Forest Lake’s administrator search starts over after Gaa declines role

Council agrees to pursue headhunting approach for role

Forest Lake’s city administrator search is back to square one after finalist Joe Gaa pulled his name from his consideration. He was the only finalist to get more than one vote as a top-two choice by the council, and the only finalist the council seriously considered.

Interim Administrator Kristina Handt confirmed her choice to not seek the role after the council sought her for consideration of the role after the finalist interviews on Thursday, June 20.

Hiring firm DDA HR, Inc., also dropped Forest Lake’s contract after the city pursued further background check information and a second interview with Gaa after the finalist interviews. The council had expected to pay DDA $24,000 at the end of the search, and $8,000 more for a pivot to interview Handt before that was canceled. The council agreed to pay DDA $10,000 in total for all costs over the process of the search that ended without a candidate chosen.

Both the Forest Lake council and DDA had issues with each other that came to a head around the time the semifinalists were named to the council. During a meeting between the council and DDA representative Bart Fischer, Fischer told the council that DDA had considered dropping Forest Lake’s contract after being asked to pause the hiring search when the council was interested in seeking to interview Handt for the role before the search could get underway, due to other cities’ interest in Handt at the time. Fischer had concerns over potential integrity issues of the search firm’s hiring process in pausing the search process for interviewing Handt. The council ultimately canceled the interview, largely due to information about Handt’s requests for salary not being aligned with what the city was prepared to offer at the time.

But when it came to the semifinalist list, the council had shared their own set of concerns, particularly surrounding what they felt was a lackluster semifinalist list and a lack of background checks of the candidates at that point in the process. Mayor Mara Bain, who announced in last Monday’s special meeting she will not be running for re-election, had requested further information before the naming of the finalists, but DDA was allegedly unwilling to have a phone call with council members about those concerns, which set off a public meeting instead of a private phone call. That rubbed the council the wrong way, something noted at least twice by council member Leif Erickson.

It was a lack of deep background checks that ultimately put a pause on hiring Gaa, especially after council member Blake Roberts claimed his conversations with former places of employment didn’t show Gaa in the best light. The pursuit of a deeper background check and second interview that made DDA pull out.

A lack of quality first-round candidates also plagued Anoka County in their search for an administrator with DDA, but other cities not utilizing DDA have also had challenges filling the role, including Golden Valley – who used UGov HR, a company Forest Lake had also considered – and North Branch.

It’s a position the council noted none of which wanted to be in, having hoped to have a finalist named to the position; several council members expressed concerns they’d be without someone in the administrator role after the search concluded during their public meeting with Fischer over the semifinalists.

“I don’t love the situation we’re in at all. This is not a good day. I was hoping today we’d have that second interview and consider the candidate we have, but the warning signs we may have gotten here a couple months ago when we sat in this room when we had this meeting with Bart … I’ve done over the weekend some ‘coulda-woulda-shouldas,’” Bain said, adding that “I wish we would’ve worked harder to get that broader candidate list.”

Husnik said he felt the council “lost an opportunity” in Gaa by pursuing Handt and a second interview with Gaa.

During the council’s special meeting on Monday, July 1, they agreed to pursue a more non-traditional targeted hiring approach that would be similar to a headhunting approach. City attorney Amanda Johnson said the approach is more in line with what private sector employers use, but could be valuable for what Forest Lake needs. Johnson listed several names of public sector workers who are known in administrator circles who might be interested in performing a targeted search for the city’s open administrator position. The council directed Johnson to seek out a headhunter.

The council did extend its contract agreement with Handt through at least Sept. 30, the final date a preliminary budget must be submitted by the city, unless the permanent position is filled. The council also granted Handt’s request for paid time off, which wasn’t part of the original contract. Handt will get benefits typically given to a 15-year non-union full-time employee.