Kalamazoo County spent more than a year looking for an administrator after Peter Battani left in October 2014. After two searches, the Board of Commissioners voted to hire Terrence Neuzil, who was previously an elected supervisor in Johnson County, Iowa. Neuzil, now on the job just over a month, spoke with WMUK’s WestSouthwest about how he’ll approach the county’s top executive role.
Neuzil (pronounced NEW-zhul) says he’s still adjusting to not hearing his name called at votes now that he’s an appointed official. But he says his background – 15 years as an elected supervisor – gives him insight into the commissioners’ roles. And more than just keeping the county’s house in order, Neuzil says he’ll bring ideas to the commissioners that he thinks would improve life for Kalamazoo citizens.
In Iowa, Neuzil worked for a minimum wage increase as well as programs such as a local ID initiative, which allowed residents that lacked state or national identification to sign up for a library card and other local services. Neuzil says he doesn’t expect every commissioner – he called them his “11 bosses” – to like every idea he puts forward. But he says he has “no intention” of advocating policy that a majority will not support.
Neuzil says he’ll work to make county government more transparent, and that as administrator he wants to be accessible not just to county staff and elected officials but to the public. He says he plans to attend community events to get to know people.
“You’ll see me at tables,” he says.
Neuzil says the county has already begun to tidy up its website, which he says has fallen out of date in places. He says he expects the site to become increasingly important as a service portal for residents, and adds that he hopes to add a “dashboard” function in the near future, which will allow people to look up crimes and other information by neighborhood.
