KALAMAZOO (WKZO-AM) — A divided Kalamazoo County Commission has tentatively chosen the administrator from Johnson County, Iowa, to become the new administrator here.
Terrance Neuzil will have a learning curve to figure out how things work in Michigan, but commissioners say he had a lot of new ideas and energy in his interview.
Kalamazoo County commissioners pride themselves on being non-partisan in their actions, but all of that quickly fell by the wayside after the board split 5-5 earlier in the day on whether or not to hire Republican treasurer Mary Balkema to become the new top executive for Kalamazoo County.
Majority Democrats could have just as easily gone for former Democratic State Rep. Sean McCann, who was also among the three finalists, but instead went for Neuzil in the final vote.
Even after a motion was made for a unanimous vote of support for the 45-year-old Neuzil, two Republicans refused to vote for him.
They will open negotiations and could have a final answer back in time for the board’s next meeting on Tuesday.
After graduation from college, Neuzil was a broadcast journalist, news anchor and reporter for 17 years. He then moved over to the business side of broadcasting.
He then went into political administration and eventually became the administrator in Johnson County. He has a wife, Amy, and a bulldog. They are life-long residents of Iowa.
The selection may have finally concluded a bumpy search for a replacement for former administrator Peter Battani, who quit just over a year ago. The board’s first search fell apart when commissioners proved to be unhappy with their finalists, some of whom bowed out of the process at the end.
They used those lessons, hired another search firm and began a second search, which appears to have reached a conclusion, pending the outcome of negotiations.
– John McNeill
