The Wykoff City Council held a special meeting on March 1 to discuss the city attorney vacancy. All members were in attendance: Mary Tjepkes, Rocky Vreeman, Mayor Al Williams, Clerk Becky Schmidt, Mary Sackett, and Brody Mensink.
Mayor Williams stated, “I called the League of Minnesota Cities (LMC) to get their help to see how we should go about this.” Williams then shared that LMC had sent an example of a Request for Proposals used by another Minnesota city (Crosby, Minn.) that had been seeking a new city attorney. The example covers thirteen “bullet points” listed under the heading of Basic Services Requested. Council members agreed that they do not expect a city attorney to attend every city council meeting, but only when asked to attend for specific issues. Brody Mensink suggested asking for a “45-day pay cycle” for the new city attorney, to avoid running into late fees that have sometimes been paid in the past when legal issues arose, because of the council only meeting regularly once every month. Council members were asked to submit any suggested changes/additions/deletions to City Clerk Becky Schmidt by Friday, March 3. She will then send the final list to the LMC for posting on their website. Rocky Vreeman asked if the city could also advertise in the local newspaper, and the council agreed this would be a good idea. The city may send out individual letters to local attorneys as well.
The council discussed what the deadline for applicants should be, and settled upon March 22. A special public meeting will be held at 7 p.m. on March 22 to select a new city attorney from amongst whatever applications come in.
Mark Arndt asked why city attorney Tom Manion suddenly resigned. Mayor Williams answered that he heard from Manion on Saturday (February 25) and that Manion had commented about a recent newspaper article on the Wykoff City Council meeting, and that “He felt that he lost the confidence of the city council, and that he would be resigning on Monday (February 27).”
The next regular meeting of the city council will be held on Monday, March 13 at 7pm. The public is welcome.