Lenawee Now's Van Doren tenders his resignation
ADRIAN — Lenawee Now Executive Director Jim Van Doren has tendered his resignation after the city of Tecumseh and Lenawee County government decided to withhold dues to the economic development organization.
Van Doren said he is turning over day-by-day operations as executive director to Tim Robinson, director of operations, on an interim basis, according to a news release from the organization.
In a statement to the board of directors, Van Doren said he is not stepping back due to recent controversial activity.
“I was planning on announcing my retirement at the end of 2022,” he said in the release. “We have come a long, long way here since Tim and I reorganized LN (Lenawee Now) back in 2010. I can dutifully leave knowing how we have built the organization to a nationally recognized economic development unit and brought our local communities together collaboratively."
Lenawee Now has grown from two full-time employee and one part-time employee to six full-time employees, a part-time accounting manager and five contractual support personnel.
"In those early years, it was a very meager budget which has grown to a healthy financial position today with reserves," Van Doren said in the release. "I will miss the day-to-day activity of building economic vitality for this great county, but it is time for the younger generation to jump on for a ride!"
He credited Lenawee Now's staff and board of directors for achieving the agency's accomplishments.
Van Doren will remain on as a consultant to projects at the federal, state and local levels along with continuing his role working with Governmental Consultant Services Inc., which is Lenawee Now’s lobbying firm.
He has also put his hat in the ring for a county commission seat this election season. He is running in District 9 against Kim Goldmann and incumbent commissioner Chris Wittenbach for the Republican nomination in the August primary. The district includes Adrian Township's Precinct 1 and Clinton, Franklin and Macon townships.
The moves to withhold the dues came after county administrator Kim Murphy shelved plans for the proposed recreation and event center in Tecumseh, nicknamed Project Phoenix. She said Lenawee Now's unusual step of requesting an independent audit of the plans prior to the funding stage led to a reduction of chances of the county getting $10 million in funding from the state to 5%, which caused other sources of funding to dry up.
Mayor Jack Baker said the city council's choice to withhold dues was because of communication issues with Lenawee Now, not Project Phoenix, but many question the timing.
This article originally appeared on The Daily Telegram: Lenawee Now's Van Doren tenders his resignation
