Times Newsroom Blog

The Crookston City Council Monday evening made a counter-offer to the counter-offer made earlier Monday by their preferred city administrator finalist, Tony Chladek, but the vote wasn’t unanimous. Council members Wayne Melbye and Bob Quanrud voted against the counter-offer, for a couple of reasons, mostly having to do with its amount, but also because they wanted council members to digest Chladek’s counter-offer before coming up with a counter to his offer.

The city council on Saturday, after unanimously picking Chladek as their top choice from the five finalists who interviewed over two days, offered him a first-year salary of $90,000. After a positive, six-month performance appraisal, he’d get a $2,000 raise. Then, on Jan. 1, 2013, when other non-bargaining unit management positions in the city are due a 2 percent raise, Chladek would have been eligible for that as well.

Monday, through administrative search consultant Richard Fursman, Chladek countered with a starting salary of $94,000. At six months, pending a successful performance review, he’d get a bump to $96,000. Then, six months later, pending another good review, he’d get $2,000 more, in addition to the 2 percent raise other non-bargaining unit management positions are due to get at that time. That would take him to right around $100,000 a year.

It appeared early on at Monday evening’s meeting that most felt Chladek’s counter-offer was too high. So council member Keith Mykleseth offered a motion to counter-offer with a starting salary of $92,000, a six-month bump to $94,000, and another $2,000 six months after that, in addition to the 2 percent raise on Jan. 1, 2013. Essentially, the counter-offer is $2,000 less at every stage compared to what Chladek proposed.

Previously, working with Fursman, the city council set a starting salary range for Crookston’s new city administrator of $80,000 to $98,000.

Chladek, with degrees from Winona State and Mankato State universities and previous administrative jobs in the Minnesota towns of Stewartville and Luverne, worked from 2006 until the spring of 2011 as city administrator in Merrill, Wisconsin, a city slightly larger than Crookston. He resigned at that time and has been unemployed since. He was paid approximately $89,000 in his final year in Merrill. According to Fursman, Chladek is a finalist for two other city administrator positions, but it’s not known if he’s interviewed yet for them.

Council members Tom Jorgens and Dana Johnson, with Johnson citing figures provided by Fursman that show Crookston’s administrator salary below that of salaries paid to administrators in comparative Minnesota cities, said the council needs to step up and pay for the administrator they unanimously want.

“We had a pretty good one before and he wasn’t making this much,” council member Tom Vedbraaten countered, a reference to previous administrator Aaron Parrish’s 2011 salary of $87,500, which was set to increase to $89,300 in 2012 had he not taken the Forest Lake administrator job in November after approximately seven years on the job here.

Jorgens said Chladek isn’t acting in an unusual fashion.

“I think we’ve found the leader we all feel is the right person for the job. What he has counter-offered is no different than what any of us would probably do in his situation,” Jorgens said. “It’s normal that when you move from one job to another to expect some increase over where you were before, and I don’t think what he’s asking for is unreasonable at all. If we’re talking about a $2,000 difference, I think we could find it somewhere else in savings if we really had to. I think this is an opportunity to be pound-sensible instead of penny-wise.”

“But he is not leaving another job to come here,” Quanrud responded.

Johnson said several members of the citizen panel who were involved in the interviews of the five finalists had contacted her to tell her that they thought the council had made a great choice in Chladek. “It only reinforces my feelings on this,” she said. “We need to be competitive if we want to get the person we want. If we don’t want to be competitive, then we need to maybe realize that we’re going to end up with someone else.”

Mike Pogge, a community planner/economic developer in Stillwater, Minn. with no previous city administrator experience, was the second-ranked choice by all but one city council member.

Melbye, citing the fact he’d seen Chladek’s counter-offer “four minutes ago,” asked that everyone take a day or two to decide what step to take next. “We’re always comparing ourselves to East Grand Forks, Detroit Lakes or Grand Rapids and saying we have to be like them, but we are not them,” Melbye said. “If we do this, I think we’ll have to go back to our whole salary setup with our department heads, because I think you’ll have some repercussions if you’re setting your salary standards based on what other cities are doing.”

Mykleseth wondered if anyone’s mind would change over a day or two, and suggested that the council act sooner and not later.

“I think we’re so close, it would be nice to get this done. I’m trying to find a compromise so we can be unified and move ahead,” Mykleseth said. “I would think if he really wants to come to Crookston, he’s going to come here for this.”

“We’re just negotiating,” council member Frank Lindgren added. “I have no problem with a counter-offer.”

Council member Dale Stainbrook reminded everyone that Chladek wouldn’t be guaranteed the salary bumps in the first year, that he’d have to show results, or at least show that he’s off to a good start.

“I don’t necessarily have an issue with paying him $98,000 in 2013, but he’s going to have to come in and prove he’s worth it,” Stainbrook said.

City Clerk/Treasurer Betty Arvidson said after the meeting that she’d notify Fursman of the city’s counter-offer.