Often Messy

Spectator

By Stephen Tuttle | Aug. 8, 2026

The old bromide is that all politics are local. We should add that they are also often messy.

Over in Leelanau County, another county administrator, their fifth since 2020, bites the dust. Jim Dyer agreed to part ways after being placed on administrative leave. The controversy involves county finances and receipts and credit cards and, honestly, it is not easy to determine the actual issues or who’s wearing the white hats and who’s wearing the black hats over there. Reading the various reports—and transparency is not exactly a strong suit in Leelanau County—it appears the elected commissioners and the staff aren’t always dancing to the same tune, and it’s not clear staff is on the same page internally, either. Perhaps a new county administrator, should they find one, will decipher who did what when.

Leelanau County is an absolutely open book compared to recent actions in Traverse City. City Manager Benjamin Marentette (we should point out Traverse City has had five city managers, including interim appointees, since 2020) summarily fired Planning Director Shawn Winter because…? No reason of any kind given, and Marentette did not even deliver the news to Winter, an employee who reported to him directly, himself. Instead, he left that odious duty to somebody from HR.

It may be that Marentette and Winter no longer share a vision for Traverse City’s future or there was some personal affront that occurred. Or maybe there was a complaint, though it’s likely that would have been made public by now. Winter was an at-will employee, meaning Marentette need not have any reason at all to dismiss him as long as it wasn’t based on race, religion, gender, or sexual orientation. Surely there was some reason, and Winter, who had been in his position for more than five years, probably deserved more than notice from the HR department that he was done.

As this is being written, Marentette says reporters should file Freedom of Information requests and look at Winter’s personnel file as there are reasons contained therein. Never mind that those files are mostly protected by law. It doesn’t help that he also sent the city commissioners, his bosses, a note telling them it was his decision and, in so many words, not to interfere. The city manager is not an independent contractor functioning apart from the rest of the city government, something he surely understands. The removal of Winter, without stated cause, is not a good look.

This comes at a fairly inopportune time as the Traverse City’s Downtown Development Authority tries to extend a version of TIF 97, renamed to Infrastructure First TIF Plan, which expires next year. This version would not capture property tax money from the county, NMC, BATA, or the library district, as critics have often railed against.

The DDA says that several projects might be put off or not completed in a timely manner without approving the TIF extension. That’s not necessarily true. The city will still receive tax revenues aplenty, and projects planned by the DDA could still be undertaken by the city. They might take a little longer to complete, budgets might have to be examined more closely, and we might decide that every bell and whistle on every project are not necessary, but the projects could still get done. The formerly dedicated TIF money could be distributed throughout the city, not just used downtown. And, if need be, we can always create another TIF.

Continuing on our local politics journey, a couple of local recall efforts have fallen short of either signature requirements or legal language.

Several local residents tried to circulate petitions to recall County Prosecutor Noelle
Moenggenberg because they were exceedingly disappointed with her willingness to plea bargain. Keep in mind that without plea bargains, our already overcrowded courts would be hopelessly clogged. Guilty pleas save time, money, and free up court dockets for actual trials, but can also give criminals a break they might not deserve.

This recall movement took flight when former St. Francis star athlete and star student Sam DeKuiper was killed by an extremely reckless driver. It did not help that Moenggemberg made comments about not wanting to ruin the defendant’s life and that his five-year sentence was sufficient. No, it wasn’t, but collecting more than 13,000 signatures in a tight time window to force a recall was too high a hill to climb, at least this time.

In Antrim County, folks are trying to recall County Clerk Victoria Bishop, a hardcore 2020 election denier. She’s been accused of making unauthorized changes to voter registration statuses and the Qualified Voter File. The state has suspended her access to that Qualified Voter File, but the Michigan Board of State Canvassers rejected the language on the recall petition, the two Republicans voting against and creating a 2-2 deadlock on the Board and rejection.

All politics is local. And messy.