Council picks interim Grand Blanc city manager as search begins for full-time replacement

GRAND BLANC, MI – An interim Grand Blanc city manager set to start mid-year has been chosen as officials work toward finding a full-time replacement.
The Grand Blanc City Council voted to select current Assistant City Manager Christina Irwin for the role, effective June 1.
The move came at a special meeting on Wednesday, April 1, after current City Manager Wendy Jean-Buhrer submitted her letter of resignation ahead of moving onto a finance director role in Wasilla, Alaska.
Jean-Buhrer began working for the city in August 2007, after spending more than five years as deputy treasurer for the City of Fenton.
“I was the finance director for 8 years and then I’ve been the city manager for 10 and a half years,” she recently told MLive-The Flint Journal, officially sworn into her current role in October 2015 after serving on an interim basis.
“My path and what I felt that needs to be done may be totally different than what this person’s views are and that’s ok,” she said when asked about her replacement. “I would tell the next person to always trust your intuition and to always look to your city council as a guide to where you need to go and know your community.”
Jean-Buhrer suggested the next city manager put together a strategic plan in terms of “getting an idea of where they want to go and you being able to move in that direction,” something she did every March to offer her goals for the next year and what’d been accomplished in the past year.
Irwin will receive a $1,500 monthly stipend on top of her current salary, Grand Blanc Mayor John Creasey confirmed.
The city began taking applications Thursday, April 2, and will do so until the end of the month.
Creasey said in a message to the Journal that council members will discuss and possibly adopt at its May 8 meeting the make-up of an ad hoc committee to interview candidates.
“The interview format for each round will be determined by the committee with, at least, a very short list of recommended job finalists for the council to review and interview,” he said, with the plan to have a full-time replacement in place by the beginning of August.
Jean-Buhrer offered thanks to the community and all those she has worked with over the years in the city.
“I’ve been very grateful for all the staff and the department heads that I work for and they’ve been, they’re an amazing group of individuals and I will miss them,” she said, as well as the mayors and city councils. “And I hope they know they have a place to come and visit and that my door is always open to them.”