BOYNE CITY — Michael Cain, the previous Boyne City City Manager’s contract was voted to be terminated at their March 11 meeting.
In the meeting minutes, Cain stated he was blindsided. Cain served as city manager for 22 years. Now the city commission is looking at what route they want to take.
“We’re not committing to a specific timeline on finding a permanent candidate,” Boyne City Mayor Tim Nemececk said. “We established that ultimately, the city commission may go into a position of engaging with a firm that does executive search, or we may take it upon ourselves.”
The commission has 90 days to fill an interim city manager position, but is planning to take its time finding the permanent candidate. Nemececk said he will recommend which process he prefers, but ultimately it is up to the commissioners.
“My recommendation to the city commission is ultimately going to be, ‘Let’s utilize a firm that has experience and has practice and gone through this process before,’ because we have strong leadership on the city commission,” he said. “Ultimately, I feel going with the firm is going to be the more successful process moving forward.”
Nemececk said commissioners will still be a part of the process even if they choose a firm
“I know the city commission’s going to be very involved,” he said. “Scoping through this process, they’re not going to say, ‘Hey, go find us the city manager and let us know when you find one.’ They’re going to be asking questions through this entire process and, probing as we go through this process.”
Since Cain was fired, the commission has worked together to make sure tasks are fulfilled.
“No issues have popped up,” He said. “That’s largely due to the skill set and the leadership within the city employees and the department heads. They’ve all stepped up to the occasion, so to speak, and there haven’t been any faltering or hiccups in the operation. So, whether you’re a resident, community member or an employee, your day-to-day life shouldn’t be that much different — there really should be no impact because from my perspective there hasn’t been any.”
The commission is holding a meeting at noon on March 25, where they will decide the process for filling the role.