By Sara Strong
The city of Luverne is without an administrator effective 5 p.m. Wednesday.
The City Council appointed Assistant County Attorney Jeff Haubrich as interim city administrator. He will lead the search for a new administrator.
After a closed meeting Tuesday night, the Luverne City Council Wednesday met again to finalize the voluntary separation agreement between it and City Administrator Matt Hylen.
The special closed meeting Tuesday night was called by council members Pat Baustian and Tom Martius "to evaluate the City Administrator’s job performance."
Public bodies may close meetings to evaluate the performance of an individual under its authority, then the findings are made public. In this case, there was no evaluation because both parties agreed to negotiate a settlement to have Hylen leave instead.
Hylen said, "I would like to thank the citizens of Luverne for being able to serve them for over seven years. There have been many good times and some challenging times, but overall, this has been an excellent place to work."
A voluntary separation agreement is one of a few ways to end employment of the city administrator. Other options are termination or resignation.
The terms of the separation agreement follow the benefits that would have occurred under a severance package included in his employment agreement with the city.
Hylen will receive six months of salary totalling $38,271.35, and health and life insurance contributions will continue for up to 12 months or until Hylen finds other employment.
In addition, Hylen will receive the standard resignation benefits all city employees receive, including pay for his accrued vacation ($5,524.32) and placing the value of his accrued sick leave into a Health Care Savings plan, which is similar to other cafeteria plans.
The separation agreement comes with a statement that there was no wrongdoing by either party.
Mayor Glen Gust said, "Both the City Council and Mr. Hylen agreed it would be best to end their employment relationship on terms both parties could mutually agree to."
Hylen’s job apparently has been a topic of discussion for some time.
He was earning $75,545 a year in 2002, and in January of this year, outgoing councilmen Keith Erickson and Jim Kirchhofer said they thought Hylen’s salary should be increased.
They said his performance goals were met and that his job evaluations were positive, but Kirchhofer and Erickson failed to get Hylen a raise.
The mayor has the sole authority to increase the administrator’s salary.
More recently, Hylen’s actions in terminating electric department employee Mike Gangestad was determined "wrongful" by an arbitrator.
The arbitrator said Gangestad required only discipline, not discharge, and that Hylen acted too harshly.
Hylen said he stood by his actions.
Since 1996
Hylen came to Luverne with his wife, Angie, early in 1996 after serving as city administrator for Hector, starting in March 1993. Hector had just changed from a city clerk to a city administrator form of government in 1992 and had only a short-term administrator before he took over. The post was developed mostly under Hylen.
Hylen helped establish an Economic Development Authority for Hector during his time there. Hylen also worked as a city manager intern for the city of Moorhead between January 1991 and March 1993.
Former Luverne councilman Everett Brandenburg was a part of Hylen’s job interview team. He said, "He was an excellent person to work with … well advised and bright and just did an excellent job."
Brandenburg said the city’s growth and success in many ways was helped by Hylen’s management of the city.
Brandenburg said he was surprised that the new council members felt comfortable with the "voluntary separation agreement," considering they worked with him so short a time.
"I feel we’re losing a valuable asset in the community. He worked very hard and has a nice family," Brandenburg said.
Realizing he came into the administrator job with little managerial experience, Hylen said Wednesday, "I would extend a special thank you to the original City Council back in 1996 for ‘taking the chance’ on me."
