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The full North Branch City Council last week met just 72 hours before the final work day for the administrator,  and there was no announcement on either who is being put into the interim position or how candidates for a successor will be recruited.  

The city administrator position has not  been posted through League of MN Cities, a main clearinghouse for municipal employment.

North Branch Mayor Kevin Schieber asked the council to name a committee of himself and Council member Robert Canada,  to be first line-of-contact  to provide supervisory functions having to do with city personnel.  

The end date set for having an interim administrator on-board is March 2024, according to discussion at the council meeting.  

The action was approved unanimously.

Schieber added that he wants council “to think about” the search process for a city administrator, and identify their preferred criteria  for ideal candidates.  He said council should plan to schedule a workshop on this after the holidays.  

The Press was alerted Monday this week,  to an emergency meeting of the city council for Wednesday Dec 20 (yesterday) where issues of the workplace review are expected to be discussed along with the structure for an incoming administrator position among other relevant concerns.

The meeting held December 12 was exiting administrator Renae Fry’s final city council meeting (her last workday was Dec 15.) 

The mayor thanked her for her good work on a number of issues important to North Branch.  He said the several years that Fry was with the city was longer than many other cities enjoy with their administrators.

Update on documents:  The Chisago County Press has submitted a data request for a variety of records related to the city administrator departure.  As public information, the inspection of Fry’s seperation contract, the tape recordings of continued closed sessions following a resolution to an outside complaint,  and a summary of a third party workplace study that was contracted for—are required to be made available

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