Hawkins should resign

To the Editor:

It saddens me that the Fairmont councilman at-large seems to be working toward his own agenda and not the agenda of the city as a whole.

If removing someone from a position that has been held for 30 years (or any period of time), then this should have first been communicated to the rest of the council and then to the direct supervisor. Common sense would say that one of the past councils would have brought up the issue before now if there were major issues with job performance. If there were issues, the proper way to handle this was not done in the correct way.

In private business, a warning or write-up is used before termination. When it comes to the City Council and city employees, this goes through the city administrator. When you have a board or council of people making the decisions, you need to work together, have discussions on how to proceed, actions to be taken and agree before moving forward.

I joined the election recall committee because I think better care and collaboration should have been used in this situation and also every other situation that has come up. This is not Tom Hawkins’ council. It is a council of peers that need to be able to work together, listen to the citizens of Fairmont and collaborate for the good of Fairmont.

Tom Hawkins: it is time to step down from your position. Fairmont residents: it is time to speak up, pay attention, have your voices be heard and correct actions being taken.

Here is a list of committee members who will assist you in signing the petition to recall the election of Tom Hawkins. Please contact any one of these members if you agree with us: Greg Zierke, Charlene McMillan, Ralph McMillan, Lynn Unke, Kent Unke, Scott Unke, Bryan Unke, CJ Johnson, Michille Miller, Jodie Whitemore, Aaron Schmidtgal, Ryan Johnson, Sara Cyphers, Bill Celinski, Sara Pierce, Bruce Ehlert.

Bruce Ehlert

Fairmont

Commission has job to do

To the Editor:

I am one of 15 members of the newly appointed Charter Commission for the city of Fairmont. It is newly constituted, as the Charter Commission stopped meeting at least annually after 1999 in violation of state law. Councilman Tom Hawkins pushed to get it established again and we have started meeting in compliance with state law.

Some on the Charter Commission feel we really have no items in our charter that need addressing. I guess we just found out today (May 7) in the Sentinel that there is a part of our charter that is out of sync with a Minnesota State Statute (Section 5.08, the recall). I guess we now have an agenda item (Ordinance 93-13, 9-27-93) for the next meeting. I, for one, am looking forward to addressing it.

Alice M. Maday

Fairmont