MONROE - Bring them down.
The Salary and Personnel Committee voted unanimously Tuesday to bring in William and Denise Frueh from the Public Administration Associates LLC, to listen to what they have to offer the city in the way of finding a new city administrator.
The firm was hired to find the previous administrator.
The first meeting will be free, an offer made by the firm. No date has been set. The motion included an invitation to all members of council to hear the presentation.
Keith Ingwell made the motion. A council member at the time of the city government restructuring, from a city manager to a city administrator, Ingwell, said he was impressed with the firm and wanted the newer council members to meet the partners of the hiring firm. Aldermen Neal Hunter, Paul Hannes and Jan Lefevre were also Council members at the time.
Mayor Ron Marsh, for a second time, advised the committee to consider what form of government they wanted - whether to keep the present form of a part-time mayor and a full-time city administrator, or to make a change.
Ingwell said reconsidering the city's government form would be a "step backwards."
"A city administrator in the city of Monroe is exactly what we need," Ingwell said.
However, the Council will have to have "two or three strong points" to tell the firm what exactly they want in a city manager, he said.
Alderman Jan Lefevre said she "would not change one thing" about the mayor-administrator balance.
"You have one (the mayor) accountable to the public, and the other (the administrator) is the head of department heads, and the two work well together," she said.
One of the things the city "desperately needed" was economic development, "and we were starting to see that," Lefevre said.
In the case of human resources, Lefevre said the city was eliminating a position and wanted an administrator who would be strong in HR.
But before the vote, Alderman Mark Coplien cautioned the council that he wanted to be careful about the salary that would be offered.
"The last two years, with benefits, we have spent $200,000. At that time, when the salary was set, who in the world recommended that kind of a salary for that position?" Coplien said. "When this comes to the meeting that's one of the primary things we need to keep an eye on - what are we spending and what are we looking to get out of it."
The Salary and Personnel Committee had determined at a meeting May 20 that it could not move quickly on hiring a new administrator because the city is still paying ex-administrator Mark Vahlsing a monthly salary until October, per a termination clause in his contract. Vahlsing was terminated May 14 for failure to perform some of his duties as human resources. Vahlsing was hired in April of 2006.
Alderman Charles Schuringa called the time the council had until it was ready to hire a new administrator "our school work time."
The Salary and Personnel Committee voted unanimously Tuesday to bring in William and Denise Frueh from the Public Administration Associates LLC, to listen to what they have to offer the city in the way of finding a new city administrator.
The firm was hired to find the previous administrator.
The first meeting will be free, an offer made by the firm. No date has been set. The motion included an invitation to all members of council to hear the presentation.
Keith Ingwell made the motion. A council member at the time of the city government restructuring, from a city manager to a city administrator, Ingwell, said he was impressed with the firm and wanted the newer council members to meet the partners of the hiring firm. Aldermen Neal Hunter, Paul Hannes and Jan Lefevre were also Council members at the time.
Mayor Ron Marsh, for a second time, advised the committee to consider what form of government they wanted - whether to keep the present form of a part-time mayor and a full-time city administrator, or to make a change.
Ingwell said reconsidering the city's government form would be a "step backwards."
"A city administrator in the city of Monroe is exactly what we need," Ingwell said.
However, the Council will have to have "two or three strong points" to tell the firm what exactly they want in a city manager, he said.
Alderman Jan Lefevre said she "would not change one thing" about the mayor-administrator balance.
"You have one (the mayor) accountable to the public, and the other (the administrator) is the head of department heads, and the two work well together," she said.
One of the things the city "desperately needed" was economic development, "and we were starting to see that," Lefevre said.
In the case of human resources, Lefevre said the city was eliminating a position and wanted an administrator who would be strong in HR.
But before the vote, Alderman Mark Coplien cautioned the council that he wanted to be careful about the salary that would be offered.
"The last two years, with benefits, we have spent $200,000. At that time, when the salary was set, who in the world recommended that kind of a salary for that position?" Coplien said. "When this comes to the meeting that's one of the primary things we need to keep an eye on - what are we spending and what are we looking to get out of it."
The Salary and Personnel Committee had determined at a meeting May 20 that it could not move quickly on hiring a new administrator because the city is still paying ex-administrator Mark Vahlsing a monthly salary until October, per a termination clause in his contract. Vahlsing was terminated May 14 for failure to perform some of his duties as human resources. Vahlsing was hired in April of 2006.
Alderman Charles Schuringa called the time the council had until it was ready to hire a new administrator "our school work time."