(Jackson, Mn.) The City of Jackson has hired Bret Heitkamp as their interim City Administrator after the resignation of Jim Langborg who was hired earlier this year. Heitkamp talks about why he chose to take the position…
“Being originally from southwest Minnesota in this area and our family cabin on Big Spirit and the Okoboji area. It was a very unique opportunity for me. There’s budget challenges here, and I’ve always kind of taken pride in being a fixer. This is gonna be a challenge, but I’m confident we’re gonna find a reasonable tax levy to propose to the residents. And that’s you know there’s some very difficult decisions to be made regarding the level of service and the council’s going to need to make some decisions regarding what level of service they think the residents can support financially.”
Heitkamp talks about his background and that he has extensive experience when it comes to dealing with issues regarding Emergency services…
“I worked for the City of Champlin for thirty eight plus years, the last twenty six as the city administrator. Interestingly, we had a joint fire department up there with the city of Anoka and so the opportunities and some of the challenges we have here with emergency services and so on is very very similar. And like most things involving public safety or emergency management they’re very emotional and understandably so. So we’re gonna put some things on the table for the council in terms of options, give them the facts that support each of those options and put them in position to make some tough decisions between now and the end of the year.”
The council unanimously voted to hire Heitkamp as their interim city administrator on Wednesday Nov 5th at their regular city council meeting.
