The Shiawassee County Board of Commissioners held a virtual meeting on Thursday, April 16 to conduct the county’s business for the month of April. In addition to approving financial transactions, committee appointments and department staffing changes, the commissioners also voted, by a 5 to 2 margin, to terminate county coordinator Mike Herendeen effective immediately.
Herendeen was hired as the county’s part-time coordinator on Feb. 26, 2018. He serves as the supervisor for Middlebury Township and was formerly employed by the county as an assistant prosecuting attorney, a position he vacated to take the coordinator position.
Prior to Herendeen’s hiring, the board had operated without a coordinator since December of 2014, when county administrator T.J. Clark was fired for improper use of county funds. The commissioners first discussed hiring a coordinator on Jan. 2, 2018 during the board’s annual organizational meeting. The position was posted shortly thereafter, and after conducting interviews, the hiring committee eventually selected Herendeen, who was hailed at the time as the board’s “missing piece.”
Following Herendeen’s abrupt removal – which was approved by commissioners Jeremy Root, Brandon Marks, Dan McMaster, Gary Holzhausen and Cindy Garber, and opposed by commissioners Marlene Webster and John Plowman – the board then voted to hire Dr. Brian Boggs to fill the position on an interim basis for a period of 90 days. Dr. Boggs is a professor and independent consultant, and the mayor pro tem for the city of Durand.
Dr. Boggs has served as a member of the Durand City Council since 2003, and as pro tem from 2005 to 2007 and from 2016 to present. Outside of his political and government work, Dr. Boggs teaches courses on governmental bureaucracy and local, county and state government at Michigan State University, as well as rhetoric, critical writing, public policy and educational law courses at the University of Michigan-Flint.
Previously, Dr. Boggs worked as associate director of the Office of K-12 Outreach, adjunct professor of educational administration in the College of Education and affiliate faculty member of the Master of Public Policy program at Michigan State University. He is also the former vice president of the education team at Public Sector Consultants, specializing in education policy, where he managed and oversaw large-scale projects, including the Michigan Department of Education’s statewide special education monitoring and compliance initiative, Catamaran. In addition, Dr. Boggs was previously employed as a high-school English teacher and central office administrator.
Herendeen’s contract as part-time coordinator paid him a yearly salary of $69,000 with no benefits, for 30 hours of work per week, and Dr. Boggs has accepted the same, although pro-rated, compensation package. And despite his already demanding work schedule, Dr. Boggs was happy to help the board in its time of need.
“I was asked by the chairman [Jeremy Root] if I would be interested in the position, and since I’ve got a little bit more time on my hands than usual due to everything being shut down, I was able to accept the position on an interim basis,” explained Dr. Boggs. “I’m here to help them with their leadership transition, and we’ll see what happens after that. I have great relationships with many of the commissioners, and I look forward to working with all of them over the next 90 days.”
