ministrator’s position now that Grady ….
ministrator’s position now that Grady is leaving, Weix said that will be a topic of discussion for the council’s committee of the whole meeting on Aug. 18 at 6 p.m.
Weix said he has sent all of the council members, many of whom are new, a copy of the ordinance passed in 2018 that created the city administrator position.
“I just want everybody on the same page,” he said.
A special closed session meeting was held Tuesday for the purpose of discussing the city administrator position, despite the fact that Wisconsin’s open meetings law only allows government entities to discuss specific employees using this exemption.
Weix said he spoke to the city attorney ahead of time and confirmed that they can discuss personnel matters related to the city administrator — but not the position itself.
“We can discuss certain things in closed session, but we have to be very careful,” he said last Friday.
The staff at city hall was already down one member since March, when deputy city clerk-treasurer Louella Luedtke retired, leaving Grady and administrative assistant Erin Klausnitzer to run the city’s central operations.
Prior to that, three full-time employees had been working at city hall since the second half of 2018.
Grady had been searching for a new job since at least January, when it became public that he was one of three finalists for a city administrator position in Ripon.
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.
According to the employment contract approved in June, Grady was required to provide the city with a 30-day notice before resigning, unless the notice requirement is waived by a majority vote of the council. Weix confirmed that Grady turned in his resignation on Aug. 3.
The city administrator is Abbotsford’s highest-paid position. In addition to a salary of nearly $73,000, the city also pays $13,423 per year toward Grady’s health insurance premiums.
Grady’s departure will come at a tough time for the city, as September is normally when city officials start developing a new budget for the following year. Traditionally, it’s been the administrator or clerk-treasurer who develops the first draft of the budget before presenting it to the city council for review and revisions.
Grady said he has already started inputting numbers into a draft 2022 budget so council members have something to work with after he leaves.
“There will be a shell in the system for them to work on,” he said.
The outgoing city administrator said he will do what he can to prepare other city officials before he leaves office.
“I’m just hoping the transition goes as smooth as possible,” he said.
