While many questions still remain unanswered, the Cass County Board of Commissioners is proceeding with plans to find an interim replacement for the county’s absent administrator.

The seven members of the board convened at the county annex in Cassopolis for a special meeting Thursday to further discuss the hiring of an interim county administrator to serve during current administrator Roger Fraser’s extended sick leave. The board voted, in a 4-3 decision, to hold its first round of interviews for the position next month, during the Aug. 20 meeting of the commissioners.

The meeting follows the preliminary action the county leadership took during its previous regular meeting on July 17, where the board formally began the process of finding a temporary replacement for Cass County’s chief executive officer.

Current administrator Fraser has been absent on sick leave since the beginning of the month, after contracting an undisclosed medical condition; he has since filed for short-term disability.

Several commissioners have already talked to a couple of potential candidates for the job, including the county’s Information Systems Department Director Kerry Collins and Emilie Sarratore, an attorney with LaGrow Consulting hailing from Lawrence, Michigan. These candidates, along with any other interested applicants, will be formally interviewed by the commissioners next month.

The board also discussed the potential terms of the interim administrator’s contract during Thursday’s meeting. Using a previous interim administrator contract as a base, Chairperson Bernie Williamson and Commissioner Roseann Marchetti presented the rest of the board with several proposed changes to the document’s language, some of which could limit the authority given to the administrator for the hiring and firing of county personnel not serving under an elected county official.

“I think the administrator should be communicating with the board more in times of unusual situations, where the administrator is going to be taking action that we commissioners haven’t taken action on for years, in terms of having layoffs and things like that,” said Vice Chair Robert Ziliak. “I’m not in favor of [the administrator] having total control over everything.”

Other commissioners disagreed with the idea of the board having increased oversight over the administrator, saying the commissioners shouldn’t get into “micromanaging.”

“If we’re going to make all the decisions about everything [the administrator] should have control over, what do we need him for,” said Commissioner Dixie Ann File.

The current draft doesn’t include an expiration date for the interim position, with the temporary position ending when the commissioners deem it no longer necessary. Despite the indefinite nature of the position, Williamson maintained that Fraser is still the county administrator, and expects him to eventually resume responsibilities of the office, she said.

“We have no reason to think he’s not,” Williamson said. “But since we don’t have deadlines or time frames, we’ll do what we have to do in the meantime.”