ESCANABA — After multiple months without a written contract between the county and newly-hired County Administrator Ashleigh Young, the Delta County Board of Commissioners officially offered Young a contract Tuesday night.

“It’s been a trying experience to be fair to everybody. I’ve got to admit I didn’t agree with the board’s decision in the compensation and everything that happened, but I’m willing to go with this contract,” said Commissioner Steve Viau, who sits on the county’s personell committee.

Young was hired as the county’s long-term administrator in a 3-2 split vote on May 9. She had served as the county’s interim administrator since Feb. 14, following the controversial termination of former Delta County Administrator Emily DeSalvo on Feb. 7, and was also the county’s controller and human resources officer prior to taking on an administrative role.

Contracts between Young and the county have been a sore spot for the commissioners since she first became the interim administrator. On March 7, the commission voted to approve a contract for Young’s term as interim administrator that had not been written. That contract, which was retroactive to her Feb. 14 hire, was not officially signed until April 4.

The contract offered to Young Tuesday is a new set of rules for the administrator, who has been operating without a contract after the interim designation no longer applied. Since then, Young has been negotiating the terms of the contract, some of which changed shortly before the board approved offering the contract.

At Young’s request, the board struck a cause for termination listed as “fails to provide leadership.” The board agreed with rationale given by Young in writing that the language was too subjective.

Young also requested the board remove “insubordination” as a listed cause because any individual commissioner may feel Young is being insubordinate if multiple commissioners have different ideas for how to approach an issue. However, the board decided it was best to leave insubordination in the contracted as a listed cause for dismissal but add that the majority of the board must vote insubordination had occurred.

The two causes were among nine other listed reasons for termination, ranging from criminal activity to violating the terms of the agreement itself.

The chief concern for the commission Tuesday, however, was Young’s scheduled raises. She will start at $95,000 and will be given merit-based raises based on evaluations in the second and third years of her employment, as well as approved non-union cost of living increases every January.

The draft of the contract introduced Tuesday did not include a wage increase scale nor any information about how reviews will be conducted. After some discussion, the board approved a scale where Young will be rewarded with a 6% raise if she exceeds expectations, 3% if she meets expectations, and 1% if she does not meet expectations. She will receive no raise if her work is found to be unsatisfactory.

The board will conduct a review within one month of the contract’s signing to set a baseline for Young’s performance. An annual review will be done the month before her work anniversary.

Beyond the prepared statements, Young did not comment on the contract Tuesday other than to indicate she would not sign it immediately.

“No administrator accepts it on the spot like that. It’s always done outside of the meeting,” she said.