Garfield Township trustees voted unanimously Thursday to hire Chris Barsheff – a township trustee and captain of the corrections division/jail administrator for the Grand Traverse Sheriff’s Office – to serve as the township’s first-ever manager.

Trustees decided earlier this year to create a full-time staff position of township manager and scale back the elected township supervisor role to a part-time job and salary. Garfield Township’s significant growth prompted trustees to take a closer look at the township’s leadership needs. With no specific qualifications required to serve as supervisor, the board determined that having a full-time manager on staff instead – a person the board would hire who would have professional qualifications to oversee key township affairs and not be subject to a public vote – would ensure stability. 

Barsheff was one of three candidates interviewed for the position. The others included Jeffrey Thornton, who most recently served as the village manager and clerk for the Village of Caledonia, and Cooper Township Supervisor Jeffrey Sorensen. Because Barsheff is a current trustee, he abstained from selecting and interviewing candidates and did not vote on the hire. Trustees Thursday interviewed both Barsheff and Sorensen again before going into deliberations and ultimately selecting Barsheff. While trustees acknowledged Sorensen’s experience in township governance, they were put off in his interview by comments they perceived to be publicly badmouthing a predecessor by name, among other factors.

Barsheff has worked in the Grand Traverse County Sheriff’s Office since 1996. He has held multiple positions, with his most recent being captain of the corrections division since 2014. He is a subject matter expert with Louisiana State University-National Center for Biomedical Research and Training. Barsheff also serves on the Grand Traverse Metro Fire Board. He told trustees he moved to Garfield Township when he was 11 and has spent his life growing up and working there. “I understand the values, the culture, the identity because I’ve lived here most of my adult life,” he said.

After 28 years in law enforcement, Barsheff said he was ready to transition. “My law enforcement career is winding down, and I want to continue to serve the public,” he said, later adding: “I don't have any intentions of making this a short little stint or a fun little end to my career. It's career number two, and I'm career-oriented.” Barsheff described himself as someone with an “incredible work ethic” who is “very organized,” service-oriented, and extends an open-door policy to staff for feedback. Barsheff said it was important for the township manager to work collaboratively with other area governments and community groups and to be visible at local meetings and events.

“People need to get to know you and understand you...if you're a hermit and they don't know who you are, then I think you're going to have an uphill battle in getting things done. So you just have to be present,” he said. Barsheff said he’d be able to hit the ground running since he already has those community relationships after decades of working at the Sheriff’s Office.

Those touchpoints resonated with trustees, despite Barsheff’s lack of township managerial experience. “I think you can learn whatever you need to learn, but you can't teach somebody how to be a good leader, and how to be ethical, and how to have good work ethic,” said Township Treasurer Chloe Macomber. “Chris has all that and...he knows the community. I feel like that’s important.” Trustee Steve Duell said he was initially worried about Barsheff’s lack of township managerial experience but changed his mind during interviews. “I feel he is in this for the longer haul, and he has a method about him that is calming,” he said.

Trustees voted unanimously to offer the position to Barsheff and to negotiate an employment contract with him through consulting firm Amy Cell Talent. The listed salary range for the position is $120,000-$150,000. Trustees agreed they wanted to start Barsheff on the low end due to his experience level and increase that amount over time pending a satisfactory performance.

Garfield Township’s supervisor will become a part-time elected position and still have statutory responsibilities, such as running meetings and allocating the budget. The full-time manager, meanwhile, will oversee day-to-day township operations and can be hired and fired by the board. The manager reports directly to trustees and oversees township department heads, who then oversee their own employees. Barsheff said his experience at the Sheriff’s Office taught him to respect hierarchy and that he had a clear understanding of his position within the township’s organizational structure, though he said he’d want to meet with the township supervisor to ensure there was “no ambiguity or confusion” about which duties sit with which positions. Chuck Korn is the township supervisor now, but he’s not seeking reelection in November (he’s running for a trustee role instead). Joe McManus is running unopposed for township supervisor.

Barsheff is also running for reelection as a trustee in November. He cannot hold both positions simultaneously, but according to Grand Traverse County Clerk Bonnie Scheele, it’s too late for Barsheff’s name to be removed from the ballot. “If he wins the trustee position, he would need to decline the position and the township board has 45 days to appoint a trustee to fill the vacancy until the November 2026 election,” Scheele explains. “That election would be a partial term vacancy until the end of the actual term (in 2028). If the township board fails to appoint someone to the vacancy within those 45 days, a special election would have to be called.”

Barsheff told trustees he’d want to give the Sheriff’s Office three to four weeks’ notice at a minimum to ensure a smooth transition before moving into the township manager role. Sheriff Mike Shea tells The Ticker that Barsheff has been “open and transparent” throughout the process about his plans to seek the position and to discuss transition options with Shea. The Sheriff’s Office’s collective bargaining agreements outline the process by which a new captain of the corrections division/jail administrator will be chosen, Shea says.

“I’ve worked with Chris for almost 20 years, and I have absolutely nothing negative to say about him,” Shea says. “With the manager being a new (role), he’ll be paving the way. The beauty of that is he gets to make it what it will be. I think he’ll do well in whatever he sets his mind to. It’s a big loss to the Sheriff’s Office, but we knew that day was coming. He certainly has served the citizens of Grand Traverse County.”