ESCANABA, Mich. (WZMQ) – Following the resignation of the Delta County Airport manager and assistant manager, airport officials are looking to make changes.
Manager Robert Ranstalder announced his resignation to the County Board of Commissioners last week. Among several reasons he gave for resigning, he said the Airport Advisory Board did not act in a timely manner when management asked for a pay increase to compensate them for lengthy work weeks.
According to Ranstadler, the Advisory Board preferred to evaluate management through personnel reviews, rather than asking the County for higher wages. The Airport Advisory Board discussed the issue at its Monday meeting.
“Ashleigh [Young, County Administrator] and I had spent the better part of Bob’s vacation ironing out the details of what that review was going to look like,” said Advisory Board Chair Brian Herioux, referring to time Ranstdler took off around the Thanksgiving holiday. “… I was going to solicit feedback from the four other appointed members of this board, a member of the general aviation community, a tenant… Ashleigh was going to solicit feedback from employees in the courthouse and other county employees. Then, Ashleigh was going to compile that and we were going to move forward with the review.”
Herioux said because Ranstadler and the assistant manager have submitted their resignations, there is “no point” in pursuing the reviews.
“The proposal… to receive a review was brought in October,” said County Board of Commissioners Representative Kelli Van Ginhoven. “… What happened between that and November 18 when we had the board meeting was nothing. You had formed a subcommittee at that October meeting… and nothing got accomplished… We had a directive that was presented—that was in board minutes—that this was supposed to be started in October, so I want to know why because nothing that he did and nothing that [the assistant manager] did impacted the delay of the review. It was everybody else.”
Van Ginhoven said it was Herioux’s responsibility to ensure the reviews were completed. Herioux responded that it is “not uncommon” for deadlines to be missed due to most Advisory Board members being volunteers with full-time jobs and outside commitments.
“Was it fair to them? Hell no,” Herioux said. “The fact remains, it happened. In November, Bob called me and gave me an ultimatum about this review. I assured him that it would be done by the first of the year. Since then, events have changed.”
After much discussion, the Advisory Board agreed to include personnel reviews with the manager and assistant managers’ exit interviews.
Ranstadler reiterated his concerns about how the Advisory Board operates. He recommended forming a subcommittee to update and clarify the board’s bylaws.
“I just have a fundamental disagreement with some of the board members as to what your purpose is,” he said. “I would like to see members of this board regularly appearing before the County Board of Commissioners, advocating on behalf of the airport. I want to see letters written and signed and put up to the County Commission. I understand that the answer for many years has been, ‘No, we can’t do that. We can’t do this.’ That doesn’t mean we can’t keep beating the drum.”
The Advisory Board appointed two of its members to review the bylaws as a subcommittee.
