HomeMy WebLinkAbout2016 02-21 City administrator list narrowed to five people | Detroit Lakes Online 2/22/2016 City administrator list narrowed to five people Detroit Lakes Online
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By Vicki Geirdes on Feb 21, 2016 at 5:45 a.m.
he Detroit Lakes City Council has released the names of the five finalists for the
city administrator's position - and a few names on the list may be familiar to
lakes area residents.
Frazee City Administrator Jonathan Smith and Perham City Manager Kelcey Klemm
made the cut, as did Barnesville City Administrator Michael Rietz, Isanti City
Administrator Donald Lorsung and former Fairfield, Iowa, City Administrator Kevin
Flanagan.
All five men have at least 10 years of management or administrative experience, with
Lorsung having the most extensive resume, having served as administrator for the
cities of Wells, Watertown and Baxter, Minn., as well as Charles City, Iowa, before
taking his current position with the City of Isanti in 2005. He also served as a city
planner in Fairmont., Minn., for two years after earning his master's degree in urban
studies from Minnesota State University Mankato in 1984 (he also has a bachelor's
degree in history from MSU-Mankato).
Smith has served as Frazee's city administrator since 2008, and before that served for
a year as manager of its municipal liquor store. He also served for five years as an
operations manager in Fargo while attending Minnesota State University Moorhead,
where he received a bachelor's degree in legal studies in 2004. He earned his master's
degree in public administration from Hamline University, St. Paul, in 2014.
Klemm has served as Perham's city manager since 2007. Before that, he was Smith's
predecessor in Frazee, serving first as clerk-treasurer and later as city administrator,
from 2003 to 2007.He also has experience as a Minnesota legislative assistant and
field staff member in St. Paul, where he moved after graduating from Southwest State
University in Marshall, Minn., in 2002. He earned his master's degree in public,
human services and health administration from Minnesota State University
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2/22/2016 City administrator list narrowed to five people I Detroit Lakes Online
Moorhead in 2007.
Rietz has been Barnesville's city administrator since 2009. Before that, he worked as a
city manager in Castle Hills, Texas (2007-09), and Maryville, Mo. (2006-07), as well as
being a city administrator in Kasson (2000-2006) and Blooming Prairie, Minn. (1998-
2000). He holds both a juris doctor and master of arts degree in public administration
from Hamline University, as well as a bachelor's degree in history from Marquette
University in Milwaukee, Wis.
Flanagan, who is the only non-Minnesotan among the finalists, served as Fairfield's
city administrator from 2012-14, and was also city manager in Denison, Iowa, from
2009-2012. Before that, he lived in Georgia, where he served as a special assistant to
the county commission in Dahlonega, Ga., from 2000-2005, before spending the next
four years as a private business owner and CEO. He has a master's in public
administration from North Georgia College in Dahlonega (2003), and a bachelor's
degree in political science and philosophy from Georgia Southern University in
Statesboro, Ga. (1993).
The finalists will be invited to Detroit Lakes for one-on-one interviews with the city
council and Mayor Matt Brenk on Friday and Saturday, March 4-5, as Brenk
announced last month.
According to City Clerk Glori French, there will be a public open house to meet the
candidates at 6 p.m. on Friday, March 4, in the Detroit Lakes city offices.
Current City Administrator Robert Louiseau announced his impending retirement
last fall. His last day on the job will be Thursday, March 31, and the council hopes to
have his successor in place well in advance of that date.
The five finalists were selected from a field of 25 applicants, via a recruiting and
screening process conducted by the Maplewood-based firm of Brimeyer Fursman,
which was retained by the council late in 2015 to conduct the search.
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