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Politics & Government

Albertville Council Reviews and Edits City Administrator Contract

The Albertville Council Personnel Committee reviewed and updated the city administrator contract terms.

After more than eight years of leaving the city administrator's contract untouched, Albertville Mayor Mark Meehan and council member John Vetsch–who make up the city personnel committee–decided to review the terms applicable to Larry Kruse's contract.

"The contract had not been looked at or updated since 2003," Meehan said Monday night before handing edits over to city attorney Mike Couri.

Of the edits, most are wording or verbiage changes with the exception of a previously agreed upon car expense agreement, a request for "at least" annual reviews and a professional development change.

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While previously Kruse had the option of choosing various committees and programs to be involved with outside of Albertville, participation on city time is now limited to the following: League of Cities, Minnesota-International City/County Management Association, Minnesota Municipal Clerks & Finance Officers Association and one local civic organization membership and one professional development course or program.

"The changes are so minimal. Who decided we would spend the money on reworking the city administrator contract?" council member Larry Sorenson asked.

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Meehan and Vetsch stated that they, as the personnel committee, made the decision.

"It's not a bad practice to review contracts from time to time," Couri said when asked his opinion about it.

The cost of Couri's time to review and edit the contract was $1162.50.

"I'm not going to be second guessed on this," Vetsch said Monday, "it'd been eight years since we had looked at it. It needed to be done."

"We are all on various committees, such as hockey, that we have to make decisions about," Meehan said specifically to Sorenson, who serves on the Ice Arena Board.

Sorenson argued against it. "I think the entire council should have been asked if they support giving direction for our contracted city attorney to put in time and taxpayer money toward looking into this," he wrote in an email addressed to Patch after the meeting. "The city administrator reports to the entire council, not just the personnel committee. None of the chnages that were made benefit the taxpayers or the city administrator, so why did we spend money on this?"

In regards to the other various committees that each of the council members serve on, Sorenson said, "Personally, I can’t think of any committee I have served on that would give direction to one of our contracted employees (or spend taxpayer money) without running it by the entire council first."

The council voted on the contract changes.  All but Sorenson voted in approval.

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