CASS COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR KAREN FOLKS RESIGNS

By DEBRA HAIGHT
BCR Correspondent

CASSOPOLIS – Cass County has begun 2019 with changes in county leadership. The Cass County Board of Commissioners has a new leader and will have a new county administrator after Administrator Karen Folks was forced out earlier this month.

Folks’ resignation came Jan. 10, at the end of a week that began with new County Commissioner Robert Benjamin asking for a board vote on her termination. Benjamin later withdrew his motion and 2018 County Board Chairman Terry Ausra asked Folks to resign.

“I thought it was the best solution to get her to resign and she agreed,” Ausra said. “I thought it would be less disrupting.”

 

Benjamin, who was elected chairman in his first meeting on the county board, said he had pushed for Folks’ departure after talking to county staff and finding that there was low morale. “I wanted to make a change in direction,” he said. “I was getting a lot of feedback about morale and it was becoming a distraction.”

“She’s done some great things for the county but we’re ready to go in a different direction,” he said. “I’m focused on the future rather than anything negative from the past.”

Folks had been the county administrator since June 2016. She previously worked as a city attorney, consultant and chief executive officer of the YMCA of Greater Flint and most recently as the state-appointed City Administrator for the city of Allen Park, Mich.

The county’s previous administrator, Roger Fraser, was terminated after two years with the county, 2014-15. In all, the county has had four county administrators since March 2010.

Benjamin said there’s no timeline yet for finding her replacement. Commissioners did talk about the process of finding a new administrator at their committee of the whole  meeting last week.

“I’m into a team approach, I don’t want to say much upfront,” he said. “I want commissioners to decide what they want to see done and then find somebody with those qualities.”

Benjamin said there’s no timeline yet for the search. Commissioners are currently reviewing the administrator job description with an eye on how make sure they capture what they want in an administrator.

“During the Feb. 7 committee of the whole meeting, it is expected that we will send the Board of Commissioners a recommendation for the job description and a timeline for applications, interviewing, and hiring,” he said.

County finance director Angie Steinman is serving as the interim county administrator. She has served in that capacity in the past, including in the first half of 2016 after the previous administrator was terminated.

Benjamin said he has a number of goals for the coming year including more governmental transparency. He said he plans to have administrator and financial reports regularly put online so people can have a better idea of what is going on in county government.

Benjamin said commissioners have established a study committee to research options for the historic Cass County Courthouse building. The county board has been deadlocked in recent months over what to do about the building. Options have included selling it and asking for a millage to pay for renovations.

He said commissioners voted to establish a seven-member committee to look at options which include repurposing the building and adjacent annex for county government use, repurposing it for non-governmental use and turning it over to the Cass County Economic Development Corporation to renovate. The committee is to report back by June 30.

Committee members are Steinman, County Commissioner Skip Dyes, County Treasurer Hope Anderson, Debora Conley, EDC representative Jim Finan, Bill Saunders and Dave Dickey. Their first committee meeting will be Feb. 8 at 9 a.m.