(Spencer)– It’s official: Spencer has a new City Manager. Meeting in special session Tuesday evening, the city council approved the hiring of Kevin Robinson to the position. Robinson, a former Mayor, had been serving as Deputy City Manager since Dan Gifford’s retirement from the position a couple months ago. Mayor Steve Bomgaars again Tuesday evening called on the council to instate Robinson as City Manager…
“Our fantastic department heads who see his leadership on a daily basis, our community leaders who work with him on a regular basis; county, state, federal leaders who he’s developed working relationships with in a very short period of time that it really helped our community and our community’s ability to recover from a 4,000 year epic flood. He’s invested in the city of Spencer, he brings leadership, integrity, respect and stability.”
The vote to hire Robinson as City Manager, however, was NOT unanimous. While six of the seven members voted in favor, councilman Brian Balk abstained…
“We sit here tonight without exploring additional candidates. We sit here tonight with disregard for the market rate analysis that we hired to have done for our community, and we sit here tonight having not once sat as a complete, collective, elective group of individuals to deliberate on probably the most important role our city determines. It’s striking that we as a complete group don’t deliberate fully on these issues collectively to hear each other’s words together as opposed to the phone conversations and text messages. How can we appreciate one another’s perspective when we’re not in a room together to share it and deliberate on it?”
Robinson addressed the council at the conclusion of Tuesday evening’s meeting…
“I’d just like to say thank you and I look forward to serving the council and the community as we continue to move Spencer forward and identify our growth areas, our recovery areas and how we can best serve the citizens of this great city. I appreciate it. Thank you.”
Following some lengthy discussions the city council recently opted to revise the qualifications for the position, dropping a requirement for a college degree and a minimum number of years of service in municipal management.
