Ellendale City Council
By SCOTT GROTH
Contributing Writer
The Ellendale City Council met in special session on Thursday September 5, with Mayor Swearingen, Councilmen Rieter, Groth and Lassahn present. Councilman Goebel was unable to attend. Also in attendance were Phil Kohl, City Attorney; LeAnn Hojberg, Assistant City Clerk; Pete Paulson, Municipal Liquor Store Manager; Josh Otto, Maintenance; Cindy Goebel and Ed Reiss.
The council had two items for discussion, the first was the proposed budget for 2014 and the second was discussion on the City Clerk position, vacated when Brian Louks abruptly resigned at the August 22 council meeting.
Mayor Swearingen started the meeting by informing the council the proposed budget will need to established and sent to County Auditor by September 16. City Attorney Kohl reminded the council that when the levy is established and turned in to the county, when the levy is ratified in December, the council may only lower the levy; the council cannot raise the levy at that time. Kohl also suggested the council call the County Auditor and ask some questions about levy limits or if there are legal limits the city must use. Mayor Swearingen and Assistant Clerk Hojberg were to check with the auditor in the morning.The Council next held discussion about the vacated City Clerk position. The council discussed many possibilities concerning the position. Discussion was held about possibly sharing the position with another city, making two part-times into one full-time. The council discussed using an outside source to do the majority of the bookkeeping.
Assistant Clerk Hojberg was then asked if she felt comfortable enough to do the work temporarily, giving the council a little more time to explore their options. Hojberg said that she felt she could do the work, but she would have to do the work after her day job which she intends to keep.
The council then discussed plans to initiate the start of hiring someone. Attorney Kohl passed out some handouts for the council to review. One was the Veteran’s Preference part of the application, in which Kohl suggested making a few changes. Kohl also had samples of job descriptions and a job application. After some further discussion, it was decided that Councilman Reiter will draft a job application for review, possibly, at the next council meeting. Kohl also suggested the council work on drafting an outline of questions to be asked at an interview. This would help the council by having some consistency. Kohl also suggested the council set a deadline to try and complete the task at hand.
The next meeting of the Ellendale City Council will be Thursday, September 12, at 7:30 p.m.