The Crookston City Council met Monday Night in the City Hall Council Chambers.
The meeting began with a proclamation made by Crookston Mayor Dale Stainbrook and TRI-Valley Opportunity Council CEO Jason Carlson. The proclamation states May 2024 is Community Action Month in recognition of the hard work and dedication of TRI-Valley Opportunity Council, inc. and all Minnesota community action agencies.
VARIANCE REQUEST
The meeting continued with a resolution to approve a variance request for 442 Marin Avenue (owners of Chico’s Transport). “This was a resolution that deals with a variance request,” City Administrator Corky Reynolds explains the resolution further. “A variance request means that the land owner is requesting that certain prescribed distances from the setoff road, from the setback of the road be changed for just their parcel.” The council approved the variance request.
CITY RECORDS RETENTION AND DATA MANAGEMENT POLICY
The council reviewed a resolution regarding the City of Crookston’s Records Retention and Data Management Policy. The city has various policies that it operates under, one of which is a record retention and data management plan or policy. The state prescribes certain things that need to be done in order for a city to destroy or discard records. This policy updates the city’s previous policy, which was last initiated in 2011-2012. There have been some updates on how to dispose of records and assurances to give citizens that they are being destroyed. Assurances in the city can also give the state that they are properly being destroyed with public notices. “If you don’t want to destroy them, you can make certain requests to the Minnesota Historical Society to archive them,” said Reynolds. “And this policy brings up to date our previous policy and it also uses I think more common language. The language is easier to understand.”
The resolution regarding the city’s records retention and data management policy was approved. Followed by a resolution approving the city’s data practice policies for the public.
CITY ADMINISTRATOR FINALIST DISCUSSION
The final item on the agenda was a discussion and a resolution regarding inviting the finalists for the City Administrator position interviews. The council held a lengthy discussion, which at times steered toward some council members not being in favor of accepting any final candidates for the position and some not saying they weren’t ready to make a decision.
The council voted in favor of accepting interviews with three candidates. The council members who were in favor of the vote included- Kristie Jerde, Henry Fisher, Don Cavalier, and Dylane Klatt. Tim Menard ultimately passed his vote to approve or deny the final candidates, and council member Clayton Briggs denied recommending any candidates to go further in the hiring process. Joe Kresl did not attend the meeting.
Each council member voted on their final candidate selections. The three candidates who will be invited to Crookston for in-person interviews regarding the City Administrator position are-
-Jeff Shoobridge (received 7 council votes)
-Mark Vahlsing (received 4 council votes)
-Pat Oman (received 4 council votes)
Council member Dylane Klatt gave his explanation during the meeting about why the city should continue with the following candidates. “I think this group of candidates is a lot better than the last group of candidates that we had,” said Klatt. “A couple of these candidates are very well qualified. One of them was in the top four for the city of Fargo, and we’re Crookston! So I think we have some real quality candidates here, and if we’re looking in the past and some of these folks that have been fired, I think that says more about the board sometimes than it does the candidate itself.”
The city council will now schedule each interview with the following candidates for further evaluation. It was discussed at the meeting that the goal is to finish the interviews before the next council meeting.
The consent agenda included the approval of minutes from the April 22 City Council meeting. It also included the approval of bills and disbursements in the amount of $438,163.51.
To watch the full city council meeting, click here.
