After 15-plus years with the City of Battle Creek, City Attorney Jill Humphreys Steele has announced her retirement, effective Aug. 1.
Steele has spent the last 11 years as the City Attorney, and worked in the City Attorney’s Office for several years before she was appointed. As the city’s attorney, Steele represents the Battle Creek City Commission, as well as general city interests.
Steele spent 12 years in private practice before joining the City of Battle Creek. In her time with the city, she was admitted to practice in the U.S. Supreme Court, and has served on the State Bar of Michigan’s Government Law Section Council, as well as on the Board of the Michigan Association of Municipal Attorneys and its Legal Defense Fund, based on her municipal law expertise.
Steele has four children and four grandchildren with her husband of nearly 44 years, Rick Steele, who recently announced his retirement from the Gull Lake Community School District; he is a K-2 Math Targeted Assistance Teacher at Richland Elementary. The couple set the goal of working one more year after their youngest child graduated from college, which happened last year.
“Now it is time for us to enjoy our time together with our family while we are healthy and relatively young,” Steele said. “I am grateful to the City Commissions over the last 11 years who have trusted me as their legal counsel, to my staff, my coworkers in the city organization, and my fellow appointee, City Manager Rebecca Fleury.
“We have made a great team, and I will miss everyone.”
The first steps to seeking the city’s next attorney came in the form of action at tonight’s regular City Commission meeting. The commission approved 8-0 (with Comm. Jenasia Morris absent) a city attorney search led by the City Attorney Evaluation and Salary Review Committee, comprised of Vice Mayor Sherry Sofia, and Commissioners Jim Lance, Jenasia Morris, and Carla Reynolds.
We will share more information about the process as it progresses this spring and summer.