Seven Finalists Emerge For County Administrator

Seven of the ten finalists for the position of Grand Traverse County administrator have agreed to move to the next stage and be interviewed by county commissioners – including four Michigan candidates, one of whom is local.

The candidates’ identities were made public Wednesday after a confidentiality clause was lifted following applicants’ agreement to be interviewed. While commissioners could previously discuss candidates privately behind closed doors under a provision of Michigan’s Open Meetings Act, any interviews must take place in public, requiring applicants’ identities to be revealed. Three of the candidates commissioners hoped to consider declined to move forward to the interview stage; accordingly, their identities were not made public.

Among the remaining seven applicants is Grand Traverse Undersheriff Nate Alger, who is currently serving as Interim County Administrator along with Deputy Civil Counsel Chris Forsyth and Finance Director Dean Bott. Alger has assisted with administrative duties after former County Administrator Vicki Uppal resigned in January after four months on the job. Alger has served as undersheriff in the Grand Traverse Sheriff’s Office since 2002; he first started out in the department as a road deputy in 1995. He also serves as an elected councilman in the Village of Kinglsey and is the head varsity softball coach at Traverse City Central High School. He has a Bachelor's degree in political science with an emphasis on public administration from Central Michigan University.

In his application, Alger said his goal in seeking to become administrator was to use his “leadership abilities to improve the public services provided to the citizens and visitors of Grand Traverse County.” He cited his “extensive experience leading and working with a diverse population of employees, community leaders, and constituents,” and said he was “well-versed in the issues facing Grand Traverse County.” Alger added that he “gives 100 percent to ensure the safety and security of the community.”

While Alger enjoys a hometown advantage as a candidate, three other applicants also hail from Michigan – all of whom have extensive executive and/or administrative experience in government. Dennis Durham served as the city manager of Parchment in Kalamazoo County for a decade – from 2007 to 2017 – overseeing a staff of 25 and a $2.6 million annual budget. Though considerably smaller in scale than Grand Traverse County’s 500+ employees and $38 million general fund budget, Durham was also employed for two years as the deputy city manager of Kalamazoo, which had 849 employees and a $147 million annual budget. A Bachelor of Arts degree recipient from Michigan State University, Durham currently runs his own company, CivicQuest LLC, which specializes in “government performance improvement” and “advising business/nonprofit organizations,” according to Durham’s application.

Thomas Hickner of Bay City has nearly four decades of experience in the public sector, starting out his career as a fiscal analyst for the Michigan Legislature from 1979 to 1982 and then serving as state representative in the Michigan House of Representatives from 1983 to 1992. His longest stint was as the six-term elected chief executive officer of Bay County from 1993 to 2016, where he managed 550+ employees and negotiated over 90 bargaining agreements with 12 unions. Hickner holds a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from Western Michigan University.

The only female candidate among the seven finalists is also from Michigan. Tracey Cordes has served as the county administrator of Gratiot County since late 2017, a position in which she says she “created an administrative infrastructure where none existed in financial administration, human resources, and information technology.” Prior to that position, Cordes served as a court unit executive for the U.S. District Court/Western District of Michigan, as court and deputy court administrator for circuit courts in Oregon, and legal counsel to county commissioners in Coos County, Oregon. She has a Bachelor of Arts degree from Michigan State University and a law degree from Northwestern School of Law of Lewis and Clark College.

Of the three remaining candidates, one comes from the Midwest while the other two hail from the East Coast. Brian Wilson has served as the village administrator of Belleville, Wisconsin, since 2016, overseeing 25 employees and a $5.5 million budget. He was previously town administrator of Beloit, Wisconsin – a larger jurisdiction of 79 employees and a $7.2 million budget – and held various positions as city administrator, disaster recovery manager, and neighborhood improvement specialist in Missouri. He has a Master of Science in Administration from Southeast Missouri State University and says he’d bring “over 21 years (of experience) in local government” to Grand Traverse County.

Gregg Todd has worked for the last seven years as county administrator of Queen Anne’s County in Maryland, an organization comparable in size to Grand Traverse County at 464 employees he says he guided from a “negative watch to AAA Bond rating.” Todd previously served in several other roles for Queen Anne’s County, including as chief operating officer, parks and recreation deputy director, and parks superintendent. Todd also owned a golf course design company and has a Master of Business Administration from the University of Phoenix.

The final candidate, Stephen Daly, currently serves as the financial administrator for Municipal Light Plant in Concord, Massachusetts. Prior to that position, Daly worked as the acting town administrator for Derry, New Hampshire and has held various town manager and administrator posts over three decades in communities include Bedford and Salem in New Hampshire and North Reading and Bedford in Massachusetts. From 2001 to 2014, he also served as director of municipal governance for the Metropolitan Area Planning Council in Boston. He has a Master of Education from the University of Maine and partially completed a Master of Public Administration at Suffolk University.

County commissioners are expected to interview all seven candidates in one-hour blocks beginning May 16 from 4pm to 8pm at the Governmental Center, continuing May 17 from 4pm to 7pm. Cordes, Daly, Alger, and Wilson are scheduled to be interviewed (in that order) on day one, while Todd, Durham, and Hickner will be interviewed on day two. Final-round interviews are tentatively scheduled to take place the evening of June 7 and morning of June 8.

According to the job description for county administrator, candidates are required to have a bachelor's degree - with a master's degree in public or business administration preferred - as well as six or more years of "progressively responsible executive level experience." Candidates were also told that prior county or city management is "highly valued" and that commissioners are interested "in candidates with a diverse combination of educational background, professional experience, and community involvement." The listed salary range for the position is $120,000-$145,000.

Candidates pictured (clockwise from top left): Nate Alger, Thomas Hickner, Dennis Durham, Gregg Todd. Not pictured: Stephen Daly, Tracey Cordes, Brian Wilson.