Columbus Council taps interim administrator for full-time role

Finalists included Forest Lake finalist, current interim administrator

The Columbus City Council approved interim City Administrator Jack Davis to take on the full-time role after it conducted its candidate search throughout the past several months.

Columbus interviewed three finalists for its full-time city administrator role on Wednesday, May 16. Two have ties to the Forest Lake search: Eric Johnson, one of Forest Lake’s city administrator finalists, and Kristina Handt, who is currently serving as the city’s interim administrator. Prior to the Columbus council meeting on Wednesday, May 22, Johnson rescinded his application from being considered.

The council unanimously selected Davis to take on the full-time role after the three finalists were considered.

“The personnel committee took the task seriously because this was a big deal for Columbus – 20 years with the same administrator – and we really wanted to find the best candidate for the job,” council member Sue Wagamon said.

Columbus opted to conduct the search utilizing he city’s personnel committee, legal counsel and human resources consultant Ellen Hinrichs instead of hiring a search firm to conduct a search.

“I feel like we were able to get the best results that we could have gotten with a search firm without the headache that, you know, some of our neighbors are going through right now,” Wagamon said.

Even though the council had worked with Davis for a few months, the council, city staff and community members were able to vet all three candidates in early May prior to this decision.

“During the interviews he had great questions. He didn’t cut out and have to think about what he was going to say, he had an answer ready. … I think that comes from his vast experience in working with a community like ours,” council member Rob Busch said.

Council member Ron Hanegraaf said he heard feedback from people who thought Davis serving as the interim could have given him an unfair advantage in pursuing the full-time position. However, Hanegraaf thought it could have easily put him at a disadvantage, too.

“They do (have an advantage) and then they have a disadvantage. And I’ve seen that happen, too, in other cities where they get in there, and all of a sudden they’re not welcome. So Jack fit in,” Hanegraaf said.

Davis took over as the interim city administrator at the start of 2024 when former administrator Elizabeth Mursko stepped down after 20 years at the helm. Davis joined Columbus after working as the East Bethel city administrator for around 13 years before his contract wasn’t renewed by the city last October.

Prior to becoming the city administrator for East Bethel, Davis served as the city’s public works manager for roughly four years. Even earlier in his career, he was a public works director for Cumberland Plateau Planning District Commission in Virginia for more than 30 years, and had a brief stint as a city administrator for a year in Prescott, Wisconsin before moving to East Bethel.

With the unanimous support from the entire council, Davis accepted the role.

“He is very genuine, I think, and he has found lots of things that need to be spiffed up or corrected or changed. And as we move into the 21st century in Columbus, I think he recognizes that and he has experience to do it,” Mayor Jesse Preiner said.

Budget software

Columbus approved rolling out the use of ClearGov Inc. budgeting software to streamline its budget process. ClearGov’s online budgeting software allows city staff to generate its budgets faster, update actual spending throughout the year and make information more accessible to residents.

What used to take about a week of time from city staff to create a draft budget can get cut significantly down by using this software.

Davis thought that rolling out this software would be a progressive step forward to decrease the amount of time budgeting would take and also make the information more understandable for residents.

“The current system for doing budgets is very unclear. It’s kind of hard to follow. It’s a system of probably, maybe 20 pages of spreadsheets, so it’s not intuitive,” Davis said, adding ClearGov would offer all the resources they need to accurately complete budgeting work.

“One of the key things in being transparent and presenting information to the public is letting them know how their money is being spent, and this is a great tool, I think, for demonstrating that,” Davis said.

There is a one-time fee of $1,800, which covers the costs of ClearGov importing all the information Columbus wants to be available on the website. After which, there is an annual fee of $5,500 to utilize the service.

A rough timeline of when this service could be up and running is in late summer or fall of 2024.