Resignations

3/2011

There was a resignation of a fire fighter on the February council agenda.  Turns out he wasn't resigning; why would they try to report it as a resignation then? [Turns out they were trying to save him face]

Mayor Kauffman said he had attended that meeting and Council Member Petersen had attended a meeting listed as Fire Personnel, both were on 1/31.  [However] The Personnel Committee is the ENTIRE city council thanks to Council Member Jensen, and the fire department is a department of the city.

As reported by the Journal-Press: "- upon the request of Scott Czanstkowski, tabled the resignation of [a] from the fire department. Czanstkowski said [a] "had never written a letter of resignation."  Kauffman said it was a personnel issue that would require a closed meeting for discussion."
(Regarding personnel issues, the Public Works Director had a suspended license for several months and I don't think they did anything about that...)

- Last year the city council changed the Fire Chief to be Appointed by the Council instead of Elected by members of the Fire Department by the recommendation of the League of MN Cities.  This helps protect the Chief if he were to make an unpopular decision.  In December the Council appointed the current Fire Chief, however no application was included in the council packet for review.  It had been reported at a prior meeting there was only one applicant.
Usually when a member is new to one of the city commissions, an application is included in the council packet for council review.  The chief isn't new to his position, but this is the first time that he was appointed since the change last year.