lautner had more negative views after the survey results came in.“When I walked out of the meeting, I saw (Scholten) in the hallway. I told him, ‘You have driven the wedge of division in this courthouse deeper.’ I don’t think he knew what he was doing,” Lautner said to the newspaper. “I think the survey is on the level of the National Enquirer; nothing more than gossip. Where was the work culture?”Lautner claimed that many employees share her lack of faith in the survey results. She alleged that some employees made complaints against other elected officials and department heads –— including other commissioners and county sheriff Mike Borkovich, among others — yet these people were not identified by name in the report like Lautner and Crocker. Prior to this committee of the whole meeting yesterday, Lautner filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for all correspondence between Kama Ross and employees, department heads, elected officials, and county administrator Deb Allen. Lautner’s efforts to see this correspondence have been fruitless so far, as the county prosecutor’s written response to the request said Lautner had to pay $5,000 for his office to fulfill her request because 1,250 emails need to be reviewed and redacted when needed. Lautner told the newspaper today that she consulted an attorney who recommended that she appeal the $5,000 price tag, which she described as “ridiculous.” She said she will appeal the county prosecutor’s decision to board chairman Ty Wessell at the board’s first executive session of the year at 9:30 a.m. on Tuesday. When asked for a response by the Enterprise, Wessell said that he was unaware that Lautner plans to get on Tuesday’s meeting agenda, but that he previously told her that he will not make decisions on the response to her FOIA request. He added that he does not believe the board has the authority to overrule the prosecutor’s decision, nor would he favor payment of county funds to cover the costs of fulfilling the request.After yesterday’s meeting, county board chairman Ty Wessell told the newspaper that the board will start working on acting on these survey results at their next executive session. In his opinion, this will be their “number one issue of the year.” Wessell offered a more positive opinion on the survey overall than Crocker and Lautner, though he admitted it was not good news.“We heard some things we didn’t want to hear, but it was important that we heard the things that we heard,” Wessell responded to the newspaper’s request for comment. “This board has some major responsibility going forward. On the executive session agenda next week, we’re going to hopefully choose a consultant to bring in some governance training. We’ll get some training on what effective boards do to become effective.”