By Ilsa Minor

iminor@dailypress.net

ESCANABA — County Administrator Ashleigh Young had her final performance review this week before she leaves her role as the county’s administrator, controller and human resources professional to take the helm of the Delta County Airport as its manager.

“I just want to thank you commissioners, for the evaluations. I can’t wait to read all of them — even though we just verbally discussed them in the closed session — and taking those and (moving) forward with them,” Young said after the county commissioners returned to open session during Tuesday’s meeting.

Little was said about the review overall, but multiple commissioners thanked Young for her service and indicated that they hoped aspects of the review would transfer to her new role with the county.

“I guess when we look out over at the last year you made a lot of progress with some very challenging things so congratulations on the job you’ve done and I think that quite a few people here will look forward to seeing the good things coming to the airport here in the future,” said Commissioner Matt Jensen.

Young, who has served as the interim airport manager since the departure of Airport Manager Robert Ranstadler earlier this year, will be shifting to her new, permanent role at the airport on June 23, or earlier if a new administrator can be hired before the start date. According to comments made by the commissioners Thursday, 14 people have applied for the county administrator position.

Because there are concerns that some of the applicants may already be under contracts that require a longer notice than the traditional two weeks and the commissioners planned to hold at least two rounds of interviews, the board decided Tuesday to fast track the selection process. Each commissioner will score the applicants on a standardized rubric and then send their top five candidates to Delta County Clerk Nancy Przewrocki by 5 p.m. Thursday. From there, the top five candidates identified by consensus will be scheduled for interviews.

The interviews will take place Thursday, May 29 in the afternoon and evening or Friday, May 30 in the morning. The morning of Monday, June 2 has also been blocked out for possible interviews, in the case that not all candidates are able to meet with the commissioners on Thursday or Friday.

The interviews themselves will be held in a board room at the courthouse to accommodate televisions that may be needed for interviews done virtually. These meetings are to be scheduled as committee of the whole meetings — that is, the entire board of commissioners will be present but no votes will be taken.

The commissioners indicated that the first round of interviews will not be open to the public. However, the commission did not cite what portion of the Open Meetings Act would be used to justify the closed sessions, and the Michigan Open Meetings Act specifies “all interviews by a public body for employment or appointment to a public office must be held in an open meeting pursuant to this act,” unless the public body is a higher learning institution seeking a president.

Following the interview schedule set Tuesday, the commissioners will be prepared to discuss call backs for second interviews or take other action on the applicants at the next board of commissioners meeting on June 3.