New civil rights chief to be chosen next week

After more than six months without a permanent executive director, the Michigan Department of Civil Rights (MDCR) will have its final candidate for the position chosen by next week.

The Michigan Civil Rights Commission has been conducting a national search for a permanent department director since October. The commissioners fired former MDCR director Augustin Arbulu in August, after he came under fire for making sexist comments to a coworker.

Arbulu’s deputy, Mary Engelman, was named acting director of the department before being appointed as interim director in November.

https://www.michiganadvance.com/2019/08/27/civil-rights-commission-votes-to-fire-arbulu/

On Saturday, the Michigan Civil Rights Commission announced that they had met with the four remaining candidates at a special meeting in Detroit earlier that day — and, after some deliberation, they had further narrowed the field of candidates down to two.

The two finalists are: Conrad Mallett Jr., the chief administrative officer of Detroit Medical Center and a former chief justice of the Michigan Supreme Court; and Harvey Hollins III, the principal and founder of Hollins Consulting LLC, and previously a top aide to former Gov. Rick Snyder.

Those two candidates will undergo a final interview with commissioners in Detroit on either Monday, March 9 or Wednesday, March 11 with the exact date and time to be announced soon. At the conclusion of that special meeting, the commissioners will choose the MDCR’s permanent executive director.