By Sara StrongLuverne City Administrator Greg LaFond, after six months in Luverne, received good evaluations from city staff and Luverne City Council members.LaFond said, "It was a positive evaluation. I was particularly pleased with what it reflected regarding city staff and morale."LaFond’s personnel file will include mostly positive comments. He was commended for working well with the Council and city staff. He is said to respond to requests for information quickly and has streamlined operations within City Hall, as morale has mostly improved.Here are comments from some evaluations:"Greg has really brought our City Hall together as a team.""Enjoy Mr. LaFond not playing games. If staff deserves praise, they get it. He gives a chance for explanation when he sees something he does not like.""Making the whole City Hall work together is very nice and business-like.""Excellent communications with city staff. Programs and services are running more efficiently now — especially the swimming pool.""Worked very hard since his first day.""Greg is not afraid to meet with anyone at anytime.""Dealing with state agencies has already been very productive."There were a few comments listing items LaFond could improve, mostly in working out longstanding agreements with the county. The comments mostly involved softening his approach in certain communications."City/County relations have gone from ‘so-so’ to ‘in the tank.’ It is very important that the city and county get along.""As a council, we need to slow down on some of our fiscal decisions that we have to make with the county.""Very aggressive and moves fast. Sometimes overwhelms the Council with more things than they can handle.""Realize that change in small towns may be slower than expected."Although some areas of improvement were mentioned, the overall ratings were positive.
