The highest-stakes race on the primary ballot: That’s how Andy Smits frames the contest for Grand Traverse County drain commissioner, an elected position he currently occupies – and one that’s been subject to considerable upheaval in the past 20 years. On August 6, voters will choose between Smits and his challenger, former Grand Traverse County Commissioner Ron Clous, as they face off in the Republican primary. Since there are no Democrats running, the August 6 outcome will effectively decide the race.

Smits is seeking his second four-year term, having clinched his first in a tight 2020 Republican primary that he won by about 100 votes. He inherited a historically troubled office: In the early 2010s, the drain commissioner commanded a $60,000-plus annual salary and led a team that included both a deputy drain commissioner and an office specialist. But in 2012, county commissioners stripped the drain commissioner of soil erosion responsibilities, citing a 2011 report that showed the three-person office was only spending about 10 percent of its time on actual drain issues. The county reassigned soil erosion to the construction code office, eliminated the drain commissioner’s support staff, and reduced the annual salary to $7,000.

Smits’ predecessor, Steve Largent, was critical of how the county had hobbled the office, which is responsible for managing and maintaining Grand Traverse County’s 13 drainage districts and handling issues with stormwater runoff. While county commissioners rebuffed Largent’s requests to increase the drain commissioner’s salary to $45,000, he did succeed in getting a pay bump from $7,200 to $15,000 in 2018.

Largent ultimately opted not to seek re-election in 2020, but endorsed Smits for the job, citing his geological experience and knowledge of drain law. Smits holds a bachelor’s of science in geological engineering from Michigan Tech University and ran his own engineering and land surveying business for 25 years.

Since taking office, Smits tells The Ticker that he’s had many of the same frustrations Largent did. In particular, he says the lack of support staff is a liability, given the job’s potential to change hands every four years.

“Right now, there’s no institutional memory in this office,” Smits explains. “Every time there's a change in office holder, whoever takes office has no orientation, no overlap, no succession plan, no training. They start from square one. They have to read through 40 years of records to find out what drains are where, what the budget is for each account, and so on. It's a ridiculous administrative function to have as a single-person office.”

Smits has gotten at least some sympathy from county leaders. In late 2022, commissioners agreed to raise the drain commissioner’s salary to $45,000 – a temporary bump intended to give Smits time to work through what he said was a 15-year backlog of projects. The raise would have sunsetted this past April, but commissioners voted to keep the higher rate. Still, Smits says there’s more work to do, hence his decision to seek re-election.

“My goal has been to help the county reorganize this office and do a better job to sustain the function of it,” Smits says. “I did get a county ad hoc committee to agree to reform the office, but that was a year and a half ago, and the county board has done nothing with the resolution since. I want to have another term so I can start getting more vocal at their meetings and cajoling them to complete what they started. I want to get drain maintenance caught up countywide, and I want to get a transition plan in place so that future office holders don't have to go through what I've had to go through. Lastly, I want to make sure that the taxpayers who have invested money in these drain funds for maintenance are actually getting the service that state law requires the county to provide.”

Smits also sees the drain commissioner becoming a more consequential presence in Grand Traverse County thanks to recent population growth. In 2020, Census numbers brought the Traverse City area over the population threshold necessary to become a metropolitan planning organization (MPO). In a recent memo to local municipal leaders, Smits wrote that the growth brings the region under the Code of Federal Regulations, which means greater scrutiny from federal bodies like the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

One piece of that puzzle will be new permitting requirements with the Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System (MS4). An EPA program, MS4 requires permittees “to develop and implement a comprehensive Storm Water Management Program (SWMP) that must include pollution prevention measures, treatment or removal techniques, monitoring, use of legal authority, and other appropriate measures to control the quality of storm water discharged to the storm drains and thence to waters of the United States.” Smits says local municipalities and departments – including the city, the county, the road commission, and several townships – can expect to receive letters about MS4 compliance within the next month or so, and to be “under federal permit within the next year.”

While Clous did not respond to The Ticker’s repeated requests for comment on this story, he has previously expressed views on the drain commissioner job that are diametrically opposed to those held by Smits. In his eight years on the county board, for instance, Clous’s votes and remarks on the matter showed a consistent desire to keep the drain commissioner’s office small and part-time.

Clous, who opted not to seek re-election to the county commission in 2022, has run a relatively quiet campaign for drain commissioner since declaring his candidacy in the spring. For one thing, Clous’s campaign has no real online presence, even though it’s become standard for modern political candidates to have websites or social media pages that outline their views, goals, and reasons for running. Per Smits, Clous also hasn’t responded to his invitations for a public debate.

Speaking to the Traverse City Record-Eagle in April – his one and only media interview since entering the race – Clous criticized Smits for requesting a salary increase and suggested that the drain commissioner exists mostly to “answer the phone” and refer drainage or stormwater issues to other county departments. Clous also pointed to his 40-plus years working in the construction industry – he ran Eastwood Custom Homes alongside his brother Bill from 1977 up until his retirement last year – as more than enough to qualify him for the drain commissioner role.

Even with his quiet campaign, Clous has remained in the local public eye due to an ongoing lawsuit against him. During a virtual county commission meeting in January 2021, Clous brought out a rifle while a woman was giving public comment about a then-recent insurrection at the United States Capitol Building. The woman, East Bay Township resident Keli Macintosh, subsequently sued both Clous and the county commission.

Blake Ringsmuth, Macintosh’s attorney, tells The Ticker that the lawsuit is now in the deposition phase.

“Mr. Clous has been deposed by video, and we’re continuing to do depositions of some of the other county commissioners,” Ringsmuth says. “After that, there will be a settlement conference. But that’s months away.”

Pictured: Smits (left) and Clous (right)