A closed-door performance review Wednesday showed a majority of Grand Traverse County commissioners believe County Administrator Tom Menzel is exceeding or meeting expectations in his position. Menzel also informed board members that he plans to make 2017 his last year with the county.

The board went into closed session at the end of their board meeting to review Menzel’s evaluation results. County HR Consultant Paula Sagala facilitated the evaluation, which asked commissioners to use a written matrix to grade Menzel in several areas and offer comments on his performance. The Ticker obtained a copy of the evaluation, which compiled commissioners’ feedback anonymously into a review summary. Their feedback in key areas – and Menzel’s responses – are summarized here:

> Relations With Board Of Commissioners (Grade: 4 exceeds expectations, 1 meets expectations, 2 needs improvement)
Board Feedback: “Tom is always willing to meet with me to go over any issues or concerns I may have.” “Tom provides the board not only with options but the risks involved in each. He is thorough.” “I receive a multitude of emails from Mr. Menzel; however, I think it is critical that we have open public discussion and reporting on any spending of public monies or changes to public services.” “As a commissioner, I have been left out of the loop for many months, unable to ask for and receive information.”
Menzel: “I think there’s a valid complaint in communications…my Achilles heel is an ability to communicate on a regular basis what’s going on, how we’re doing it, what steps we’re taking and so forth. I didn’t have the resources or team in place to do that, and you always need to communicate. We’re starting to get those things in place, so I don’t think that will be as much of a complaint going forward.”

Strategic Planning (Grade: 4 exceeds expectations, 1 meets expectations, 2 needs improvement)
Board Feedback: “Mr. Menzel has proven to be an effective strategic planner in his current role. There were many challenges this year he has had to face…that he has dealt with very well.” “In August 2015 we held a retreat at Twin Lakes Camp…and identified a number of goals. A work plan was never developed…we have not revisited the identified issues (or) received any report from the administrator as to progress toward achieving those goals.” “The county was in such a state of chaos when I was elected and Tom was brought in…Tom did an excellent job helping guide the board by identifying issues at the county and offering solutions.”
Menzel: “From my perspective, we’ve done an amazing amount of work in a relatively short period of time. We did discuss…having a strategic planning discussion in January with the new board. I plan to meet with department heads in early January to get a look at their respective plans and goals for the coming year, which could be then incorporated into the board’s strategic planning.”

Leadership And Relations With Staff (Grade: 3 exceeds expectations, 3 meets expectations, 1 needs improvement)
Board Feedback: “The county culture that existed when we came in was almost broken beyond repair…one thing that happened was great employees started working with Tom and each of them really excelled.” “Mr. Menzel has proven to be a very effective leader…the work still remaining for the administration and the board is getting county employees to become partners in our efforts to get the county on solid financial footing.” “Continued adversarial position with all employees and departments has completely destroyed employee morale. The administrator does not seek or accept input from departments as to their needs or suggestions.” “Employee morale is at an all-time low. Employees are not included in planning…(they) are consistently afraid to speak up out of fear for their jobs.”
Menzel: “It’s not adversarial; I’m changing an existing culture that hasn’t had change in decades. When people have lived in a bubble for many years, it creates an awful lot of resistance to change in the organization. I do think I can get out and spend more time with the employees…I’m hoping with these upcoming meetings with department heads to open up those channels. They need to feel comfortable coming to us to discuss issues.”

Financial Management (Grade: 3 exceeds expectations, 2 meets expectations, 2 needs improvement)
Board Feedback: “There have been no financial reports presented to the board until late November, although I asked for at least quarterly reports, preferably monthly updates.” “I expected the budget to be presented earlier. I am sure next year’s budget will be more timely.” “With the glitches this year, it’s pretty impressive we have any budget at all. What I like about the budget is that it was balanced using broad brushstroke reforms…it’s the first ‘grown-up’ budget an administrator has brought forward." “The only area for improvement is in the budget process.”
Menzel: “I do not expect a board to drill down on every specific line item in a budget. You don’t want elected officials getting into that much detail. That’s the way it’s been done in the past, but how is that working out for them? Not very well, so we changed it. If they don’t trust us or the department heads to do a good job administratively, they should get rid of us, but otherwise they need to trust us. We do the work and then present it to the board in public hearings for scrutiny.”

Overall, a majority of commissioner commended Menzel’s performance, saying his “skills for team-building are next to none” and that he was leading the way “as far as the county financially…getting on solid ground.” One commissioner stated that while “Tom has done what we asked him to do…I believe the job has been done with an attitude that the commissioners and employees are the problem, not the solution.” Still, another commisisoner said “the best thing this board did was hire Tom Menzel to serve citizens.”

Menzel says while some commissioners asked him during the performance review to commit to at least a few more years with the county, he plans to make 2017 his last year as administrator. He cites a desire to spend more time with his wife and family for the timeline. “Sometime next year I’d firm the date up and give the board plenty of time to look for my replacement,” he says. “I think we have some strong internal candidates...and they'll also want to look at external candidates.” Menzel points to Deputy Administrator Jennifer DeHaan as one internal candidate he believes could be a viable successor.

The timeline leaves Menzel with a busy year ahead for 2017. “I want to get a pension deal, figure out some of these union negotiations and continue to go through our organization and update our policies and procedures,” he says. “And I want to upgrade our technology, which is badly needed. There’s a lot to do."