TRAVERSE CITY — Benjamin Marentette, Traverse City’s interim city manager, could soon drop the ‘interim’ from his title.
Mayor Amy Shamroe recommended city leaders agree to move ahead with making Marentette’s role as the city’s top administrator more permanent. City commissioners will decide on Monday whether to authorize her, Mayor Pro Tem Laura Ness and city Attorney Lauren Trible-Laucht to negotiate an employment agreement with Marentette.
Shamroe in a memo laid out her reasons for sticking with Marentette over starting another nationwide search for an outside hire.
For one, it’ll provide continuity for city operations, and Marentette has already done well since commissioners appointed him in July. He’s also familiar with many ongoing projects, including the strategic action plan he pitched as a candidate for the job in 2023.
An executive search would cost tens of thousands of dollars and take months, Shamroe said Friday. That would set the city back just as department leaders would be starting to draft the 2026-27 budget.
“We have a candidate right now doing well, they’ve been rated as doing well, who was a choice previously and they’re ready to just keep the process moving,” she said. “We don’t have to reboot several months’ worth of work to wait for somebody to get up to speed.”
Upcoming budget work prompted Shamroe to move the proposal forward, as did the city’s ongoing efforts to execute the strategic action plan. City staff also wanted to see some stability in the position.
Marentette said he was thrilled at Shamroe’s recommendation. While he turned down the job offer two years ago, he said he has “zero hesitation” now.
“Being able to serve as interim city manager has been a real gift and an opportunity for, I think, myself, the city commission and employee team to just sort of test it out and see if it’s working,” he said.
Commissioner Jackie Anderson said she’s all for making Marentette the next long-term hire for city manager. She praised his skills not only as a manager, but as a leader, and said his efforts to improve the city’s working culture so everyone feels heard and appreciated is paying off.
“And he’s been an advocate for what he calls a ‘feedback culture,’” she said. “So he requested from our city commission frequent feedback on how he was doing, and he’s trying to provide the same thing for his direct reports, and I think that’s just a really important part of how successful he’s been so far.”
Anderson echoed much of Shamroe’s rationale for keeping Marentette in the role over an outside hire. For one, he’s a known quantity, and the transition is much easier. A better candidate may respond to an executive search, but Anderson wanted stability in light of recent turnover in the role — he’s the fifth city manager, interim or otherwise, since former manager Marty Colburn left in 2023.
Comments for the latest evaluation, which city commissioners discussed with Marentette behind closed doors on Nov. 17, were largely positive, with a few remarking that Marentette needed to delegate more responsibility.
One comment — the report didn’t include the names of respondents — stated he has too many department heads reporting directly to him, calling it “unsustainable.”
Marentette said he agreed, and is looking at how he can rethink the city’s organizational structure. That would give employees more access to their primary leader.
“Because we have a full bunch of experts and the full employee team has tremendous capacity, so we’ll just continue to look for ways to lean on that and grow as an employee team together,” he said.
Another commenter stated they hope Marentette doesn’t “burn out” in the taxing role, and Marentette said he agreed it’s a concern. He’s working with a professional coach to set boundaries for himself, while still effectively overseeing city operations.
Fears that the job could become all-consuming were part of Marentette’s decision to turn down the offer in 2023, he said. His father died from overwork, so he takes setting and maintaining boundaries seriously.
“It may sound a little dramatic, but these kinds of positions can eat you alive if you don’t establish boundaries, and I am 100% aware of that, I’ve spent the last few years focused on that,” he said.
Marentette was city clerk for 13 years prior to making the switch, with his former deputy clerk, Sarah Lutz, stepping in to fill his spot.
If You Go What: Traverse City Commission meeting When: 7 p.m. Monday Where: Governmental Center, 400 Boardman Ave. How to watch: Cable ch. 191 or online at www.tacm.tv/GovTVNow.asp and www.facebook.com/cityoftc {related_content_uuid}792c42e0-6ecd-4338-8e6e-a6e92cd2c93a{/related_content_uuid}