Fired Poplar Bluff city manager not chosen for Michigan job -- yet

After presentations from their top candidates, including fired Poplar Bluff, Missouri, city manager Heath Kaplan, commissioners in Benzie County, Michigan, have decided to restart their search for a new administrator in nine months.

The commissioners met Tuesday to discuss the matter, administrator Karl Sparks said.

Sparks has been asked to stay up to another year. He was expected to retire in December, at the end of his current contract.

A new administrator was supposed to start Oct. 1.

"They didn't feel they could make a decision, yet," Sparks said in an email. "All candidates previously considered will be reconsidered in the restart."

Commissioners have not said why they chose not to select from the current applicants, Sparks said.

Benzie County received 21 applications, including Kaplan's. Kaplan and two other candidates were given one hour each Sept. 1 to make presentations to commissioners.

The officials were expected to make a decision during a special meeting Sept. 2, but it was canceled and rescheduled for this week.

Benzie is the smallest county in Michigan at 316 square miles, according to its website. It is near the northwestern tip of lower Michigan.

The county was offering a salary of between $55,000 and $75,000, a sharp pay cut for Kaplan, who made nearly $160,000 as Poplar Bluff city manager.

Contracts overseen by Kaplan with Michigan technology company Information Systems Intelligence in Poplar Bluff and with his former employer, Muskegon County, Michigan, are under investigation by those communities.

Pertinent address:

Poplar Bluff, Mo.

Benzie County, Michigan