Names of Ludington city manager candidates announced.

Names of Ludington city manager candidates announced.

By Rob Alway, Editor-in-Chief.

LUDINGTON — The Ludington City Council has formally announced the names of the top three candidates for city manager. The candidates include: James Van Ess, supervisor of Tallmadge Charter Township in Ottawa County, Patrick Reagan, city manager of Crystal Falls, and Mitchell Foster, village administrator of Winneconne, Wisc.

The three candidates were selected last week during a special meeting of the city council. At that meeting, the councilors went into closed session to review the top 10 out of 37 candidates under consultation of a representative of the Michigan Municipal League. The candidate names were apparently not released to the councilors during that closed session.

Van Ess has been Tallmadge Township supervisor since 2005. He received a bachelor’s degree in business administration and management from Ferris State University.

Reagan has been city manager of Crystal Falls since 2016. Reagan, who is from Muskegon, worked in Iron Mountain in 2008 as a Downtown Development Authority director and Main Street manager. He also worked at city as interim city manager and Downtown Development Authority director in Portland.

Foster has been village administrator of Winneconne, Wisc. since 2015. From 2013 to 2015 he was Kingsley, Michigan’s village manager. He received a master’s degree in public administration along with a bachelor’s degree in political science and government from the University of Nevado-Reno. He is from Big Rapids.

Following Friday’s closed session, with no discussion, the council took action to request interviews from its top three.

See related story about MCP’s claim that the council violated the Michigan Open Meetings Act.

Interviews will take place on Jan. 24.

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