City of Albertville, Council Approve Staff Changes

The City of Albertville has decided to move away from the contractor model for its public works/engineering department and hire a full-time city employee. 

To that end, the city council approved to enter a contract with former consultant Adam Nafstad, bringing him on full time. His new position titled Public Works Director with a salary of $92,500 is scheduled to begin in April.

Financially, the city expects this to have a neutral to positive impact on the 2012 budget as there was already budgeted expenses for outside engineering consulting that will be reallocated to fund the internal position. City Administrator Larry Kruse stated the move to hire a full-timer should wind up being a wash in the end.

The goal behind hiring Nafstad rather than contracting through Bolton-Menk is to reduce the amount of outside engineering services, to have an employee on staff to improve project management and oversight and also to enhance the team of employees currently serving the city, Kruse stated in his report to council.

The city council also approved and gave authorization to post the position for city clerk. The city postponed the hiring of a new city clerk after former city clerk Bridget Miller moved into another internal position, and now has sufficient savings to hire someone ful time for the remainder of the year.

City administrator Larry Kruse has significant city clerk experience, so staff reported to council that the hope is that the city will hire someone on the lower end of the pay scale.

Albertville Mayor Mark Meehan even suggested possibly re-naming the position to deputy clerk so a lower pay scale can be used.

The city is will begin advertising for its open position soon.