New city administrator emphasizes staff are human, not 'cogs in a machine'

What do the hub of a bicycle wheel and the cream in an Oreo cookie have in common?

They’re both metaphors used by Jessica Kinser to describe her role as Faribault’s new city administrator, which she began just over three months ago on April 1. It’s safe to say she’s gotten her feet wet.

“When you have people who have been with the city for 20-plus years saying that this is stuff they’ve never seen — and they’re pretty seasoned pros when it comes to flooding around the city — the thought is going through my head of ‘OK, well, this is strange. What else are we going to encounter here? How bad could it be?’ And you just don’t know,” Kinser said of the record-breaking flooding that hit the Faribault area a few weeks ago.

It’s not the first time she’s been through a federally declared emergency.

“I’ve been through a tornado; I’ve been through a derecho,” she said. “Both were federally declared disasters. Never had flooding. … Flooding is the real deal. It doesn’t just happen and then you’re on to recovery. It happens, and then you might have water hanging around for days or weeks. You don’t know what your damages are and you just have to wait for it to go away.”

Kinser studied English and political science at Iowa State University, as well as public administration in grad school. She then did a three-year stint in Michigan as a management and financial analyst for a county.

At that time, she was really interested in nonprofit management because she felt that’s where she could make the most positive impact on the community. But her mind changed during a trip to a International City/County Management Association conference in Minneapolis during grad school.

“I might not be the person who is out there, you know, picking up trash in parks or making sure our playground equipment is safe or doing anything directly with public safety,” she said. “But I get to be in the office, making sure that all that stuff works. And so I feel like, in this position, I get to see things happen and still have an impact on a community, on people, in a way that I was always wanting to.”

She got her start in city administration in a small city of about 1,000 people called Griswold, Iowa, which was about 20 miles south of the even smaller town she grew up in called Walnut.

“In the community of 1,000 where I was, you realize then you don’t have staff to do anything and that you can’t delegate that much,” she said. “And you have to learn how to do a lot of things on your own. So that’s kind of where I got my start on the city-administration side.”

Growth opportunities

It wasn’t long before Kinser was offered a new job as finance director in Clinton, Iowa.

“So going from (a population of) 1,000 to 26,000 was something where I was like ‘Wow, how can you say no?’” she said. “In the finance department alone, I was going to be managing more people than I ever would at the city of Griswold. So just really looking for those growth opportunities. And not being afraid to say no to those growth opportunities. Or not being afraid to say yes to those growth opportunities. And being able to take on some pretty big risks.”

She explained Clinton was similarly sized with similar demographics as Faribault, noting her strange familiarity of Faribault. Still, to get a better understanding of the new community, she chose to live in town right away.

“I think being in the community and being present,” she said. “Buying my groceries here and shopping here and eating at restaurants here in town has been a great way to just understand Faribault a little bit more and see who’s out and about and what’s happening in the community.”

Kinser was hired after former city administrator Tim Murray announced his retirement last year. She was chosen by the mayor and council among several candidates who applied.

One of the first things she did was read through the entire handbook of the League of Minnesota Cities, all 26 chapters. But not before spending three days visiting the city departments and introducing herself to those she’d soon manage.

“She has really just embraced the role here,” City Clerk Heather Slechta said. “From day one, she wanted to learn about Faribault. She’s bringing a lot of team-building ideas to the table with the directors and staff. She’s been great to work with. I’d say her work style is definitely collaborative; she really wants us all to work together as a team.”

Cream of the cookie

As Kinser enters “budget season,” she’s happy to work with a respectful council who respect each other, despite the occasional political differences. She said her job is to take the mayor and council’s vision, relay it to the proper departments and make it happen, while maintaining open communication along the way.

“I like to say that I get to be like the spoke at the middle of the bike wheel and thinking about it that way,” she said. “Or if you like food, I’m the cream in the Oreo cookie basically. So I mean, you’ve got elected officials who are my bosses, that’s who I report to. And so that is who I have to make sure that everything is flowing well and working well for, for them to make the decisions that come before them on a semi-weekly basis.”

If Kinser is the cream holding the Oreo together, the mayor and city council would be one of the chocolate wafers, while department heads and staff would be the other chocolate wafer.

“But it also includes the day-to-day management of — I think there are nine different departments — and then both city clerk and communications coordinator,” she continued. “Making sure that they have the resources that they need and the support that they need to operate within each of their departments, and that we’re moving things forward. So it’s like trying to make sure everything is working well in two groups of people that come together and have to work well together.”

Kinser’s chipper, upbeat attitude might be attributable to her daily visit to the coffee machine in her office, but Slechta said there hasn’t been a day she hasn’t fostered positivity in the office.

“She comes in every day and she’s really positive, and that makes for an awesome workday here,” Slechta added.

Kinser said that’s very much intentional.

“I like to say that I truly understand people as human beings,” she said. “If you’re not at your best, you’re not going to do your best for the city of Faribault. So we have to create an environment where we really truly are understanding each other as people, and that we’re not just sort of cogs in a machine.”