New village chief may be picked in Saturday meeting

The four final candidates for the Milford Village manager position will each be interviewed in an open meeting on Saturday, Sept. 8 at the Milford Civic Center.

The candidates include current Milford Downtown Development Authority Director Ann Barnette and Brent Morgan, the city manager for Caro, Mich.

The other two finalists are Freemont, Mich. City Manager Bryan Gruesbeck, and Franklin Peterson, city manager of Springfield, Mich., a suburb of Battle Creek.

All seven Village Council members are expected to be in attendance Saturday to conduct the interviews, with each candidate being given a hour and a half.

Village Interim Manager Deborah Frazer said the council has the option to select the new manager that same day, but that no public comment will be taken during the interviews.

Frazer, who also serves as the village’s clerk, has been serving as the interim village manager since the death of former village manager Arthur Shufflebarger on June 12 at his residence on Duke Street at the age of 60. It was determined that his death was the result of natural causes. He had served as the village manager since 1990.

The council previously voted to have the Michigan Municipal League (MML) utilize its executive search service and collect applications for the position.

MML consultants then made eight candidate recommendations to the council, which then narrowed the field down to the final four on Aug. 20 in a closed session.

Frazer said that the village received 49 applications for the position, with 14 coming from outside of Michigan.