FAIRMONT– The Fairmont City Council made some moves during its Monday meeting toward getting both an acting and permanent city administrator in place.

Human Resources Manager, Rachel Viesselman, said, that while the city has not had an interim city administrator in place since November, and while it’s currently looking to fill the position, she thought the council could appoint an acting city administrator for the time being until a more permanent solution is found.

At a special meeting on Dec. 29 the council had voiced a desire to appoint a city staff member to serve as acting city administrator.

“A resolution was drafted that Flaherty and Hood put that together for us and we met with Councilors and (James) Kotewa and (Jay) Maynard in order to get the details finalized,” Viesselman said.

As per the resolution, Finance Director Paul Hoye would be in place as the acting city administrator in a temporary capacity until an interim or permanent city administrator is appointed by the city council.

Viesselman added that it would result in a temporary pay increase of 34 percent to Hoye’s current wage and carry the understanding that the appointment would not affect his role as finance director.

Kotewa acknowledged that it’s been difficult to operate without an acting city administrator and that this appointment would help until a decision is made.

The resolution to appoint Hoye as the acting city administrator was unanimously passed by the council.

Later in the meeting, the council considered the two city administrator candidates, Jason Baker and Tiffany Duboski Ledee, who were both first interviewed by the council on Friday, Jan. 9.

However, Viesselman said, “Best practice is if candidates don’t meet the minimum qualifications, typically we don’t really consider them because those qualifications have been put into place for a reason and it’s the assumption then that they would need those qualifications to be able to do the job appropriately.”

Mayor Lee Baarts said that candidate two then would be removed from consideration.

Council Member Randy Lubenow said he thought that candidate two had qualifications that would meet another open position that the city currently has. He made a motion to consider the candidate for that position.

Viesselman said that the application window for that position has already closed, but city attorney David Assaf said he did not have any concerns for the candidate to move forward in another capacity. A motion passed to ask the candidate to consider an interview for the Community Development Director position, with the understanding that the candidate would still need to apply.

Council Member Randy Lubenow made a motion to undergo a comprehensive background check on candidate one for the possibility of hiring for the city administrator position. The motion passed unanimously.