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LOOKING FOR A VICTORIA CITY ADMINISTRATOR

STEVE SARVI RESIGNS

All five members of the Victoria City Council members were present at a special council meeting on Monday night, April 7th, at 8:00 p.m. Notice of the special meeting went out on Friday, April 4th. According to the notice; “The purpose of the meeting is the resignation of the city administrator.”

Mayor Mary Thun opened and led the late evening discussion, having spent the previous three days, including the entire weekend, working to help ensure the process of hiring a new city administrator would move forward as fast and effectively as possible.

At the end of the special council meeting, which lasted 90 minutes, there was a unanimous decision to have current Victoria Administrator Steve Sarvi meet with a potential interim candidate, who could work with Steve as a consultant to review and help choose the best candidate or canddiates for the full time position.

As Councilmember Tim Amundsen sen said, “Let’s see if this interim candidate can help us as soon as possible. If the process doesn’t evolve into a recommendation for a full time person, then the consultant candidate gets the interim job until we get a full time hire.”

Steve Sarvi was also asked to call Harvey Feldman and his partner for advice and possible consultation, since their work in hiring a Field House Director was very successful. As Councilmember Richard Tieden said, “Let’s see what Harvey Feldman thinks. Maybe he will have an idea for us. He’s a man of integrity.”

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“This meeting has to be open to the public,” began Mayor Thun, referring to advice from the city attorney. “Our agenda is specifically to talk about recruiting an administrator.” Councilmember Kim Roden made a motion to open the meeting in that regard and to accept the resignation of Steve Sarvi.

Mayor Thun asked Administrator Sarvi to speak first. He said, “I arrived at this point and it was a step by step process. I started going to conventions and realized I was most likely to get the nomination, so I decided to give you my 30-day notice now. It’ll be at least 30 days or so.”

Steve was referring to the political conventions related to his candidacy for the top position in the Second Congressional District. He is running as a Democrat for the seat currently held by Republican John Kline.

Giving Victoria councilmembers at least a 30-day notice was part of an agreement worked out in 2007 after returning to his Victoria job after a two-year stint with the National Guard in Iraq. While remaining employed with the City of Victoria and retaining pay and benefits, Administrator Sarvi had also previously served in Afghanistan, with a shorter assignment at the Minneapolis and St. Paul International Airport.

Upon return to Minnesota from Iraq, Administrator Sarvi expressed interested in running for the U.S. Congress.

Stated City Councilmember Tim Amundsen, “There were concerns raised initially. Sometimes thoughts and comments don’t go together.” Speaking of Steve’s political campaign while working for Victoria, Tim said, “This did not impact his job. He lived up to his intent in the contract and that’s of merit.”

“I think we moved on,” agreed Councilmember Richard Tieden. “I think staff has a lot of respect for you [Steve]. Your timing has been good. I don’t think you missed a beat getting back from Iraq.”

Stated Councilmember Jim Paulsen, “In nine months I expect to call you Congressman.”

“Or unemployed,” added Councilmember Kim Roden.

Mayor Thun spoke of what transpired in the past three days. “There has been a lot of preparation for this meeting tonight,” she began. “Richard [Tieden] and I met as part of the Personnel Committee. Time is moving on ... I expect this process to move forward!”

Steve Sarvi will remain with the City of Victoria until at least May 9th.

“It’s not impossible to hire someone here full time by then, or are we thinking of an interim person?” asked Mayor Thun. “I’ve talked to two recruiters. They charge from $17,000 to $20,000 to do a recruit like this and it probably takes from 90 to 120 days.”

Mayor Thun didn’t need a recruiter to do recruiting of her own, however. “I’ve got ten resumes here of people who are possibly interested in [the city’s administrator position] in some manner -- some as an interim only, some permanent only, and some both.”

Continued the mayor, “I was advised by our attorney to consider not having an interim administrator if that person is interested in being a candidate for full time. It gives them a leg up. Also, it might limit recruiting.” She explained that some potential candidates will not apply if there is an interim candidate who will also be applying for the full time position.

“There are some good candidates here,” said Mayor Thun. “We’re going to talk about these candidates tonight.” She explained that their names cannot be made public, at this time anyhow, so she gave each of their resumes a letter of the alphabet to be used in referring to them during the evening’s discussion.

“You’ve been busy,” said Councilmember Tieden.”

“This is very important,” stated Mayor Thun. “I went to the League of Cities and they maintain a list of people. I also got names from people who knew people. I contacted 18 people, every single one of them. I had resumes flying through my computer this weekend, and some with references and salary requirements.”

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