FAIRMONT — Fairmont City Administrator Mike Humpal is on paid administrative leave, effective today, and Troy Nemmers, city engineer/public works director, has been named city administrator on an interim basis.

After a two-hour closed session Monday to discuss Humpal’s job performance — the third such private session in less than four months — the Fairmont City Council voted 3-2 to place Humpal on paid leave “indefinitely.” No reason was given for the action, and there was no discussion on the matter during the open meeting that resumed after the closed session.

Ruth Cyphers offered the motion, and Randy Lubenow seconded it, with Tom Hawkins voting in support. Wayne Hasek and Bruce Peters dissented.

A second motion calling for Peters, Cyphers and the city’s interim civil legal counsel, Flaherty & Hood, to draft and provide Humpal with any appropriate notices and directives related to the decision passed unanimously.

A third motion, which also passed unanimously, designated Nemmers to assume the duties and responsibilities of interim city administrator.

At the beginning of Monday’s council meeting, a vote to approve the agenda also resulted in the council’s frequent 3-2 split, with Peters and Hasek wanting the closed session evaluation removed, saying they had not received any evaluation forms.

“As far as I know, there weren’t any given out,” said Mayor Debbie Foster.

“We’ve done two of these the last few months. Why would we rehash this again?” Peters asked.

“We worked with our attorney to present a resolution, and they recommended that we go into closed sessions,” Cyphers said.

Foster asked for the identity of “we.”

“Randy Lubenow and I,” Cyphers said.

Foster then asked for a comment from Robert Scott, an attorney with Flaherty & Hood, who was at the meeting.

Scott said the firm was contacted by the council members, something now allowed following the council’s recent decision to allow its members to individually contact the attorney, and the two directed the attorney to prepare a resolution pertaining to the city administrator.

“Our advice was, if there was discussion about the resolution, it needed to take place in closed session,” Scott said.

“Did you not also advise [them] not to do it at this time?” Peters asked.

Scott answered yes, “that there were reasons to delay doing it.”

Peters later said he was contacted by someone privy to what “the three of you” (Hawkins, Lubenow and Cyphers) were doing. The person “gave me some fairly specific details about what is going to happen that you have predetermined. I wrote them down. I put them in a sealed envelope. I gave them to (Police) Chief (Mike) Hunter for safe keeping so nobody can come back and say I wrote it after the fact,” Peters said.

“If those facts come to fruition, I’m going to certainly ask that this all be null and void, and that you are charged and prosecuted for violating the open meeting law,” he said.

After the meeting, Peters said his prediction was not close enough to follow through on his declaration.