Term of three city administrators extended in Little Falls, but not without controversy

The Little Falls City Council extended the terms of service of its three-person city administrator team- but not before a bit of controversy.

Human Resources Director Annie Cribb, City Engineer/Public Works Director Greg Kimman and Finance Director Hannah Kurkowski have been serving in the joint roles of city administrator since the June 12 resignation of Little Falls City Administrator Jon Radermacher. They were originally appointed to serve until July 1- a term that ended at midnight the night of the July 1 City Council meeting.

At that meeting, the City Council re-appointed Kurkowski, Cribb and Kimman to serve in the joint city administrator position until a new city administrator has been hired by the City.

Under the new July 1 agreement:

• Cribb and Kurkowski are designated to execute documents on behalf of the City and will act in the functions of city clerk.

• Cribb and Kimman are designated as the bank signatory along with City Council President Jerry Knafla for general and payroll checks.

• Kurkowski is authorized to serve as the chief accounting officer.

The discussion leading up to the re-appointment of Cribb, Kimman, and Kurkowski led to a debate over options of filling the position with an experienced part-time or full-time interim city administrator until Radermacher’s replacement is hired.

Some council members expressed trust in Cribb, Kimman and Kurkowski volunteering to work as interim administrators, while others raised concerns about the three staff members’ performance or wanted other options for filling the position considered.

Councilmember Leif Hanson said, “When it comes right down to it, I want our city engineer engineering, I want our finance director counting beans and I want our HR director dealing with personnel issues.”

City Council President Jerry Knafla said he believes Cribb, Kimman and Kurkowski are qualified and needed to keep the city running smoothly. Councilmember David Meyer said he trusted the three could do the job professionally based on their past performance.

Councilmember David Glaze said, “I can’t think of any three people who are better at what they’re doing...,”

Mayor Greg Zylka thanked Cribb, Kimman and Kurkowski for volunteering their time and effort to serve as city administrators and considered their service a generous offer.

But its that “generous offer” that gave Councilmember Raquel Lundberg skepticism.

“That makes me wonder what kind of agenda they have,” Lundberg said after said Cribb, Kimman and Kurkowski were generous.

“I don’t know if there is or not,” Lundberg said of the three potentially having an agenda.

“I can’t trust any one of them because they presented false information to the Council,” Lundberg said, referencing a golf course project update they presented at a special June 11 City Council meeting.

“I could go on with my reasons,” Lundberg said.

Lundberg took exception to the fact that the resolution to appoint Cribb, Kimman and Kurkowski was not included in the meeting packet when given to Council members on Thursday, June 27. The resolution was on council members’ desks when they arrived for the June 1 meeting without giving council members an opportunity to review the resolution.

Glaze addressed Cribb, Kimman and Kurkowski, saying, “Did you guys present false information?”

At that point, the city attorney, who was witnessing the meeting through an online Zoom broadcast, intervened.

“I need to interrupt here just to make sure that we keep the discussion to the motion that’s on the table here,” the attorney said.

“I just want to remind everyone that we can’t raise discussion about any employee performance,” the attorney continued.

Meyer added to the discussion.

“In order to keep the city running smoothly, these three individuals can do a professional job. Have done a professional job. I trust that, I really do,” Meyer said.

“I’m comfortable with them taking the city administrator job until we find a city administrator,” Meyer continued.

Before voting on extending the appointment of Cribb, Kimman and Kurkowski as city administrators, Hanson asked the city attorney to assure the Council that the resolution would not hamper the Council’s ability to hire a part-time interim city administrator in the future.

The city attorney could not give that assurance.

“We were not involved with this resolution and this is the first time that we are seeing this as well,” the city attorney stated over Zoom.

“We would need to look at this to be able to confirm your question, but we were not involved in this process or did not know this is going to be on the agenda until later this afternoon,” the attorney stated.

The measure to appoint Cribb, Kimman and Kurkowski as city administrators passed on a 7-1 vote, with Lundberg casting the lone dissenting vote.