Menzel Talks Challenges, Cuts, Future & Dams

At 9am tomorrow morning, Tom Menzel will assume the full-time role as Grand Traverse County Administrator. Today is Menzel’s final day as Bay Area Transportation Authority (BATA) executive director. Previously, he has served as executive director for the National Cherry Festival, mayor of Rolling Meadows, III. and in various other public and private sector roles.

The Ticker sat down with Menzel to discuss his upcoming role, the county’s budget challenges, and more.

Ticker: How would you compare the county’s financial situation to what you faced when you took over the Cherry Fest or BATA?
Menzel: Well, they both were financially distressed. Cherry Festival had I think $547,000 of debt, was 60 percent into its line of credit and had three boards; I reported to 87 people... [We] went down to a board of 12, sold the building, got the debt off our back, paid off the line of credit, and [then] had over $180,000 in working capital. That allowed us to do a lot of innovative marketing things. 

My philosophy is ‘you can’t cut yourself to success.’ You can cut yourself to being efficient and effective, but you must have a plan for growth as well.

BATA lost $387,000 in 2008; same situation, pretty unhealthy culture. No accountability, no measurement. But different from the Cherry Festival because it had the Teamsters Union to deal with. So a little more challenging in that regard, but successful in terms of the result.

Now [the county] is, in terms of a comparison, far more challenging because there are 13 unions here. But [the county is] like [Cherry Fest and BATA] a financially distressed organization. Within two budget years, this organization will put on its books $57 million of additional liabilities. You’ve got to deal with those structural issues first. Then you’ve got to look at your state-mandated items, which are required by law. And then you’ve got to look at other issues like the [Easling] pool, that are not mandated items, and you start to see where you can put some cost saving in place. The last thing I would want to do would be to cut employees, and I would only do that after I had exercised all the other options available to me.

Ticker: How would you characterize the current morale of county employees?
Menzel: I think it’s not very good, quite candidly. I think they’re frightened, and I feel badly about that because I would never have [made changes] this way. They’re about three months behind in the budget process, so I’ve had to do things that I don’t like doing…[b]ut out of timelines and deadlines I really had no option. 

I hope [employees] know that I’m not here to hurt anybody, I’m here to add value. I’m trying to do the right thing... the right thing for the taxpayers and for the employees and to develop a healthy work environment.

Ticker: How confident are you that the county will have a progressive 2016 budget completed in time?
Menzel: My goal is December 16. I’ll have a budget; it might not be as fine tuned as I would like it, because I just won’t have the time to do the due diligence I would like. I’m confident we’ll make the necessary sacrifices to get it in balance. I’m not sure all of those decisions are the decisions I would have made if I had had three or four more months to take an intense look at it, but it will be the best I can get. 

Ticker: If the county does approve the 2016 budget on Dec. 16, what will become your number one priority Dec. 17?
Menzel: Organizational redesign... I need to take a very serious look, an objective look, and have some other eyes help me take a look at this organizational chart and see if there are things I can do to restructure it to make it more effective and more efficient. That’s just a massive job in its own right. 

Once I’ve got that done, then I’ve got budgets within those various areas. I’m hoping if [those are] done properly, there may be some cost savings in doing that. Then that would be a good benchmark for going into the 2017 budgeting process, and we’d start it much earlier and have much more in-depth discussions going forward.

Ticker: Where do you see the county five years down the road?
Menzel: Five years, I see us being strong financially; I see us having a healthy culture, being innovative and creative; and I see us being a model for other counties in the state…an organization that has made some demonstrable changes for the better. 

Ticker: When and why did you decide to make the switch from BATA to the county?
Menzel: I knew I was leaving BATA at the end of the year and I made that announcement to my board in February, to my employees in March and that’s when it became generally known. But I hadn’t planned on going to the county yet; I was just planning on retiring at the end of 2015. During that process... one of my [county] board members, Commissioner Dan Lathrop-- who is also on the BATA board as vice chair-- has been pleased with what [BATA] has been doing as an organization and would make comparisons to what he would like to see done at the county.

...Probably around August I started thinking about it, and that’s when I started the consulting contract. The consulting work, seeing what was going on, doing the auditor’s report, interacting, was what helped me make the decision that I would like to try and help [the county] out. And I said I’d do it for a dollar a month, which I am doing now.

Ticker: What are your thoughts on moving forward with removal and restoration of the Boardman, Sabin and Union Street dams?
Menzel: I don’t think you’ll have an opportunity to get that much money again in the future from the federal government. I think there needs to be a way that we can stay involved in the process, which is critical to keep it moving forward and getting those funds. The concern I have is our financial situation. It’s just a terrible time to come and ask this organization to commit $1 million...Anything that’s of value will have some risk, but it needs to be a calculated risk.