By DEBRA HAIGHT
BCR Correspondent
BUCHANAN, MI – Berrien County Commissioners are going on the road this week to hold one of their summer night meetings at the Buchanan Area Senior Center and the county administrator search is likely to be one of the topics of discussion.
The meeting is scheduled for Thursday, July 9 at 6 p.m. at the Buchanan Area Senior Center on Rynearson in Buchanan.
Commissioners had believed they found their new administrator last month only to have contract negotiations break down and their chosen candidate withdrawing his application. Commissioners had voted on June 18 to hire Greg Vlietstra as the new administrator.
Vlietstra is the chief administrative officer of the Central County Transportation Authority in Kalamazoo County, a position he’s held for 10 years. His previous experience includes other positions in Kalamazoo County government, the Galesburg-Augusta schools and the city of Portage.
He was chosen after two rounds of interviews in June, the last of which was on June 18 and also included the other finalist, Kipling Belcher, a retired Michigan State Police commander.
County Commissioner Robert Harrison chairs the board’s personnel and human services committee and was leading the search, which began early this year after Brian Dissette announced he was leaving. Dissette left at the end of January after serving five and a half years in that position to take a the deputy county administrator position in Ottawa County.
Harrison reported to the rest of the board in late June that contract negotiations had broken down with Vlietstra. “I am sad to report that we were unable to come to terms and he has withdrawn his application,” he said. “We will take a look at our next steps.”
Harrison noted as well that the board also has to sit down with interim county administrator Mike Sepic to see if he can stay on or if the board will have to find another person to serve in the position temporarily until a new administrator is hired. “He’s done a good job but no one anticipated that it would be this long,” he said.
Sepic, the retired county prosecutor, has been serving in the interim role since early February. The plan then had been for him to serve until early summer when a new permanent administrator would be on board.
The search has been conducted by the Michigan Leadership Institute and garnered more than 70 applications over two search periods. The original mid-April deadline came and went with commissioners not satisfied with the pool of applicants. The search was re-opened with more applications received through late May.
Relative to the Vlietstra contract talks, Harrison and County Board Chairman Mac Elliott said negotiations broke down over the issue of severance. The county’s practice is to offer a six month severance package if the county board asks the administrator to leave the post without cause and they said Vlietstra wanted a longer severance package.
They also said that they were still debating whether the board will revisit the other candidates interviewed earlier in June. They would not say whether they plan to stick with the Michigan Leadership Institute to conduct the new search.
In other action at their last county board meeting, commissioners voted to apply for the annual state grants funding the wellness mental health court, drug court and sobriety court. If approved, the funding for the three specialty courts will be provided for the 2026-27 fiscal year beginning Oct. 1, 2026.
The Berrien County Trial Court is asking for $128,578 from the State Court Administrative Office with a local match of $68,557 for the wellness mental health court.
The drug court application is for $40,729 from the state with a local in-kind match of $139,757. The drug court has operated in the county for 16 years. The sobriety court grant is asking for $61,560 from the state with a local in-kind match of $182,724.88.