Last month, Boyne City parted ways with its city manager of 22 years.
The move came right before budget time and now the city is moving to hire a replacement.
IPR’s Michael Livingston spoke with Boyne Citizen reporter Jim Baumann about how the community reacted to the change.
Listen via the audio player above.
TRANSCRIPT, edited for length and clarity:
LIVINGSTON: So Jim, last month, the Boyne City City Commission unanimously voted to fire the city manager, Michael Cain, after 22 years over performance issues. Were you able to get any more specifics from officials on why Cain was fired?
BAUMANN: Not really. The problems were mentioned right there in the open meeting, which was being televised to the world via Facebook. It seemed like the main problems was that the City Commission had given Mike Cain a list of goals, and he basically didn't accomplish most of them.
Some of them were things like, "you haven't been giving your department heads regular evaluations." In fact, they claim he gave this department heads no evaluations in his 22 years as city manager. The death blow was that they did (Cain's) evaluation on a point system, and it was marginal. There were several levels of the evaluation. He had previously been satisfactory, but [this year] he was marginal.
And a city commissioner, Bob Farrell, said, "I move that we take a vote of no confidence in the city manager and that we terminate him." And it was immediately seconded by Sandy Pritchard. And then, you know, there was quite a bit of discussion.
LIVINGSTON: Mayor Tim Nemecek gave Cain the opportunity to respond, right? What did he have to say about this decision and the legacy he left behind?
BOUMANN: Well the mayor and the Mayor Pro-Tem, George Lasater, both said they were blindsided by this. Cain himself said, "I too was blindsided. I thought you gave me these goals, and you we have, we agreed on a timeline, and I thought we were on the road to making things better. And I'm surprised that this is happening, but you're the boss."
LIVINGSTON: Talk about who Mike Cain was. What was his track record in the city as city manager?
BOUMANN: Well, a lot of people thought he did a really good job. You know, Boyne City has come a long way in the 22 years that he was city manager.
He was instrumental in bringing in the main street program. He really expanded businesses in the large business park. Daifuku just opened a large plant there a few years ago that was actually consolidating some plants from other communities, and they all came to Boyne City in one gigantic place that employs a couple 100 people.
Lexamar employs at least a couple 100 people, Industrial Magnetics, is another example. They've got some really heavy hitters in that business park, and much of that people do credit to Mike Cain.
LIVINGSTON: You noted in your coverage that this decision came right before some crucial meeting to decide what to do with the city's $24.4 million budget for the fiscal year beginning on May 1. Are they on track to pass a budget? Has this caused any snags?
BAUMANN: No, it really hasn't. They have three — or sometimes four — all-day sessions where the City Commission just rolls up their sleeves. Typically it's with the city clerk, treasurer, and normally the city manager, but he was not there this for these meetings, of course. They went ahead with those meetings and they hammered out a budget. They're happy that that's finally happening.
LIVINGSTON: Jim, thank you so much for being here and for your reporting on this.
BOUMANN: Thanks for having me.
UPDATE: According to the most recent edition of the Boyne Citizen, the city council approved its budget at a regular meeting on Tuesday night.
Councilors are holding interviews for five interim city manager candidates this week.
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