City Council puts off decision on city manager to June 22

After four hours of interviews of four candidates for the open city manager position, on Saturday, June 13, the Belleville City Council voted unanimously to delay its decision until a special 6 p.m. meeting on June 22.
“It’s a hard decision to make,” said mayor pro-tem Kelly Bates as the meeting closed.
Throughout the long meeting an estimated 40 to 50 people came in and out of the audience to witness the interviews. Four members of the audience spoke before the interviews began, with two urging the council to name interim city manager Stephen Jones as permanent city manager.
The city had hired a consultant to seek candidates for the vacant position and the 19 applicants were reduced to the final four to be interviewed on June 13.
Interviewed were Krystina Laslo, Darwin McClary, Brady Peck, and Stephen Jones.
At the end of the interviews, the consultant said if the council members were ready to identify a candidate, they could make a motion. He said once the candidate was identified, they could begin contract negotiations, do a background check, and come to terms.
The council decided to discuss the candidates before going forward and each gave their impressions of the candidates.
Then, councilwoman Julie Kissel made a motion to select Brady Peck, but there was no second, so the motion died for lack of support.
Then, councilman Randy Priest moved to select Darwin McClary, seconded by mayor pro-tem Bates. The motion failed with councilwoman Kissel, mayor Ken Voigt, and councilman Jeremiah Beebe voting no.
That’s when they decided to think about it some more and wait until the special meeting when a full council will be present. It was noted one council member will be absent at the next regular meeting on June 15.
Krystina Laslo was the first candidate interviewed. She said she started her education to be an aerospace engineer, but then started working on a political campaign and served with the winner in the state legislature for a year. She went to Dearborn Heights with the new mayor and stayed there with him for 17 years as chief of staff. She has two degrees and now has a job in auto financing. She said she really would like to get back to serving the public.
Darwin McClary was the second candidate interviewed. He said he has 36 years of experience as a city and business manager. He currently serves as village manager of Lake Orion. He said he and his husband live in Ypsilanti and his husband, an English teacher, just retired. Their two sons also live nearby. The drive to Lake Orion is an hour and a half each day for him so he would like to work locally. He told how he brought two restaurants into the village and how they got the former town hall, built in the 1900s, to be restored inside and out by a restaurant which invested $3 million in the effort.
Brady Peck was the third candidate interviewed. He is the director of operations for Washtenaw County. He was born and raised in Ann Arbor and has lived in Florida and California. He said he is looking at this as the next step in his career. He said he had experience with budgets and millage questions. He said his job would be to give his recommendations to the council and the governing body would decide. Then, he would support that decision. He said he would recognize employees’ work publicly and work with the community and area communities and schools. He said he would be here as long as the council wants him.
Interim city manager Stephen Jones was the third person interviewed. He said he has been in the city for 20 years and has served on boards and commissions for the city and has helped run Music Lakeside from its beginning and it is starting its 17th year.
He said he is always trying to give back to the community. He said he takes part in events and weddings as a DJ and does the car show on Mondays when he is not at a meeting. He said he serves on the Chamber of Commerce board and has been on the board of the Belleville Area Council for the Arts for many years.
Jones said he has been interim city manager twice over three years and he would like to be the permanent city manager to use his talents to focus on the position full time. He currently also serves as part-time director of the Downtown Development Authority. He said there are great possibilities in the city and it’s come a long way in the last few years.
When asked what his biggest professional failure was, he said it was not having a good work/life balance because he is a workaholic. “I put in 120% every day I show up. I always liked the community since I came here 20 years ago,” he said.
Council members then listed pros and cons on each candidate and then decided to wait until June 22 to make a decision.