Wayland City Manager Mike Selden leaving to take MTA post

Wayland City Manager Mike Selden has announced he is leaving next month to become director of member information for the Michigan Townships Association in Lansing.

Selden, who has been at Wayland since April 2012, told the City Council of his plans Monday night.

He said he is pleased that he is leaving a much more stable city government than when he arrived. He recalled that his first meeting three and a half years ago was in front of about 100 people upset about the firing of Police Chief Dan Miller just three days before.

“That first meeting was at Baker Elementary,” he said, “and there were people picketing at City Hall downtown…

“But we have survived since then, and things have progressed.”

Selden, who earned his bachelor’s degree at University of Michigan-Flint, had been city manager at Bangor before he came here. Even his hiring didn’t go smoothly because the city had failed in its previous efforts in March to hire a replacement for Chris Yonkers.

It was interim City Manager Terry Hofmeyer who had fired Miller just before Selden came on board.

Though things slowly but surely became much more stable, the city was rocked by controversy in the summer of 2013 by a proposal to look into hiring just one trash hauler. Once again, residents responded by showing up in droves to protest and the council decided to scrap the idea.

Selden said he was aware of the challenge walking in the door.

“It was different than what I had dealt with before,” he said. “But we found a way to work through it.”

Selden plans to start working for the MTA Nov. 20, and his main job will be to act on behalf of member townships.

When asked about what he thought was his greatest accomplishment in Wayland, he said it all involved stabilizing local government.

“Wayland had its years of turbulence,” he said. “But overall the city is in a stable spot and we’ve seen some growth in the tax base. It’s not all because of just me, but I feel proud that we’ve made it through some rough times.”

Selden said the city is in reasonably sound financial shape and he’s particularly proud of the City Park project that by next summer will include a water slide and new playground equipment.

“The park project has been a lot of fun and it’s been great to see all the enthusiasm from the community.”

The now departing city manager concluded, “Even some of the more difficult times I could see the love and passion that the residents of Wayland have for their community and that made no issue too bad. From an enjoyable standpoint, I really loved all the events from the Main Street Celebrations, Fall Fun Fest and Art Hop, all the fun Chamber events and it was really fun to work on many of the projects that have been going on over the last few years. From major street projects such as Cedar, Dahlia, Hanlon, even the minor ones to see improvements such as Sycamore, Commerce, Maple and Vine. Even the projects we are currently working on such as East Sycamore and the Park project in particular have been great fun.

“So many people are looking forward to the park project being completed and I too am super excited about that.  I take away nothing but great things from my time here and the friends I’ve made and look forward to coming back to some of these fun events in the future.

“Three and a half years ago when I came here people opened their arms and welcomed me in to the Wayland family and have treated me as family since and I am so grateful for that and I have appreciated them all and will miss them all.”