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Kalkaska County board votes to end County Administrator David Schaeffer’s employment effective June 13
Summary
The Board of Commissioners voted unanimously to end County Administrator David Schaeffer’s employment effective June 13, 2025, and instructed staff to draft an hourly transition agreement. Commissioners also recorded a multi-paragraph statement by Commissioner Robert Baldwin praising Schaeffer’s tenure.
The Kalkaska County Board of Commissioners voted May 28 to end the employment agreement with County Administrator David Schaeffer effective June 13, 2025 "at no additional cost to the County," a motion the board adopted by roll call. The motion language was amended to include the cost provision before the vote.
The decision followed a closed session held under MCL 15.268(1)(h) earlier in the meeting. Commissioner Robert Baldwin introduced the motion and Commissioner David Comai supported a technical amendment; the minutes record the final employment-termination motion as carried by a 7–0 roll call.
Baldwin read a prepared, multi-paragraph statement into the record thanking Schaeffer and listing accomplishments he attributed to Schaeffer’s year in office, including instituting pre-meeting material distribution, trimming outside accounting costs, and advancing grant-funded projects such as the Rugg Pond Dam removal (grants totaling $1.38 million and engineering to begin July 1). Baldwin moved to include his full statement verbatim in the meeting minutes; that motion passed unanimously.
The board directed Schaeffer and county counsel to draft the separation agreement. Schaeffer and counsel were expected to provide a proposed agreement by June 6, 2025, for review prior to the June 11 Committee of the Whole meeting.
The motion and subsequent direction leave open transition details, including the scope of any remaining duties Schaeffer will perform and final compensation for transition work, both of which the board recorded as to be resolved in the forthcoming agreement.
