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FAIRMONT-- A special meeting to discuss the liquor store manager hiring process was held by the Fairmont City Council on Tuesday. Mayor Lee Baarts said the meeting was called for by two council members, Randy Lubenow and Britney Kawecki.
The city has been in the hiring process for a liquor store manager following the recent retirement of former manager, Tom Donnelly.
To start the meeting, a labor attorney with Flaherty and Hood, Nico Garcia Lisle, encouraged the council to avoid talking about any specific candidates or employees during the meeting.
Lubenow asked why this meeting was being held in an open meeting format and Lisle explained that there are limited reasons why a city council can enter into closed session and that unless they're met, the meeting cannot go into closed session.
"There is a personnel-related closed session for the purpose of evaluating an employee, but there is not for a candidate or an applicant," Lisle further explained.
Lubenow then asked City Administrator Jason Baker if he had made the final decision on the liquor store manager hire and Baker confirmed that he had had the final say on the matter.
Lubenow then asked if there were any other qualified applicants after the first candidate offered turned down the job and Baker said yes. When asked to further explain why the job was posted again, Baker said that after the initial candidate was offered the position, it was determined that the remaining applicants were no longer eligible and not what the city needed so they decided to move on and re-open the process.
"They had the skills but then after we went through the process, there were other incidents and things that happened that overall, the totality led us not to hire anyone else so we re-opened the position," Baker said.
Lubenow then asked how many applicants were in the initial pool and Baker said 38.
"I bet other retail places would be happy to have 38 applicants," Lubenow said.
He then talked about qualities that he felt like would be good for a manager to have.
"From what I've heard from citizens, the first candidate did not live in Fairmont and several citizens spoke up to me about that," Lubenow said.
He added that Economic Development Coordinator, Ned Koppen, has spoke at meetings how it's not good for economic development when someone earns their paycheck in Fairmont but leaves town with that money.
Finally Lubenow said he is disappointed and that he disagrees that there weren't other applicants suited for the job.
Kawecki then spoke. She voiced concerns with the hours the liquor store is open on Sundays. Typically, it is open for four hours on Sundays but the city recently announced that the store will be temporarily closed on Sundays due to staffing shortages.
"I believe that we need to have the liquor store open on Sundays because people are now going to Northrop and all of these other communities instead of shopping here," Kawecki said. "I'm even more shocked that there were 38 applicants... I'm absolutely blown away by this. Now I'm being told that out of 38 applicants, none of them were qualified. I am in shock," Kawecki said with a laugh.
She further added that she was told that the part-time staff can't open and close the store and she was concerned she hadn't heard that they were being trained to do so.
Going back to expressing amazement over the 38 applicants, Kawecki said council is supposed to trust staff on the hiring and firing process.
"We decided to reopen it," Kawecki said."Out of 38 applicants they couldn't find one applicant? What are we doing to fix this?"
Now with the second round of applications opened, she questioned whether there would be 40 applicants or three.
"This is a huge disappointment and we're supposed to trust these people to make this decision," Kawecki said.
Council Member Jay Maynard agreed and initially said out of 38 applicants he would think more than two would be qualified.
"On the other hand, in today's job market, employers have to filter through massive amounts of applications for unqualified applicants, people throwing applications at a job just to see if it sticks," Maynard said.
He added that he has no problem believing that the vast majority of applicants for this position were unqualified.
"There may well be-- we don't know, we haven't looked at applications-- I wouldn't have any trouble believing that a few of those applicants were some that we might think were qualified, but for whatever reason decided not to get a job offer," Maynard said.
He then added, "But when you have an applicant who is offered the job and is then confronted by a massive pressure campaign conducted by a social media agitator because he doesn't live in Fairmont, to the point that he is discouraged from taking the job, how many people do you think are going to apply for that job the second time around? I sure as hell wouldn't."
Lubenow then called it a sad situation and called for the meeting to be adjourned.
Lisle encouraged the motion not to be seconded and shared that he had a letter to pass out for council to read before closing the meeting.
"I've talked to the city administrator about having one-on-ones with anyone who would like to continue the discussion with Mr. Baker and provide further feedback and learn additional information to the extent necessary, he is open to sharing that with you, in a private setting where someone's private data won't be disclosed," Lisle said.
After council took a few minutes reading the letter that was handed to them, Kawecki asked whether the letter was from the attorney or the administrator and Lisle said it was mixture of both.
Council Member James Kotewa attempted to ask a question about Sunday sales at the liquor store but Lubenow said they were only there to discuss the hiring process and Baarts encouraged the focus stay on that.
Maynard then said with a sigh, "Given what I just read and everything else, this meeting is a farce. I move we adjourn."
Lubenow seconded the motion to adjourn but Baarts pointed out Lubenow had made the original motion to adjourn and he called for that vote, which Maynard seconded. The meeting was adjourned at 4:22 p.m.