FAIRMONT– When given the option by City Attorney Mark Rahrick, City Administrator Cathy Reynolds chose to have her performance evaluation done publicly, rather than go into closed session, following Monday evening’s Fairmont city council meeting.

“To hold the off-scheduled evaluation has created a lot of unease and anxiety among city employees. My goal is that by increasing the transparency in this process I can help ease some of the anxiety of the staff. I’m open to having this discussion and I’m open to having it in the public so they know and understand what’s going on,” Reynolds said.

Mayor Deb Foster said she had no clue what was going to be discussed, so she turned it over to council members Randy Lubenow, Michele Miller and Britney Kawecki, who had previously voted last city council meeting to go into closed session for a performance evaluation.

Miller said she wanted to talk about a city staff member, who is under Reynold’s supervision, and the perception around that employee.

Lubenow said he ran for city council because there were two things he was hearing from citizens of Fairmont, concerns about the community center and concerns about city staff and the level of confidence citizens had in city staff.

Lubenow said he’s heard concerns about the building official’s ability to communicate with the citizens and the businesses looking to build in Fairmont.

“I continually get complaints about the building officials, Fairmont, not being a welcoming community for growth and development,” Lubenow said

Lubenow said he and Miller have talked and share the same concerns. He said people have asked why they want a performance evaluation of the city administrator and explained that open meeting law means a topic can’t be discussed with more than one other council member.

“Fairmont has a reputation of not being helpful to get these new businesses to town. Nobody questions if our building officials know their stuff… I think what I’m questioning and what we’ve discussed… is how much time, energy does Cathy need to spend trying to change the communication skills of an employee before we say maybe this isn’t the best job for this individual,” Lubenow said.

Rahrick reminded the council that it needs to keep the focus of the discussion on the performance of the city administrator.

Lubenow said he takes concern with Reynold’s supervisory skills.

“I get several complaints that Cathy, if you don’t like somebody’s viewpoint… you come off as rude,” Lubenow continued.

Miller said she has also brought up to Reynolds that she has concerns with the building inspector and has provided direction of what she wants to see.

“I do not feel that anything has really changed. You’ve been here for how long and that perception of city hall is still there,” Miller said.

Kawecki also brought up concerns with the building inspector and what she views as inconsistencies with how he applies the building codes. However Kawecki took more issue with how Reynolds carries herself.

“It’s the attitude and demeanor in which Cathy presents. There isn’t support coming from our city administrator, it’s flat, it’s cold,” Kawecki said.

Kawecki said like Miller and Lubenow, she’s asked for a change of behavior in both the

building inspector and Reynolds and said she hasn’t seen improvements.

Council member Bruce Peters brought up that citizens in the city have taken issue with the past few building inspectors. He said it’s not fair to say no one is building here because as Reynolds said earlier during the council meeting, there’s been over $6 million in building permits in the month of September.

“The concern is, do we want Fairmont to be considered difficult to work with or do we want to make that change?” asked Miler.

Peters said he can’t argue that Fairmont has a reputation as being hard to work with.

Kawecki also referenced the charter and said that when Reynolds leaves on the weekends, she doesn’t typically put anyone in charge.

“If there was ever an emergency and someone needs to get a hold of her, she always says available by phone or email and that cannot be guaranteed,” Kawecki said.

She also said she feels like Reynolds harasses her, saying Reynolds emails only Kawecki’s emails out to the entire council.

“I consider that to be lobbying the council. In the city administrator’s description, she’s allowed to inform the council of facts, but she should not be lobbying the council and trying to sway people’s opinions,” Kawecki said.

She also questioned why no one one else on the council is concerned that the contract with Kraus-Anderson for the new Public Works building was changed from contract manager at risk with a $10 million max price to a contract manager as advisor without being notified.

Peters and Foster asked to keep the conversation on topic.

“The city administrator made the decision to do this. I don’t understand how nobody thinks this is important. This is our city administrator making these decisions,” Kawecki said.

Lubenow said he feels like there is a severe communication problem within the city.

Foster said that when the majority of the council decided to fire former city administrator Mike Humpal, city engineer Troy Nemmers stepped up to fill the role until an interim city administrator was hired.

“In those six months, three times I had to convince him not to quit because of the chaos that goes on between city council members and our staff,” Foster said.

Foster said as far as someone covering for the city when the city administrator is gone, she has the utmost confidence in city staff whether they were named to be in charge that day or not.

After council members voiced their concerns and issues, Reynolds was given the opportunity to address them.

“Every person has room for improvement and if anyone ever thinks they don’t, then they’re not being truthful to themselves or anyone else,” Reynolds said.

She acknowledged she has room to grow and that she’s hearing that communication and being opening and welcoming are the main areas she has to work on.

“We have been doing things and implementing things to improve communications of myself, of employees and of the organization,” Reynolds said.

As for the new Request for Proposal for a construction manager, Reynolds said the process was reviewed and put out as contract for risk.

“We ended up adjusting it, with council approval, to as agency. The proposals as they’re reviewed, is reviewed on the way they work as a construction manager,” Reynolds said.

She said they’re not rewarded to the lowest bidder, like a construction project, but based on evaluation criteria.

Addressing another issue, Reynolds said, “I do not believe my being out of the community on the weekends requires an interim to be appointed.”

She also brought up Kawecki’s concern that Reynolds is harassing her.

“I don’t have my current statistics. I looked awhile back… and I just remember the numbers off the top of my head. I had 19 emails from councilor Kawecki in a five day period and I had two emails from the rest of the council combined in that same five day period,” Reynolds said.

She said it’s her duty as a city administrator to ensure that all council members have the same information when it’s asking about projects and issues that affect the community as a whole.

“I view that as communication. I don’t view that as harassment. I view that as my job and my obligation,” Reynolds said.

Reynolds said from having discussions with Lubenow and Miller, she knows what they want to happen. She said she understand her role as a supervisor is to train, mentor and lead employees and help them improve their skills and services and the way they deliver.

“That’s what I’ve been trying to do. When that doesn’t work, we can move forward and look at other options. We know Minnesota is an at-will employment state, but our city employment policy is for-cause,” Reynolds said.

The council members talked about what needs to be done to change the perception of Fairmont.

Miller said she doesn’t want to fire anybody, but wants to work on the perception of city hall so that Fairmont has more growth and prosperity.

Lubenow asked Rahrick if he can look at the city’s for-cause employment policy and fill the city in on his interpretation of that. Rahrick said he can put together a memo for the council.

The council adjourned without any action being taken.