As a business owner, resident of Albertville and member of Albertville Fire Department I have nothing but respect for Larry and the job he's done for our city, This is a shock indeed.

I support the Mayors decision on the resignation and agree that there is a big concern about the business climate. I am a local business owner and had to fight to promote my business with additional signing for a short period of time and the city "opened" up the ordinance for a limited time and then started fining businesses who were "late" on talking down signing. Maybe the city is doing something internally to promote new residents and businesses to come to Albertville, if so, they do not do a great job promoting that. I hate to see anyone lose a job, but do understand if there is not any willingness to allow change then it may be time to step down. I am excited to see some change!

Strange, why would you fire someone that everyone enjoys working for and received a very favorable review just 3 months ago? It is too much ego for our new mayor?

With all of the empty buildings, lack of new business, rising taxes, and declining property values in albertville this is not suprising and may be long over due. This could be the change needed for albertville to grow like so many of the cities around us.

So, once you are elected Mayor, you alone can decide to ask the Administrator to resign (obviously he didn't have the guts to fire him) without discussing it with the other ELECTED Officials or your constituents. What a great way to get new businesses to consider coming to Albertville, show them how unstable our city leaders are!

Are the people of Albertville sure they want a mayor like that representing them? Sounds like there's LOTS of people questioning the way he's thinking. Sounds political to me!

I don't see many cities close by doing much better getting new business. I live in Monticello and we have lots of empty buildings in our fine city. I don't know what people in Alberville are thinking when they say they are not attracting new business. Tell me what city nearby is?

I congratulate the Mayor!! It is about time someone sees what is really going on in the city!! The Mayor is a very intelligent person and can see when the wool is trying to be pulled over someones eyes. This is not the first City to ask Mr. Kruse to resign or be fired, actually, it is the 3rd!!

Thanks for keeping us informed Mark

There are a number of issues within Albertville that have a direct impact on all of us and I feel there is a real lack of communication from the city. One of my main goals if elected as your mayor is to improve this and do my best to inform the residents before decisions are made.

http://www.albertvillemayor.com/Site/Mark_Meehan_-_Biography.html

Interesting that the mayor single-handedly asked for the resignation without a discussion with the council first. As I recall, the focus of Mr. Meehan's campaign was "improving communication of city business". Also, it's difficult to communicate with residents when you don't show up to city events, award/meetings, etc. i.e Friendly City Days parade, Miss Albertville Coronation, etc. Wonder if he will show up for Saturday's Town Hall Meeting? Maybe the residents should ask for Mr. Meehan's resignation as we are not happy with his lack of representation of our city.

you dont see economic development in other cities?? rumor is the st michael theater was purchased, new gas station, new cvs. monticello has a huge development area in target, home depot, petco, and a bunch of other businesses on the south end. rogers.....cabelas, stone lounge, target, and a bunch of other businesses that im sure I,dont even know about.

Albertville has lots of new businesses opening. Case in point, look at all our new pizza resturaunts! Yahoo!

Why would a mayor ask for a resignation of an employee who got a favorable review without discussing it with the council first? Isn't promoting business the entire council's responsibility including the mayor? Why make one person the fall guy for the rest? It seems there are different versions of every story, and I don't think we're being told everything.

Since this will more than likely be discussed and voted on during Monday night’s Council meeting, it is very important that you let your voice be known. Here are ways to do that:

1) Attend Monday’s Council meeting and ask to speak on this item.
2) Contact the members of the City Council directly prior to Monday’s meeting.
3) Attend Saturday morning’s Town Hall meeting at City Hall. This is a casual open house hosted by the city. The entire City Council is expected to be in attendance. It starts at 8:30am.

Thank you,
Larry Sorensen

according to the budget he is making 137000 a year?!?!?!... looking at other much bigger cities, this is one of the highest I have seen for a city administrator, seems a lot to pay for a small town, what does his contract look like?
http://stmichael.patch.com/articles/city-of-albertville-to-set-2012-budget-tonight#pdf-8628584

Good to see an elected official take charge! The city administrator is employed at the will of the City Council. He can be hired or fired by the council and MN is an "at-will" employer state. The council can vote to hire or fire. The Mayor got the ball rolling and now the entire council has the opportunity to vote on it. Running a city is like running a business. This includes replacing those in charge if it is warranted. The council has been elected to make those decisions. Larry is correct, if you have an opinion on the matter contact your council persons directly!

I would say everyone that is opining here can show up at City Hall for the open house Saturday (open house at 8:30am) and voice their concerns. In all honesty, I would not want to be the Mayor on Saturday. He has totally stepped in it in my opinion.

..."heard through the grapevine"...
Seems to be the theme of this entire article. Reminds me of grade school when we sat in a circle, whispered one sentence from person to person and ended up with an entirely different point before it came full circle.

We obviously need to know the whole story before we start making assumptions.

PLease tell me about the open house, is it this SAturday at 8:30 am and it is strictly about this matter or has it been planned for awhile? Thanks for your help.

Thank you, Larry. May attend both if it works out. We need lots of details but we also need lots of new businesses in Albertville and from what I have heard, the City makes it very difficult-now again, just what I heard from a business that opened here in the last year.

Thanks Linda. Just remember, the City Council sets policy. The Council approves oridinances, fees, etc. The City Administrator enforces policy set by the Council.

The funny thing here is these comments appear to place blame on the city administrator for the lack of business. The administrators job is to run the city departments. If you want to blame those responsible for business issues the blame is to fall on the mayor and the city's council, since that is the body most influential on the development of a community.

Albertville resident's comments will be deleted die to violation of our terms of service. The story stands as written

Thank you Patch for keeping us up to speed on this matter! Can't wait for tomorrow night!!