Plainfield Township Superintendent Robert Homan has indicated that he intends to retire in March of 2013. The Plainfield Charter Township Board has appointed a Superintendent Search and Review Committee to identify and review the credentials of persons who may be interested in the position of Superintendent and who submit résumés. The Committee will then recommend several candidates who will be interviewed by the Township Board. The Committee desires to have members of the community contribute to the process. The Committee invites any interested resident of Plainfield Township to comment on the characteristics that they believe would be desirable in the next Township Superintendent or any other matter involving the search process.
Resident Art Spalding is Chair of the Search and Review Committee and said the process is just begun with only a few meetings having taken place. He said the process will include the Michigan Municipal League to identify superintendents and managers of townships and municipalities. Qualified individuals will be invited to submit resumes, which will be likely narrowed down to three to five candidates. Those candidates will be interviewed by the Township Board of Trustees before decisions are made. Spalding said he believes the process will work fairly quickly, and he is confident a replacement for Homan will be identified prior to the March deadline.
Spalding said individuals interested in the position are welcome to submit resumes to the township. He expects the committee to have anywhere from three to four dozen resumes, including those from people currently living out of the state. The committee will evaluate the resumes by looking at experience. “Townships are the oddball legal entity as far as function,” he stated. Townships can have either full-time Superintendents or a supervisor or manager who is not full time.
Cascade Township is currently in the same process of identifying a new superintendent, but is farther along than Plainfield. “We will probably get their leftovers,” Spalding stated.
Among useful qualities are a public administrative degree, although Spalding said that is not necessarily required. Spalding said the meetings of the committee are open to the public and he hopes to have meetings posted online in the future. Until then, the Search and Review Committee meetings are posted, as are all other township open meetings, on the front of the building and available for review at any time.
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