The Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners has conditionally appointed a county administrator.
Interim county administrator Greg Dill has been selected by the board as the person who should lead the county. But before he officially gets the job, background checks and contract negotiations have to take place.
"There is a lot of work to do. As most people know, we have some significant mental health issues in our community, and that will be the primary thing that I will go to work on."
The board of commissioners was not expected to make a final recommendation for the position at its last meeting. But after much debate on when and what the process should be to make that announcement, commissioner Ronnie Peterson made a motion to specifically vote on whether Dill should be offered the job.
"Some of the commissioners had called me and indicated that they had the majority of the vote for Greg Dill. Why continue to process, continue to ask applicants to come back, back and forth when you had a majority that already made a commitment to one individual candidate? Let's get it over with."
A final vote on the hiring has been scheduled for early November.
At their last meeting, the board also approved an ethics ordinance template after controversy broke out when former commissioner Conan Smith applied for the director position at the Washtenaw County Office of Community and Economic Development. Commissioner Yousef Rabhi got upset when he realized most of the board had not read the template.
Smith, who attended the meeting and decided to no longer be considered for the director job, agreed with Rabhi.
"In fact, the board's own rules say that policy like this has to originate at our working session. Where we can have a real and deep conversation about all the elements in it. So introducing it at Ways and Means is shear circuiting that process."
Those who voted in favor of the ordinance said it's just a template, and it will change before a final decision is made.
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— Jorge Avellan is the Ann Arbor beat reporter and anchor for 89.1 WEMU News. Contact him at 734.487.3363 or email him javellan@emich.edu
