MONROE — After 10 months without a city administrator, Monroe Common Council members voted unanimously Sep. 8 to hire David Lothspeich of Long Grove, Illinois, for the position. Alder Brooke Bauman was absent.

Lothspeich’s term with the city will begin Nov. 1, 2020, with an official first day of Monday, Nov. 2.

He will receive a gross annual salary of $120,000 with an annual review and adjustments being made as deemed necessary, according to the employment agreement signed between Lothspeich and City of Monroe representatives.

As part of the contract, Lothspeich will devote full efforts and time to city affairs and may not take up any other employment during his time with the city.

Within his first three months of employment, Lothspeich will provide the council with an outline of his plans, performance goals and objectives for his first year as city administrator.

The Council voted in April to hire Adam Swann of Minnesota for the position, but he later declined due to COVID-19 concerns. 

Lothspeich worked as the Long Grove Village Manager for 18 years, but it has been a goal of his family to someday move to Wisconsin, he told Monroe Mayor Louis Armstrong.

Instead of going down the list of candidates following Swann, the council opted to start completely fresh with a new pool of candidates, Armstrong said.

“We had quite a pool of qualified candidates,” he said, but Lothspeich’s goal to live in Wisconsin was particularly appealing to the council.

Lothspeich will follow previous City Administrator Phil Rath, who resigned in October of 2019. The position has been vacant since. After nearly a decade in Monroe, Rath is now the administrator in Ottumwa, Iowa. 

In Rath’s resignation letter, addressed to Armstrong and obtained by the Times, Rath credited his resignation to “political differences of opinion regarding processes, work assignments and general direction regarding the city,” between himself and the council.