FAIRMONT– The Fairmont City Council had another special meeting on Monday to consider potential action on the city administrator position, whether it be temporary, interim and/or permanent.

The city has been without a full-time city administrator since November 2024 and without an interim city administrator since November of this year. There has also been no appointment of an acting city administrator.

At the meeting, City Clerk Betsy Steuber read off of a memo from the city’s legal counsel at Flaherty & Hood. She said that prior to (Jeff) O’Neill’s departure as interim city administrator, he was directed to contact the League of Minnesota Cities’ list of potential interim candidates to assess interest and availability.

“That outreach resulted in limited success,” Steuber said. “He also communicated, to my understanding, with MGT regarding the city leasing or contracting services with an individual who is available and willing to serve in an administrative capacity.”

MGT, formerly GovHR, is a consulting group that the city has previously used in its search for a city administrator.

Steuber said that an individual was previously going to meet with staff and council but due to some unforeseen circumstances that is now scheduled for Jan. 6. She also said that some additional inquiries have been received with people expressing interest in serving as city administrator.

She further laid out a few options. Option one was to meet with the MGT candidate, option two was to designate council members to work with HR and legal counsel to set up an interview with the council and potential candidates. Option three was to designate an acting city administrator.

Mayor Lee Baarts added that, regarding option one, he’s talked to someone with MGT, who said that the interested individual would want to run their contract through MGT and down the road a contract could be negotiated with the city.

Baarts also said he received a few other applications via email, but that the city is not officially looking for a city administrator.

Council Member Randy Lubenow asked if the city has a legal obligation to post the position. David Assaf with Flaherty & Hood said that the city can consider any applications that have come in.

Lubenow then made a motion to set up interviews with exhibit B and C at this time, which Council Member Jay Maynard seconded.

“I think if people, knowing the situation… if we have two individuals saying they want to come, I’d really be interested in interviewing them,” Lubenow said.

Council Member Britney Kawecki agreed that potential candidates should be interviewed and said it was the best option moving forward.

However, Council Member James Kotewa said that he did have a concern as some other people had previously applied for the position when it was posted but that the council had not interviewed them.

Baarts said there was a motion and a second to interview two of the individuals that had expressed interest. Lubenow, who made the motion, added that the interviews would be with a council member a staff member and HR Manager Rachel Viesselman.

Kawecki questioned why the interviews would be done in that format and not in full transparency, as previously done. Lubenow said that the interviews could be done first with a council member and staff member and then later in open session.

Kotewa wanted to make sure no legal issues would arise with not moving forward with interviews with candidates that had previously applied. Assaf said he did not have any concerns moving forward with the motion. Kawecki added that the council had previously made the decision not to move forward with any of the remaining candidates that had previously applied for the position.

In a roll call vote, the motion passed unanimously.

Later in the meeting, the council unanimously approved designating Lubenow as the council member to set up interviews with the candidates.

Next, Lubenow said he would like to make an additional motion not to proceed with with option one, which was to consider the MGT candidate, as it was too expensive. However it was determined that the item would not need to be voted on but that the individual will be notified.

Maynard then made a motion to designate no more than two council members to work with Viesselman to finalize details required to bring forth a resolution to appoint Finance Director Paul Hoye as acting city administrator for consideration at the next open meeting. The motion received a second from Council Member Wayne Hasek.

Maynard added that the framework is already in place as the council had previously done this several years ago when Troy Nemmers, who at the time was City Engineer, was appointed as acting city administrator and had received a pay increase for the time that he served in the role.

“I think we need to have somebody in place until we can go through the interviews and make decisions and negotiations and all the rest of it,” Maynard said.

Kawecki pointed out that the interim position had previously been extended to Hoye but that he had respectfully declined.

Steuber jumped in and agreed that Hoye had initially declined the position but has since indicated that he would be interested in considering the role.

In a roll call vote, the motion passed unanimously.

Next, the council needed to decide which two council members could work with Viesselman on negotiations with Hoye and agreed unanimously to appoint Maynard and Kotewa.

In other business during the special meeting:

— The council approved the labor agreement between the city of Fairmont and AFSME