Abby administrator is a finalist for Ripon job

Abbotsford city administrator Dan Grady has been named as one of three finalists for a city administrator position in the city of Ripon.

According to a Jan. 20 article posted online by The Ripon Commonwealth Press, the Ripon Common Council chose Grady and two other candidates to be finalists after a closed session earlier this month.

Grady is in the running to replace Ripon’s current city administrator, Lori Rich, who has announced that she is retiring, according to the Commonwealth Press. Ripon plans to extend a job offer by the end of the month, with the goal of having a new administrator hired by March 15.

According to the Commonwealth’s article, Grady and the two other finalists were invited to Ripon last Friday, Jan. 22, for interviews with the city council and tours of Ripon.

Grady, who previously lived in Appleton and served on the Outagamie County Board of Supervisors before coming to Abbotsford, told the Commonwealth Press that he chose to apply for the Ripon job because of his “love of East- Central Wisconsin.”

“The Fox Valley/Oshkosh area has been our home for decades and we decided that’s really where we belong, where we want to spend the rest of our, at least working, lives,” Grady said, noting he also has a 9-year-old son who he wants to grow up in the area as there’s more going on. “Ripon itself is just a very vibrant community; that’s really one of the huge attractions. Everything that’s going on, the college, just makes it a very vibrant community. And the fact that, looking at the other side, the city [treats] its employees really well; so many of them are long-standing employees and to me that’s an important thing, too.”

Grady was hired by the city of Abbotsford in 2018 shortly after the city council created the position of city administrator. Prior to that, Abbotsford had a city clerk-treasurer and a deputy.

Grady was one of three finalists interviewed by the city council and several members of the public in September of 2018. The other candidates were a village clerk-treasurer from Boulder Junction and an attorney from Illinois.

An employment agreement between Grady and the city, first approved in 2018, says that Grady must provide the city with a 30-day notice before resigning, unless the notice requirement is waived by a majority vote of the council.

Mayor Lori Voss said Grady did not inform her that he was seeking another job, but she found from people who stop and her business and others who thought she should know.

“I did not know Dan applied for this job or other any other job,” she said, though she noted that everyone has the right to look for other jobs confidentially.

Grady declined to comment when asked about his decision to apply for the position in Ripon.