July 11, 2019

The Belle Plaine City Council met for a Special Council Meeting on July 11, 2019, at 6:00 p.m. in the City Council Chambers with Mayor Dave Fish presiding. Present: Mary Pech (via phone), Judy Schlesselman, Mark Tegeler and Andy Neuhaus. Mitch Malcolm was absent. Also present was Assistant City Clerk Sandy Walton.

Residents Comments: Marie Stratford spoke saying she knows that filling the position is challenging, but she is hoping that the new person would have expertise in building housing and have some creative ideas on utilizing the recent housing study. More house is badly needed in our community to bring more families and students to our community.

Motion by Tegeler, seconded by Schlesselman to accept the city administrator’s resignation. On roll call, all voted Aye. Motion carried.

The council then went into discussion of the various procedural items in regard to the hiring of a new city administrator. Neuhaus asked whether we wanted to hire a city administrator versus someone for public works. Tegeler was not sure that would move our city forward and did not feel it was in the best interest of our community. Judy felt it was important for the person to understand municipal finance and budgeting and Dave added grant sourcing and writing. Mary mentioned we had looked at it before and felt it was best to leave it as is. Dave mentioned that he felt the city administrator has more of a forward-thinking and planning nature to the position while public works needed to focus more on the current operation of roads, snow removal, water repairs, etc. Consensus was to leave the position as it is currently.

Dave asked the council to look at the interview questions and application to see if they would like to see any changes. None were mentioned in the meeting.

Discussions then turned to whether we wanted to utilize any of Pat Callahan’s services. Judy mentioned that we did it ourselves the past two times and we would need to weigh the added assistance versus a potential $16,000 price tag from Callahan. It was mentioned that we did not have to utilize all of the services and in fact would not need many of them. Mary asked that Dave talk to Jeff about where people currently look for this type of vacant position and when his suggestion might be on advertising sources. Dave will discuss will Jeff and report at the July 15^th council meeting.

There was a brief discussion of the expected timeline to fill this position. Realistically it will be at least November before the position is filled.

The procedure we used last time is fine but could change if we choose to utilize any of Callahan’s services.

Motion by Tegeler to adjourn the meeting, seconded by Neuhaus. On roll call vote, all voted Aye, motion carried. Meeting adjourned at 6:37 p.m.

Transcribed by the Assistant City Clerk subject to Council approval