City No Longer Looking For City Administrator

By Gordon HopkinsFairbury Mayor Spencer Brown recently confirmed that the city is no longer looking to fill the role of city administrator. The mayor also acknowledged that he has not discussed the matter with city attorneys.The administrator position has remained vacated since Friday, September 9, 2022, when Fairbury’s last city administrator, Jacob Matthews, was let go after just 57 days on the job.In September of 2023, Mayor Brown told FJN the city was still looking for an administrator but,“We have scaled back our efforts. Our current staff is doing an exceptional job without a city administrator.”However, Mayor Brown recently confirmed the city is no longer searching for a new administrator. Brown told FJN, “(N)o, not at this time, we are functioning well with our current office staff.”State LawLynn Rex, executive director of the League of Nebraska Municipalities, told FJN “But the bottom line is, there’s no requirement that a city of the second class, or any city, have a city administrator. And many of them have ordinances which maybe they can’t fill that position, or they’re not filling that position right now. That’s perfectly fine. We have a number of mayors that have, you know, basically without a city administrator, the mayor’s usually take on more responsibility. However, the line in the sand is that the mayors cannot be paid for being the city administrator, nor can they have that title. So, in other words, you cannot have a mayor slash city administrator by title.”City Administrator is a full-time job. Fairbury’s last administrator was paid a salary of $85,000. Mayor Brown has a full-time, outside job. When asked how he could provide all the required functions of a full-time administrator, Brown said, “We have made some adjustments internally within the city staff in order to run more efficiently, and delegate tasks so there is 100 percent coverage. I put in a lot of hours before my day job, after my day job and on the weekends.”Municipal CodeWhile state law allows for the mayor to act as city administrator, a city Municipal Code is another matter. The Municipal Code can require city to have an administrator even if state law does not.According to Fairbury’s Municipal Code, “The City Administrator shall devote his or her entire time, attention and energy to the affairs of the City and the operation of the municipal water, sewer and electrical systems, and shall not, during the time of office or employment, be engaged in any other business activity.”A partial list of the administrator’s duties in the Municipal Code include: Exercise supervision over all municipal employees directly or through subordinate supervisors such as department heads, Act as an agent of the Mayor in the discharge of all duties, Serve as City Personnel Director, Prepare and keep up to date an inventory of all real and personal property and other public property that the City owns or has an interest in and exercise general supervision and control over through consulting, recommending and coordinating with department heads, Coordinate and supervise the timely purchase of all supplies, goods, wares, merchandise, equipment and materials which may be required for the various departmental divisions and services of the City, Coordinate each Department’s annual estimate of expenditures in the timely preparation of a utilities and City budget prior to the time of the passage and adoption of the annual appropriation ordinance; submit periodic budget reports to the Mayor and City Council; ensure and supervise proper maintenance of all official City documents and records, Serve as ADA Coordinator and Risk Management Officer, Serve as public relations officer, Attend all City Council and Board of Public Works meetings, Seek funding sources for City operations; responsible for preparation of applications for funding, grants, and loans, and Be primarily responsible for the coordination of all City economic development efforts.Fairbury’s code has a provision that allows the mayor to function as acting as administrator when a city administrator is unavailable, “In the event the City Administrator shall be absent from the City, or is incapable of discharging his or her duties, responsibilities, and powers for any reason, the Mayor shall act during such absence or incapacity.”FJN reached out to City Attorney Kurth Brashear and Deputy City Attorney Mark Fahlson to ask if the city’s Municipal Code allows the Mayor to be acting administrator permanently or indefinitely. They did not respond.FJN then asked Mayor Brown if he had conferred with the city’s attorneys on this matter. The mayor answered, “This has never come up in conversation because it is a non issue.”Mayor Brown also acknowledged he had instructed the city attorneys not to respond to questions from FJN, “It is standard protocol, the city attorney’s work comes from the city staff. Not FJN, they are not your attorneys.”“Our attorneys are extremely busy dealing with legitimate legal matters,” said the mayor. “Questions created by the FJN with no backing is not something I would ask them to spend their time on.”Kurth Brashear has, in the past, answered questions from FJN.The mayor later told FJN, “Are you aware that it is not required for me to respond to the paper, at all(?)”City Council’s PositionFJN reached out to members of the Fairbury City Council and asked if they believed they felt the city is should have an administrator. As of press time, most have not responded.City Councilperson Bradley Kuzelka did respond to FJN, “I believe before I told you that I feel the city should have an administrator. Not that Erin (Reimer, City Clerk, Laura (Bedlan, Development Services Director) and Crystal (Floyd, Deputy Clerk) are doing a bad job, but I feel the city needs someone that is ultimately in charge of day-to-day operations at the top of the food chain. If something happens and there is no one ‘in charge’ things could get pretty hairy pretty quick. The mayor is currently assuming that role but he’s not in the office all day. Nor is he trained in management (as far as I know), not that he’s bad at it but this COULD result in a personnel disaster. That’s just my feelings.”

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