By Jim Newell
Review Editor
It’s no joke – Joe Young will be the next Lake Orion village manager as of April 1.
The village council voted 5-0 at its meeting Monday to officially approve a contract with Young and appointed him village manager. An official swearing-in ceremony will take place once Young begins his first day of work for the village.
While the recommendation from the village manager search subcommittee called for Young to be approved “on or after April 1,” Young likely would not begin working for the village until April 3.
“We look forward to hitting the ground running with Mr. Young,” said council President Ken Van Portfliet after approving the appointment. “We’re very confident that he’s a great, qualified candidate.”
“I just want to congratulate Mr. Young, and I’m looking forward to having him around for a bit,” said Councilmember David Churchill.
Young said he is “excited and very appreciative” to begin working for the village.
“I’m looking forward to working with all the wonderful people there. I’ve heard great things about them,” he said.
His first priority will be to “get to know the staff and see where they’re at and what their needs are, and meet with the council and get to know where their priorities are,” Young said.
Young added that the village’s watermain project is the village’s biggest dollar amount project underway, and knows it is a top priority for the council.
The village is working on a $7.8 million, multi-year watermain and improvement and replacement project.
Young, 70, is currently the village manager in Oxford but will be leaving that position on March 31. He will replace former village manager Darwin McClary, who left Feb. 24 to take the city manager’s position in Ypsilanti.
The village had been in the negotiation process with Young, whose employment with the village was contingent on successful salary and benefits negotiations and a background and pre-employment check.
Details of the contract included a $67,000 annual base salary, 10 paid vacation days per year and mileage reimbursement.
Regarding retirement contributions, “The Village agrees to an immediate vesting contribution on behalf of the Manager, in an amount which is equal to 7% of the Village Manager’s base salary,” according to the contract.
Lake Orion has approximately 3,000 residents and 13 fulltime village employees, and the village manager’s position pays between $55,000 to $70,000, plus benefits, annually, according to the job description advertisement the village placed with the Michigan Municipal League.
“We’ve got a lot going on and the council felt we need to maintain good leadership,” Van Portfliet said. “Based upon the scoring from our interviews, he was the highest vote getter. I think we have a real opportunity with him. There are a number of things that fit. He has the knowledge and background that we need going forward.”
At a special Oxford Village Council meeting on Feb. 23 that lasted approximately six minutes, the council voted 3-2 to terminate Young’s employment agreement, effective March 31.
Young had served as the Oxford manager since 2004.
Lake Orion began advertising for a new village manager shortly after McClary gave his mandatory 30-day notice in January.
The village received nine resumes for the manager’s position, which a sub-committee then narrowed down to four candidates to interview. One of the candidates withdrew his name from consideration before the interviews began.
Besides Young, the council also interviewed Steven Brown, former city manager of Mt. Clemens, and Jim Creech, the current Franklin village manager and former Oakland Township superintendent.
During interviews, the council asked each candidate the same 17 questions, ranging from career highlight, if they had downtown redevelopment success, their strengths and weaknesses as a village/city manager, their style of management, their experience in community development and redevelopment and fiscal and personnel management experience.
Council members scored each candidate’s answers on a scale of one to five, with five being the highest score. Young received the highest average score of 4.43 across the 17 questions.
Young described his management style as “participative, not dictative.” He said he prefers to “lead by example” and wants his employees to take risks and act, not be passive.
As his strengths, Young said he had leadership, financial and audit experience which could benefit the village, and “certainly my people skills, working with people at all levels.”
“I’m a helpful person, no matter who you are, especially in government,” Young told the council.
Young said he has strong intergovernmental relationships with all the government entities in the area, including NOTA (North Oakland Transportation Authority), the Polly Ann Trail Commission, Oxford Twp., regularly attends community leadership meetings and is “very involved in the community.”