The other candidate: Ellen Oppenheim says she'd be proactive in confronting issues facing Ann Arbor

Marquette County Administrator Steve Powers told Ann Arbor officials today during a three-hour interview session for the city administrator job his community is similar in many ways to Ann Arbor.

"Smaller, obviously," he said. "But we have some of the same community characteristics where a university plays a major role, where we have gone through economic change."

Powers, one of two finalists for the position, has served as the county administrator in Marquette since 1996. The small Upper Peninsula community sits on the shore of Lake Superior and is home to Northern Michigan University.

Powers said the loss in recent years of Ann Arbor's largest taxpayer, Pfizer, is similar to the loss Marquette County experienced in 1995 when the K. I. Sawyer Air Force Base, which provided thousands of jobs in the area, was decommissioned.

"Basically the county board had made the decision to get involved with (reusing) K. I. Sawyer about a month before I was hired, so I knew that was going to be a big issue for the county," he said. "It was big politically. It was big economically."

The county airport, Sawyer International, eventually was moved to a portion of the base and now has regularly scheduled airline flights and general aviation activity.

"That was the most daunting task, challenge, public policy issue, economic issue — all rolled into one," Powers said, adding it consumed him and his staff for three or four years.

"It was my responsibility to get the organization behind that decision," he said. "Some within the organization were very opposed to it."

Powers acknowledged a prominent judge in Marquette County was opposed the county's decision to get involved in the reuse of the air force base.

"There were a couple of issues where he and I disagreed, and he went to the county board chair and said I should be fired and I was the worst administrator he'd ever worked with," Powers said. "Obviously, he and I didn't see eye to eye all the time."

Powers said he swallowed his pride, realized the judge was an important part of the county and found a way to work with him on issues.

"I think you're looking for someone who does bring a more participatory, facilitative style of management, as opposed to a strong CEO, city manager style," he told the council members interviewing him. "And in my position as county administrator, I have to operate that way."

Powers apologized for being out of practice with interviewing today. He said he hadn't interviewed for any other jobs in the past 15 years.

Prior to Marquette County, Powers served as the county coordinator for Martin County, Minnesota, from 1994 to 1996 and as the assistant county administrator and assistant to county administrator for Jackson County, Oregon, from 1987-1994, when he managed human resources, labor relations, risk management and organizational development and training.

He also served as the management and budget analyst for Johnson County, Kansas, from 1986 to 1987.

"I do have some large organization experience, back when I was in Kansas working for a county that was in the metropolitan Kansas City area, population of about 300,000 at the time," he said. "When I was in Oregon, the community was 120,000 people."

Asked about his management style, Powers said his credo is "hire good people and get out of their way."

"I'm a firm believer in delegation," he said. "I'm there if they need me. I'm certainly there if they need resources, if they need help, but I'm not a micromanager."

Powers said he's spent most of his career working for government organizations that one way or another were in a state of contraction, so he can relate to Ann Arbor's situation.

"Most places think their situation is the toughest," he said. "Most places think they've done a lot with change and that might be true."

But when he came to Marquette County, he said he realized there were opportunities to change how the organization was structured and to reallocate resources.

By eliminating what was probably the second-highest position within the organization short of the county administrator, he said he sent a strong message to the rest of the county's departments that they needed to look at all positions and find efficiencies.

Powers talked about his experience improving the budgeting process in Marquette County. He thinks the changes he implemented resulted in a more inclusive process.

"When I arrived, our budget process was pretty bureaucratic. Pretty much the departments submitted what they thought was in the best interest of their departments," he said, adding there wasn't much interaction among the departments.

"I thought that was not effective," he said. "I wasn't able to get at it right away, primarily because of Sawyer and some other more urgent priorities, but I have particularly over the last five or six years changed that to where the department directors are much more involved in developing the county administrator's recommended budget."

Powers said he has paid attention since 2009 to how Roger Fraser, Ann Arbor's administrator from 2002 through April of this year, developed the city's budget. He said Fraser rolled out "a nice model" and he has taken notice in Marquette County.

Council Member Sabra Briere, D-1st Ward, told Powers today there are 11 council members and each will have his or her own expectations of the new city administrator.

"We want to set priorities for budgeting," she said. "Although we've tried to talk about it, we're not quite there yet, so I'm hoping somebody can help us get there."

She said she wants to be able to look to the new city administrator for strong leadership, and she wants that person to have excellent communication skills from top to bottom.

"Ability to work with all levels of city staff and with the public to help provide the background information to council," she said, "so the council can make a reasoned decision and to then implement the policies that the council identifies as needing to be implemented."

Council Member Stephen Rapundalo, D-2nd Ward, said he's looking for somebody with a "strong chief executive background" and good people skills. He warned Powers that the residents of Ann Arbor value transparency and public process "to a fault ... a good fault."

Briere agreed.

"You could be made of glass — clear glass — and have every motive, every thought, every concept, every action completely visible," Briere said. "There are people who would still question whether everything you had done was transparent."

Briere said it would be "extraordinarily desirable" for the chosen candidate to have the skill to change that dynamic so people believe they can trust the city administrator. Powers said that would be "a great goal to strive for" but it probably would never happen.

Powers acknowledged he's "absolutely" familiar with dealing with angst from residents. He said some still have hard feelings about moving the airport even 15 years later.

He said there are 19 townships in Marquette County and he's made a point to foster relationships with each of their supervisors, as well as city managers.

"That's been a great sounding board for me to hear what's on their mind," he said.

Asked if he's ever made any big decisions without fully analyzing the situation, Powers brought up a policy decision seven years ago to allow the rehiring of retired employees. He said the county was looking for ways to save money in its budget at the time.

"The HR director came to me, and the timing was such where we were trying to balance our budget," he said. "In hindsight, I should have said, 'No, timeout. Let's think about this. Let's get an actuarial analysis done.' As I look back seven years later, I do see it as a decision that was made without perhaps a complete understanding that I should have had."

The public will have a better chance to meet the finalists at a public reception for the candidates in the Justice Center lobby at 301 E. Huron St. from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. tonight.

On Wednesday, individual candidates will participate in public presentations to the City Council in the city hall council chambers from 8 a.m. to noon. Each candidate will present for 15 minutes followed by 40 minutes for interview team questions.

The presentations will be televised on Community Television Network.

Ryan J. Stanton covers government and politics for AnnArbor.com. Reach him at ryanstanton@annarbor.com or 734-623-2529. You also can follow him on Twitter or subscribe to AnnArbor.com's e-mail newsletters.