---

According to an outside investigator who has looked into complaints related to North Branch’s former city administrator;  the city’s operations throughout part of 2022 and 2023,  were not being sustained thanks to any warm fuzzy city hall culture.

North Branch City Council hired attorney Michelle Soldo, an independent professional, to look into allegations against City Administrator Renae Fry, submitted a year ago January.

Soldo’s services attempt to determine if allegations can be validated.  

Administrator Fry started in North Branch in February 2017,  and after an hours-long closed session November 28, 2023 it was announced her last day at city hall would be December 15.  A regular paycheck continued to be issued until December 31.  Fry also got a lump sum $110,000 payment and accrued sick and time off pay.  North Branch covers the city share of health, dental and life insurance until June 2024.

Soldo’s behind the scenes interviews and records analysis support her findings that went to council March 30, 2023.  Eight months later the subject of the complaints investigation left employment once a separation agreement had been drafted.

The Press received a copy of the investigator report last week.  The Press requested recordings of closed council talks negotiating separation  terms and was told they are not available.

Investigator Soldo focused on five complaints leveled by a department head, another employee and a member of the city council —all filed in January 2023.  Complainants are not named.

The investigation concludes that allegations of there being a hostile work environment were not substantiated. Soldo concludes that Administrator Fry was “not professional” in some instances and her behavior may have been periodically “inappropriate,” but this could not be classified as pervasive or consistent.

In one of the five complaints,  a department head and an employee complained they had requested that Fry have no social communications with them and to only interact with them if it was for a work related reason.  Soldo, however,  concluded Fry “honored’ this stipulation and that this non-engagement was accomplished about as well as could be expected in the small workspace.  

A couple of distressing complaints tied to lack of transparency, were neither refuted nor sustained, and are unresolved. 

For example, Administrator Fry was alleged to have directed a staff person to physically  change, or  “under-state”  expenditures on a water and light utility financial statement. The document was being presented to the utility commission.  Soldo’s report says this issue hasn’t been finalized and may benefit from forensic accounting.  The actual costs behind selling the utility electric distribution assets to ECE continued to be questioned by elected officials,  up to and even after,  the sale was finalized as of February 2023.

Another Water & Light related complaint was that Fry directed a staff member to delete a videotape recording of a March utility meeting posted on the website.  

The employee called the directive ‘inappropriate’ but the administrator may or may not have been within her authority to make such a request.  Better defining this authority is part of an ongoing job review.  Determination of appropriateness is still being looked into.  The videotape is not on the website, but the investigator was told it is retained at city hall.

The investigation served to illustrate that the level of distrust went both ways.  

Administrator Fry told Soldo she felt that in some settings the complainants were trying to provoke her into confrontation.   If Fry presented an unprofessional response after having been “triggered”  they could use it to build a case for termination, the investigator noted.

Ultimately there was a separation agreement drawn up and unanimously adopted.  Administrator Fry left North Branch as of December 15 and was on payroll to the end of 2023.  

She also got a lump sum of $110,000 plus any accrued personal time off and sick pay owed, and North Branch is covering the city share of life insurance, health, dental until June 2024.

North Branch now has an interim administrator Jason Ziemer, who was formerly city community development director.

---