City offers city manager’s job to Brady Peck, on 4-1 vote

On June 22, the Belleville City Council voted 4-1 to offer the contract for city manager to Brady Peck, director of operations for Washtenaw County.
Councilman Randy Priest cast the only no vote, saying he had nothing against Peck, but candidate Darwin McClary had much more experience as a city manager and much more education.
Councilman Priest said Peck, as director of operations, is in administration in Washtenaw County, but at the bottom of the administrative group. He has to do what the others tell him to do, Priest said. He said Peck has a lot of potential, but this will be a learning experience for him, learning on the job.
He said McClary is the current village manager of Lake Orion and brought businesses to Lake Orion. He left Lake Orion 10-12 years earlier and then they rehired him.
Priest said he was impressed with the master’s thesis McClary wrote and all the awards he got in college. Priest said McClary had long experience – 31 years — and expertise and is gentle and soft spoken.
“He has actual experience,” Priest stated.
Councilman Jeremiah Beebe said he liked Brady, but all the candidates before council bring value.
Mayor Pro-Tem Kelly Bates said this is one of the hardest decisions the board has had to make. She said she agrees with Priest’s comments on McClary, who is her top choice. She said she has no bad thoughts about Brady, but he doesn’t have a city administrative role in his background.
Councilwoman Julie Kissel said she supported Brady at the beginning. She made the motion to hire him at the June 13 meeting, which got no support.
She said Brady’s opportunity for growth is great. She said she had concerns about McClary being a finalist for the township administrator position in Sumpter Township, when they couldn’t come to an agreement on a contract.
Mayor Ken Voigt said the negative comments about McClary’s experiences in Albion and Ypsilanti, where his terms were fairly short, should take the places into consideration.
He said Albion went through a lot of city managers and has the reputation of not a very good place to work.
“I don’t see any red flag with that,” he said.
In Ypsilanti, he said, the fire chief was promoted and some of the council didn’t agree with the choice. McClary also called out councilmen for taking trips paid for by China, he said, noting, “Politicians hold grudges.”
He said McClary couldn’t come to terms with Sumpter Township and couldn’t come to terms with Huntington Woods.
A motion was made by Councilman Beebe to offer a contract to Brady and it passed 4-1, with Priest’s dissent. Negotiations will begin.
Kissel asked what would happen if negotiations with Brady were unsuccessful and Mayor Voigt said it would come back to the council.
The 26-minute meeting started with Mayor Voigt reading a long statement about why the council decided to use a process when hiring. He said selecting the city manager is one of the most important jobs the council does.
He said using “best practices” keeps them from making a mistake and concentrates on transparency and accountability.
“When we do best practices it’s for all the people who count on us,” he said.
He said the lists of suggested requirements for a city manager from the International City Manager Association as well as the Michigan Municipal League put education and experience at the top of the list.
After going through the lists of requirements, Mayor Voigt moved to a white board with each of the four candidate’s names printed in red. He asked for any support for candidates Krystina Laslo and Stephen Jones, and there was no support from council members.
There were two supporting McClary – Priest and Bates. Three supported Brady.
Mayor Voigt commented that if the council chose to retain interim city manager Stephen Jones as permanent city manager they could have someone come in to assist him.
He said the city charter states that the city manager “should be selected solely on the basis of his executive and administrative qualifications with special reference to his training and actual experience in municipal administration.” A contract term is for no more than three years, according to the charter.