Wednesday, September 19, 2012
The Albertville City Council approved the joint city engineer and city administrator position and have hired current city engineer Adam Nafstad to take it over Jan 1, 2013.
The Albertville Personnel Committee made a recommendation to the council on Monday night to pass three motions. The motions included approving the City Administrator/City Engineer/Public Works Director employment, approving the job description and approving the salary range. The contract provided for the council's review was written to hire Adam Nafstad, current City Engineer/Public Works Director for the new dual role. Albertville City Attorney Mike Couri highlighted some of the contract including: Nafstad will serve at the pleasure of the city, meaning like Larry Kruse's contract, he can be dismissed at any time for any reason. Nafstad will also be able to collect six months of severance pay if he is fired. If the city gives notice, the …
Thursday, August 9, 2012
The termination of city administrator Larry Kruse will make it impossible for Albertville to hold the line on its portion of the annual tax bill.
As the city of Albertville begins examining its budget for 2013 an increased budget and general levy is inevitable. When City Administrator Larry Kruse was terminated in April, unbudgeted dollars were spent from the general fund to cover not only his severance package, but also the legal fees incurred by the city. Albertville also is currently spending unbudgeted dollars on interim city administrator Bob Thistle's compensation, as well as search firm fees. "We're using $100,000 as a placeholder," Thistle said earlier this week. Because the money has been spent from the general fund, the money will need to be replenished in order for the city to maintain their high quality credit rating. The $100,000 estimate does not include the possible …
Thursday, July 19, 2012
After weeks of discussion, a 3:2 vote led to the city moving forward to hiring Springsted, a search firm.
After the July 2 council meeting, council decided that the adhoc committee would meet and come up with a recommendation on moving forward to hire a new permanent city administrator. The adhoc committee met and looked into the cost of either having the temporary city administrator, Bob Thistle, start doing some of the legwork associated with hiring a new permanent adminstrator versus hiring a search firm. City Attorney Mike Couri outlined the costs that would likely be incurred if Thistle were to create a job description and begin the process. Thistle estimated the cost would be between $1150-1850. In addition other staff hours would be needed and this would take away from Thistle's other duties and roles within the city. Couri also …
Monday, July 16, 2012
The Albertville Council meets tonight at 7 p.m.
The Albertville city council meets tonight and each 1st and 3rd Monday of the month. The meeting begins at 7 p.m. at the Albertville City Hall. Included on tonight's agenda is further discussion and likely a decision about the recent request into urban chickens. A decision was not made at the July 9 meeting because both the resident requesting the change and allowance in ordinance and Mayor Mark Meehan were absent. Albertville Towne Lakes resident Chad Dahlheimer had previously come to the council after spending close to $1000 on a chicken coop for his residential backyard. After spending the money and building the coop he received a violation from the city and believed he was following ordinance due to a conversation with city hall. Also …
Monday, July 9, 2012
Steve Bot stepped into his new dual role on Monday, July 2.
It is business as usual for the city of St. Michael who bid farewell to their city administrator Bob Derus on June 29. City engineer Steve Bot, dubbed as the "heir" by Derus, stepped into his new dual role the following Monday. Bot is no "newbie" to the St. Michael scene. He's lived in St. Michael with his wife and two sons since 2005, and has been working for the city for 10 years this coming November. He was part of both the Highway 241 project and the one-way pair project that have happened in recent years. Patch: How have you prepared for this new role within the city? Bot: Bob [Derus] prepared us all by giving almost a year's notice and has really worked with me this past year to help prepare me. I did most of the budget in 2011 with …
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
After weeks of deliberation, the Albertville City Council Monday approved a contract between the city and Bob Thistle.
The Albertville City Council unanimously approved a contract between the city and Bob Thistle, doing business as Thistle Advisory and Consulting Services [TACA], allowing him to become the interim city administrator on Monday night. His tentative start date is July 2. City Attorney Mike Couri put together a contract and highlighted concerns, costs and specifics for the council at Monday night's meeting. Thistle is expected to work 20-40 hours a week, and when he is not in the office he is expected to be "reasonably available" via phone or email. TACA will be paid $55 an hour on a monthly basis. Couri did point out in memo that the city will be paying TACA at an annual rate of $110,000 which is slightly higher than former city administrator…
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City of Albertville
5975 Main Ave NE, Albertville, MN
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Friday, June 8, 2012
Albertville city council and staff met for a workshop following Monday night's meeting to discuss future city administrator planning.
With a city clerk hired and starting soon, the Albertville City Council is moving forward. The council, minus mayor Mark Meehan, who was absent from both meetings Monday night, met with city staff and an interim city adminstrator candidate following the regular council meeting Monday. "Bob Thistle is the best interim option," Jill Hendrickson said as way of introduction. "His terms are desirable and we've invited him here to talk specifics," city engineer Adam Naftad added before allowing Thistle to introduce himself and give some background. Most recently Thistle was working in the City of Elk River and plans to work in Albertville "not as a caretaker, but as someone actively engaged." The options Thistle explained included either …
Friday, May 11, 2012
Albertville continues to look forward as the city council looks at filling the city clerk and city administrator positions.
As the Albertville City Council continues the difficult task of filling the city clerk and city administrator positions, Mayor Mark Meehan came to the group with the idea to send out a public notice regarding the transitional time within city hall. The cost for this to be sent out would be $563 unless it was included with utility bills that go out around May 23 or in the next newsletter which would be July. Council member Larry Sorenson asked for clarification on who the notice would be from and what it would say. "My fear is it will be more political than informational," he said Monday night. "My hope is to move forward instead of backward," Meehan said. John Vetsch agreed that an introduction to the new city clerk, new front desk person …
Monday, April 30, 2012
After another heated meeting last week, the Albertville City Council begins the difficult task of moving forward after the recent termination of the city administrator.
With the recent termination of Larry Kruse as city administrator and city clerk, the Albertville City Council must move quickly and make swift decisions to hire replacement personnel to keep things running smoothly in city hall. Former Albertville Mayor Don Peterson asked to speak during open forum and expressed his "embarrassment and disgust with the three that voted to terminate" Kruse. "I hired him as City Administrator during my term and you aren't going to find anyone like Larry," he said. "I apologize if you are embarrassed but I am not," Jillian Hendrickson said. "I did my due diligence and we need to move forward as a united council and take this very seriously now," she added. City Clerk Former city clerk Bridget Miller moved into…
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City of Albertville
5975 Main Ave NE, Albertville, MN
/articles/albertville-council-begins-moving-forward
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Wednesday, April 25, 2012
With the recent termination of the city administrator, the council must make decisions quickly to hire the appropriate city staff.
The Albertville City Council will hold a special session meeting tonight to start the process of replacing terminated City Administrator Larry Kruse. His termination is effective May 1. Because Kruse was essentially holding two positions, city administrator and that of the city clerk, filling the position will be no easy task, fellow staff said. The city clerk position has been advertised, and applications are being accepted through April 26. Because the city is closing on some bond refinancing, an Acting City Clerk is expected to be appointed at tonight's meeting to sign any necessary paperwork. As for the city administrator role, the council can choose to go several different routes. Considering the hard feelings illustrated by last week…
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City of Albertville
5975 Main Ave NE, Albertville, MN
/articles/albertville-council-to-hold-special-session
1815373
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Larry Sorensen
12:11 pm on Thursday, September 20, 2012
M. Zachman -- Thank you for the kind words. Larry Sorensen more ›