By DEBRA HAIGHT
BCR Correspondent
ST. JOSEPH, MI – A familiar face could soon be leading Berrien County government. Berrien County Commissioners voted last week to offer former Bridgman City Manager Juan Ganum the county administrator post.
Commissioners have been searching for a new administrator since early February. Former County Administrator Brian Dissette left in late January after five and a half years to take a job in Ottawa County. The current offer to Ganum marks the end of the third round of attempts to hire someone new.
Search committee chairman Robert Harrison reported to fellow commissioners at last week’s meeting that his committee was recommending Ganum for the post. Commissioners then voted to start contract negotiations with Ganum.
Besides Harrison who is also the chairman of the board’s Personnel and Human Services committee, the search committee was made up of Board Chairman McKinley Elliott, Vice Chairwoman Teri Freehling and Commissioners Jim Curran and Mamie Yarbrough. Curran chairs the Administration Committee and Yarbrough the Finance Committee.
Ganum was one of two people interviewed by the board in July in the search’s third round. The other person interviewed was Brad Kluczynski. Kluczynski was most recently the manager of the Manistee County Road Commission. The board had previously offered the position in June to Greg Vlietstra of Kalamazoo but couldn’t come to contract terms with him.
Harrison cited a number of reasons why Ganum was the search committee’s top choice, including Ganum’s education and experience. “He’s also well known by all the units of government in the county,” he said. “The Chamber hosts a monthly meeting of city managers and supervisors and he always attended when he was at Bridgman.”
“His familiarity with the county and experience were the main factors for us,” Harrison said after last week’s meeting. “It was not only his education but his knowledge of the cities and the county. He’s been on a number of taskforces and has also worked with other elected officials.”
Harrison said that it is hope that the county can negotiate a contract with Ganum over the next week or so. “It’s in everyone’s interests to bring closure to this search,” he said.
The county’s negotiation team will be made up of Harrison, Elliott and Corporate Counsel Thaddeus Hackworth.
Harrison also commented on the search itself. He noted that he and other commissioners have been asked why it has taken so long. He said that while the county received over 80 applications, a lot of them did not have the education or work experiences the county required.
“Some hadn’t worked for government or even supervised people,” he said. “Berrien County is a big operation with over 700 employees.”
“A lot of people may want to do the county administrator job but they may have never worked in government or dealt with governmental rules,” he added. “Government and school district leaders are also not as highly compensated as their counterparts in private business.”
Harrison noted that the county board had been considering hiring another interim county administrator and start the search again in January if they had not been able to come to an agreement on Ganum. Retired County Prosecutor Mike Sepic has been serving as the interim administrator since February but has indicated he wanted to return to his retirement soon.
The vote to hire Ganum was 11-1 with County Commissioner Sharon Tyler of Niles voting no. Tyler read a statement during last week’s meeting where she said that she was not confident that Ganum had been thoroughly vetted for the position.
She added that she had received a number of concerning comments from people who know or have worked with Ganum but who didn’t want to speak publicly. She said that while the board needs to hire someone sooner rather than later, she did not want to see the process rushed and she was voting no because of the negative comments she had received.
Ganum graduated from Michigan State University in 1995 with a bachelor’s degree in social science, urban and regional planning. He later received his master’s degree in public administration from Western Michigan University in 2007.
In addition to his 10 year tenure as the city manager for the city of Bridgman, Ganum was the community development director for the city of Niles from 1998 to 2015 and before that was an associate program manager for the Southwest Michigan Planning Commission from 1995 to 1998.
Ganum left Bridgman last September to take a position as the director of community and neighborhood services and economic development for the city of Holland.
Ganum resides with his family in Stevensville. He has been active in the community on the Krasl Art Center board and as a Junior Achievement volunteer as well as a member of the Lakeshore Rotary Club and the Lincoln Charter Township Planning Commission.
Statewide, he has been on boards and committees of the Michigan Municipal League and the Michigan Municipal Executives organization. He is a member of the International City/County Management Association, the Michigan Association of Planning and the Michigan Municipal Executives.