If all else fails in City Hall, hold out hope for November electionsLuverne City Council members will meet Monday night for their six-month evaluation of Administrator Greg LaFond’s performance.Job evaluations of public employees, though they work for the public, are closed to the public, according to state law.But, if it were any of us evaluating our own employees, we’d probably want to cover a few basic questions — not the least of which might be, "Are we better off now than we were before the employee was hired?"Last year, we decided we’d be better off without our former city administrator, so we sent him packing in hopes of finding something better.We wanted, among other things, a more effective leader to navigate the turbulent waters of small-town economic development.The hospital project was secured before he got here. A prudent question might be what, if any, effort has our new employee made to secure further economic development in Luverne?We also wanted — needed — someone to mend weakened morale and improve city-county relations. Conditions were ripe for a new, positive leader to step in and provide new direction.But in the last six months, nearly every joint city-county effort has been either terminated or is teetering precariously, all for the sake of saving money … a third very important reason we hired LaFond.That being identified as a major priority, I would hope that question would be posed during the evaluation process: "Are we better off financially now than we were six months ago?"No one will argue our new administrator literally left no stones unturned in an effort to find savings, but unfortunately that kind of micro-managing has come at a big cost, both in staff time —for the city and county — and ruined relationships.But, with any job evaluation, it’s the results that count.I hope our council members — who have sole discretion in this evaluation process — consider how much the search to save money has cost local taxpayers.We’re now paying more for the city attorney contract, we’ve hired back staff that were previously let go to save money, and we’ve re-evaluated jobs that are now in higher pay brackets.According to the search firm Brimeyer Associates, who helped us hire LaFond, most of the council members have already turned in glowing reviews of our administrator. … This, despite notable concerns communicated to them by their constituents.Council members will convene at 7 p.m. Monday in City Hall council chambers.The job evaluation portion of the meeting will be closed to the public, but the public is welcome to attend the opening and adjourning portion of the meeting.If some pointed questions aren’t being asked, and if residents’ interests aren’t being served, we’d all do well to look toward November elections for better representation.Incidentally, the filing period for city council is July 6-20.
