County Administrator announces retirement

St. Joseph County Administrator Pat Yoder has announced he plans to retire at the end of the year.
Chairman Al Balog during Tuesday’s county commission meeting made the announcement and the board subsequently accepted Yoder’s letter of resignation.
Yoder, 67, for four years served as the county’s first administrator when the position was created in 1990. He returned in April 2013, succeeding Judy West-Wing.
Balog praised Yoder for his professionalism and effectiveness as a county administrator, and said he attempted to persuade Yoder to re-consider his decision, but to no avail.
The county will likely begin its search for a new administrator as soon as possible, though human resources director Teresa Doehring will presumably have an inside track on the position. She was named assistant county administrator in May 2016.
Yoder, whose salary as the highest non-elected official in St. Joseph County is $120,166, said he has been thinking about retiring and decided the end of 2017 will be a good time to move on.
His wife has retired as a school teacher in Leelanau County and she still lives in Suttons Bay, where Yoder previously served as mayor and a community for which he still has a deep affinity.